Britney Spears earns scorn for MTV performance - Yahoo! News:
"The 25-year-old singer, whose professional achievements have been overshadowed by her personal crises in recent years, performed 'Gimme More' in a black sequined bikini and knee-high boots. No longer boasting the buff body that helped drive her to international superstardom almost a decade ago, the mother of two moved sluggishly around the stage at the Palms casino, often with the support of a troupe of dancers. At one point, the camera panned to rapper 50 Cent, sitting in the audience, who looked bewildered by the action on stage. 'She blew it,' gossip columnist Perez Hilton told Reuters. 'Everybody knows Britney lip-syncs, but that's because she dances so much. She barely even danced in this. It was so bad. It was painful. It was embarrassing. And I loved it!'"

Talk about high expectations! You'd think Ms. Spears was supposed to be doing an excerpt from King Lear or something. Come on, LIGHTEN UP! I thought she looked pretty damn good. Just how "buff" do we want women to be for heaven's sake? I'm not a big fan of her music but the song, "Gimme More", was a "danceable ode" as Sir Paul might say, perfectly acceptable at the disco and to my dirty-old-man eyes she seemed to give it the attention it deserved and seemed to move around the stage appropriately. It wasn't a transcendent performance but this was the MTV awards for crying out loud! I think it's just a fashionable thing to berate Ms. Spears and that sort of thing just irritates the hell out of me. You want to punish her for her behavior? Ignore her. If you can.