Last Updated: 23 May 2011

What's up with Britney Spears?

The first single from Britney's new Femme Fatale album, 'Hold It Against Me' did exceptionally well, breaking download records and the likes, but when it came time to promote the single and indeed the new album, the Britney Machine hit a stumbling block.

Her first 'live' performance in a while on popular US TV show 'Good Morning America' was blasted by critics for being weak, overly stage-managed and with it's star barely breaking a sweat as she stumbled through dance moves and mimed, badly. Some critics said Britney has unfortunately been reduced to nothing more than a 'zombie puppet' for her record company and all of the others around her who profit from her career.

Indeed, the level of 'stage managing' involved in all of her promotional duties for the album has only gone on to confound what the critics say. She will not do any live interviews and instead does a prerecorded 'chat' where she answers only the questions that have been agreed beforehand by her team, and then said team demands to have the recording straight afterward so they can edit it the way they want it to sound. This is literally unheard of in showbiz.

Insiders say that although the album has been praised as her best yet, Britney is nowhere near back to the way she was before her infamous breakdown four years ago that saw her shave her head and be carted off to a psychiatric ward.

In fact, the sources say that she is 'out of it' most of the time on medication, is dead behind the eyes, and is led everywhere she goes by the hand.

Poor Britney, we really hope one day she manages to get her spark back.

You can watch her new video for the single 'Till The World Ends' here, and see if you think she's a 'zombie puppet'.