Britney Spears' roller coaster ride through rehab

Britney Spears goes to an AA Meeting at a church at Pacific Palisades, CA (03/12/2007).

16 March 2007 - The news has been both good and bad for the pop tart as she completes three weeks in rehab. Her estranged husband has proved supportive during her hour of need but is not interested in rebuilding his marriage to her. She has another man who is ready to care for her but he needs as much help as she does. She has lost a large number of fans but her fan base still appears large.

Kevin Federline, 29, is lending the troubled star his support while she is undergoing treatment at Malibu's Promises centre but despite family hopes they will get back together, Kevin is not interested.

A source told Us Weekly magazine: "I talked to Kevin about Britney and he said he's not getting back together with Britney. At least not right now. He just wants to be a friend for her. She has told him she would get back with him, but he's trying to just do the right thing for everyone right now, but he doesn't want to go back there again."

Another source claims the couple were close to working out a divorce settlement earlier this year, until Britney's wild partying caused Kevin and his lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, to intervene.

Britney has reportedly fallen for RIVA lead guitarist Jason Filyaw after meeting him at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

Meanwhile, letters of support from Britney's fans are being posted on her website BritneySpears.com.

Jordan H writes: "Over the past few months, I've seen you change a lot. I just wanted to let you know that I have your back, and I'm supporting you 100 per cent.

"Hopefully, you'll be back soon to give your fans some music! Because we miss you like crazy, and we love you to death. So, get well soon. Good luck with everything that's been going on in your life. We all love you!"

Michaela says: "Kia Kaha (Stand Strong). Best wishes from your fan in New Zealand."

And Laura from Kent, Britain, writes: "I hope you are feeling better in yourself, I have been thinking about you and praying for you.

"You are the best female artist ever, all your fans are missing you and want the best for you. Relax and don't rush yourself, we are here for as long as it takes for you to get better."

Liquid American Song, Filtered Through German Pipes

If Americans go to Europe and sing Mahler, there is no reason Thomas Quasthoff can’t come here and sing Stevie Wonder. And so he did at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, along with Gershwin and a raft of American popular standards. This German bass-baritone, known for his fine voice and musicality in the concert repertory, is in New York overseeing the latest in his Carnegie Perspectives series. This concert was subtitled “An American Songbook.”

Like every good musician, Mr. Quasthoff is a listener, and obviously he has listened with attention to many singers, among them Frank Sinatra, Lou Rawls and Johnny Cash, whose range comes closest to his own. He has a lot of the style down pat: the flat American vowels, the choice of accents, the idiosyncratic distribution of words in a jazz singer’s phrase and the held notes that begin straightened and harsh before blossoming into a vibrato.

Americans can only be flattered that Mr. Quasthoff loves their music well enough to mimic it with such skill. Wednesday’s audience could also delight in his easy stage manner and humor, and his own uninhibited version of scat singing, complete with sound effects, owl hoots, birdcalls and even a Zulu click or two. Elsewhere the music ranged from “The Lady Is a Tramp” to “Danny Boy.”

The attractions of the evening were more about context than subject matter, the contexts being Mr. Quasthoff’s personal appeal and his courage in taking on American music on its home ground. To get at the music itself, however, context has to be scraped away; and a listener with no idea of Mr. Quasthoff’s musical background would probably take him, at the least, as a good lounge singer, and at the best — when he summons his full operatic voice and his sophisticated strategies for building climaxes — as somewhat more. If there had been a glass on the piano, I would have put my five dollars in.

Lounge singers, on the other hand, are not backed by the kind of slick, handsome jazz quintet Mr. Quasthoff had behind him. Til Brönner was a brilliant trumpet player and Alan Broadbent’s piano playing was as smooth as could be. With Chuck Loeb’s guitar, Dieter Ilg’s bass and Peter Erskine’s percussion, Australia and the United States as well as Germany were represented.

It all pointed to a triumph of internationalism, but it wasn’t. The dynamic of popular music is to create musical personalities, individual and distinctive — people who are celebrated for the not-like-anybody-else they bring to their art. Mr. Quasthoff is a wonderful student and a master of compilation, but he hasn’t much new to say.