Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette Blogs

US Weekly sat down last week and talked with Britney Spears' on-again off-again mother. The mother who forced her to go into rehab. The mother who hangs out with Kevin Federline and Shar Jackson because they're more stable and allow her to see her grandchildren. The mother who probably thanks the lord every day for Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney's as-yet untainted teenage sister whose career is more Hilary Duff than Lindsay Lohan.

Watching Kevin Federline star as a fry cook in the Nationwide Insurance ad that aired during this year's Superbowl was nothing short of hilarious. At first you're like, "Ugh, close your eyes. We're getting tricked into watching a Kevin Federline video." But the payoff is worth it. A stroke of genius on Federline's part ... (seriously, do you think that word has ever been used to describe him?). It was clever. We laughed at him. And even though he was laughing too, we still felt a little superior. That ad was a success. The lesson: You can't go wrong when you get the stars to mock themselves.

Or can you?

Summer starts this week, so we'll be getting out our boats and books.

It isn't enough that Victoria Beckham has one of the most handsome men in the world as her husband, or that she has more money than she'll ever be able to spend, or that she's thin and now blonde, or even that she has cameras documenting her every move because someone somewhere thinks she's interesting and marketable, she now wants us to pay $290 to wear her jeans.

And these $290 jeans aren't meant to be flattering -- unless you're already perfect, in which case you probably don't need or want her jeans ... regular jeans look just fine on you. For everyone else, though, these jeans hold the loose promise of transformation ... as if maybe, just maybe, this has been the missing link between your life and hers.