Figures. You run around sans shirt–or pants–too much and you’re bound to catch a cold.
Just ask Britney Spears. The Oops girl, who has of late taken off her top for photo spreads in Rolling Stone and the Brit version of Elle and her bottom for an Esquire shoot, has come down with a bad bug.
A statement issued Thursday by her label, Jive Records, says Spears has been ordered to bed rest as a result of the flu and “a severe throat infection.” Said malady will prevent her from performing a planned club date in France Thursday night.
Spears has been abroad for a mini-Euro tour to promote her upcoming CD, In the Zone, which is due out November 18. A publicist for the thongbird says Spears’ pipes should be healed in a few days, allowing her to resume her two-and-a-half-week jaunt with stops in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and then back to France.
Britney better keep up with her vitamins if she wants to make it hitch-free through her upcoming monster North American tour this spring.
According to Billboard, Spears will launch the tour March 3 in an as-yet undetermined city. She will play 56 dates, favoring the West Coast, before wrapping things up in April. Then she gets a few months of rest before embarking on an outdoor amphitheater tour in July.
Spears fans who preorder In the Zone via britneyspears.com will be entered in a contest to win a trip to see Britney’s tour.
Spears has been something of road warrior. Her 2002 tour grossed $30.3 million, according to concert-tracking trade Pollstar. (That tour infamously concluded in Mexico City, where the popster flipped off paparazzi and then bailed on her show after just five songs, blaming thunderstorms.)
It’s been a rough couple of days for Britney. Not only is she ailing but her first single off In the Zone, the Madonna duet “Me Against the Music,” is currently struggling at 38 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. If that weren’t bad enough, she was just sued by her alleged stalker, who claims her bodyguards roughed him up and caused him “extreme emotional distress.”
Credit: E! Online