Britney Spears Is MaybeProbablySorta Going to Be a Judge on 'X Factor'

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I don’t know how closely all of you follow television news, but the whole “Britney Spears EXTREMELY Close to Signing a Deal to Become a Judge on ‘X Factor'” thing has been floating around FOREVER. Every week or so since like February, a story has popped up from a “reliable source” that says Britney is on the cusp of signing a deal for some ludicrous amount of money. (Here’s one from The Hollywood Reporter dated March 8 that says she was “nearing a deal,” which Deadline reported as being worth $10 million per year.) The whole thing has put me in a terrible spot, because, while I despise doing “WILL SO AND SO SIGN A DEAL AND/OR GUEST STAR AND/OR MAYBE LEAVE THE SHOW BECAUSE OF HIS/HER COCAINE PROBLEM OR LOVE CHILD QUESTION MARK” Hollywood rumor posts, I really like posting Britney Spears videos. I think you see my dilemma. Well, according to E! Online, it’s time to pull the trigger:

After weeks of heavy negotiating, Britney’s team has finally agreed to a $15 million fee for the role. “Both camps were back and forth on the money but now they have finally come to agreement on the fee,” says one insider with intimate knowledge of the pending deal. “That was the big sticking point and now, thankfully, it’s been sorted. All they need to do now is work out the smaller points. The fact the money is now set, means that there is nothing stopping this from becoming a reality.” [E! Online]

Fifteen million dollars is a hell of a lot of money to sit in a chair and say, “Aw, I liked it, y’all” (and, notably, more than the $12 million Jennifer Lopez gets for “American Idol”), but whatever. “X Factor” wanted to make a big splash, and this will sure as hell do it. At the very least, it’s a huge upgrade in name recognition from Nicole Scherzinger, and will probably send the ratings through the roof for the first night she hosts. Everybody wins. Except, of course, fellow singing contest judge Christina Aguilera, who will have her thunder stolen by Britney again and will probably scream for nine uninterrupted hours.

Now, could this still deal fall apart and make everything I just typed completely moot? Sure. But, dammit, this has gone on long enough, and I just want to post the video for “Toxic.”

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