It's lonely at the top: that's the message of the new Britney Spears book and
DVD, Stages, a behind-the-scenes view of life on the road:

She eats alone. She paces her hotel suites alone at night. While other stars surround themselves with helpers, Spears packs her own suitcases and puts on her own makeup. She talks to mom on the cell phone constantly.

And she pines for a boyfriend. In one scene on the DVD, by documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles, Britney's stylist is telling the star how she has fallen in love with one of the crew members.

"She's floating. I want to float. I want to be in love," Spears says in the documentary. [NY Post]

Though I am not a big fan of her music, I find Britney a not unappealing personality because she seems like a semblance of a regular human being, not some freaked out drama queen like Mariah Carey, drug-addled space rangers like Courtney Love or Whitney Houston, or twitching skank-on-a-stick like Christina Aguilera. Britney seems to have some connection to reality, and surrounding herself with family, and longing for love rather than humping the road are tethers actual humans can recognize.

I haven't seen her movie Crossroads - can't even imagine sitting through such a thing - but she seems to have the potential to be an appealing actress. I can see her in a Drew Barrymore-type romantic comedy.

Stay real Britty, or something.