No Rock And Roll Fun

THERE WAS A RABBI, BRITNEY SPEARS AND MICHAEL JACKSON IN A HOTEL ROOM: No, it's not the start of a joke, apparently those are the circumstances in which Rabbi Shmuley Boteach met Britney a couple of years back. Now, though, he's felt the need to send Britney an open letter, tutting over her behaviour. Apparently, she's the reason why "religiously-minded people" feel the need to "cut their teenager daughters off from popular culture" (apparently, then, the children from religious homes aren't the sort who can be trusted to come to their opinion in these matters - whereas you or I might sit down and ask our kids what they think when they see Christina butt-fucking her way around on television, and if they understand why it's inappropriate for little girls to copy her style, apparently in a house where you might expect the children to have been taught how to decide what's appropriate, in fact the kids just can't be trusted to realise the risks of such behaviour so must be protected from even knowing such worlds exist. Religious kids can't be trusted to do the right thing, and must be protected from any form of temptation. "Jesus, you're not going out to the wilderness - if the devil's there, you'll be selling him your soul in a few minutes, never mind no forty days and forty nights. Tell him, Joseph..." . Curious.) Oddly, the Rabbi tells Britney she should smile more and says that she's famous "one step above a porn star" before saying that all that's wrong with his old mucker Michael Jackson is that he's a kind hearted and humble spirit bereft of a normal life. So, a man who pays off little kids to derail legal investigations into allegations of child abuse; a man who has been accused of interfering with kids; a man who cannot see anything wrong with sharing his bed with other people's preteens - he's a friend. But a woman who chooses to wear slightly revealing outfits and consort with consenting adults; she's someone to hate. Righto. Rabbi, it's people like you who make me feel I should shield my daughter from religious culture. And I don't even have a daughter.