Hackney Council takes on Britney Spears

You can't trust anyone, can you? There was Hackney Council, all happy having Britney Spears film a video in the borough, only for her to go and add a gun to the mix:

A Hackney Council spokesperson said: "Hackney Council carefully vets all requests to film in the borough.

"In this case we did not agree that a replica gun could be used on location at Stoke Newington town hall.

"We are disappointed that the film crew made a last-minute change to the scene. We will be raising this matter with the production company."

Not quite sure what Hackney thinks "raising this matter" will do; it sounds like they're going to send the sort of stiffly-worded complaint that can only be dealt with by the production company getting a runner to draft a 'oh, soz' response.

Britney's people have issued a statement in the meantime:

A spokesman for the star said: "The video is a fantasy story featuring Britney's boyfriend, Jason Trawick, which literally plays out the lyrics of a song written three years before the riots ever happened.

"When the video is released, people will fully understand its narrative. The pap shots don't deliver that of course."

If the video does "literally" play out the lyrics, then why would we have to wait for it be released? Couldn't we just read the lyrics?

He is a loser, he’s a bum, bum, bum, bum
He lies, he bluffs
He's unreliable.
He is a sucker with a gun, gun, gun, gun

Actually, couldn't Hackney Council have just looked at the lyrics?

He is a villain of the devil’s law
He is a killer just for fun, fun, fun, fun
That man's a snitch and unpredictable,
He’s got no conscious [sic - presumably 'conscience'? ]
He got none, none, none, none

Hard to see how anyone at the council might have thought this video would reflect on anything other than the glories of Stoke Newington.

Although, having a look at the films that Hackney is proud to have had shot in the Borough, it doesn't seem that they're really that bothered about how the place looks on screen. (I don't just mean Alien Autopsy, either.)