GreekChat.com Forums - Britney's "Toxic" Video

Okay so this has nothing to do with TOXIC....but this is an article on Britney's cousin and friend at LSU. It just reminds me of why I love Britney when they point out the good things, and you know they aren't lying b/c they are never interviewed!!! I posted the link, but I copied the BRitney part below. Enjoy!!!
Britney Article

No "Team Britney"

Laura Lynne Covington, a mass communication senior, and Jansen Fitzgerald, a kinesiology senior, were hesitant to talk to The Reveille.

They said they have been misquoted and misrepresented many times by national media about their relationships with pop icon Britney Spears, who they have known well since the three were in daycare together.

Covington and Spears are cousins, and Fitzgerald is a close friend of both.

"Everything we say is directed toward Britney," Covington said.

Covington and her family have pulled their contact information from public directories.

Fitzgerald said life usually is calm, but reporters knock at her door "when something big happens."

Photographers also have shown up trying to snap pictures, without giving any consideration to their personal lives or even their health, Covington said.

"Paparazzi would show up at the house," she said. "I had a cold, and my mom has cancer."

But Covington added she was comfortable talking to "credible" publications that can help clarify what she called "plagiarism" on the part of other media.

"In the Zone," Spears' latest album, just re-entered the top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart and has sold 1.8 million copies since its November release, but commercial success has not been the focus of her latest media attention.

Since Spears' Jan. 3 Las Vegas wedding with Southeastern Louisiana University student Jason Alexander, she has been the point of media scrutiny -- and her friends and family also have been hounded by media.

Alexander and Spears' marriage ended two days later.

The Jan. 19 issue of People magazine quoted Fitzgerald as saying she, Covington and another close friend had "talked it over and decided we won't say anything" about the short-lived marriage.

However, Fitzgerald said she never talked to anyone from People magazine. Reporters talked to other people from their hometown, Kentwood, La., and cited her as the source.

Covington said law suits could be in order because of the false information, but she said they would not be worth it.

"Because it was [related to] her, it would cause such a media spectacle," she said.

People magazine also reported Fitzgerald and Covington are part of a "core group" that has been called "Team Britney" -- which they said is also untrue.

"We've never been called that," Fitzgerald said.

Aside from media hounding, college life with a friend or cousin who is world famous is peaceful -- with a surprise now and then -- for these two.

As Covington sits in her living room, where TV channel E! had filmed a special about Spears the night before, her favorite "surprise" from Spears bounds toward her.

Spears gave Covington a Yorkshire Terrier three years ago. Gabbi, wearing a 1-inch-wide hair bow to keep the shaggy hair out of its eyes, is a playful dog about the size and weight of a large TV remote control.

Other presents Spears has given to Covington and Fitzgerald have included holidays in the Caribbean and trips to New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The gifts are more expressive of Spears' personality than what the media often portrays about her, Covington said.

"People think she's this big-diva-bossy-pop star, but she's not," she said. "She's just a normal person."

Both enjoy occasionally traveling with their continent-hopping pal, but said the "strenuous" life and the "Hollywood scene" is not for them.

"It takes a special person to do what she does," Fitzgerald said. "We'll go off for a week with her, and when we come back we have to sleep."

To Covington, Spears is still her cousin -- the girl she used to ride with on wooden "sleds" pulled by four-wheelers in the Kentwood countryside. It's difficult for Covington to think of Spears as anything other than a "normal, self-conscious college-aged girl."

"I'll say, 'You looked good on that [magazine] cover,' and she's just like, 'Thanks -- What are you doing?'" Covington said.

But Covington and Fitzgerald still get "star struck" by other celebrities -- including TV star Kelly Ripa of "Live with Regis and Kelly," movie star Vin Diesel from "The Fast and the Furious," and Spears' former boyfriend Justin Timberlake.

"My favorite person was Kelly Ripa," Covington said. "He [Justin] is a really nice guy."

Fitzgerald, who usually talks to Spears a few times a week, said Spears rarely talks about her career.

"You have to get stuff out of her," she said.

Knowing that, Covington said if Spears has any regrets about her career, she has not mentioned any.

"She is an entertainer -- she's always known she's wanted to do that," Covington said about Spears. "She's said, 'I wish I could just go to the mall.'"

Spears would like to have a "normal" lifestyle and still be an entertainer Covington said, but she can not have a high-profile career without the fame following her home.

Although Fitzgerald and Covington are often interviewed to talk about Spears, they said they do not just sit around and listen to her music a lot.

"We like the music, but it's not like we just pop it in and [say], 'Let's jam to Britney!'" Fitzgerald said.

Covington and Fitzgerald want to just be "normal" like Spears does. They want to go to school and work without worrying about how their words -- or words "put in their mouths" -- could have public repercussions.

"We are not cool people," Fitzgerald laughed and said. "None of us are."