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" Last night, The X Factor, one of those singing-reality shows you may or may not have seen advertised everywhere, was determined to prove that it got its fifteen million dollars&amp;#039; worth in hiring Britney Spears as a judge. She looked better than she has in years, squeezing into one of those bandage dresses she still wears the hell out of and flashing her sad-eyed smile. There was a montage of her withering put-downs to contestants \u2014 &amp;quot;I want to know who let you on stage. I feel uncomfortable with you even staring at me.&amp;quot; \u2014 that ended, of course, with the catchphrase of her song &amp;quot;Gimme More&amp;quot;: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s Britney, bitch.&amp;quot; The Brits are nothing if not masterful emotional manipulators, at least on television. The UK producers of The X Factor brought their A-game in one particular moment last night (see the video below). A man named Don Philip, Spears&amp;#039;s onetime duet partner and now a struggling vocal coach in the Bronx, showed up to sing. To her credit, Spears immediately recognized Philip and seemed to hope he would perform well on the show. Which, of course, didn&amp;#039;t happen. The pained look on Spears&amp;#039;s face as Philip butchered Beyonce&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Halo&amp;quot; was actually a little heartrending. (Having, yes, seen Crossroads, I feel qualified to say I know when she&amp;#039;s faking it.) After Philip was given four &amp;quot;no&amp;quot;s from the judges and walked off stage, the audience was treated to a montage of him sobbing and wailing on the floor that he didn&amp;#039;t mean to hurt Spears, intercut with Cowell asking the palpably uncomfortable Spears if she was okay. Melodramatic? Sure. But on this kind of show, that&amp;#039;s sort of the point.      Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a15794/britney-spears-x-factor-12669233/?src=rss>