访谈录 Interview 2007-01-07&09, 布兰妮，该醒醒了

Well, today yet another plea for forgiveness from Britney Spears. The pop princess has released another letter to her fans saying she knows she's disappointed fans and she promises to make it up to them with her new album and tour.

To some fans, her hard-partying ways have been simply too much, and many are now turning their back on Britney. Ruben Garay is the founder¹ of "World of Britney", one of the many fans sites devoted² to the web pop star. It was at least at this point. So Ruben I wanna ask you why are you shutting down your site?

You know, Alex, It is really simple. Um...I think that, you know, definition of a fan is somebody that, you know, supports the artist and also respects the artist. You know, lately, you know, Britney Spears has been going out and just, you know, she is walking. She is a walking target. And as she continues to do things that are considered by many reckless, it's...it's very hard to see or to wonder if, if she even respects herself. So really the shutting-down of this website is more of a wake-up call to her, to, you know, to just let her know that she really, you know, needs to get herself together because I have supported her for 6 years and it's not like I don't care about her. It's just... she needs to know what is going on.Yeah. and how the fans perceive it from this site.

And do you, did you intend to directly send her a message by shutting this down which, by the way, we're seeing it, she is aware of in that letter that she wrote yesterday. Didn't she specifically mention your website has been... you know she... she knows it has been shut down, and is she sorry about it?

Oh, absolutely I mean, I, well, my... you know, my main point was not to, you know, get this to eventually reach her. This is more of just a message for the fans and the small pressure to this that was made into a huge, huge, you know, huge deal. And you know, I think it was extremely honorable of her to, you know, have gone out and written this message to her fans. This was very very unexpected and you know, it's... it was very respectful and I think that it definitely is her first step to a successful comeback.

Yeah. Because what matters in the end is not what the media says about her, it's what er , it's what... it's if the fans that have stood by her for the past two or three years are gonna go buying and... are gonna go buy her album when it comes out.

Yeah, it is that what these websites like yours ultimately have to do with her career. They indicate the fans support and she gets a sense of that, and if they are shutting down, does she worry about what effect that might have?

I think so. I think so. I just don't think if, I just don't know if Britney Spears has over all this time been aware about how powerful the Internet has become when it comes to, you know, having your fan base going there, you know, all the time to read news about you, to see what you are up to. You know two hours after you've done something that they might consider, like, like, like a wild moment, (Uh-huh) You know it's, it's…they are gonna, they are gonna know about it and every single thing that she does, you know, and whatever word in .COM house , whatever is happening is a reflection of what is going on in her world.

And Ruben, I'm curious what you think personally about what Britney's been up to. All her shenanigans and night stuff and despite the fact that she says right now she knows she's disappointed people, She promises to do better. You couple that with the fact that you have got reports of family members saying 'Honey, you need help. You need to get into the rehab or whatever'. What do you think is her biggest problem?

You know, it's.., that's...that's a very good question. I'm not Britney Spears. So I am... I don't really wanna put that out there like that. But I think that her biggest problem is that, you know, she's been in the media since she was a little girl and she's never really had the chance to just be herself and go out there and do the things that, you know, a normal teenager in the early 20s are doing. And I think that after she divorced Kevin Federline, she decided³ to, you know, I'm gonna go out and party and I'm gonna go and do this, but, you know, she put no limits to what the word "party" means.

Uh-huh.

And the cameras have always been on her and they are always gonna criticize her every move, you know, so, you know, eventually it comes out to the decision that she has made and she just needs to be very very careful with everything that she does in the future, especially after the message that she wrote to her fans, because now the cameras and the pictures and the paparazzi, they are gonna be on her more than ever, because they are gonna try to use it against her in case she doesn't, you know, make a huge change.

Yeah! Well, we will see how she fares, certainly we are watching closely, and Ruben Garay, I wanna thank you for weighing in, do appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

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1. shenanigan:n. trick, prank⁴; mischief⁵ 欺骗; 恶作剧

2.rehab:n. rehabilitation⁶, restoration to good health or condition. Rehab is short for rehabilitation 修复; 恢复名誉; 复兴

3.paparazzi:n.plural⁷ form of paparazzo. The paparazzi are photographers who follow famous people around, hoping to take interesting or shocking photographs of them that they can sell to a newspaper.

1 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

2 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 prank   

n.开玩笑，恶作剧；v.装饰；打扮；炫耀自己

参考例句：

• It was thought that the fire alarm had been set off as a prank.人们认为火警报警器响是个恶作剧。
• The dean was ranking the boys for pulling the prank.系主任正在惩罚那些恶作剧的男学生。

5 mischief   

n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹

参考例句：

• Nobody took notice of the mischief of the matter. 没有人注意到这件事情所带来的危害。
• He seems to intend mischief.看来他想捣蛋。

6 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

7 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。