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Britney fires back at former bodyguard
THE RELIABLE SOURCE ‘Love’ from scratch
Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger
Britney Spears lashed out Thursday at a former bodyguard who sued her for sexual harassment. In a statement, the pop star called Fernando Flores an opportunist and denied his accusations that she had acted sexually inappropriately in front of him and her two young sons — and volunteered that social services had investigated and dismissed his claims. Her ex Kevin Federline (who has been admirably quiet lately, hasn’t he?) also denied through his attorney that anything creepy went on in her home, the Associated Press reports. (He’s the parent with primary custody, but she has lots of visitation.)
husband, adorable kids. It would be just a little too perfect if the MSNBC chief Washington correspondent was a whiz in the kitchen, too. “Oh, I admit it: I’m a terrible
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cook,” she told us Thursday. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t cook. I make lots of stuff. I’m known for my banana bread.” Why care about her culinary talents? Because she’s the co-author of the new “Baby Love” cookbook with her chef/husband, Geoff Tracy,
ure, it looks like Norah O’Donnell has it all: glamour job, college-sweetheart
who owns five restaurants in and around Washington. It was Chef Geoff who started making homemade baby food when their 3-year-old twins, Henry and Grace, were born, followed soon after by baby sis Riley, now 2. But O’Donnell said the idea for the book (his first ever) came to her after she watched him prepare the purees and other no-fuss dishes. “I said, ‘Oh my God. This is so easy. We have to tell people.’ And Geoff was like, ‘Nobody cares.’ ” But she persevered: She says he
created and developed all the recipes, but she researched and wrote all the childhood nutrition tips. The book — aimed for parents of infants and toddlers — was released last week and is already selling like . . . yeah, blueberry hotcakes (another family favorite). The couple is making the book-tour rounds between her
network gig and his five professional kitchens. Tracy does most of the cooking at home, and the kids are already fans of veggies and fruits. (Sheesh, do they volunteer to clean their rooms, too?) “They eat a pretty healthy diet, lots of rice with chopped vegetables, chicken, pasta,” O’Donnell said. “And jelly sandwiches — they don’t like peanut butter yet.” And when Tracy’s too busy to cook? A swing by the family restaurants. “There’s nothing better than free takeout,” she said with a laugh.
JOHN STILLWELL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tony Blair’s memoir shows Peter Morgan’s “The Queen” was spot-on.
“You are my 10th prime minister. The first was Winston. That was before you
were born.” — Queen Elizabeth’s greeting to
“Baby Love” authors Norah
KIERAN DOHERTY/REUTERS
Lourdes, in 2007 with mom Madonna, brother Rocco and Guy Ritchie before the divorce.
How fast they grow up! Madonna’s daughter Lourdes started her freshman year Wednesday at NYC’s public LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts — yes, the school from “Fame” — where the 13-year-old designer (no, really — she has her own fashion line at Macy’s) ducked paparazzi who contented themselves by interviewing her camera-ready classmates. “I don’t want to be like, ‘You’re mom’s a celebrity,’ ” one told the New York Daily News. “But if the occasion arises, I’d definitely talk to her.”
O’Donnell and Geoff Tracy, with twins Grace and Henry, whip up whole-grain blueberry pancakes with flax.
Booker
“Snooki! I’m the mayor where R U so I can give u a ticket 4 texting & driving
we needs revenue!” — Newark Mayor Cory Booker taking to Twitter to respond to “Jersey Shore” star Snooki (not that she
asked him!), who tweeted a complaint that she was “ugh stuck in newark traffic is no fun.” (Is one of the mayor’s staffers handling his Twitter duties? Would that be better or worse?)
GOT A TIP ? E-MAIL U S A T RELIABLESOURCE@WASHP OST . COM. FOR THE LA TEST SCOOPS, VISIT WA SHINGTONP OST . COM/RELIABLESOUR CE CONCERT REVIEWS Big Boi rocks 9:30 Club with spitfire rhymes, playful persona
Back in 2003, Big Boi got stuck playing straight man. The rapper, one-half of mega- selling Atlanta hip-hop duo Out- Kast, was cast as the humorless street-hard traditionalist oppo- site his arty and ultra-flamboy- ant bandmate, André “3000” Benjamin. Critics called Benja- min visionary. Big Boi was dubbed “dependable.” Following the double album “Speaker- boxxx/The Love Below” and their musical film “Idlewild,” the duo went on hiatus. In 2010, however, it seems like Big Boi got the better part of the bargain. Wednesday night at 9:30 Club, Big Boi — real name Antwan An- dré Patton — performed a num- ber of songs from his solo debut, “Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty.” Patton is not a somber guy. He
glittering. Accompanied by only a DJ and College Park-based rap- per Blackowned C-Bone, he managed to keep energy high for the duration of his one-hour set, rolling forward on the heavy 808-rhythms and double-time rhymes.
KYLE GUSTAFSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST Big Boi as Sir Lucious Left Foot
proved an energetic and engag- ing presence — rapping at warp speed, catapulting around the stage with chain-necklaces a-
IMOGEN QUEST by Olivia Walch Winner of The Post’s “America’s Next Great Cartoonist” contest.
Big Boi had to fight hard to get “Sir Luscious Left Foot” re- leased. His then-record label, Jive, held the album, hoping to pressure the rapper into getting back to business with OutKast. From a commercial standpoint, Jive’s concerns were, perhaps, well-founded. Big Boi’s perform- ance was lightly attended, par- ticularly for a guy whose past re- cord sales have totaled in the ba- zillion range.
But from an artistic perspec- tive, Big Boi is at the top of his game. His latest single, “Shutter- bug,” is giddy with bass bounce,
humor and the best use of talk- box since Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer.” It shook the room, brought arms into the air. His persona, once written off as tra- ditional, is now a welcome ref- uge from a legion of dour rap- pers who just want to talk about street crime and purple drank. Meanwhile his OutKast coun-
terpart is, well, pretty much off the grid. A few years on, Benja- min’s antics seem like the stuff of parody — an Eddie Murphy standup routine on hip-hop evo- lution, rather than a next step. Not that Big Boi is willing to
let the duo’s legend slide. The rapper spent a large part of the evening whipping through the group’s glory days — performing hits like “Rosa Parks,” “B.o.B.” and “So Fresh, So Clean.” Just his verses, though. — Aaron Leitko
Best Coast at Rock & Roll Hotel:
Tony Blair . . . at least according to his new memoir, “A Journey.” This week, screenwriter Peter Morgan noted to the Daily Telegraph that the line sounds uncannily similar to his totally made-up dialogue for the 2006 biopic “The Queen.” (“You are my 10th prime minister, Mr. Blair. My first was Winston Churchill.”), which Blair says he never saw.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
Snooki
Relying on a shore thing
In contemporary terms, Best
Coast’s Bethany Cosentino can be seen as Katy Perry’s less attention- greedy cousin, singing California- gurlish ditties about romance, summer and wishes (mostly for romance). But there’s nothing es- pecially contemporary about Co- sentino’s band, which played to a full house Wednesday at the Rock & Roll Hotel. The L.A. trio’s girlie- punk style recalled such late-’80s British outfits as Talulah Gosh and the Shop Assistants, while the boy-crazy lyrics evoked Lesley Gore’s tear-stained early-’60s hits. Amiable to a fault, Best Coast
played its raucous pop at a lady- like volume, and paused now and then for offhand chatter. Cosenti- no wished the crowd a happy Rosh Hashanah and talked a bit about her boyfriend. (That would be Wavves frontman Nathan Wil- liams, Sonny to Cosentino’s Cher in today’s Cali slacker-pop uni- verse.) As for the songs, they in- volved a lot of “oohs,” “las,” and “whoas,” and proceeded at one of two tempos: medium or fast. Faster was better, since the ve-
locity somewhat compensated for the thin, sound-alike melodies. Such tunes as “Boyfriend” and “Summer Mood” might have seemed more distinctive if they
JOSH SISK FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
COSENTINO:Stop her if you’ve heard this one before.
hadn’t been part of a 55-minute set that included almost twice as many numbers as the band’s 13- song debut album. The occasional guitar solo wasn’t enough to in- ject variety into a set whose musi- cal style (and psychological pro- file) never shifted. Rather than leave the crowd wanting more, Best Coast left the lingering sense that it had shown everything it might do in its entire career. — Mark Jenkins
DOONESBURY by Garry Trudeau
CUL DE SAC by Richard Thompson
TIMOTHY DEVINE
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