BRITNEY SMOKED OUT ON 'VENTILATION ISSUE'

GM Place Official Defends Venue A Day After Pop Star Walked Off The
Stage, Citing Crowd Smoke

A major Vancouver concert venue was left defending its safety record
Thursday after pop star Britney Spears blamed a "ventilation issue"
brought on by smokers in the concert crowd for her decision to
temporarily halt a live performance.

"At no time was there or has there been any concern for the quality of
the air or the safety of the guests in the building," said Harvey
Jones, a GM Place vice-president.

The air-quality debate was stirred up a day earlier when a
spangled-bra-clad Spears disappeared off the stage just 15 minutes
into her glitzy come-back concert tour, Circus.

The sold-out crowd of about 18,000 fans was left to chant into the
darkness for more than half an hour, repeatedly calling out for the
return of the pop singer, whose much-publicized and often scandalous
antics have landed her in drug rehabilitation, as well as a hospital
psychiatric ward.

An announcement made shortly before 9 p.m. informed stunned
concert-goers of the nature of the delay: "It's become uncomfortable
and unsafe for the performers, including Ms. Spears.

"The show will resume as soon as the air around the stage is clear,"
the crowd was told.

Spears resumed the show at 9:05 p.m., performing for another hour
before bidding goodnight to fans with a string of expletives and a
cautionary warning: "Don't smoke weed."

The Circus performance set celebrity websites ablaze Thursday with
Britney gossip, with headlines across North America boldly linking
Spears' vanishing act to Vancouver smokers.

Spears' blog extended an apology to "all the fans who attended our
Vancouver show tonight for the brief pause in Britney's set. Crew
members above the stage became ill due to a ventilation issue."

Meanwhile, in Vancouver, Jones said it was never really clear exactly
what the problem was, adding concern about smoke onstage was just one
of several explanations given to arena staff by Spears' tour managers.

"We heard a number of different versions, all of them centred around
air quality," he said.

Jones said air-quality monitors measuring carbon-dioxide emissions and
temperature gauges were all functioning normally Wednesday night, with
no unusual readings noted.

Concern from staff over excessive smoke in the arena was also not
reported, he said.

Smoking is banned inside the arena, as it is in all public spaces in
Vancouver. However, Jones said it was impossible to fully enforce the
policy, particularly during a crowded concert.

"People do come in and they do light up smokes ... It's part of the
[concert] culture," he said.

Smokers who are caught in the act are immediately told to butt out,
while those reluctant to obey the rules face possible eviction, he
said.

Jones said that following discussion with Spears' tour managers, stage
fans were turned up and the doors opened .

READERS SOUND OFF

Here's what some vancouversun.com readers had to say about the Britney
Spears concert on
Wednesday night at GM Place:

I and others are sick of hearing about/seeing super-wealthy, whining,
publicity-seeking people like [Britney] and Madonna. Take your money
(unless Bernie Madoff made off with too much of it!) and disappear
into a private life. - Go Away Madonna 2nd

Hilarious. I guess maybe the crowd should have been drinking vodka and
NyQuil to keep her happy. She was washed up about five years ago.
Here's to the next Rita MacNeil. - Unclebritney

She needs to grow up and stop trying to pass this excuse for music off
as entertainment. God help us if our daughters grow into women with
this lady as a role model. - Tomc

From the horse's mouth: "Don't smoke weed!" Parents of young Britney
fans: Make this a topic of conversation at dinner tonight. - sd

Why can't we admit that Vancouver is so open regarding marijuana use?
And a supervised injection site, eh? But we are shouting back at
Britney for her smoking comments at GM place. Have we gone crazy? Or
are we really crazy? Britney is just telling us right [to] our face
that Vancouver is a marijuana-infested city! And that is a bitter pill
to swallow! - Hypocrite Vans

Britney said she left because of smoke near the stage. But isn't she a
smoker? I've seen tabloid pictures of her with a Starbucks and
cigarette. Are you sure she wasn't just too drunk to perform? - eafoamgi

Britney left the stage due to Vancouverites' over-liberal use of
marijuana in public. Britney has undergone a transformation, and is
very anti-drug use. Due to the entire arena reeking of weed, Britney
made a point by leaving the stage to allow the air to clear. Please
keep in mind that all of Britney's dancers and Britney herself are
drug-tested on a regular basis (as demanded by her conservatorship).
If any of her dancers were to test positive for marijuana use, the
conservator immediately fires them regardless! If Spears were to test
positive for drug use, her conservator could use this in court to
undermine her determination to end the conservatorship. Her abrupt
departure and 40- minute delay [in the show] were the direct result of
all the drug users at the concert, and had nothing to do with
cigarette smoke. - Jojo