Britney's Facebook requires a Harvard grad

Courtney Hazlett The Scoop

Spoiler alert: If you check in on Britney Spears’ Twitter feed, Facebook, MySpace page, and other electronic iterations, you might not really be communicating with Britney Spears. You might, however, be communicating with someone who is at the very least, very adept with a standardized test and number-two pencil.

Spears’ online manager posted a job listing for “Britney Spears 2.0 Media Manager” on a Harvard-only private job board, reports techcrunch.

Among the job requirements: “you are addicted to social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. … You are a popular culture addict and passionate about the intersection of Silicon Valley and Hollywood.”

Sounds to us like Britney's people want a Harvard type to manage and monitor her social-media presence. Takes that high-priced degree to update one's Facebook status.

Spears also made news this week for allegedly breaking up with her onetime safe place, OK! magazine. Apparently her father, Jamie Spears, was refusing to deal with the magazine under new publisher Kent Brownridge. Because of that, Brownridge wasn’t going to allow OK! to cover the sisters Spears.

An OK! rep reiterates that this just isn’t the case. “We would absolutely cover (Britney and Jamie-Lynn) (and pay Jamie for the privilege of doing so!) when something newsworthy presents itself,” says the spokesperson.

Kudos to OK! also for admitting that, sometimes, celebrity magazines pay for interviews as well as for photographs.

Seacrest speaks out on Brangelina diss
If you caught E!’s Golden Globes pre-show coverage, you might have witnessed Ryan Seacrest’s awkward attempt to score an interview with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Seacrest spotted the couple on the carpet, left his platform, approached Jolie and Pitt saying “Hi guys. Brad? Angelina?”

Pitt and Jolie responded by snubbing the "American Idol" host, and the power couple moved on to "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush for an interview.

Seacrest addressed the incident on his radio show the morning after, saying, "I don't think Angelina thinks I'm that important, I don't think I'm top of mind for Brad and Angelina. I honestly don't believe they'd know who I was if I walked over there."

As for why Billy Bush and not him: Seacrest is confident it’s nothing personal: “NBC (which produces "Access Hollywood") hosted the Globes, and they have a deal to talk to the people who come to the Globes.”

Will Borat wed?
Sasha Baron Cohen has been in the press more and more between filming his new Bruno movie and his recent Golden Globes appearance.

His girlfriend Isla Fisher also is in the news, however — she’s starring in “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” which comes out in February and to promote it, appears in the February Allure magazine.

The normally private Fisher opens up about her relationship to the “mysterious and interesting” Cohen, with whom she has a 15-month-old daughter, Olive.

“We are going to get married, even more so now than ever,” she tells the magazine. “It is very important to me to have a beautiful ritual celebrated with all my family and friends, and to feel part of the community. And when you are in the public eye, to keep that private and make it happen without it being really visible is really difficult.”

Globes ratings not golden
Sunday night’s 66th annual Golden Globe awards show was #2 in the ratings, but viewership was down 26% compared to the 2007 broadcast. Translation for the numbers-averse: the telecast was the lowest-rated Globes since NBC began airing them 12 years ago.

But even though I think NBC could have had a more substantial ad campaign leading up to the awards, the low ratings weren’t the fault of the network, nor the show itself. Actually, it was the fault of the winners.

Why? These actors might make good movies, but for the most part they don’t make good television.

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Sally Hawkins' speech went way too long, but the audience inside the Beverly Hilton was rapt, so the music wasn’t going to be cued. Laura Dern was among the best dressed of the night, but her acceptance speech wasn’t memorable.

Sure, not everyone can dip from a well of hilarity a la Tina Fey and Tracey Morgan, so it’s a given that parts of the show will be a snooze, and in turn, ratings might be tepid at best.

What to do? Step one, beef up advertising. Step two: The Hollywood Foreign Press needs to stir the pot a bit. If you’re brave enough to give Mickey Rourke a best-actor award, how about channeling some of that tenaciousness and abandoning the system of having the same nomination categories every year?

Admit that the “best performance by an actress in a television series-drama” is proving to be a little thin. Drop it. Add something new.

Bottom line: I like the Globes. I know a lot of people who like the Globes and it would be great if they continued to stand out. Can we please just do what we have to do to a) keep it alive and b) not let it become just "Oscars Lite"?

Courtney Hazlett delivers the Scoop Monday through Friday on msnbc.com.

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