Celebs in the News: Britney Spears GIF-ting Fans With 'Criminal' Teases

One of five gifs posted online includes footage of Spears with boyfriend Jason Trawick.
By Jocelyn Vena

Britney Spears' "Criminal" teaser
Photo: Jive/Sony

It's a big week for music video premieres thanks to Justin Bieber, Beyoncé and Rihanna. And Britney Spears wants in on the fun too, as her "Criminal" video is also set to drop this week. Spears gave fans a taste of what to expect with a series of GIFs at Tumblr.

The five GIFs begin to weave together the story of the Chris Marrs Piliero-directed video. In one tease, Spears is all dolled up in a lacy cocktail dress as she attends a glamorous party. In another tease, Spears is seen running out of a building with gun in hand.

Another tease represents art imitating life. In it, Spears and real-life boyfriend Jason Trawick, who also plays her love interest in the video, share a kiss. The other two teases are a bit less action-oriented as she's just spotted standing around looking sexy in a black lingerie dress and twirling her hair around.

Spears looks incredibly glam in the teases for the slow jam's video, something that Piliero teased on Twitter recently. "Not a whole lot I'm allowed to say about the @britneyspears criminal vid other than that I love this video and can't wait for it to come out," he wrote. "Oh and that she looks gorgeous in it ... pretty sure it's cool for me to say that. ..."

The video is expected to drop this week, although the exact release date hasn't been announced.

Spears shot the video last month in London, right before kicking off the European leg of her Femme Fatale Tour. Little is known about the plot of the video, but when Spears was photographed carrying a prop gun on set, politicians in the U.K. accused the star of glorifying violence after the London riots. The video was shot in Hackney, which was hit hard by the August riots, and local politicians were upset by what they saw as an insensitive gesture by Spears.

"It is only a music video, but it's images like this, with pop stars glamorizing gangs, which means that some young people ... get drawn in," Hackney's Member of Parliament Diane Abbott told the ITV news program "London Tonight." "Britney should really know better."

Spears' camp shrugged off any criticism in a statement to MTV News: "The video is a fantasy story featuring Britney's boyfriend, Jason Trawick, which literally plays out the lyrics of a song written three years before the riots ever happened."

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