U.K. boos American's strumpet, Brittany Spears

Britney Spears left fans disappointed at the UK première of her debut film on Monday when she declined to meet dedicated followers who had waited for hours to get autographs and chat to the star.

Some of the 3,000 fans - who had come from as far away as South Africa - booed and hissed the star when she was whisked into the screening of Crossroads just moments after arriving at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End.

Despite a re-appearance on the cinema's balcony, some fans were left in tears after hopes of meeting their idol were dashed.

One banner made by fans proclaimed that its owner had "come all the way from South Africa to see you", while others carried messages like: "Britney I want to be you - you're the best."

But Spears was almost an hour late for the première and did not have time to go on a walkabout, as many stars do.

Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz famously spent an hour talking to fans before a recent première - even agreeing to talk to friends and family on fans' mobile phones.

But the booing is a blow for Spears' acting hopes as she tries to promote her first cinema appearance to fans.

One fan, 11-year-old Gemma Willis, had queued with mother Jane since 1530 GMT to see the star.

"Gemma's crying her eyes out because she couldn't see a thing," Mrs Willis said.

"How does Britney expect people to go and see her film if she can't be bothered to say hello to her fans?"

Fran Handley, 16, of Uckfield, East Sussex, had waited for nearly six hours in the hope of getting an autograph, but said: "It wasn't worth my time."

Singer Charlotte Church, S Club 7 member Rachel Stevens and TV presenter Dani Behr were among the other stars who turned up.

Earlier in the day, Spears gave a hint that rumours of her split from Justin Timberlake may be true.

She told reporters that she was not in "an intense relationship" - but refused to discuss her private life further.

She also said she wanted to concentrate on acting rather than singing in the immediate future.

"Music is my heart and soul and that's what I'm going to do, but I think right now acting is so much fun, it's a whole new ballgame and a new territory and I want to focus on that right now," she said.

Asked if an Oscar was one of her ambitions, she said: "That would be very nice, that would be something I can dream about."

"One of them is an intense relationship movie, and the other is an ensemble dramatic piece which is multi-generational," according to the Crossroads producer, Ann Carli.

Spears, 20, has been on a European promotional tour that has also taken in Holland, Spain and Europe's most popular TV game show, Wetten Dass...?! (Want to bet...?!), in Germany.

Crossroads sees Spears play Lucy, a young woman who goes on a trip across the US with two friends to resolve problems in their life.

Her acting has been praised by many critics, and the film has taken more than $36m (£25m) at US box offices - three times the amount it cost to make.

It also stars Sex And The City actress Kim Cattrall as Lucy's mother and Dan Ackroyd as her father.

What, with all of Spears' inane espousals of virginity, you'd think she'd be the PMRC poster child.

Spears plays both ends; espousing virginity, then acting like a slut in her concerts (note the Madonna-wannnabe photo with the snake, posted earlier in this thread) and playing up her sexuality for all it's worth, which seems to be many millions. Clever but disingenuous, not that her fans seem to care much.

Brittany Spears is just another in a very long line of male and female pop singers pushing sexuality with every move and every song, and the girls who so admire her and want to emulate her may or may not go on to a self-destructive life but these 'acts' will always be with us, only the names, faces and bodies change from era to era. Parents have to be vigilant and do what they can to steer kids away from this type of sexually-driven entertainment but that's easier said than done in this anything-goes era. With schools pushing 'sex-ed' at grade one parents have an uphill battle against the entertainment media unless they forego TV, VCR's, films and all recorded music as well as magazines. Not likely and hardly possible for most of us.

In the Elvis (mid-50's) and Beatles (mid-60's) eras there was a social stigma connected with overt sexuality, especially in teenage female performers, but that disappeared by the late 60's and it's been a contest of 'Who can be the raunchiest' ever since as the pop music business adopted the ghetto culture in the 90's and every guy now wants to be a 'bro' and the girls seem to want to be 'ho's'. Spears just plays to that unfortunate trend.

Personally, I think that if your 11-year-old makes Spears her idol and wants to emulate her, it's probably too late and to pretend that the media culture has no impact on what young people aspire to is a bit naive. From the Elvis-look sideburns guys sported in the late 50's to the Beatle haircuts and right on through the Madonna era, pop culture has always had an impact in a society where every home has two TV's and kids buy millions and millions of dollars worth of CD's every year. Whether that translates to American pre-teen girls adopting a promiscuous lifestyle or not is arguable, but to claim the pop media and it's 'stars', like Brittany Spears, have no effect on kids is not supported by the evidence all around us.

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