Spears, Perry pen songs for Gomez

NEW YORK — Katy Perry and Britney Spears appear on a CD together but it’s not the latest Now compilation.

Rather, the pop singers have written songs on Selena Gomez & the Scene’s new album, When the Sun Goes Down.

"I did have a lot of artists that I was very lucky enough to have songs written by and it’s a good, uplifting album," Gomez said of her third CD. "It’s really fun and very dance-y and I hope people like it."

Spears co-wrote the dance song Whiplash, while Perry co-penned That’s More Like It. Singer Priscilla Renea — who co-wrote Rihanna’s California King Bed and Cheryl Cole’s Promise This — co-penned three songs on Gomez’s album, including the lead single and Top 40 hit Who Says. And the disc has a writing credit and guest appearance from British singer Pixie Lott.

"I think it’s a powerful CD," Gomez said in a recent interview.

The 18-year-old’s first two albums have reached gold status. The new record — which has three songs co-penned by Gomez — is out next week.

Days after her disc’s release, Gomez will get another girl-power boost with the July 1 release of her new movie, Monte Carlo, which also stars Leighton Meester of Gossip Girl and was co-produced by Nicole Kidman.

Gomez says leaving Los Angeles to shoot in Paris and Budapest was "so refreshing." But the grueling promotional tour that has followed — maybe not so much.

The nationwide campaign, including a string of mall appearances, was recently interrupted when Gomez was hospitalized in Los Angeles for exhaustion, malnourishment and low iron.

The singer-actress, who is dating teen pop star Justin Bieber, says she enjoys having friends "in the business" and others who are not.

"Personally for me, I feel like it’s good to have a balance of both," she said. "I have people in my life that are in the business and then I have friends who aren’t in the business and family, so it’s nice to kind of keep that.

"You want people that obviously understand what you’re going through and then you also want people that’s like, ‘Let’s not talk about (movie) sets or press or any of that, let’s just talk about normal things.’"

Yet the entertainer, whose Wizards of Waverly Place is ending its fourth and final season on Disney, says she’s noticed that her life — and the people around her — are changing.

"Your life definitely changes a little bit and you kind of think people’s motives change toward you," she said. "Just got to be careful — that’s all.

New Manilow album inspired by Britney Spears – The Marquee Blog ...

Barry Manilow sings about the pleasures and pitfalls of fame on "15 Minutes," his upcoming CD that was inspired by a certain blonde pop princess.

"The thing we started to think about was when Britney Spears was being hounded by the paparazzi," Manilow tells the L.A. Times of his concept for the album. "They were driving her crazy. She couldn't have a life without them pulling up next to her car and following her and driving her crazy to the point where, that was around the time she shaved off her hair. I think they actually helped to drive her crazy. We all looked at it in horror… and I said, 'Is this what happens these days?' So it seemed like a thing to be writing an album about."

Manilow, whose new disc drops June 14, also drew inspiration from the young talent he worked with as a mentor on "American Idol."

"What I saw was a lot of young people becoming famous very quickly, overnight," he says. "I've done three 'American Idols,' and it was an amazing thing to watch these young, talented people becoming household names within months. And I remember when I got hit with it, with 'Mandy,' that I was an adult. And yet when 'Mandy' hit, it knocked me for a loop. It turned me into a person I didn't like."

The singer-songwriter admits he began treating people badly.

"I felt I was being demanding. I felt like I was not treating people kindly. But most of all I didn't like where I found myself," he says. "I remember this night in Florida about five years, four years into my beginning of this trip—I don't like the word 'celebrity'—my fame trip. And I was outside in a rocking chair looking at the stars, and I realized that everybody in my house that I was renting on a beach in Florida I was paying. Everybody around me I was paying. My friends had seemed to have disappeared. And this craziness becomes a job, a job that I'm grateful for and that I like, but it's not my life. I had to rethink everything."

The paparazzi didn't drive Britney crazy. She invited them into her house, she gave them her phone number, had hotel stay overs with them, would call them on her cell to come find her because she was "lost" and needed directions (especially the photo agency X17). She was an addict, and they hooked her up. Now, her videos and tours come with contracts that back up dancers can't provide her with alcohol or drugs, and they must take tests to make sure they are sober.

--baby one more time

A Mother's Gift

Britney [sound recording (CD)].

Billboard

Billboard