Britney's facial expressions are like a fifth judge

I found Don Philip's audition segment on X-Factor really hard to watch. The singer, who once recorded a duet with Britney Spears (she says it was 10 years ago, but it was actually recorded close to 15 years ago and appeared on her 1998 album), came out on the show but FOX edited that part out entirely.

Instead, we heard Philip sing "Halo" (I thought nicely—nothing special, but not a disaster, and I disagree with Simon saying he has no voice) and get shot down firmly by all the judges. Fair enough that he didn't wow them, but then the audience CHEERED his "no" votes. Bizarre.

Maybe they were booing the fact that he came across like he was on something or just because they all thought he sucked, but Jesus, it came off as really mean-spirited, the whole segment.

And Britney Spears continues to be really unappealing to me in this venue. Granted, I'm not a fan of her work and I find fans liking her for songs with which she has almost nothing to do depressingly cynical, but the times I've met her (once in 1998, once in the mid-2000s and once more recently), she hasn't come across anything like she does on this show. In person, she's been bubbly and sweet. Even if the sweet part is fake, I prefer fake sweet to huge stars who are assholes to your face just because they know they can be. But now, she has a very odd manner of speaking that's blasé and intense at once, and her "queen of mean" role is bizarre. If she didn't like Philip, she didn't like Philip—can't blame her for that, it's not like he was great. But her way of saying no and of saying "that was hard" with absolutely no emotion registering is like when someone says of a joke, with a straight face, "That was funny."

Are you liking her on this show? I continue to find it really annoying specifically that she is judging singing voices. I would feel the same way about Madonna judging singers and not overall artistry. But Madonna, whose voice I personally love but whose voice could not be argued to be consistently strong and pure and technically perfect (nor could Bob Dylan's!), does, in fact, sing live. She has used tracks, but she sings full songs with no track, too—often. Nightly on her tours. Britney seems to avoid real singing almost entirely.

I ask even Britney fans: Do you have confidence that Britney Spears could have gotten up there on that stage after Philip was rejected and sung "Halo" better, good enough to get a "yes" from the other judges? Because that should be a requirement for any judge on any show like that. I do believe that Demi Lovato could have, and we all know Christina Aguilera could have and we all know Paula Abdul could not have.

Sorry, Britney fans—don't hate me for not getting her. To each her own. And if that's your bone to pick with this post, at least also answer me this: Do you not feel like this segment of X-Factor came off as mean-spirited, gay-factor or not?