I have three and a half items from the world of pop music (yes, three and a HALF, trust me).  First a relatively minor update on that refugee from "The New Mickey Mouse Club", BRITNEY SPEARS.  Recently (meaning about a month ago, since I just missed it for the last column), Britney has taken her locks up to shoulder-length and lightened her naturally medium blonde color to the standard "Los Angeles" shade.  The color is the biggest change, since the length has been slowly shrinking for a while now.

Before	After

FLEA'S CALL:   I guess it would be unprofessional of me to reveal just how indifferent I am to virtually anything regarding Britney.  Good thing, I'm not a professional, huh?  Anyway, since I reported it, I need to comment on it, so (yawn) here it goes: It looks OK.  Not bad, not good, but OK.  What is more interesting is the fact that though Britney keeps moving away from her previous longish (mid-back), dark blonde hair, she keeps wearing wigs and/or extensions to simulate it.  Go figure.  Then again, don't.  You have better things to do with your life.  Moving on...

Next bit of pop music news comes in the form of BRANDY, who has finally abandoned her long braids in favor of, well, long, non-braided hair.  She originally went with the braid extensions a couple of years ago as she was letting her own hair grow from shoulder length.  Now that it falls to about mid-back, she's apparently achieved the length she desired and gone au naturale.  Ok, semi-natural since she is pulling it straight most of the time.  

Oh, and for those of you who are saying "Geez, this is OLD news!", I would respond, "And your point is...?".  Hey, I just noticed it recently and I haven't seen any posts of on the board or received any email about it, so you guys must not have picked up on it either.  I'm not being defensive, you're being defensive...

FLEA'S CALL:   Though I know why she was wearing them to begin with, I'm still kind of surprised that Brandy ditched the braids, especially given their trendiness right now.  Don't get me wrong, I like her non-braided look, be it with the kinks or smoothed straight.  I would say, however, that given her largish forehead, that cutting in a small fringe of bangs would look terrific on her...however untrendy (non-trendy?  distrendy?) that may be.

Continuing in music, we come to DOLORES O'RIORDAN, who, I fearlessly predicted back in June, would cut her newly grown out blonde locks short sometime in the course of The Cranberries current tour.  As usual, it looks like I was correct...uh, sort of.  True, Dolores now not only sports a longish pixie, but has returned to her natural brunette color (I think.  More on the color in a second).  The thing is, though, she had actually cut her hair prior to me even reporting that she had grown it out.  Unbeknownst to me, by the time I found decent enough pictures to report on her blonde shag, she had already been shorn to an auburn crewcut.  In fact, the picture I had from "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" was from May 23 and the first picture I saw of her with the buzz was on the CNN site May 25 (and thus, most likely from an interview on the 24th). 

May 23	May 24

She must have gone straight from Rosie to the salon, for Pete's sake.  Not only that, but at some point then she also went platinum blonde (which she could be right now, for all I know).  

FLEA'S CALL:  I guess the upside is that since Dolores' auburn crewcut is now six months old, there's no point in stating the obvious that the blonde shag was much more attractive.  So, let's concentrate on how much better the brunette pixie is than the buzzcut.  Dolores has had this crop on several occasions in the past and thus it was a safe bet that it would flatter her in this iteration as well.  And it does. More interesting though is that, given that this cycle has repeated itself a couple of times now, it appears that Dolores has a definite off-tour style (longish and blonde) versus an on-tour style (buzz or pixie of indeterminate color).

By the way, if anyone can confirm her current color, since I'm relatively confident this time on the length, I'd appreciate it.  Drop me an email or post to the board, 'cause I'm having trouble keeping up.  I mean, Dolores makes Madonna appear to be in a rut.  Sheesh.

On to my half item related to pop music.  Only half, since VONDA SHEPARD is best known as the singer in the bar on "Ally McBeal" and who also provides the background music as Ally walks forlornly again down some city street at night again at the end of an episode AGAIN.  Anyway, Vonda has trimmed about five inches off the bottom of her blonde locks, essentially removing most of the shaggish layering.  The  mostly blunt, long bob falls to her shoulders and, at least in this picture, it also appears that Vonda's decided to take advantage of her natural wave a bit more.
 

Before	After

FLEA'S CALL:  You know, I've been looking at these two pictures for a while now and have come to the conclusion that I like the "Before" better than the "After".  I hesitate to say that because, try as I might, I can't come up with any concrete reason as to why.  Color is fine in both, even though the "After" is a bit lighter.  The length isn't a problem in the "After" and I even like the slight wave in the bottom.  So what is it?  I just can't figure it out.  Can anyone save me here since all I'm doing at this point is rambling aimlessly on this?

As long as I'm talking about David E. Kelley series, let's turn to another of the 57 shows he is currently writing, "The Practice".  KELLI WILLIAMS, who portrays Lindsay, has recently cut a good 6-8 inches off of her previously shoulder-length, lightly layered, brown tresses.  The result is a slightly more layered, chin-length bob that is not tremendously unlike the style Lara Flynn Boyle adopted last season, minus the bangs.

Before	After

FLEA'S CALL:  When Lara cut her hair similar to this earlier this year, she came from nowhere to leap to number two on my "Best Hair on TV" list.  I don't think that Kelli's cut warrants quite that level of praise, but it is a remarkably flattering change.  The bob not only gives her more volume, but the layers give her a lot of styling options, including the very cool flip shown here.  Due to her hair being on the thin side, the longer style just hung there rather limply.  Because of that, I figured that a change was just a matter of time, so this wasn't exactly a surprise.  Golly, but it's nice to be right.  Heh heh.

Making a totally unrelated, yet amazingly similar change is Oscar-winner JODIE FOSTER.  Up until recently, Jodie was wearing her hair in a style greatly resembling that of Kelli Williams, though shorter, with the major difference being Jodie had more shaggish layering in the bottom 2 or 3 inches.  But other than that, they were a lot alike.  Really.  Stop looking at me like that.  The pictures of both are right here, for Pete's sake, just look at 'em.  Believe me now?  Good (I'm ignoring those of you that didn't agree).  Anyway, Jodie must have gotten tired of the layers, because she cut them almost completely off, resulting in a lightly layered chin-length bob.

Before	After

FLEA'S CALL:  It's always surprising to me how much of an impact such a small alteration can make.  Simply by trimming a couple of inches off of the length, Jodie went from an, at best, unflattering and, at worst, frumpy style to an exponentially more attractive and sophisticated look.  This rounded bob is really almost perfect for her.  For those of you taking notes at home, jot this down:  "You don't have to make a major change to make a major difference".  Finished writing?  Cool.  Moving on again...

Britney Spears pictures courtesy "The Rosie O'Donnell Show", Dolores O'Riordan pictures courtesy "The Rosie O'Donnell Show", CNN, and The Zombie Guide, Vonda Shepard pictures courtesy Hollywood.Com, Kelli Williams pictures courtesy ABC and Reuters, Jodie Foster pictures courtesy Hollywood.Com and Reuters