BRITNEY TALKS TO SEACREST!

AP Reports: Britney Spears defended her parenting and chastised her critics, lamenting "how cruel our world can be," in a brief interview on Ryan Seacrest's radio show Wednesday. When "American Idol" host asked Spears if she was doing all she could for her children, Spears replied, "Oh God yeah. People say what they want and do what they do and it's sad how people, how cruel our world can be," she said. "At the end of the day ... you've just got to know in your heart that you're doing the best you can and that's basically it." Spears was unclear when Seacrest asked how often she would see the boys. "That's, like, all in the court," she said. "Stuff like that, my lawyers know all that stuff."

Seacrest apparently woke Spears up when he called her for the interview, and at times she didn't seem to understand his questions. When Seacrest asked Spears if the intense coverage of her recent troubles has been "overwhelming," she said, "Wait, what?" However, she then said: "People talk and they say what they want at the end of the day, you know in the tabloids and in the magazines," she said. "But you just try to keep on doing what you do, like, you know, and as long as you know what's up and you know what's true, that's all that really matters, you know?"

Spears' "Blackout," her first studio album in four years, was released Tuesday. Besides a video for "Gimme More" and a widely panned performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, she hasn't promoted the record. Spears said she didn't do anything special to celebrate the release — "we watched movies ... had fried chicken." She said her favorite "Blackout" song is "Heaven on Earth": "It's a cool track. It's like, I love the producers who did that and it's kind of different from all the other songs." As for rumors that she was dating Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, Spears said: "Who?"

The interview ended abruptly when Sims took the phone, saying Spears had left to take a shower.