How do teen icons spell rebound? C-a-m-e-o.
Handlers of today’s troubled pop stars know the way to make amends to fans is to appear less on the Los Angeles party circuit and more on TV sitcoms.
The Britney Spears rehabilitation tour continues tonight on CBS when the troubled 26-year-old pop star has her second make-nice gig on “How I Met Your Mother.”
Britney’s people called CBS’s people to set up the first cameo. Because the ratings proved positive — an extra 1 million people watched — she’s back as the dermatologist’s receptionist, intent on demonstrating she’s stable enough to handle the rigors of TV comedy.
The sight of Spears delivering lines without a meltdown apparently goes a long way toward undoing the damage she did her career during last year’s MTV Video Awards.
The former Mouseketeer’s ongoing child-custody hearings have been a pesky distraction. But the CBS connection is designed to put her earlier bizarre behaviors, documented by a passel of paparazzi, out of our collective memory.
Similarly hoping to counter bad publicity, Lindsay Lohan will appear on the “Ugly Betty” finale May 22 on (Disney-owned) ABC. She’s also slated for five episodes next season, playing Betty’s old school chum.
Seems like yesterday we were lauding Lohan’s twin performances in the 1998 “Parent Trap” remake. That adorable kid is a distant memory after a run of arrests, car accidents, party-girl excesses and the requisite trip to rehab.
The star of “Mean Girls” and “Freaky Friday,” Lohan was most recently seen in a police mug shot taken after her arrest on drunken-driving charges in Los Angeles, used in an advertisement by a group opposed to ignition locks aimed at halting intoxicated drivers.
But look, she can laugh at herself as a mean girl on “Ugly Betty.”
Whatever else television may be, it’s clearly the teen icon’s favored route to restoration — of credibility if not purity. It’s the place for young girls’ second chances.

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