Britney Spears and Russell Brand Go On First Date Sans ‘Third Wheel’ Elephant

After a long history of exclusively dating poseurs and paparazzi, comeback-adjacent singer Britney Spears may be taking on her biggest romantic challenge yet: Russell Brand. Though their first meeting at a VMAs commercial went poorly, with Spears recoiling from the comedian and calling him “Russell Brown,” the Daily Mail reports that the two hooked up this week (noting, in their helpfully British way, that Brand is “an ex-drug and sex addict”):