A Namibian tourism official said Saturday he may have been duped into
believing that Britney Spears was considering having her baby in Namibia.
Deputy Environment and Tourism Minister Leon Jooste said he made his original
public statement after receiving a phone call from the United States on Monday.
"Somebody told me that she (Spears) is interested in coming to Namibia and
that they would contact me in the next two weeks," he said Saturday.
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Britney,
Kevin and Sean Preston on the beach.
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But the connection was so bad, he said, that he never got a name or contact
information for the person.
Still, Jooste went public with the information.
"She has shown interest to come over to Namibia," he said at the time.
"Nothing has been confirmed yet, but there is a definite possibility of that
happening."
That prompted Spears' New York-based publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnik, to send
an e-mail to The Associated Press on Friday saying: "Not true."
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Britney Experts posted new beach pictures of
Britney Spears (five months pregnant) and her son Sean Preston from this
past Tuesday. Britney and Sean P. enjoyed some fun in the sun making
sandcastles and seashell hunting at a local Malibu beach.
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Asked if the call might have been a hoax, Jooste said: "It is really
possible."
Jooste, who is vacationing in neighboring South Africa, said he plans to look
into the matter when he returns to Namibia next week.
"I am actually going to call and invite them to see if they would like to
come," he said.
Spears, 24, is expecting her second child with husband and aspiring rapper
Kevin Federline. The pop star, who has taken a beating in the tabloids recently
over her parenting skills, might appreciate the privacy Brad Pitt and Angelina
Jolie enjoyed when their daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, was born last month
in the southwest African nation.
The Namibian government shielded the Hollywood couple from the paparazzi,
even insisting that foreign journalists wanting to cover the story must first
obtain written permission from the couple to get visas.
"We have a little niche tourism market that we are developing now," Jooste
said, adding jokingly that he might "resign and start a company marketing
celebrity holidays in Africa."
