This image was lost some time after publication.

After hearing from Pink is the New Blog that Britney Spears is slated to guest-star in an episode of How I Met Your Mother, we fear that the CBS producers behind the idea haven't had the pleasure of sitting through her 2006 appearance on Will & Grace. W&G gave her the one role she wouldn't even have to "act" her way through—a perky television personality with a right-wing agenda—and she still made the episodes featuring J. Lo and Janet Jackson look downright Emmy-worthy. And despite sunny reports about the cast's read-through this morning (a source says Spears was "really funny" and "very professional"), TMZ is calling gimmick:

"The show is 'on the bubble,' a biz term for getting 86'd and producers think this is just the gimmick they need."

Interestingly enough, only one entry on Spears's acting resume wasn't technically a "gimmick": 2002's Crossroads. And while she didn't exactly pull a Paris Hilton when it came to hosting Saturday Night Live that same year, cue cards and an audience filled with her fans made it easy on her. We'll have to wait until April to see if her acting skills have improved in the last two years, but we're optimistic: Her last appearance as a child-endangering Frappuccino-addict on the verge of a nervous breakdown in GurneyGate: The Sequel was incredibly convincing.