'Mother' star retracts Spears comments

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Neil Patrick Harris has clarified comments he made about Britney Spears's cameo in US sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

The actor was previously quoted as saying that rumours of Spears returning to the show "are totally unfounded".

He said: "She's not an actress. She played a role for a week, and did a really nice job, but the workload involved with doing memorization and the purging of comedy over and over is really, really hard.

"I mean, it takes a strong skill set to do that every week. You do it one week, it's fine, but to do it a lot of weeks is hard. She is not going to be a regular on our show."

However, in a statement issued to Entertainment Weekly, Harris said: "Britney did a great job on the show. In fact, we are all hoping that she returns rather soon to reprise her role.

"That episode garnered our highest ratings of the season - I would never ignore or disrespect that fact. I am just very protective of our show, and its content. I have a high standard of quality, and hope to maintain it on every level."

He added: "My job description is to act and I should really do just that."