She’s been framed: The toxic times of a pop star
Framing Britney Spears Sky Catch Up/now TV
It’s the TV everyone is talking about, a gripping documentary about the Princess of Pop’s private life. Britney Spears was thrown into the limelight as a child star at the age of 11, when she landed a spot on The Mickey Mouse Club. By 16, when she released Baby One More Time, the teen’s popularity skyrocketed. But Britney’s career hasn’t been plain sailing. She has spent most of it being hounded, her every move scrutinised in the press. Add into that a failed marriage, losing custody of her children, and a very public breakdown in 2008. There are shocking parts in the film, such as when a middle-aged male presenter asks Britney, then 11, if she has a boyfriend, and she is quizzed during a press conference about intimate aspects of her personal life. But perhaps the most shocking is that, despite being competent enough to perform concerts to tens of thousands of fans, having a residency in Las Vegas and launching her own products, Britney’s life is controlled by a questionable conservatorship, a legal ruling typically reserved for the mentally ill or older people who can’t take care of their affairs.
Other people, mainly her father Jamie, control her fortune and her every move, the documentary claims, against her will.
It’s a sad account of celebrity which makes us wonder if the trappings of fame are worth seeking.