Pop star PRISONER?
A new documentary investigates BRITNEY SPEARS’ legal dispute
FACTUAL
The Battle for Britney: Fans, Cash and a Conservatorship Wednesday, BBC2 HD, 9pm
FOR DECADES, BRITNEY Spears has been one of the most famous pop stars on the planet. But ever since her very public breakdown13 years ago, the singer has had very little control over her own life.
In 2008, after Britney was hospitalised twice in a month, her father, Jamie Spears, became her court-appointed conservator which meant he was given control of her finances and career.
Now, in a new hour-long documentary, Bafta-winning journalist Mobeen Azhar travels across the US to speak to the people who are fighting to give Britney her freedom back.
‘Britney is the subject of a probate conservatorship, which means her entire estate is managed by a third party and can have funds removed from it,’ explains Azhar. ‘It means she has no autonomy – even things like travel have to be okayed by the estate. In a practical sense she doesn’t have the civil liberties a regular functioning adult in any civilised society has.’
The film includes interviews with Britney’s make-up artist Billy Brasfield and her choreographer Brian Friedman, while Azhar also meets devoted superfans who’ve set up a #Freebritney campaign in the belief that the 39-year-old star is being held against her will.
‘Lots of fans believe Britney is trying to share secret messages, and that she’s posed in different outfits on Instagram so that if you put the posts together they spell out, “Help Me”’ he says.
The film crew was also present at the November 2020 court hearing in LA in which the judge declined to remove Britney’s father from the conservatorship.
‘There have been so many different rumblings and conspiracy theories,’ says Azhar. ‘What this film will do is provide a crystal-clear understanding of who the players are, what the conservatorship is, and just why it’s
so contentious.’