The New York Times Presents (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Framing Britney Spears - full transcript

ACTIVIST: What do we want?
ALL: Free Britney!

ACTIVIST: When do we want it?

ALL: Now!
ACTIVIST: What do we want?

ALL: Free Britney!
ACTIVIST: When do we want it?

ALL: Now!
ACTIVIST: What do we want?

‐ This is "Free Britney 102,"
where we explore issues

related to the Free Britney
movement.

The Free Britney movement
is advocating

for the end of Britney Spears'
conservatorship.

‐ I need everyone who is
scrolling right now

to stop and watch this video.



‐ Britney Spears
needs our help.

Since 2008, she has been
under something called

a legal conservatorship
by her father.

ACTIVIST: Now,
a conservatorship literally

gives someone else
the control of your life.

They decide what you can
and can't do,

and it's usually used
for elderly people

who don't have
the necessary brain function.

‐ But a functioning woman
that's been working nonstop,

it just‐‐
it doesn't make any sense.

‐ Dear Britney,
my name is Elizabeth Denon,

and I'm 29 years old.

‐ My name is James Miller,

and I'm from Baton Rouge,
Louisiana.



‐ My name is Jasmine.
I'm 28,

and I am a Scorpio
from New Jersey.

‐ Dear Britney.
‐ Dear Britney.

‐ Dear Britney.
‐ I'm so nervous.

I'm, like, sweating.

‐ Your whole situation
is consuming me now.

I can't believe that
it's just been this long

and I didn't know.

BRITNEY: When I first started,
I didn't know

what I was doing,
but every day you learn more,

and you gain
more wisdom from that.

‐ Why is she still in this?

Why is her dad making
all of her decisions?

BRITNEY: I am
where I am today‐‐

it's because
I do have control.

You know, you have to.

Otherwise you get
sucked in by people.

‐ I have always viewed the
situation as something that

I don't think would have ever
happened to a man in America.

BRITNEY: Trust me,
there are days that I have‐‐

I struggle with myself.

‐ I am familiar with
the lawyers on the case.

They care deeply for Britney.

‐ I trust the system.

I believe the law is aimed

at actually protecting
the conservatee.

BRITNEY: There are things
out there that have been said

about me that aren't
completely true.

‐ We stand up for you,
Britney Spears,

and we won't stop
until you reach freedom.

BRITNEY: There's a lot that
people don't know about me

that I want them to know.

ACTIVIST: Growing up,
I struggled with

anxiety and depression,
and Britney Spears is the one

who made it okay to struggle
with those things.

ACTIVIST: She gave me
permission to be myself

growing up as a gay boy
in suburban Virginia,

and Britney gave me
the power to be who I am.

ACTIVIST: She even shaved
her hair off.

Hey, I shaved my hair off too

because I didn't want nobody
touching me.

And they still didn't get it.

LIZ: Britney is in the midst
of a legal battle right now.

She's been
in a conservatorship

for the past 12 years.

‐ Free Britney!
‐ Justice for Britney.

‐ There's been a lot
of speculation as to whether

this is in Britney's
best interests,

and is this good for her?
Is this what she wants?

‐ All right, so today

we have a conservatorship
hearing for Britney Spears.

Apparently, conservator
of the estate is Jamie Spears.

ALL: Boo!

Jamie out!
Jamie out!

LIZ: Her dad has been in
charge of her money

for the last 12 years,

and a few months ago
Britney's lawyer said

Britney wants someone else
to be in charge of her money

and wants Jamie, her father,
to step down.

Britney's father so far
has refused to step down.

‐ But this time
it just feels different.

I'm so excited.

‐ I feel‐‐
I feel really hopeful.

‐ Hey, guys, it's Megan.

The judge has not made
any decisions yet,

but we did wanna
give you a quick update.

Britney has told Ingham
on multiple occasions

that she's scared of her father
and that she refuses to work

until he is no longer
in control of her career.

LIZ: To understand
where Britney is now,

we should understand
how she got here.

[objects thumping faintly]

‐ Okay.

These are letters to me
from the fans.

So if I got this many,
you can imagine‐‐

oh, the ones that Britney got
would fill up the entire room,

would fill up the entire room.

[delicate music]

Yeah.
Sorry.

[laughs]

That was pretty cool.

You know, I don't know that I
ever really had any definition

on what I was supposed
to do with Britney.

For a long time
they called me her chaperone,

and then at one point

they wanted
to call me her partner,

and we didn't think
that sounded right.

I definitely was
not her mother,

and I wasn't her big sister,
so we settled on assistant.

♪ ♪

I wanna give you a tour
of my tiny, little home.

Britney's mother
helped decorate

because she's so proud
of her sweet baby.

50,000 in Austria.

This is 5 million
at this point.

These are more.
[laughs]

This is the first one
I got, y'all.

This is when
"...Baby One More Time"

was a multi‐platinum album.

You have to sell a million
copies in the United States

for an album to be platinum.

It can go platinum
many, many, many times.

This is 11 million copies.

[laughs]

To be honest, I didn't then,

nor do I now understand
what a conservatorship is,

especially for somebody
Britney's age

and somebody capable of so much

that I know firsthand
she's capable of.

She was a small‐town girl
from Kentwood, Louisiana.

LIZ: Can you describe
Kentwood, Louisiana?

FELICIA: Just a tiny,
sleepy little town,

very hospitable and humble,
unpretentious.

We are who we are.

We're not wealthy,

but we're wealthy
in many other ways.

We are definitely in‐‐right in
the middle of the Bible Belt.

Britney sang in the choir.

She grew up going to church
every Sunday.

So I've known her
since she was five.

You know, by then
we all knew her talent

was just extraordinary.

I will say the one reason that
I agreed to do the interview

is so we could remind people

of why they fell in love
with her in the first place.

‐ From Kentwood, Louisiana,

here is ten‐year‐old
Britney Spears.

[cheers and applause]

[The Judds' "Love Can
Build a Bridge" playing]

‐ ♪ Love can build a bridge ♪

♪ Between your heart ♪

‐ If you think about her
coming from such a small town,

you know, she clawed her way
into the industry

right from the beginning.

‐ ♪ Oh, anything ♪

♪ Keep believing in the power ♪

‐ I noticed last week you have
the most adorable, pretty eyes.

Do you have a boyfriend?
‐ No, sir.

‐ Why not?
‐ They're mean.

[laughter]

‐ Boyfriends?
You mean all boys are mean?

I'm not mean.
How about me?

‐ Well, it depends.

[laughter]

HAYLEY: Of all the things
that she could be asked about,

because what else could
we possibly talk to a woman

or a girl about?

There's so much more to her
that everybody's missing.

[light dramatic music]

NANCY: Her parents reached out
to me by letter,

and the letter said
something like,

"We have no idea
what to do with this child.

Help us.
What do we do?"

I replied and said,

"Well, I would love
to meet her in person."

They took the train
from Louisiana to New York

'cause I don't think
they could afford to fly.

Her parents were
working people.

Her mom was just so sweet,
so proud of her daughter,

and her dad too was very
proud of‐‐proud of Britney,

and he was more concerned with
the financial aspect of it.

How was he gonna be able
to make this happen?

Could he make it happen?

But I know he wanted
to make it happen for her.

And we came up with a plan.

Lynne and Britney would come to
New York for a period of time.

Britney could study voice
in New York,

and study dance in New York,

and do some acting
and audition.

She was a funny, sweet,
wonderful little girl.

I‐I loved her.
I love her still.

‐ ♪ And I ain't had no loving
since God knows when ♪

NANCY: Jamie visited
from time to time

and was anxious to see
this time be worthwhile

so that he could justify
the money

that it was costing
to do this.

‐ There was a time where
you were struggling to really

make ends meet,
and you saved all the money

you could to get
singing lessons for Britney.

How did you manage
to do all of that?

‐ It was really hard.

A lot of times we would rob
from Peter to pay Paul.

You know,
it was really hard.

NANCY: All this led to

"The Mickey Mouse Club"
audition,

and she nailed it.

‐ We've got a girl that enters
a strange dimension

of sight and sound
as she crosses over

into the Teenage Zone.

♪ I know a place,
and nobody ♪

‐ Britney just loved it,
and when it ended,

it was devastating.

BRITNEY: After
"The Mickey Mouse Club,"

I went home for,
like, two years,

and I was completely normal.

I went to high school,
and I did‐‐I played basketball.

I was just, you know, really
involved with my school.

NANCY: And we started
looking for auditions,

but it‐‐financially,
it would have been

very difficult for them

to come back and forth
to New York.

It was a tough time.
It was a tough time,

and it was really,
"What are we going to do now?"

And I know that the idea of
singing was interesting to her.

I remember her
making a demo tape.

FELICIA: Before I worked
with Britney,

I was a nanny in New York.
Lynne called.

She said, "Well, Britney and I
are gonna be in the city,

and we'd love for you
to have dinner with us,"

and I said,
"Oh, that sounds great."

And Lynne said, "Felicia,
I had an ulterior motive

for inviting you to dinner,"
and I said, "What?"

She said, "Britney got
a record deal today,

"and I can't travel with her

"'cause Jamie Lynn's
in the first grade,

but‐‐can you travel with her?"

And I said,
"Oh, my gosh, Lynne,

"well, I quit my job yesterday.
I guess I can,

but I'll do it
for three months,"

and that was, mm,
about 23 years ago.

[light music]

KIM: She had plans
to come to New York

to meet people at the label.

She came into my office
with her chaperone.

Her parents were in Louisiana.

She had a younger sibling
that was still in school

and had to be taken care of,

so Felicia was really
sitting in for the parents.

I remember Britney came in,

and I was really impressed
with the fact

that she was so serious
and so focused,

and I thought,
"This is the style.

"This is a girl
that's coming from strength,

"your friend that you
kind of idolize a little bit,

"but that at the end of the day

has the same kind of hopes
and dreams that you do."

‐ Mama, come here.

Aww, y'all look so pretty.
This is my mom right here.

And this is my brother's
girlfriend.

This is my little sister.

LIZ: Jamie, Britney's father,
wasn't around very much

when Britney was growing up.

We know that Jamie
was struggling with alcohol,

and he later goes to rehab.

He drifts in between
construction, being a cook,

tries to open a gym business
that didn't work out,

and later ends up
filing for bankruptcy.

He doesn't seem to be
a big presence in her life.

KIM: Her mother would do
whatever it took,

personally
and for the family's sake,

for Britney to be a star.

Lynne supported Britney.

I wanna say Lynne because
I never talked to her father.

The only thing
Jamie ever said to me was,

"My daughter's
gonna be so rich,

she's gonna buy me a boat."

That's all I'm gonna say
about Jamie.

‐ Hi, I'm Britney Spears,

and I'm so happy
to be here today

in Langhorne,
so thanks for coming out.

The name of this song is
"Thinkin' About You."

KIM: There's a lot of work
that goes into the preparation

for an album release.

Kids go to school.

Kids go to the mall,
so how do we reach those kids?

‐ Hi, what's your name?

And this next song
is my first single,

and it's called
"...Baby One More Time."

FELICIA: We'd be in
the middle of the mall,

and people would slowly stop
and gather and watch,

and then when it was over,
we would go shopping.

[Britney Spears' "...Baby
One More Time" playing]

‐ ♪ Oh, baby, baby ♪

♪ ♪

‐ But then as she became
a little more popular...

‐ "...Baby One More Time."

[crowd screaming]

‐ People really started
coming to the malls

to seek out where we were.

‐ ♪ That something
wasn't right here ♪

♪ Show me how you
want it to be ♪

WESLEY: The video shows up.

Quite famously,

she is in
a schoolgirl's uniform.

She owns the hallways
at this school,

and the song is‐‐

is obviously sexual in nature.

‐ Teen singing sensation
Britney Spears.

‐ ♪ 'Cause I need to know now,
oh, because ♪

WESLEY: If you're
12 or 13 years old,

you're seeing a person
who reminds you

in some ways of you.

It isn't the sex part
that seems cool.

It's the control
and command over herself

and her space that seems cool.

‐ She's so cool.
I love her.

I love the way she moves
and she grooves.

KIM: She just captured
that dichotomy so well

of what a teenage girl is.

Teenage girls wanna be adult
women, but they also are kids.

BOTH: We love Britney!

REPORTER:
Well, congratulations.

Your single is exploding.
‐ BRITNEY: Thank you.

KIM: There's no bigger star in
pop music than Britney Spears.

BRITNEY: It's so exciting.

It's really exciting.
I'm very flattered.

INTERVIEWER: Are you even
surprised at how fast

this has happened to you?

‐ Oh, my goodness, yeah.

It's, like, all of a sudden,
you know?

O‐‐it seems like overnight,
just boom,

you're just‐‐you're famous.
It's weird.

FAN: Britney! Britney!

KIM: You have to remember
one really important thing.

This is boy band time.
This is not about girls.

Girls don't sell.

So it really was a phenomenon.

FELICIA: We still were
those people

from Mississippi, Louisiana.

We were fresh,
and everything was new.

She was so humbled
by everything.

One of the first things
that she did

when she just was
getting famous was she‐‐

we were home for Christmas,

and she wanted to go get
$10,000 in $100 bills,

and she just drove
through Kentwood

and gave out $100 bills,

And it wasn't,
"Hi, I'm Britney Spears."

It was, "Merry Christmas."

‐ I'm joined now by the one
and only Britney Spears.

Dave Holmes is outside with
just, uh‐‐just a boatload

of some of your biggest fans,
I can imagine.

‐ Oh, my God.
Everyone say hi to Britney.

ALL: Hi, Britney!

‐ Britney played MTV, 1999,
perfectly.

She was in the studio
for "TRL" a lot.

She produced excellent videos.

‐ These are my best friends,
and they travel with me.

DAVE: She seemed very
approachable to the audience,

so they could
really connect with her

in a way that has
never really been severed.

‐ ♪ Ooh, baby, baby,
oops, I did it again ♪

INTERVIEWER: You sold over

20 million copies
of your last album.

ANNOUNCER:
Pepsi has a new voice...

ANNOUNCER:
Britney has Got Milk,

Clairol, and Polaroid.

BRITNEY: I know all the ins
and outs of what I'm doing.

I know about all the contracts

and all the deals
I'm about to do.

I'm not just some girl
who's listening to my manager.

♪ Oh ♪

ALL: ♪ I'm not that innocent ♪

MICHAEL: I mean,
I know she's aiming

for the little kids market
or whatever.

She needs to back off and put
a pair of blue jeans on,

no shoes, and just sing,
you know?

INTERVIEWER: To many,
you are a contradiction.

On the one hand,
you're a sweet,

innocent, virginal type.

On the other hand, you're
a sexy vamp in underwear.

‐ I wouldn't say in underwear.

WESLEY: I mean, the thing that
I find fascinating

about Britney Spears' arrival
at this moment

is that she comes

in the midst of
the Clinton‐Lewinsky scandal.

ANNOUNCER: President Clinton
had an affair with...

ANNOUNCER:
A sexual relationship

with a former White House
intern, Monica Lewinsky.

WESLEY: And it's this really
charged moment in the country

where we are
talking about sex in a way

that we had never been
talking about sex,

or hadn't been for a long time.

‐ See, that brings up
the age‐old question for guys.

Who do you want, the nice girl,

the pretty girl
you can take home to Mom,

or the cheap, slutty girl
you know puts out?

Everybody goes for Monica!

WESLEY: An exponent of that
interest in that relationship

bled over into our interest
in Britney Spears in some way.

HAYLEY: I think a lot
of people were, like,

uncomfortable with,
you know, her sexuality.

INTERVIEWER: A lot of talk
about your sexy Lolita look,

especially after
the "Rolling Stones" story.

BRITNEY: Well, I think
we're all girls,

and, I mean,
it's a part of who we are.

You'd be lying if you said
you didn't like to feel sexy.

You know what I mean?
You're a girl.

INTERVIEWER:
Everyone's talking about it.

‐ What?

‐ Well, your breasts.
‐ My breasts?

INTERVIEWER: You seem to get
furious when a talk show host

comes up with this subject.

‐ I'll say this.

You know, I worked with all
the boy bands, all of them,

and not one of the boys
was ever under any scrutiny.

‐ It certainly is a paradox,
isn't it, the way she works?

HOST: And the way she dresses.

‐ She doesn't seem
that innocent.

HAYLEY: That's when
she just really started

becoming more free

and less concerned
with pleasing everybody,

which is also, like,
a whole 'nother metaphor

for what women do, right?

At some point in our lives,

we stop trying
to please everybody.

‐ Turn the music up.
Up.

MAN: You're such a diva,
Britney.

‐ I'm not a diva.
MAN: You're such a diva.

‐ I'm not a diva!

I know what I like,
and I know what I want.

KEVIN: She was definitely in
control of a lot of decisions.

That idea that Britney
is a puppet

who just gets moved around
and told what to do

is incredibly inaccurate.

When I was involved
in all of those years,

we would present
a lot of ideas.

She would have to like them,

and she would have
to approve them.

She was very creative.

She was the one who knew
what she wanted to do,

and she would
make that happen,

or her people would make
that happen for her.

That's how I got hired,

is because
she just told somebody,

"No, I want him to do it."

And it happened
within an hour.

Okay, that's a no.

She was the boss.

‐ [screaming]

That is gonna be fucking cool
every night, man.

That's gonna...

‐ You just‐‐

‐ Well, you just‐‐that's why
I am where I am today,

is because I do have control,
you know?

And you just‐‐you just control
what you do.

You know, you have to.

Otherwise, you get sucked in by
people that are not necessary.

[crowd screaming]

I'm just doing
my thing right now,

just, you know, having fun.

WESLEY: We don't have
royalty here.

We've got‐‐we've got
famous people.

What was interesting about

the Britney Spears‐Justin
Timberlake relationship

was that we hadn't
really had a kind of,

you know,
American couple in a minute.

‐ He said I love you to you
when you‐‐

‐ He did.
I know, I saw.

LIZ: And when they
got together,

I think a lot
of people thought

it was just totally perfect,

and they wanted to know
everything

about their relationship.

‐ Am I a virgin?

[laughter]

[delicate music]

Um, yes, I am a virgin,

and I definitely wanna try
and have sex till I'm married.

I just wanna wait for
that special someone, so...

[quietly]
Thank you.

DAVE: They break up.

Justin sort of made it seem,

rightly or wrongly,
like she had cheated on him.

It really seemed like he took
control of the narrative.

WESLEY: The way that people
treated her,

to be very high school
about it,

was, like,
she was the school slut,

and he was, like,

the school quarterback
or whatever,

and he essentially
weaponizes the video

for one of his singles
to incriminate her

in the demise
of the relationship.

‐ ♪ Tell me you love me ♪

♪ Why did you leave me
all alone? ♪

[song slows, stops]

‐ It was a revenge,
pure male revenge fantasy.

STAR: Justin Timberlake
is in the house,

and I just wanna ask you
one question.

Did you [bleep]
Britney Spears?

[laughter]

Yes or no?

JUSTIN: Oh, man.
STAR: Come on, man.

JUSTIN: Okay, I did it.
STAR: Yeah!

‐ Well, you know, misogyny.
I don't know.

What can you say
about misogyny?

There's a whole infrastructure
to support it,

and when it's time
for people to come,

in a misogynistic culture,
for a woman,

there's a whole apparatus
ready to do it.

[soft melancholy music]

♪ ♪

DIANE: I have to ask a
couple of things about Justin.

‐ Okay, of course.

‐ He has gone on television

and pretty much said
you broke his heart,

you did something
that caused him so much pain,

so much suffering.

What did you do?

KEVIN: Her image
was being painted as,

"Oh, what did you do
to cause the breakup?

You must have done something,
not him."

‐ Britney Spears has upset

a lot of mothers
in this country,

starting with the wife
of the governor of Maryland.

‐ Oh, that's horrible.

DIANE: Well, she‐‐
‐ That's really bad.

‐ Because of the example
for kids

and how hard it is
to be a parent.

‐ Well, that's really sad
that she said that.

Ew.

I'm not here to, you know,
babysit her kids.

‐ There's just that invisible
line that seemed to exist then

that nobody knew how to handle,

and nobody knew how
to help her handle it.

‐ You've had a year that would
test a lot of people.

‐ It was pretty rough, yeah.
Um...

Oh, my goodness, hello.

Ew.
Strong Britney.

Um, yeah, it was a weird time.

Ew, I'm embarrassed.

Can we stop this?

‐ Don't you think
it's something

you really want
to do all the time,

to be onstage,
dancing and singing?

‐ I do that for fun.
That's not my life, you know?

I see myself in the future
with my kids and my husband,

and maybe do this on the side.

Okay, I wanna introduce
you guys to my friend, Kevin.

He's so cute.

Hi.

I feel like
I've been missing out.

‐ Okay.

‐ I feel like I've been
missing out on life.

‐ Like, what part of life?
‐ Life.

‐ I don't think I was
at all surprised

when she and Kevin got engaged.

ANNOUNCER: The announcement of
Britney's sudden engagement

had the whole country talking.

‐ She told me,
and then I remember her saying,

"I gotta call my mama,"

and I'm like,
"Absolutely you do."

ANNOUNCER: But what do they
think about this guy,

Kevin Federline, first of all?

JESS: Well, Lynne Spears says

that the two
have good karma together.

LORA:
According to reports,

the house you see behind me
here in Studio City

is where Britney Spears
tied the knot Saturday night.

[crowd screaming]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

‐ My name is Brittain Stone,
and I was

the photography director
of "Us Weekly"

for about a decade.

When I had
a really healthy budget,

it'd be $140,000
a week on imagery.

Extrapolate that over the year,
you know, $7 to 8 million,

but, you know,
spending millions of dollars

on pictures,
that just, you know,

quintupled the amount of money
that was out there,

which meant there were
a lot more photographers

coming in and doing it.

DANIEL: I never wanted to be
considered a paparazzi.

I've always wanted
to be a filmmaker,

but it sucks you right in,
and there's‐‐

it's hard to get out of it
once you start making

the kind of moneys
that these guys were making.

ANNOUNCER: Photos of Britney
can sell

for up to $1 million each.

[ambient music]

♪ ♪

‐ Guys, be nice.
Guys, be nice.

Everybody's gonna
get their shot.

DANIEL: In the beginning,

when paparazzis
were following Britney,

you could tell she enjoyed it.

[indistinct chatter]

PAPARAZZO: Britney,
talk to me, baby girl.

DANIEL: She would give it up,
the shots, waving.

She was very friendly,
a sweetheart of a girl.

It was like she needed us,
and we needed her.

We both needed each other,

and it was a great
kind of relationship.

‐ There's a party at my house.

PAPARAZZO: All right,
let's go, let's go!

‐ Yeah, Britney, let's do it!
PAPARAZZO: Yeah!

PAPARAZZO: Thank you,
Britney.

We love you, man, for sure.

‐ Well, there was always
a little bit of a hunger

for the unposed photographs.

BRITNEY: Sometimes people's‐‐
their‐‐

you know,
their personal life

becomes bigger
than their work.

‐ As we had more of that kind
of material in the magazine,

you know,
the sales just went up.

ELLEN: Britney Spears
and Kevin Federline!

LIZ: Britney then makes
an announcement

that attracts
even more paparazzi.

‐ And now, the baby,
that's very exciting.

Now, you have to be
really excited about that.

‐ Yes, ma'am.
‐ The last‐‐yeah.

[cheers and applause]

You don't look pregnant.

DANIEL: Once she started
having her kid

with Kevin Federline,

it exploded.

‐ Keep him‐‐keep him in line.
Keep him back.

DANIEL: Everyone wanted
a piece of Britney.

The tabloids were paying
a lot of money.

‐ Back away now.

‐ We wanna know
what she's buying.

‐ We're "People Magazine."
WOMAN: Oh, okay.

‐ And almost immediately,
there's the perception

from the tabloids that Britney
is an unfit mother.

‐ Pop star Britney Spears

is defending her actions
this morning

after photos surfaced
of her driving

with her infant son
in her lap on Monday.

‐ The headline of
"The New York Post" yesterday,

Britney tripping outside
a New York hotel Thursday

while holding her
eight‐month‐old son in one hand

and a glass of water
in the other.

‐ Britney Spears
is on the hot seat.

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

MATT: You were photographed,
I guess,

by the paparazzi again,
pursuing you.

And there was Sean
on your lap in the car.

‐ Yeah.

‐ Take me through
what happened there.

‐ I went to Starbucks,

and I see a bunch of
photographers, and I'm scared,

and I wanna get out
of the situation,

and my baby's crying.

They're coming up on the‐‐
you know, the sides of the car,

which is a scary situation
for me, you know?

And they're banging
on the windows,

and that's not something
I want my baby to‐‐you know‐‐

so I get my baby
out of the car, and I go home.

So I mean‐‐and I just feel like
they're taking cheap shots.

[soft ambient music]

♪ ♪

MATT: We've got all these
legitimate people weighing in,

saying, "You know what?
That's dangerous,

and she put her child at risk."

You saw the questions
that were being asked:

"Is Britney a bad mom?"

‐ Mm‐hmm.
That's America for you.

[laughs]

LIZ: Britney has two kids
almost back‐to‐back.

She has her second baby

just about a year
after having her first baby.

There's a lot of speculation
over whether

Britney and Kevin
have marital problems,

and then a few weeks
after giving birth

to her second child,
she files for divorce.

Britney files for sole custody
of their two kids.

The very next day, Kevin files
for sole custody himself.

And in her book,
Britney's mother, Lynne,

writes that she thinks
Britney was suffering

from postpartum depression.

‐ You know, the main thing that
people became fascinated with

was her sort of unraveling.

Fascinating to not just,
you know,

your typical
celebrity fan base,

but just to anyone.

MAN: Let him through.

ANNOUNCER: Britney and Paris
hooked up

with party girl Lindsay Lohan.

PAPARAZZO: There we go.
PAPARAZZO: There we go.

JOE: She's basically
starting to lose interest

in the very
carefully‐managed image

of Britney Spears
as a pop star,

and at the same time...

‐ Hey, we can't see, guys.

JOE: That tabloid culture,

they're reaching
the height of their power.

ANNOUNCER: Britney Spears
must be paying

the babysitter overtime.

‐ The goal is not to sort of‐‐

with these kinds of imagery,
be negative about people.

It was to enjoy their lives

in a somewhat
aspirational/relatable way.

PAPARAZZO: Oh.

GUARD: Watch out, watch out.
PAPARAZZO: Whoa, guys.

GUARD: Let her out.
GUARD: Come on, go, back up.

BOTH: Back up, back up,
back up.

GUARD: Let her out,
let her out, let her out.

GUARD: Let her walk.

CLERK:
Watch your step, guys.

Breaking everything!

GUARD: Move back.

PAPARAZZO:
Are you okay, Britney?

PAPARAZZO:
Come this way, Britney.

PAPARAZZO: Over here,
Britney, your car's here.

PAPARAZZO:
You okay, Britney?

GUARD: You need to move.
You need to move.

PAPARAZZO: Careful.
FAN: Britney!

FAN: I feel you!

They shouldn't harass you
like that, Britney Spears.

GUARD: Let her out,
let her out, let her out!

PAPARAZZO: Hi, Britney,
how you doing today?

You look gorgeous.

GUARD: Come on, man.

Hey, move it!
stop, stop, stop it!

PAPARAZZO: Relax, relax.

‐ Hey, hey, really‐‐
what the fuck, man?

Stop it, stop it!
Fuck, stop!

‐ Hey!
‐ Stop it!

[shouting over each other]

GUARD: Let her out.
Come on!

Come on!

[indistinct chatter]

‐ Please don't fight.
I'm scared.

I'm scared, I'm scared,
I'm scared.

Where's the door?

GUARD: Back it up, back it up,
back it up.

Let her in, let her in.

GUARD: Go, move, move!
Guys, let's go, move out!

[faint indistinct chatter]

‐ Why are you so close
to my car?

MATT: What do you think
it'll take

to get the paparazzi
to leave you alone?

‐ Um, I don't know.

I don't know.

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

MATT: Is that one of
your biggest wishes?

‐ [sobs]
Yeah.

[engine turns]

[light tense music]

♪ ♪

‐ Come on, guys.
‐ Hey, hey.

DON: We will turn now
to a story

that is burning up
the Internet.

It's just burning
this morning.

‐ Everybody's talking about it.
‐ Yes.

Britney Spears, she's bald.

[soft melancholy music]

HAIRDRESSER: She came in,
and she said

she wanted her head shaved.

The hairdresser refused,

so she literally
grabbed her‐‐

the hair clipper
and started doing it herself.

And she said, "I don't want
anyone touching me.

I'm tired of
everybody touching me."

♪ ♪

KIM: It's so easy.

It's so much fun
to take a celebrity

who's a young, beautiful,
talented girl

and rip her to shreds.

DAVID: It was so cold, Britney
Spears had a chapped head.

JAY: Friends say this is
the craziest thing

Britney's ever done
that didn't involve marriage.

It's unbelievable.

WESLEY: And so she's saying,
essentially,

with no hair,
"I quit.

"Whatever you guys are looking
for in terms of me coming back

"and being that person again,
I'm not‐‐

"that person is gone,
and you have‐‐

you have destroyed her."

[indistinct chatter]

The idea that people
could look at that

and only see a crazy person,
well, just‐‐

that just tells me that‐‐
you know,

what a‐‐
what a vulturous society

she was working with
to begin with.

FAN: Hi, Britney.
FAN: Hey, Britney.

DANIEL: It definitely gives me

a different perspective
of it now, you know,

especially after
so many years.

When you're caught up
into that whole thing,

in that spider web,

you don't really see what
the celebrity is going through.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Roberto calls me up,
and he goes,

"Dano, don't call anyone.

"Get your camera,
your video camera over here,

"and maybe you can get this,
that I'm‐‐

that I'm getting
Britney Spears by myself."

I caught up eventually
with him,

and she was going out visiting
Kevin Federline at his home.

The kids meant
the world to Britney,

and she wanted to see her kids,
and Kevin said no.

They went to a gas station.

She was with her cousin, Alli.

I looked at Britney
from the windshield,

and I was videotaping her,
and I said...

♪ ♪

We go back
to Kevin Federline's house.

She buzzes the door again.

He doesn't open the gate.
Well, now she's upset.

So they pull up behind
a Jiffy Lube store.

I tell Britney, "Hey, Britney,
all I'm gonna do

"is I'm just gonna ask you
a couple of questions,

and then I'm gonna
leave you alone."

And Alli's coming up to me,

and she's like,
"Guys, please, please."

ALLI: Please, guys, don't.

Guys, please.
Please, guys, don't do this.

DANIEL: And Britney
just grabbed the umbrella,

started coming after me,
and starts beating

the passenger side
of my truck.

BRITNEY: [indistinct shouting]

Fuck you!
Fuck yourself.

MAN: Hey, you gonna get
in trouble for that.

DANIEL: That night was
not a good night for her.

WOMAN: Oh, wow,
she did that too?

DANIEL: And it was not
a good night for us.

WOMAN: Oh, my God.

‐ But it was
a good night for us

'cause it was a money shot.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

INTERVIEWER: Do you think
the paparazzi

being around
affected her at all?

‐ I don't really think
and I don't really believe

because‐‐you know, working
on her for so many years,

she never gave a clue
or information to us that,

"I don't appreciate you guys.
Leave me the eff alone."

INTERVIEWER: What about when
she said, "Leave me alone"?

‐ There were times
where she's like,

"Can you leave me alone
for the day?"

But it wasn't like,
"Leave me alone forever,"

you know what I mean?

HOST: The shaving of the head,

the umbrella scene
with the paparazzi,

stints in rehab
where she blames you for that,

and your relationship
with her begins to dissolve.

What is happening
to your family at that point?

LYNNE: It was so crazy
at that time.

I don't think anybody
was even trying to sit

and think of what was going on.

We were just trying to do what
we could do at that moment,

at that time,

and we were praying very hard
because it seemed like

we had no control over anything
that was happening.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

WESLEY: She fired her
longtime manager.

She's grown very estranged

from various
members of her family.

LIZ: More and more we've heard
how she's very alienated,

that she will try to befriend
almost anyone.

I mean, she's just desperately
seeking friendship.

ANNOUNCER: If you're asking,
"Who is Sam Lutfi?"

he is the latest
in a long line

of the mysterious men
in Britney's life.

JOE: Sam Lutfi just sort of
came out of nowhere.

‐ You guys,
further apart please.

‐ He's one of these
self‐invented guru types

who is constantly attaching
himself to celebrities,

often at vulnerable moments
for them.

HOST: We're on the air
at KIIS FM.

BRITNEY: Hi.
HOST: Good morning, Britney.

Today, the album's been out
for a day or so.

What will you do?

Will you promote the album?
What are you gonna be doing?

SAM: This is it.
HOST: This is it?

SAM: Doing all these calls.
HOST: This is the promotion?

‐ Sam was her sort of advisor,
trying to be her manager.

HOST: You've obviously been
aware of the conversation

about your kids.
How often will you see them?

BRITNEY: Oh, we want, um, my
lawyers to do all that stuff.

SAM: Talk about fun stuff.
BRITNEY: Yeah.

HOST: Okay, Sam, what do you
wanna talk about?

‐ So Sam Lutfi was basically,
you know, seen by her parents

as the architect
of a lot of Britney's downfall.

PAPARAZZO: Let's go.
Let's go.

GUEST: Shaved her head,
attacked the paparazzi,

more custody drama.

Thank you, Britney Spears.

Being bad is good
for my business.

[laughs]
HOST: Oh, I know that.

[dramatic music]

‐ And nobody was talking
about mental health

when Britney Spears
was going through

all of that stuff in public.

The conversation was about
what was wrong with her.

There was too much money
to be made off her suffering.

‐ Name something
Britney Spears has lost

in the past year.

[indistinct]?

‐ Her husband.
‐ Her husband?

Let's see how that stacks up,
her husband.

It's something
but not number one‐‐Lindsey?

‐ Hair.
‐ The hair, lost a lot of hair.

There it is.

[indistinct].

What has she lost?

‐ She has lost her sanity.

‐ Has she lost her mind?

[cheers and applause]

[melancholy music]

ANNOUNCER: A media frenzy

around an ambulance
in Los Angeles.

Police say they were called
to Spears' home Thursday night

over a custody dispute.

ANNOUNCER; She refused
a court order

to turn her two children‐‐

ANNOUNCER: She was supposed
to hand over

her two sons last night
to Federline but refused.

ANNOUNCER: She reportedly had
barricaded herself

inside the room at one point.

ANNOUNCER: She was rushed
to the hospital overnight.

ANNOUNCER: Was wheeled out
and brought here

to Cedars‐Sinai Hospital
in distress.

ANNOUNCER:
Was it the pressure?

Anxiety disorder?
No one could say what it is.

ANNOUNCER: Is under
psychiatric evaluation

that is involuntary,
by the way...

ANNOUNCER: In an emergency
session Friday,

a family court judge
suspended Spears' right

to even see her children.

ANNOUNCER: Britney Spears made

an ever so brief appearance

outside a Los Angeles
courthouse Monday, met by...

‐ Change in visitation
that removed

Ms. Spears stays in force.

REPORTER: Until when?

‐ Indefinitely.

ANNOUNCER: Earlier today,
Britney Spears was taken

to the hospital for
the second time this month.

ANNOUNCER: We are told that
she's been placed

on a 5150 hold.

That is essentially
a medical health hold...

PAPARAZZO: Mr. Spears, can you
tell us what's going on?

How's Britney doing?

‐ So around this time,
Jamie, Britney's father,

files for temporary
conservatorship over Britney.

‐ We hope the best
for your daughter, sir.

LIZ: Conservatorships are
a unique legal arrangement,

usually designed
for elderly people

who are unable to take care
of themselves or their money.

The court gives
someone else

special powers
to make decisions for them.

‐ Is she voluntarily going?

Is this a voluntary thing,
or is it‐‐

LIZ: It's unusual,

because Britney's
so young and productive,

but there's speculation
that she may be dealing with

mental illness issues
or drug abuse issues,

or otherwise would benefit
from this layer of protection.

And it's sort of surprising
in that

Jamie wasn't a huge figure
in her life before this.

‐ Get out. Get out.
‐ Get out.

‐ All right,
now everybody out, get out.

VIVIAN: My name is
Vivian Lee Thoreen.

I was involved
as an attorney of record

for the first few months of the
conservatorship proceedings.

Our client was Jamie Spears,
Britney's father.

I can't talk about
anything specific that I did,

but I guess
I could talk about it

in a more, like,
hypothetical situation.

The courts take conservatorship
proceedings really seriously,

and that's because, I think,

every person's rights
are sacred.

There are rules and procedures
in place

to make sure
that there's accountability.

And really,
the theme of conservatorships

is to act in the conservatee's
best interests.

Some people need a conservator
just of the person.

"I need help figuring out
what I'm gonna eat,

"where I'm gonna live,

and help brushing my teeth,"
that sort of thing.

Having a conservator of the
estate appointed for someone

is that they are
substantially unable

to manage
their financial affairs,

or they are susceptible
to undue influence or fraud.

It's more than just,
"I can't balance my checkbook."

It's "I could be duped
into giving away my money."

[camera shutter snapping]

‐ It seems like undue influence

was a real concern
for Britney's parents.

‐ Hey, get out of her face.

I mean now.
Let's go, Lynne.

‐ Are you gonna get a
restraining order against Sam?

Or you guys had been?

LIZ: They file
for a restraining order

against Sam Lutfi.

They allege in court documents
that Lutfi

had taken control
of Britney's life,

her house, and her finances,

and even had been
drugging her.

PAPARAZZO: Sam,
can you tell us something?

LIZ: Lutfi denies
the allegations.

PAPARAZZO: Can you
tell us anything?

LIZ: But the court grants
a restraining order.

GUARD: Let's go, keep going.
‐ Let's go, let's go.

‐ Keep going right now.

LIZ: But Lutfi never seems
to really exit the picture.

‐ Keep going.
‐ What's going on?

‐ No, keep going.
‐ All right.

LIZ: He later sues the family

and pops up in subsequent
restraining orders

as recently as 2019.

SAM: Hope you get better,
Britney.

LIZ: One day after Britney
was hospitalized,

the court grants
a temporary conservatorship.

Britney's dad gets appointed
the conservator of her person.

Then in terms
of Britney's money,

he also gets appointed
conservator of her estate,

alongside an attorney
named Andrew Wallet.

ANNOUNCER: Just six days after
being taken to the hospital

against her will
in an ambulance

under police guard,
the troubled pop star

was released
without fanfare Wednesday.

‐ Shocking new development
in the sad story

of Britney Spears.
She's now out of the hospital.

She went straight from there

to the Beverly Hills Hotel,
of all places.

All that and more later
at the top of the hour.

‐ That's Anderson Cooper
at 10:00‐‐

‐ you wanna say something?
MICHAEL: I was gonna say,

it'd be less sad
if we just left her alone.

I mean, why don't we just
leave her alone and let her‐‐

let her just go on
with her life?

♪ ♪

‐ I'm Adam Streisand.
I'm a trial lawyer.

And my practice is focused
on conservatorships

and battles over estates.

PAPARAZZO: Hi, Britney.
How you doing, sweetheart?

Good to see you.

ADAM: I got a call from
Britney's family law attorneys

and asked me if I would speak
to Britney because,

well, the whole world knew
that her father

was trying to establish
a conservatorship over her.

PAPARAZZO:
Hey, she's trying to get out!

[indistinct chatter]

PAPARAZZO: Come on, Britney.

GUARD: Let her go through,
please.

Give her some room to go
through, give her some room.

ADAM: I met with Britney.

‐ Hey, be careful!
You're hurting her.

‐ Back up!

ADAM: We agreed to meet at
the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Well, that's pretty famous,

'cause there was
a lot of paparazzi.

And the first question
I had was,

"Does Britney have the capacity
to be able to hire me?

Does she have the ability
to take my advice?"

The first thing is Britney
was able to make the judgment,

"Hey, I get what's going on.

"I get that
I'm not gonna be able to

"resist this conservatorship

or avoid this conservatorship,"
right?

So that's a pretty
sound judgment.

The second thing was she said,

"I don't want my father
to be the conservator."

That was her one request.

She wanted a professional,
somebody independent.

INTERVIEWER: And was she
opposed to her dad

as the conservator of the
estate, the person, or both?

‐ Both.

Britney did not want her father

to be the conservator
of her person, right?

The person who makes decisions
about her medical care

and treatment,
and so on and so forth.

She also didn't want him
controlling her finances.

[soft tense music]

The day that I went to court
for her, the judge said, um,

"I've got a medical report,

"and you haven't seen it,
Mr. Streisand,

"and I'm not gonna
show it to you,

"and it shows that she's not
capable of retaining counsel

and directing counsel
on her own."

When the judge told me,

"Mr. Streisand, I'm not gonna
let you represent her.

I'm going to appoint somebody,"

I felt that was not the right
decision by the judge.

I felt that, based on
my interactions with Britney,

that she was capable of
retaining me and directing me

and that the judge should have
allowed that to happen.

‐ Can you give us some kind of
a heads‐up

on what happened here today?
‐ No, I'm sorry.

I'm not gonna‐‐gonna be giving
any statements on her.

But I didn't know
what I didn't know, right?

I still don't know
what is in that report,

and so I had to respect that.

♪ ♪

LIZ: According to
court records,

Britney's conservators
are able to control

who can and cannot visit her,

and retain security guards
for her 24 hours a day.

They have the power
to access her medical records

and communicate
with her doctors.

They can take control
of her house

and even cancel
her credit cards.

They can make recording,
touring, and TV deals for her,

and are deeply involved
in her finances.

There's some speculation
that Britney

may have basically accepted
the conservatorship

because she was worried
about seeing her kids.

And a few weeks later,

she starts to get some
visitation rights restored.

[dramatic music]

VIVIAN: If there is
a conservatorship proceeding,

and the proposed conservatee
at some point consents,

the conservatee can't wake up
one morning and say,

"I don't need this.
I don't want it.

Make it go away."

A petition would have
to be filed,

a petition to terminate
the conservatorship,

and then there's
gotta be evidence

or some demonstration
that a conservatorship

is not necessary
at that point in time.

It's the conservatee
who has the burden of saying,

"I don't need a conservatorship
anymore, and here's why."

INTERVIEWER: Have you ever
known anyone

who has terminated
a conservatorship?

‐ Of the cases that
I've been involved in, um,

I have not seen a conservatee

who has successfully terminated
a conservatorship.

♪ ♪

JAMIE: Give my baby
some cheese grits.

She's been eating them
since she was born.

For Southern girls,

the breakfast of champions
is cheese grits.

[soft tense music]

LIZ: In the first year
of the conservatorship,

Britney's team grants
MTV access

to do a documentary called
"Britney: For the Record."

‐ Hope I got enough
cheese and butter in it.

‐ I'm good.
‐ Good‐‐all right.

LIZ: For the first time,
we get a real peek

of the dynamic
between Britney and Jamie,

who had just come along
as her conservator.

‐ This is my dad.

"Britney Jean, sit down there,
right there.

"She don't listen to me.
I scream at her,

"and she gets on me
about screaming at her,

"but I can't do it‐‐
now, you're just gonna

have to talk
some [bleep] sense into her."

‐ Give me that phone, I'll hold
that damn phone for you.

‐ No, Daddy.

‐ Oh, [bleep].

LIZ: And the topic of
the conservatorship comes up

while they're
filming the documentary,

and it's one of
the only glimpses

that anyone has of how
she really feels about it.

‐ If I wasn't under
the restraints

that I'm under right now,
you know,

with all the lawyers
and doctors and people

analyzing me every day
and all that kind of stuff,

like, if that wasn't there,

I'd feel so liberated
and feel like myself.

When I tell them the way
I feel, it's like they hear me,

but they're really
not listening.

They're hearing
what they wanna hear.

They're not really listening
to what I'm telling them.

It's like‐‐it's bad.

[plaintive music]

♪ ♪

[quietly]
And I'm sad.

LIZ: Almost immediately,
Britney goes back to work.

Within two months, she's
guest‐starring on network TV.

‐ "The personal library
of Ted Mosby," that's you.

‐ And by the end of 2008,

she has recorded
and released an album,

and is preparing
to go on a tour.

ALL: ♪ In the center of
the ring, just like a circus ♪

♪ When I crack that whip,
everybody gonna trip ♪

♪ Just like a circus ♪

ANNOUNCER: She seems to be
on this terrific path.

I think a lot of it has
to do with the conservatorship

that her father
took control of.

ANNOUNCER: Finally got
a wholesome, good brand again.

‐ Yeah, Britney!
ALL: Whoo!

‐ Once the conservatorship
started, my role changed.

We're gonna walk around
this way toward the stage,

so if you see your section,
just show them your ticket.

My new job,
I gave backstage tours.

When I went back, it was a
different business management,

and her dad was involved,
and so they did not hire me.

The touring company hired me.

I don't know why the Britney
company did not hire me.

All I know is that maybe
they just didn't know

the role I had played earlier.

PAPARAZZO: Felicia, just so
people will believe me,

what is your relationship
with Britney?

‐ I'm a business assistant.

So I took a back seat
and simply did

what I was hired to do.

PAPARAZZO: Bye, Felicia.

FELICIA: I don't really know
what went on.

I just don't know
that they knew her well enough

to realize her capabilities
in making the decisions.

Just me looking in,
that's what I saw.

‐ Britney Spears
has made her comeback 100%.

‐ It's Britney, bitch.

‐ Go and see the concert!
It's amazing.

LIZ: Over the next few years,
Britney's really busy.

‐ And the People's Choice

for favorite pop artist
goes to‐‐

‐ It's Britney Spears!
‐ Britney Spears!

‐ Thank you so much.
I wasn't expecting this.

‐ She's doing a lot.

BOTH: ♪ Oops, I did it again
with my heart ♪

‐ Ladies and gentlemen,
Britney Spears.

ANNOUNCER: Britney Spears'
comeback

is translating
to her checkbook.

‐ Hey, it's my show!

ANNOUNCER: Estimated earnings

over $58 million
in the past 12 months.

‐ I think that your performance
was incredibly special.

It was beautiful,
and your tone‐‐

I agree with Demi‐‐

you have such a soulful tone
for such a young age.

It was amazing.

‐ And then she does
a really big deal,

which is a residency
in Las Vegas.

[upbeat music playing]

♪ ♪

MAN: Who is it?

[laughter,
cheers, and applause]

‐ It's Britney, bitch.

What's up, Vegas?

We should bring
someone up here.

Can you be my Prince Charming
tonight, please?

Thank you.
[both scream]

FELICIA: I'm telling you,
when she walked on that stage,

she never felt judged
on the stage.

People ate her up.

They were mouthing every word
that she sang.

Um, most people knew
every dance move.

It was one of the‐‐one of
the high points in my life, um,

is seeing how much
she was loved.

ANNOUNCER: Originally raking
in around $310,000 per show,

they deposit close
to $1 million

in Brit's bank account
every week.

‐ Jamie Spears gets approved
by the court

to receive 1.5%
of the gross revenues

related to performances
and merchandise

related to the residency,

which was one of the most
popular Vegas shows

of all time.

JOE: She's living the life
of a busy pop singer,

and yet we're also being told
that she's at risk constantly.

The business of Britney Spears
have become

this very guarded universe,

and there was, you know, a very
small inner circle of people

who were able to interact
with her daily,

you know,
because of the conservatorship.

DAVE: And any time
there's that amount of money

to be made,
you have to question

the motives of everyone
close to that person,

especially if they are
putting her in a position

where she cannot
make decisions

without checking
with somebody.

‐ Choose your own destiny.

JOE: I've never interviewed
Britney Spears.

I would go so far
as to say anyone

who has interviewed
Britney Spears,

at least in the last five,
ten years,

did so under very careful
watch from her handlers.

‐ Baby, what are you gonna be
when you grow up?

‐ I'm gonna be the president
of the dog states, yeah.

‐ This is my impression
of a Woody Woodpecker.

[breathy exhale]

[laughs as Woody Woodpecker]

[laughter]

[squeals]

LIZ: With the rise
of Instagram,

it's no longer the tabloids

who choose how
the world sees Britney.

ALL: ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

BRITNEY: ♪ And many more,
your pants are torn ♪

♪ They're down your back,
get up off the floor ♪

LIZ: Britney can show us
parts of her life

that she wants us to see.

‐ 360 in my room
all day long!

Ahh!

LIZ: But the conservatorship
is never really mentioned,

which makes some people wonder
if she's sending

coded messages
through her posts.

[pensive music]

‐ Britney's Instagram was
just something

that was
really fascinating to us.

You know, we would
share her posts

and just kind of wonder
what they were all about.

‐ And Babs was like,

"What if we did a podcast
where all we did

was over‐dissect
Britney's Instagram?"

BABS: Hello, everyone, and
welcome to "Britney's Gram."

BOTH: The happiest place
on the Internet.

BABS: I am Babs Gray.
TESS: And I'm Tess Barker.

BABS: That's kind of
where we started noticing

more and more
these very cryptic things

she would post,
like a hole cut out in a wall,

and the caption is,
"There's always a way out,"

and it was just like,
God, like, what is this?

It almost seems kinda dark.

‐ Um, I'm a Sagittarius.
I'm very keen on freedom.

I love freedom.
I love independence.

‐ If you think that Britney
is calling out for help...

You'll find a reason
in those videos

that's proof that
she's calling out for help.

‐ My favorite Disney movie
is probably "Frozen"

just because I really like
the fact that the two sisters,

um, their relationship,

and then one goes off
and lives in a castle

just because
she can't deal anymore.

DAVE:
Everyone's interpretation

of what Britney
is putting forth

is something
that they are bringing

to those Instagram videos.

It's impossible to know her
so we never knew her.

We know her even less now.

She is‐‐she is
kind of unknowable.

TESS: This is episode 50.
BABS: Oh, my God.

Naturally, since it was
a Britney Spears podcast,

we would look at any news
involving her,

and we saw that her
co‐conservator, Andrew Wallet,

was petitioning
for a raise from the court.

This is what it read.

"Conservatee's
business activities

"have greatly accelerated
due to her increased wellbeing

"and her capacity
to be more engaged

"in furthering
her career activities.

"The next several years
promise to be very lucrative

"for the conservatorship
estate.

"This conservatorship
should be viewed more

as a hybrid business model,"

which I think is probably
the first time

that's ever been said
about a conservatorship.

‐ And‐‐and that
the conservatorship,

which really is put in place
to take care of people‐‐

BABS: Naturally shouldn't
be a business

that is making exorbitant
amounts of money

from someone who is
so fit to work.

[dramatic musical sting]

KALEN: Hello, world.

We are live in Las Vegas

for an announcement that is
about to shake the table.

Y'all excited?
[all cheer]

DAVE:
So she was gonna announce

the Domination residency,

a brand‐new theater
on a brand‐new stage.

It was gonna be, like,
a year long, maybe more.

KALEN: She's coming.
It's about to happen.

‐ She was gonna, like,
do a performance

and then go down
and do an interview.

It's live streaming.
It's up on YouTube.

KALEN: I wish I knew
some of that Britney choreo,

but she‐‐she a lot
better dancer than me.

DAVE: Then it's like,
the lights go down.

MARIO: All right, everyone.

We are here to welcome
the new queen of Vegas.

["Till the World Ends" playing]

♪ ♪

Ladies and gentlemen,
Britney Spears!

[crowd cheering]

DAVE: And she walks down

and then passes the stage

where the performance
is gonna be,

keeps walking, keeps walking.

TESS: Doesn't say anything
on stage,

doesn't give any interviews
with reporters,

does not announce the residency
that she's there to announce.

DAVE: And it's like,
"Here she is.

Oh, there she goes.
Oh, she's not gonna‐‐and‐‐

and there
she goes in her limousine."

REPORTER: That's it?
This‐‐we've been waiting

for this live stream.
She just walked right by?

REPORTER:
And she's just walking by.

LIZ:
I think up until this point

Britney had seemed
like a good little soldier

where she was happy
to go out and perform,

but the abrupt cancelation
of the second Vegas show

felt like the beginning

of the end
of the fairy tale gloss

over the conservatorship.

BABS: And then nothing,
disappears.

No‐‐no sign of her
on Instagram.

We're just like,
"Where the fuck is Britney?"

Welcome to "Britney's Gram."

BOTH: The happiest place
on the Internet!

BABS: Currently
when we're recording this

day 17
of the Britney shutdown.

TESS: I'm still not at peace.
I'm anxious.

BABS: No! There's a‐‐
And then, out of nowhere,

Andrew Wallet quits.

This guy just asked
for a raise‐‐why would he‐‐

‐ And had been the conservator
since the onset

of the conservatorship.
‐ Like, what?

Something is going on
behind the scenes here.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

BABS: Finally the Instagram,

which had been dark,
there's a meme.

The caption says,

"We all need to take time
for a little 'me time,'"

and there was a smiley face,
an emoticon, not an emoji,

which we noted
because we're like,

"Britney always uses emoji."

And it just seemed off
immediately,

and the news breaks that‐‐

REPORTER:
TMZ is reporting that Spears

voluntarily checked herself

into a residential
mental health facility

about a week ago.

‐ We talked about all our
suspicions with whether or not

she had actually elected to
go on into the facility herself

and whether she'd been there
for a lot longer.

‐ And the next day
we get a voicemail.

PERSON: Hi, there.

Um, I cannot disclose
who I am.

I used to be a paralegal
for an attorney

that worked with
Britney's conservatorship.

I am no longer with them.

‐ It just brought to light

a lot of the things
that we had suspected.

PERSON: Britney has been
in the mental facility

since mid‐January.

Of course,
I‐I'm just a paralegal.

I haven't had
any contact with her,

but, um,
from what I understand,

this was, uh...
not a decision she made.

‐ We felt that this information
should probably be shared.

We don't know
what the next step is

as far as getting her out.

That's what we have
to figure out.

You know, she's been put away.

Let's get her out.
Free Britney.

TESS: Free Britney.
We love you, Britney.

BABS: Bye.
TESS: Bye.

‐ A popular Britney fan podcast

aired a special emergency
episode after receiving...

‐ So we released the podcast
on a Monday night,

and by Tuesday morning
it was everywhere.

NEWS ANCHOR:
Social media is erupting

in Britney Spears hysteria.

‐ I love that shirt.

Eve's got that shirt, uh!
[cheers and applause]

JUNIOR: I still remember
the exact moment

the voicemail dropped

and the feeling I had of,
"Oh, my God, it makes sense."

It clicked.

I knew then
it was time to jump.

We gathered a few fans.

It wasn't much, maybe 10, 15.
Pick a spot.

What do we want?
ALL: Free Britney!

JUNIOR: When do we want it?

ALL: Now!
JUNIOR: I was nervous.

Are people gonna think
we're crazy?

Are they gonna
take us seriously?

Are we gonna look like a joke?
[cars honking]

But my heart said,

"No matter what,
you're taking your butt there,

and you're gonna help her just
the way she has helped you."

ALL: End conservatorship abuse.
End conservatorship abuse.

‐ We think that, you know,
the conservatorship

she's been under seems unjust.

‐ You know, it was effective

because we brought attention
to the media.

‐ A #FreeBritney movement
is behind me.

PERSON: Dear Britney.

‐ Dear Britney.
‐ Dear Britney.

‐ We grew, and we grew,
and we grew, and we grew.

‐ I support you.
I stand by you.

‐ Britney Spears
needs our help.

‐ Why is it so hard
to get out of?

Why is she still in it?

‐ This is Rose McGowan
saying

free Britney.

‐ Free Britney!

[person squeals, crowd cheers]

LIZ: The Free Britney movement

runs from the innocuous
to the extreme.

REPORTER: Britney Spears'
father, Jamie,

speaking out against
the viral campaign.

‐ Jamie tells "Page Six"
that the movement is a joke.

REPORTER: "All
these conspiracy theorists

"don't know anything.

"It's up to the court
of California

to decide what's best
for my daughter."

LEANNE: Yeah, you hear enough
of that,

and you do start to question.

Like, I don't‐‐
maybe I'm delusional.

Maybe I don't know.

I should just listen
to the people who "know" her.

But then when you‐‐you start
to connect the dots

and you start to talk
to other people

who have the exact
same thoughts,

that this isn't right.

INTERVIEWER: You ever question,
like, what if you're wrong?

‐ If I'm wrong and one day
Britney does come out

and tells us that we're wrong

and leave her alone,
we will do just that.

JOE: At this point,

things in
the conservatorship world

start to change,

and you start to hear
these tabloid reports

that Britney and her father

are no longer on good terms

and that at a certain point
Kevin Federline

takes out a restraining order
against Jamie Spears,

claiming that he had
a physical altercation

with one of
Britney's young sons.

Then you start to have
all these machinations

behind the scenes
that seem to change

not only the shape
of what the conservatorship is

but the dynamics
within the family

and within the business
of Britney Spears.

‐ In the wake of her recent
health troubles,

Spears' mom is now requesting

to be involved
in her medical decisions.

NEWS ANCHOR: Her mother,
telling the court

she just wants to have a voice
in her daughter's life.

‐ Like, what does
"Free Britney" mean

from your understanding?

‐ That I don't quite know,
like,

what their‐‐what
their meaning is, you know?

I don't know, maybe she's
being confined or something

or held against her will
in some capacity.

‐ Do‐‐have you ever seen
anything

that led you to be concerned

that your sister was being held
against her will?

‐ Uh, every day.
The‐‐no, I'm joking.

I mean, like,
wo‐‐the women in this family

are very, very strong‐minded
and have their own opinion,

and they wanna do
what they wanna do,

and as much as I admire
that as a guy, being,

like, one of two guys
in this entire family,

it kinda sucks, man.

‐ They're strong‐minded.

They want to do
what they want to do.

Kinda constitutional, you know?

‐ I mean, yeah, and they have
a right to do that, you know?

I mean, she's been
in this thing

for quite some time now.

Obviously there was a need
for it in the beginning,

and now they‐‐you know,
they've made some changes,

and, you know, all we can do
is kinda hope for the best.

‐ Right, you had to have
asked her about it.

‐ I mean‐‐I mean, she's always
wanted to get out of it.

What level of that
is the reality, who knows?

CROWD: The conservatorship
has got to go.

Hey, hey, ho, ho,

the conservatorship
has got to go.

Hey, hey.

LIZ: Britney's case, I think,

has brought a lot of scrutiny

to the conservatorship system
in general.

ALL:
End conservatorship of youth.

LIZ: Flaws in Britney's case
could reveal flaws

in the bigger
conservatorship system.

‐ Free Britney!

‐ And it's now, very recently,
in August 2020 that, like,

for the first time
ever in the entire 12 years

the conservatorship
has been in effect,

Britney appears to be

publicly signaling
that she wants changes.

‐ Britney, with the help
of her lawyer, Sam Ingham,

indicates
that she would like a bank

to become the overseer
of her estate.

The other thing that I think
we're seeing

for the first time

is that
she's sort of acknowledging

the outside phenomenon
of Britney Spears fans

coming out against
the conservatorship.

"At this point in her life,
Britney welcomes

"and appreciates the informed
support of her many fans.

"Britney herself is vehemently
opposed to this effort

"by her father
to keep her legal struggle

"hidden away in the closet
as a family secret.

"In this case, it is not
an exaggeration to say

that the whole world
is watching."

This is a huge pivot.

‐ The document in which Britney
basically supports the movement

and says that she‐‐
appreciative of our support,

our "informed support,"

'cause we've done
our research.

And in the document,
it mentioned

that they‐‐they thought
it could be a battle,

a struggle to remove Jamie
as conservator of her estate

and that that's kind of
what it's shaping up to be.

PARIS: I love her so much,
and I just‐‐

I feel that
if you're an adult,

you should be able
to live your life

and not be controlled,

and I think maybe that stems

from me being
controlled so much,

so I can understand
how that would feel.

PERSON: Let me point out
to you

a few things
about Jamie Spears, her dad.

His attitude from his attorney

is that this is in place
for a reason,

but she does have freedom.

She travels.
She does stuff.

It's not like
she's under lock and key.

ACTIVIST: When do we want it?
ALL: Now!

ACTIVIST: What do we want?
ALL: Free Britney!

‐ When do we want it?
ALL: Now!

LIZ: So on November 10th,
there's a court hearing,

and attorneys for Britney,
for Jamie,

and for Lynne are all present,
and it's pretty rare

in that the public
is allowed to be there as well.

LEANNE: There's such
a limited amount‐‐you know,

number of participants
that can join.

We will send in a couple people
to listen in,

and I will update.
I have a Google Doc,

and I'm taking, like,
feverish notes.

‐ Leanne and Megan are sharing
a Google note document.

‐ Oh, okay.
‐ So Leanne is taking notes,

and then Megan's reading,

the notes
off the Google document,

so that's how we're finding out
the information.

MEGAN: Hey, guys, it's Megan.

The judge has not made
any decisions yet,

but we did wanna
give you a quick update.

LIZ: For the first time
we're starting

to see Britney's lawyer
raise objections

to Jamie's management
of Britney's estate.

‐ James' attorneys were arguing

that there's not really
a conflict

between Britney and James,

but then Ingham came on
and said that that's not true

and that Britney
is afraid of her father

and that Britney has told him
on multiple occasions

that she is refusing to work

until he is no longer
managing her career.

[pensive music]

ACTIVIST: Oh.
MEGAN: Lynne came in.

Lynne's lawyers came in.

She wants no ill will,
told Jamie that, said,

"Lynne wants new sole
conservator of the estate.

"It is no secret
that the relationship

between Britney and James
has been contentious."

‐ Okay.
‐ "We are here for Britney.

"Lynne wants her daughter
to wake up tomorrow

and see brighter days."

ACTIVIST:
Fight for your daughter.

LIZ: Some people would argue

that there's a conflict
of interest at times

in the conservatorship system
because in Britney's case,

she is paying for almost
everyone on all sides,

so she's paying for not
only her own lawyer.

She's paying for
her conservators,

and she's paying
for her conservators' lawyers,

so do they always have
her best interest at heart?

‐ Judge is speaking.
‐ Judge is speaking.

‐ This is just in
from the judge.

She says, "I am not going
to be making an order

to dis‐‐to suspend
Mr. Spears today."

ACTIVIST: They're not gonna
suspend Jamie.

MEGAN: Today.
ACTIVIST: Today.

NEWS REPORTER: The singer lost
her latest court attempt

to strip her father of the
court‐appointed title he has.

NEWS REPORTER: The judge
ultimately declining to remove

Jamie Spears
as conservator at this time,

but Britney's choice of wealth
manager, Bessemer Trust,

was named
as the co‐conservator

of her $60 million estate,

a small victory
for Britney Spears.

ALL: Free her! Free her!
Free her!

INTERVIEWER:
What does that mean?

LIZ: It means that
he has not stepped down.

Instead of stepping down,
Jamie has said,

"No, I've done a good job.

"I love my daughter a lot,
and actually,

it would harm Britney
if I were to step down."

The judge allowed Britney
to add on this bank

to be her co‐conservator
of her estate,

but the judge also ruled not
to remove Jamie at this point.

The judge left the door open
as to potentially remove

Jamie further down the road,

but at this point he's still
in charge of her money.

ADAM: What's really
interesting is that

Sam Ingham, the other day,
in court said,

"Britney's a high‐functioning
conservatee."

I don't even know
what that means, right?

If she's functioning enough
to say, "Hey, I don't want

"my father to be conservator.

I'm not gonna perform
if he is the conservator..."

Maybe she doesn't need
a conservatorship.

But the problem is, we don't
know what we don't know.

FELICIA: Okay, this is one of
my very favorite pictures.

It is one of the very
first pictures that we took

when we were in New York City,

and we wanted to have, um,
Times Square behind us.

First time in Times Square.
Oh.

‐ The image of Britney
that we were sold

when she first hit
the scene was this,

you know, perfect
all‐American girl next door,

but a lot of fans are,
you know, not that.

They were people like myself
who felt like

they didn't fit in,
and I think there was

some wanting to aspire
to that image.

‐ See, this is my first tour
on my very own.

KEVIN: We know now that
Britney wasn't perfect.

‐ Are you ready to party?
[cheers and applause]

KEVIN: Britney had to navigate

being told who she could be
and what she could do.

‐ Gonna wear what I wanna wear,
you know?

You can't concern yourself
with everyone.

Otherwise you'll go crazy.

‐ I think that that story
of control and identity

really resonates.

FELICIA: This is‐‐okay,
this makes me very happy.

We went from Paris to London

underneath the water
on a train,

and we thought that was
about the coolest thing

we'd ever done.

I know at some point
she will tell her story.

I know she will,
and I am so grateful

for when that point comes
that she's able to sit down,

and, you know, everything
will fall into place.

BRITNEY: See the pink rose?

See how beautiful that is?

Watch.

It's just soap.

That's all it is.
It's just soap.

It's not really a flower
at all.

It's just soap.

See?
Fooled ya.

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪