#FreeBritney: The 10 most revealing moments from Framing Britney Spears

The highly-anticipated New York Times documentary, ‘Framing Britney Spears,’ is on everybody's must-watch list. The 72-minute programme revisits everything from the “shaming” that Britney Spears received from the public to how she came to be under the conservatorship with her father. In 2020, the Free Britney movement was born. Here are the Top 10 moments from one of the most hotly anticipated documentaries in years...

Throughout the documentary, members of Britney’s inner circle described her as incredibly strong and resilient. Archival footage showed her ability to be frank when asked uncomfortable questions in interviews. The ‘Oops! I Did It Again’ singer’s former backup dancer and tour director Kevin Tancharoen said: “That idea that Britney is a puppet who just gets moved around and gets told what to do is incredibly inaccurate…She was the boss.”

The documentary begins with #FreeBritney campaigners protesting outside of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles in August 2020, when the ‘Stronger’ singer made legal moves to end her conservatorship under her father. At present, it has been in place for 13 years.

James Jamie Spears, Britney's father, took over as sole conservator in 2019 following the exit of attorney Andrew Wallet, and the star and her friends and fans want him removed.

When examining Britney’s downfall, the documentary makers asked people to look at interviews from early in her career. Samantha Sark, the ‘Framing Britney Spears’ producer, said: “Britney was shamed at a very young age.” The audience is shown footage of Star Search host Ed McMahon asking a then 11-year-old Britney if she had a boyfriend. To which she says no, explaining that “all boys are mean.” In another interview, a teenage Britney is told that “everyone is talking about whether she has gotten chest enhancements.”

At the peak of Britney's career in the early 2000s, photos of her could sell for upwards of $1 million each. A former photographer director of US Weekly, Brittain Stone, who worked at the publication from 2001 to 2011, estimates in the documentary that they would spend $7 to $8 million annually on celebrity imagery. Stone said: “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.

That photo of Britney and Justin in head to toe denim from the American Music Awards 2001 would go down in history.

In a business where it can be difficult to forge true friendships, Britney’s long-time friend and personal assistant has become one of her closest confidants. Felicia Culotta worked for the singer from 1998 to 2007 and then again from 2009. Coming from the same hometown, the two have been in each other’s lives since Britney was 5 years old. Felicia was first asked to travel with the ‘Circus’ singer after she signed her first recording contract in 1998 so that her mother, Lynne Spears, could be at home with her younger daughter. The assistant describes her role as one that quickly morphed from chaperone, to “partner” and finally assistant.

During Britney’s Las Vegas residency, which ran from 2013 to 2017, the documentary claims that the singer’s estate was making $300,000 per show, amounting to $1 million every week. The documentary claims that through the conservatorship, Jamie was pocketing 1.5 per cent of all gross profits related to the residency, on top of his $130,000 annual salary.

Since 2008, Britney has been under a conservatorship helmed by her father, Jamie Spears. Britney hired Adam Streisand, a trial lawyer who specialises in conservatorships and estates to help her. During an interview in the documentary, Streisand admits that he initially questioned whether Britney had the capacity to hire him at all, but changed his mind after she made two judgements that convinced him. The lawyer said: “The first thing is, Britney was able to make the judgement, ‘Hey, I get what's going on. I get that I'm not going to be able to resist this conservatorship or avoid this conservatorship, right?’ So that's a pretty sound judgement. 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.”

She wants her father out, and she wants to regain control. — BANG