She’s not that innocent – doesn’t she have a life already?
Spears has been in showbiz virtually her entire life. She started dance lessons aged three in her home state of Louisiana,made her first appearance on television aged 10,became a Mouseketeer at 11,had a number one album at 17,and has sold more than 100 million records over the course of her career. Yet Britney Jean Spears has been judged legally incompetent since January 2008,when her father James Spears applied for a temporary court order granting him control over her personal affairs and her estate,which is now worth an estimated $US60 million ($A80 million). Shortly after it was granted,the order was made permanent.
Usually,a conservatorship is only granted in cases of the very old or severely mentally impaired,but there was a reason at the time to think Britney may have posed a danger to herself,and possibly to her two young children. From around 2005,her life seemed to spiral out of control,and by 2008 she was little more than a late-night chat show punchline.
But as the 2020 documentaryFraming Britney Spears suggests,her erratic behaviour (which included driving with a baby on her lap,shaving her hair off in full view of cameras,stints in rehab,and a very public attack on a paparazzo with an umbrella) may have owed as much to post-partum depression and a messy custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline as to any substance-abuse issues. You also have to factor in the constant in-her-face presence of the tabloid media,which would push even the sanest person to the brink.
But it’s now 13 years later,and despite being deemed unfit to choose her own lawyer (she has been represented by a court-appointed attorney) or therapist (she is obliged to see a court-appointed counsellor twice a week,and a psychiatrist once a week) Spears has managed to release four albums,undertaken four major tours and staged a Las Vegas residency that reportedly raked in $US138 million in ticket sales from almost 250 shows over four years.
So,what’s changed?
Put simply,it seemsSpears has had enough. Addressing Los Angeles probate judge Brenda Penny on Wednesday (LA time),she said:“I’ve lied and told the whole world ‘I’m OK and I’m happy’. It’s a lie.”