1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:03,480
Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.

2
00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:07,880
Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is

3
00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:18,280
Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The stories about Britney Spears

4
00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:23,319
Speaker 1: are insane. She was once offered ten million dollars for

5
00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:27,080
Speaker 1: her virginity. At the peak of her fame, thirty to

6
00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:31,400
Speaker 1: forty five, predatory paparazzi followed her every move every day

7
00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:36,400
Speaker 1: during twelve to fourteen hour shifts. One company logged forty

8
00:00:36,479 --> 00:00:40,080
Speaker 1: thousand hours of stalking her, accrued between only eight men.

9
00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:45,120
Speaker 1: Her father tormented her childhood with anger and alcohol issues,

10
00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:48,600
Speaker 1: and decades later a judge granted that same man a

11
00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:53,840
Speaker 1: conservatorship over Brittany. His turbulent track record be damned. But

12
00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:56,880
Speaker 1: despite the challenge is thrust upon her between her family

13
00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:01,480
Speaker 1: and a constant media frenzy. Britney Spears may great music,

14
00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:04,240
Speaker 1: unlike that music. I played a few at the top

15
00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,520
Speaker 1: of the show that wasn't great music. That was a

16
00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:12,120
Speaker 1: preset loop for my melotron titled Candid Camera MK. Two.

17
00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:15,640
Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the

18
00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:19,319
Speaker 1: rights to low By, Flow Rider and T Paine, And

19
00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:22,480
Speaker 1: why would I play you that specific slice? Of boots

20
00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:26,000
Speaker 1: with the fur cheese? Could I afford it? Because that

21
00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:29,880
Speaker 1: was the number one song in America on February first,

22
00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:32,640
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, and that was the day that

23
00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:37,440
Speaker 1: Jamie Spears was granted a temporary conservator ship over his daughter,

24
00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:42,800
Speaker 1: a temporary conservator ship that would stretch on for thirteen years.

25
00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:48,640
Speaker 1: On this episode Predatory Paparazzi, I'm not so a temporary

26
00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:53,800
Speaker 1: conservatorship and this is extra extra, This just in Britney Spears.

27
00:01:54,640 --> 00:02:26,880
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgrace Land. Jamie Spears

28
00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:28,560
Speaker 1: knew he had to be fast if he wanted to

29
00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:32,000
Speaker 1: get away with it. His legs trembled, he could barely

30
00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:35,639
Speaker 1: keep his knees from buckling. The ground swayed before him

31
00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:38,360
Speaker 1: like a ship tossed around at sea. But it was

32
00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:41,400
Speaker 1: the preschooler squirming in his arms that slowed him down

33
00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:46,000
Speaker 1: the most. Jamie's sloppy steps sunk into the Louisiana dirt.

34
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:49,800
Speaker 1: As he trudged towards the car, his labored exhales cast

35
00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:52,480
Speaker 1: out the odor of liquor on his breath, a sterile

36
00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:55,280
Speaker 1: smell so strong that had overpowered the scent of the

37
00:02:55,280 --> 00:03:00,000
Speaker 1: family crawfish boil he was leaving behind. Perhaps, just perhaps

38
00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:02,840
Speaker 1: Jamie was so hammered that afternoon that no one had

39
00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:05,959
Speaker 1: bothered to see what he was up to. Jamie couldn't

40
00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:07,880
Speaker 1: do any harm when he was slumped on the sofa,

41
00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:11,200
Speaker 1: wasted right, couldn't start trouble at a lighthearted family affair

42
00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:15,519
Speaker 1: centered around finger looking Southern fair wrong. He could saunter

43
00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:19,720
Speaker 1: off and slip behind the steering wheel. Jamie hampassedly buckled

44
00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:22,320
Speaker 1: his daughter Brittany into the back seat. Now no more

45
00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:24,880
Speaker 1: than five years old, Brittany already knew better than to

46
00:03:24,919 --> 00:03:28,680
Speaker 1: ask questions. She was all too familiar with her family's routine.

47
00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:31,919
Speaker 1: Daddy drinks, Daddy picks on mama. Daddy and Mama fight

48
00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:34,079
Speaker 1: until they run out of breath. Brittany runs off to

49
00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:37,520
Speaker 1: her on Shonda's trailer until the screaming stops, until her

50
00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:42,000
Speaker 1: own internal terrified screaming stops. Returns home. Don't complain about

51
00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:43,640
Speaker 1: the mystery made on any plate, and go on with

52
00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:48,120
Speaker 1: your business. Jamie slammed the door on Britney's doughide expression

53
00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:51,040
Speaker 1: in the back seat. Muscle memory helped him get behind

54
00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:53,880
Speaker 1: the wheel. He slumped in the front seat and aimlessly

55
00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:56,080
Speaker 1: jobbed the side of the steering wheel with his keys.

56
00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:01,760
Speaker 1: Where was the goddamn ignition? Jamie was so wasted, he

57
00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:04,360
Speaker 1: swore he saw an arm reach inside and knock the

58
00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:07,520
Speaker 1: keys from the ignition, and the arm spoke to him

59
00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,200
Speaker 1: in a familiar Southern drawl, asked him if he was

60
00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:12,080
Speaker 1: out of his mind and how much he had to drink?

61
00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:16,800
Speaker 1: Or was that Willie his brother? Shit, it was Willie,

62
00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:20,400
Speaker 1: It was all real, Like a reflex. Jamie slugged the

63
00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:22,800
Speaker 1: face attached to that arm right in the face, and

64
00:04:22,839 --> 00:04:26,080
Speaker 1: the blow bowled Willy over. Jamie wabbled out of the

65
00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:28,000
Speaker 1: front seat of the car and rolled up his sleeps.

66
00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:31,000
Speaker 1: A full on family feud broke out, and each brother

67
00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:33,560
Speaker 1: had the same question, what the fuck do you think

68
00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:37,800
Speaker 1: you're doing. Britney, still secured in the back seat, had

69
00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:40,080
Speaker 1: a front row view of what her family did best,

70
00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:44,880
Speaker 1: knocked down, drag out fights. She kicked and wailed, trying

71
00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:47,120
Speaker 1: to flag down a family member before someone lost a

72
00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:49,799
Speaker 1: tooth and Britney lost any more of her childhood innocence.

73
00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:53,040
Speaker 1: Just as Jamie raised his fist to hit Willie one

74
00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:55,960
Speaker 1: more time, her mother Lynn scampered over the break up

75
00:04:55,960 --> 00:04:58,560
Speaker 1: the brawl. After all, she was used to putting it

76
00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:00,760
Speaker 1: end to fights with Jamie. She did it all the

77
00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:06,000
Speaker 1: time in the eighties and nineties. Life with Jamie Spears

78
00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:09,080
Speaker 1: was not stable. Not when he cheated on Lynn in

79
00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:12,080
Speaker 1: their own trailer, now when he changed careers from welder

80
00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:14,719
Speaker 1: to chef to small business owner. Not when he was

81
00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:17,760
Speaker 1: pounding drinks and picking fights with his own family, saying

82
00:05:17,839 --> 00:05:20,400
Speaker 1: Lynn was surely too stupid to have finished her ardor

83
00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:23,720
Speaker 1: and college degree. The Spears didn't nickname him Captain red

84
00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:27,760
Speaker 1: Ass for nothing. But just as Britney saw nothing out

85
00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:30,520
Speaker 1: of the ordinary when she watched her parents' marriage dissolved

86
00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:34,560
Speaker 1: argument by argument, Jamie didn't see the dysfunction either. He

87
00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:37,640
Speaker 1: came from his own busted childhood, stained by the day

88
00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:39,880
Speaker 1: he matured from boy to man. When his mother left

89
00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:44,039
Speaker 1: the house one afternoon, he never returned. Instead, they found

90
00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:46,839
Speaker 1: her corpse in a cemetery, led out just a few

91
00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:49,520
Speaker 1: feet above the final resting place of her infant son,

92
00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:53,760
Speaker 1: Austin Wayne. A shotgun rested by one bare foot was

93
00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:56,400
Speaker 1: used to pull the trigger. It was the kind of

94
00:05:56,440 --> 00:05:59,159
Speaker 1: scene that could really fuck up not just one family,

95
00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:05,039
Speaker 1: but two. As a result, Jamie was an unstable man,

96
00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:08,520
Speaker 1: passing trauma from one generation to the next, floating through

97
00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:12,880
Speaker 1: a sleepy, hard working, but equally unstable town called Kentwood.

98
00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:15,760
Speaker 1: With the population of barely more than two thousand people,

99
00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:18,320
Speaker 1: the town rest ninety miles north of New Orleans, a

100
00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:23,960
Speaker 1: rural contrast to the extravagance of the Big Easy. Kentwood's

101
00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:27,120
Speaker 1: median annual income is only half of the national medium,

102
00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:30,880
Speaker 1: and the Spears weren't exactly breaking it in themselves. Lynn

103
00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:34,160
Speaker 1: brought home a modest school teacher's wage, while Jamie dedicated

104
00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:37,239
Speaker 1: himself to a venture he called Total Fitness by Jamie,

105
00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:40,200
Speaker 1: a quote unquote health spa built in a barn near

106
00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:43,839
Speaker 1: the Spears residence. More accurately, he owned a gym with

107
00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:46,040
Speaker 1: a hot tub and a steam room in charge members

108
00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:48,719
Speaker 1: three hundred dollars a month, and the luxury of the

109
00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:52,280
Speaker 1: concept was novel at first, but interest in Kentwood's new

110
00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:56,200
Speaker 1: spa eventually tapered off. Neighbors were no longer paying up

111
00:06:56,240 --> 00:06:59,200
Speaker 1: to kick back, and Jamie grabbed his gun and resorted

112
00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:03,000
Speaker 1: to dire measures to provide for his family. When the

113
00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,720
Speaker 1: fridge was empty in the Spears household, the food on

114
00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:09,440
Speaker 1: the table was rabbit. When there was a rabbit, squirrel

115
00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:13,000
Speaker 1: would do all freshly caught, skinned and cooked in the

116
00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:17,200
Speaker 1: Spears backyard. Brittany never questioned that either she knew much

117
00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:19,440
Speaker 1: of her family's income was funneled into the dance and

118
00:07:19,480 --> 00:07:22,840
Speaker 1: gymnastics lessons. She enjoyed so much she had to haunt.

119
00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:25,880
Speaker 1: Her mother enjoyed the lessons as well, bringing out the

120
00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:29,360
Speaker 1: child's star. Brittany was Lynn's final attempt to make the

121
00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:32,840
Speaker 1: Spears a happy family, Like a flimsy band aid slapped

122
00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:36,760
Speaker 1: over a shotgun wound in the Endless classes calm some

123
00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:39,840
Speaker 1: of the chaos and the Spears household better. Yet they

124
00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:41,960
Speaker 1: removed Brittany from the house so she wouldn't have to

125
00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:44,720
Speaker 1: remove herself from Lynn and Jamie inevitably broken to nasty

126
00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:48,160
Speaker 1: bouts of fighting. But the lessons did more than get

127
00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:51,280
Speaker 1: Brittany out of the house. They put her on stages,

128
00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:54,800
Speaker 1: on screens. She made her debut on Star Search at

129
00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:58,160
Speaker 1: age ten, belting the old Jud's tune love Can Build

130
00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:01,960
Speaker 1: a Bridge with remarkable maturity. She was an understudy for

131
00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:04,320
Speaker 1: a role in the off Broadway show Ruthless. As a

132
00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:08,200
Speaker 1: pre teen, Britney sailed closer to stardom when she was

133
00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:10,600
Speaker 1: selected as one of the seven new recruits for the

134
00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:13,120
Speaker 1: hit Disney Channel show of The Mickey Mouse Club in

135
00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:17,120
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, and Brittany fought for that spot twice.

136
00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:21,080
Speaker 1: The agent's adorater during her first audition, but ultimately passed

137
00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:23,920
Speaker 1: when they realized she was only eight years old. The

138
00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:27,080
Speaker 1: second time, she beat out twenty thousand other children for

139
00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:31,800
Speaker 1: her spot as a mousequetier working long days in Orlando, Florida.

140
00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,080
Speaker 1: Of the seven recruits in nineteen ninety three, four would

141
00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:39,960
Speaker 1: assent to superstardom, justin Timberlay, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, and

142
00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:44,120
Speaker 1: of course Brittany herself. But in the mid nineties, no

143
00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:46,439
Speaker 1: one would have guessed if Britney Spears would be the

144
00:08:46,520 --> 00:08:49,440
Speaker 1: child's star to come out on top, especially when The

145
00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:51,960
Speaker 1: Mickey Mouse Club said see you Real soon for the

146
00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:55,760
Speaker 1: final time in nineteen ninety four and stopped filming new episodes.

147
00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:00,000
Speaker 1: When Brittany returned to Kentwood, things were not the same.

148
00:09:00,559 --> 00:09:03,320
Speaker 1: They were worse. When The Mickey Mouse Club ended, so

149
00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:07,240
Speaker 1: did Britney's weekly one thousand dollars paychecks, the same checks

150
00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:10,520
Speaker 1: that were helping keep squirrels and rabbits off their dinner plates.

151
00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:14,000
Speaker 1: There was also a new Mouth defeat. In addition to

152
00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:16,400
Speaker 1: big brother Brian, who is three years older than Brittany,

153
00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:19,600
Speaker 1: little sister Jamie Lynn, was born when Brittany was nine

154
00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:23,119
Speaker 1: and a half, Employees at the health spa went unpaid

155
00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:26,880
Speaker 1: and the family's Ford probe was repoded. Phone lines were cut,

156
00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:34,360
Speaker 1: Total fitness by Jamie collapsed. Eventually, Jamie was filing for bankruptcy,

157
00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:38,600
Speaker 1: but he wasn't sweating it too hard. Jamie knew Brittany

158
00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:41,280
Speaker 1: was about to come through for the Spears family again.

159
00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:45,000
Speaker 1: His teenage daughter just linked a development deal with Jive

160
00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:48,160
Speaker 1: Records to pivot from silver screen to pure pop star.

161
00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:52,000
Speaker 1: Jive Records the home base of Nsync, a tribe called

162
00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:56,720
Speaker 1: Quest and Aliyah aka the Big Ones. Why daughter is

163
00:09:56,720 --> 00:09:58,319
Speaker 1: going to be so rich? He's going to buy me

164
00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:00,960
Speaker 1: a boat, he told the senior director marketing at Jive.

165
00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:05,320
Speaker 1: At the moment, Jamie's financial woes were the last thing

166
00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:09,040
Speaker 1: on his mind. Brittany was about to go big, way big.

167
00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:12,320
Speaker 1: He could smell it. The cover of Rolling Stone, a

168
00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:15,720
Speaker 1: single topping the billboard hot one hundred ten million copies

169
00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:20,440
Speaker 1: sold worldwide, an American bubblegum teen dream come true. She

170
00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:22,880
Speaker 1: even had a hit single already in the can Hit

171
00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:26,120
Speaker 1: Me Again or something like that. TLC didn't want it,

172
00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:29,080
Speaker 1: and the Backstreet Boys didn't want it, but Britney seized

173
00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:31,360
Speaker 1: the opportunity and flew all the way to Sweden to

174
00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:34,840
Speaker 1: record it. Jamie might not have known much about show business,

175
00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:37,200
Speaker 1: but he knew for damn sure the record labels didn't

176
00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:41,160
Speaker 1: fly nobody's halfway around the world. His daughter was going

177
00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:43,839
Speaker 1: to be a star, and he was going to get

178
00:10:43,880 --> 00:11:08,760
Speaker 1: that fucking boat. Britney Spears counted the dots hovering at

179
00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:13,320
Speaker 1: her periphery one dozen, two dozen, three dozen, and maybe

180
00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:16,199
Speaker 1: there were even four dozen, but she couldn't tell for certain.

181
00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:19,280
Speaker 1: When they kept darting around so frantically, closing in on

182
00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:22,440
Speaker 1: her against the hood of her white convertible. She didn't

183
00:11:22,440 --> 00:11:24,840
Speaker 1: need to count them one by one anymore. She had

184
00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:28,280
Speaker 1: played this game enough times to estimate with precision three

185
00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:32,280
Speaker 1: dozen for sure, she concluded to herself. Brittany blinked in

186
00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:35,400
Speaker 1: an attempt to clear her vision. She narrowed her eyebrows

187
00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:38,720
Speaker 1: and looked straight ahead. Dots be damned. She eased her

188
00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:41,360
Speaker 1: foot down on the gas pedal the Mercedes and crept

189
00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:45,160
Speaker 1: forward with hesitation, not unlike the hesitant look plastered on

190
00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:48,960
Speaker 1: Britney's face, one hand cupped over her mouth, teary eyes

191
00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:51,719
Speaker 1: shielded with designer shades, the kind of look you wear

192
00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:54,520
Speaker 1: when you've just been informed we've lost all visitation rites

193
00:11:54,559 --> 00:11:58,400
Speaker 1: for your children. It was October two thousand and eight.

194
00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:02,199
Speaker 1: Britney's son Sean and Jaden were legally in the care

195
00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:05,400
Speaker 1: of her ex husband, Kevin Federline. Now, as the judge

196
00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:08,040
Speaker 1: just informed her in the courthouse, she was leaving or

197
00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:10,400
Speaker 1: attempting to leave anyways, but the dots weren't having that.

198
00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:14,400
Speaker 1: The dots were always there when bad news found Brittany,

199
00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:16,960
Speaker 1: the dots made bad news out of her reacting to

200
00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:22,480
Speaker 1: bad news. Photo hungry pricks Brittany, Look this way, Brittany.

201
00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:25,880
Speaker 1: Her foot slipped and pressed down harder on the gas pedal,

202
00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:28,560
Speaker 1: and the convertible lurched forward before she gets slam on

203
00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:30,760
Speaker 1: the brake. Her descent down the ram of the parking

204
00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:33,480
Speaker 1: garage lasted longer than a world tour. She eased her

205
00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:35,640
Speaker 1: foot on the pedal one more time, and the speedometer

206
00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:38,320
Speaker 1: crept from zero miles an hour to three, and then

207
00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:41,960
Speaker 1: the screaming started. Whoa, whoa, wow, Wow, whoa. The horde

208
00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:45,439
Speaker 1: of Paparazzi finally backed off, discussed, and heard their faces.

209
00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:47,959
Speaker 1: From where they were standing, all the paths heard it

210
00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:51,920
Speaker 1: an audible crack as at tire crushed at Paparazzo's foot

211
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:56,160
Speaker 1: under the weight of Britney's Mercedes. Brittany saw her chance

212
00:12:56,200 --> 00:12:59,520
Speaker 1: and made her ungraceful exit, peeling out into the street.

213
00:13:02,679 --> 00:13:05,400
Speaker 1: The greedy photographer in question wagged his proof to a

214
00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:08,280
Speaker 1: fellow cameraman, pointing out the filthy tire mark that grays

215
00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:10,680
Speaker 1: the top of his socked foot. Poking out from a

216
00:13:10,679 --> 00:13:13,280
Speaker 1: pair of sandals serves him, right, I mean, what kind

217
00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:15,960
Speaker 1: of man wears sandals to work anyways? Right? But I digress.

218
00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:19,240
Speaker 1: The guy didn't know whether to cry in pain or ecstasy.

219
00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:21,440
Speaker 1: He had much more than a broken foot. He had

220
00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:28,280
Speaker 1: a headline and a lawsuit against Britney Spears jackbox in

221
00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:32,120
Speaker 1: the late two thousands. Britney Spears was an industry, but

222
00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:36,600
Speaker 1: covering Britney Spears that was an empire. There was no

223
00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:39,240
Speaker 1: Instagram in two thousand and seven, no TikTok. There was

224
00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:42,080
Speaker 1: barely even Facebook. If the public wanted to hear about

225
00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:46,240
Speaker 1: a celebrity's life. They needed newsstand staples like people Okay,

226
00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:50,880
Speaker 1: US Weekly. Nobody was liking photos of carefully curated interior

227
00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:54,439
Speaker 1: design or Latte Fomer. They were searching out photos of

228
00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:58,800
Speaker 1: costly couture, designer drugs, and sloppy penthouse parties, the kind

229
00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:01,440
Speaker 1: of excess that makes the of your stomach feels sick,

230
00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:05,439
Speaker 1: so sick you almost kind of like it. It was

231
00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:08,000
Speaker 1: an error that was before the explosion of social media

232
00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:10,680
Speaker 1: and before the recession of two thousand and eight. It

233
00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:13,800
Speaker 1: prompted magazines like US Weekly to have a weekly photo

234
00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:16,520
Speaker 1: budget of one hundred and forty thousand dollars and if

235
00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:19,040
Speaker 1: the staff wanted photos of Britney Spears that week, well,

236
00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:21,480
Speaker 1: let's just say they can easily exhaust that budget for

237
00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:24,600
Speaker 1: only one or two photos to be Britney Spears in

238
00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:27,200
Speaker 1: Los Angeles in two thousand and seven meant to be

239
00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:30,120
Speaker 1: the most sought after, most snapped celebrity on the market.

240
00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:33,960
Speaker 1: Paparazzi made a business out of Britney Spears a business

241
00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:36,600
Speaker 1: and took a piece of Britney Spears and gave it back.

242
00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:40,680
Speaker 1: One exclusive photo of Brittany doing literally anything came with

243
00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:44,200
Speaker 1: a price tag of tens of thousands of dollars. Stills

244
00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:46,640
Speaker 1: and videos of a bald Brittany ramming the tip of

245
00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:49,440
Speaker 1: an umbrella into the four explorer of one Pushy pop

246
00:14:49,480 --> 00:14:51,920
Speaker 1: you know, the one, racked up close to four hundred

247
00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:55,560
Speaker 1: thousand dollars well. By the fall of two thousand and seven,

248
00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:58,440
Speaker 1: long after the day Brittany took clippers to her scalp

249
00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:02,560
Speaker 1: pre dented that unlucky paparazazzo's car, exclusive photos of Britney

250
00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:07,000
Speaker 1: Spears didn't exist anymore. They didn't exist because between thirty

251
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:12,000
Speaker 1: and forty five, paparazzi followed her every move, every single day.

252
00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:14,520
Speaker 1: They pursued her with the hopes that she'd be willing

253
00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:17,800
Speaker 1: to give it up a real hyper sexual industry term

254
00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:21,040
Speaker 1: meaning as celebrity will indulge a paparazzo and pose for

255
00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:24,320
Speaker 1: a memorable photo or two. Paris Hilton gave it up

256
00:15:24,360 --> 00:15:27,040
Speaker 1: all the time, but Britney Brittany was a wild card.

257
00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:29,160
Speaker 1: She only gave it up some of the time and

258
00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:32,640
Speaker 1: not so much. In two thousand and seven, there were

259
00:15:32,680 --> 00:15:35,520
Speaker 1: regulars in the game who proudly flaunted their aptitude for

260
00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:39,400
Speaker 1: ambushing Brittany. There was Hollywood dot tv, the outlet responsible

261
00:15:39,440 --> 00:15:43,120
Speaker 1: for capturing incidents like the aforementioned foot mutilation. Then there

262
00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:46,160
Speaker 1: was X one seven online, a celebrity gossip site that

263
00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:48,720
Speaker 1: claimed to have earned three million dollars in two thousand

264
00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:52,120
Speaker 1: and seven from Britney photos alone, a whopping one fourth

265
00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:55,720
Speaker 1: of revenue from the paparazzi photos. That year, one group

266
00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:58,160
Speaker 1: of eight men working under the group named MBF for

267
00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:02,280
Speaker 1: X one seven Online log forty thousand man hours stalking

268
00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:06,160
Speaker 1: and shooting Brittany. A leaked memo from the Associated Press

269
00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:09,800
Speaker 1: even stated to staff that anything Britney does is news.

270
00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:13,200
Speaker 1: They had her obituary saved in drafts at the time, too.

271
00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:19,840
Speaker 1: Britney spears wanted dead or live dark. Hollywood's most patient

272
00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:23,600
Speaker 1: and well paid photographers practiced doorstepping, a term for literally

273
00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:27,040
Speaker 1: waiting outside of a celebrities driveway or doorstep until they departed.

274
00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:30,160
Speaker 1: Cops often rousted paps three to four times a day

275
00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:33,360
Speaker 1: at Britney's residence, and they scattered like roaches, only to

276
00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:36,080
Speaker 1: circle back later for another chance at their predatory Pulitzer

277
00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:39,440
Speaker 1: Prize moment and their days spent doorstep. It could last

278
00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:42,800
Speaker 1: anywhere between twelve and fourteen hours. But once the a

279
00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:46,360
Speaker 1: lister in question was on the move, that's when the

280
00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:51,480
Speaker 1: real fun began. Fuck a stop sign, Peel through those

281
00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:53,800
Speaker 1: red lights, make that pedal go all the way down,

282
00:16:53,880 --> 00:16:56,400
Speaker 1: all the way to the metal. God damn it. Paparazzi

283
00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:59,160
Speaker 1: couldn't be bothered with traffic laws because even if they

284
00:16:59,160 --> 00:17:02,000
Speaker 1: did catch a ticket, the fine would pale in comparison

285
00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:05,040
Speaker 1: to the money they were about to make. Their recklessness

286
00:17:05,080 --> 00:17:07,560
Speaker 1: was matched only by their stamina. When it came to

287
00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:10,240
Speaker 1: car chases. To catch a frame or two of Brittany's behavior,

288
00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:14,680
Speaker 1: paparazzi happily trailed her for up to four hours. The

289
00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:17,760
Speaker 1: exhaustion was not an option, not when a single click

290
00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:19,879
Speaker 1: of a button could earn you a down payment on

291
00:17:19,880 --> 00:17:23,600
Speaker 1: the house in Beverly Hills. If Britney vomited on herself

292
00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:26,000
Speaker 1: in her car, if she stepped out of her convertible

293
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:28,080
Speaker 1: without a pair of panties, if she so much as

294
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:30,679
Speaker 1: walked with her dog London in her arms, they were

295
00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:34,320
Speaker 1: there to document it. Another sloppy entry into Hollywood's diary,

296
00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:38,919
Speaker 1: paired with a snarky, hypercritical caption. Often the media circus

297
00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,919
Speaker 1: crowded Brittany to the point of near blindness. Only a

298
00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:45,359
Speaker 1: month prior to crushing the paparazzo's bones to bits, Brittany

299
00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:47,000
Speaker 1: hit a parked car on her way to pick up

300
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:50,520
Speaker 1: some vitamins. As they trailed her convertible and jumped in

301
00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:53,399
Speaker 1: front of it. Brittany diinged another car in the parking lot,

302
00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:56,040
Speaker 1: and then she picked up her pills and left. And

303
00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:58,240
Speaker 1: the incident not only racked up a hit and run charge,

304
00:17:58,280 --> 00:18:00,240
Speaker 1: but revealed that Brittany was behind the wheel lot a

305
00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:03,359
Speaker 1: license and that was the final fuck up in her

306
00:18:03,359 --> 00:18:07,840
Speaker 1: custody battle with Kevin. But if people followed your every

307
00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:11,159
Speaker 1: step sip, smoke and shopping spree, someone, we'd catch you

308
00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:14,360
Speaker 1: fucking up eventually, plaster some sort of oop. She did

309
00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:17,600
Speaker 1: it again. Headline on there and you've got supermarket checkout gold.

310
00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:21,159
Speaker 1: A camera greeted Brittany in every direction literally. It's a

311
00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:24,600
Speaker 1: well known tactic that the paparazzi work in threes, boxing

312
00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:29,080
Speaker 1: a celebrity into a triangle that they can't turn away from.

313
00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:31,960
Speaker 1: The days of a virgin of bubbly Britney Spears had

314
00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:35,240
Speaker 1: passed the sweet Southern bell, prancing around in a Catholic

315
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:39,919
Speaker 1: schoolgirl uniform, collecting accolades, collecting fans worldwide, really winking at

316
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,679
Speaker 1: risk a behavior was in early odds phase. Now the

317
00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:48,720
Speaker 1: public demanded a disaster, David, and the paparazzi's involvement ensured it.

318
00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:51,200
Speaker 1: Her misery meant that there was money to be made.

319
00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:54,320
Speaker 1: And you can say the media wasn't always this invasive,

320
00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:58,439
Speaker 1: but it was. The disrespect was always there, it just

321
00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:01,480
Speaker 1: wasn't so visceral at the time. Are your breasts real?

322
00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:05,440
Speaker 1: Are you a virgin? Did you fuck Justin Timberlake? Never mind?

323
00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:08,480
Speaker 1: Justin just went ahead and answer that one for you. Slut.

324
00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:13,400
Speaker 1: One man offered Brittany ten million dollars for her virginity

325
00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:17,080
Speaker 1: in two thousand, when she was barely eighteen. Now, when

326
00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:19,959
Speaker 1: rumors of a sex tape with Kevin Federline started spreading

327
00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:23,000
Speaker 1: via US Weekly, a judge wouldn't even hear Brittany out

328
00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:26,600
Speaker 1: for a case of defamation. Their logic, Brittany had been

329
00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:29,800
Speaker 1: disrobing in public for almost a decade. Now, Brittany did

330
00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:33,200
Speaker 1: this to herself. People, the media, the powers that be

331
00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:36,320
Speaker 1: always wanted the public to think Brittany did this to herself.

332
00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:40,480
Speaker 1: Whether this was an unflattering photo, an overwhelmed meltdown, or

333
00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:44,680
Speaker 1: a nasty, hypersexual rumor. They never mentioned the pushing, the groping,

334
00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:48,439
Speaker 1: the greedy hands of the world's trashy tabloid readers. But

335
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:51,520
Speaker 1: Brittany was about to fall into a new set of hands,

336
00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:54,600
Speaker 1: a set of hands so greedy they wouldn't let her

337
00:19:54,640 --> 00:20:00,679
Speaker 1: go for thirteen years. We'll be right back after this

338
00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:10,119
Speaker 1: word word word. Hands slapped the windows, fists pounded on

339
00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:13,520
Speaker 1: the car's hood, Fans left handprints every time Britney's limo

340
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,400
Speaker 1: paused for a stop sign. She couldn't peek it much

341
00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:19,359
Speaker 1: through the tinted windows, but she knew reporters how to

342
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:22,560
Speaker 1: be tagging along too, obscuring the brilliant neon of the

343
00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:26,280
Speaker 1: Las Vegas strip with their own camera flashes. An empty

344
00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:28,760
Speaker 1: bottle of booze rolled around the back seat and clinked

345
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:33,480
Speaker 1: against Britney's heels. For once, Brittany felt grateful for the commotion.

346
00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:36,560
Speaker 1: It filled the silence between her and the boy toy

347
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:39,080
Speaker 1: sharing the back seat with her positioned an awkward few

348
00:20:39,119 --> 00:20:42,119
Speaker 1: feet apart from each other. She preferred the sound of

349
00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:45,800
Speaker 1: harassment to the sound of their strained relationship. She preferred

350
00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:48,520
Speaker 1: the sound of harassment to the feel of harassment too,

351
00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:51,439
Speaker 1: and the limo halted at the ornate lobby of her

352
00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:58,399
Speaker 1: hotel last stop. Brittany burst through the limo door, embraced

353
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:01,879
Speaker 1: for the worst ahead with every ounce of energy in

354
00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:05,320
Speaker 1: her five foot four frame, but the crowd outside consumed her,

355
00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:08,679
Speaker 1: swallowed her in a sea of microphones, spit her up,

356
00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:12,720
Speaker 1: disheveled and disorient her. Mystery man shouldered his way through

357
00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:14,919
Speaker 1: the crowd by her side and got a similar smack

358
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:17,480
Speaker 1: down When he then passed along to a smattering of

359
00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:21,400
Speaker 1: tabloids bearing Britney's face on the cover. He literally smacked

360
00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:24,520
Speaker 1: them down off a nearby newsstand. Images of her face

361
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:28,000
Speaker 1: covered the floor, and the mob marched right over them.

362
00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:33,040
Speaker 1: Privacy was a luxury, Brittany learned, so too was personal

363
00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:36,360
Speaker 1: space luxuries that she one of the most lucrative pop

364
00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:39,960
Speaker 1: stars in the world, somehow couldn't afford. The irony made

365
00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:43,920
Speaker 1: the glistening luxury of her presidential suite feel meaningless. Pointless

366
00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:48,639
Speaker 1: even once inside, Britney stormed off to the bathroom. Everyone

367
00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:50,639
Speaker 1: could step the fuck out of her way for good.

368
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:53,639
Speaker 1: The boy Toy two, he launched a vase filled with

369
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:57,000
Speaker 1: exotic flowers at the wall and frustration. But Brittany was

370
00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:00,760
Speaker 1: already turning away, away from him, away from fame, away

371
00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:06,080
Speaker 1: from everybody. Enough, she locked herself in the bathroom and

372
00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:11,760
Speaker 1: acted mechanically. Faucet on, pearly gown off, bathtub filled, step

373
00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:16,560
Speaker 1: inside and sink sink. Blood matted in her hair from

374
00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:19,320
Speaker 1: a paparazzi inflicted gash to the back of her head,

375
00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:23,240
Speaker 1: the bathwater turned a sickly shade of red. It didn't matter.

376
00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:30,879
Speaker 1: All she needed to do was sink, sink, sink. In

377
00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:34,080
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, that's how Britney Spears pictured her

378
00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:40,080
Speaker 1: final unraveling. Alone, abused, entirely misunderstood. She acted out her

379
00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:42,720
Speaker 1: worst fears in the video for her song every Time,

380
00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:46,560
Speaker 1: a bawling ballad from her album in the Zone. Hard

381
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:49,400
Speaker 1: to believe such a downers on the same record as Toxic,

382
00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:51,920
Speaker 1: the single that solidified her name in the long term

383
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:54,560
Speaker 1: pop game, the song that proved that once Brittany got

384
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:56,560
Speaker 1: passed the hole not a girl, not yet a woman

385
00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:59,360
Speaker 1: phase and into the totally a woman phase, she could

386
00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:03,600
Speaker 1: fucking But back to every Time. The video hands at

387
00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 1: reincarnation for Britney Spears the soul while Britney Spears, the celebrity,

388
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:11,359
Speaker 1: sinks to the bottom of the bathtub. And five years later,

389
00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,840
Speaker 1: that wasn't quite how Britney Spears' life actually unraveled. She

390
00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:21,000
Speaker 1: got the bathroom detail right. Though. Brittany was shouting through

391
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:24,439
Speaker 1: the door of her private bathroom, I'm fucking hot. No

392
00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:27,199
Speaker 1: cop was going to tell her to cover up. Not today.

393
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:32,399
Speaker 1: January two thousand and eight, Brittany clutched her son Jaden

394
00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:34,920
Speaker 1: with a grip that was so tight it was almost painful.

395
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:38,399
Speaker 1: Her bare back rested against the bathroom door. She bounced

396
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:40,280
Speaker 1: them up and down in her lap in an attempt

397
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:42,240
Speaker 1: to sue them in spite of the circus waiting on

398
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:44,919
Speaker 1: the other side. The police wanted her to put on

399
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:47,960
Speaker 1: a sweater. They said, uh uh, keep your sweater. I'll

400
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,959
Speaker 1: keep my kids. How about that? The time for Brittany

401
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:53,480
Speaker 1: to return her son Sean and Jaden to her ex husband,

402
00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:56,920
Speaker 1: Kevin Federline had passed hours ago, but Brittany wasn't ready

403
00:23:56,920 --> 00:23:59,439
Speaker 1: to get them back or give them up, which is

404
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:04,080
Speaker 1: how she Just hours prior, Brittany and Kevin stood face

405
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:06,840
Speaker 1: to face in court, staring each other down over custody

406
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:09,720
Speaker 1: of their children. Kevin had already won a request for

407
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,080
Speaker 1: temporary full custody of both boys, and now he was

408
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:15,640
Speaker 1: trying to make it permanent. Brittany could bear the weight

409
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:19,040
Speaker 1: of almost anything, of an alcoholic father, poverty, being pushed

410
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 1: around by news outlets, just begging her to have another breakdown,

411
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,399
Speaker 1: but she couldn't take the idea of losing her sons forever,

412
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 1: not to her backup dance, her ex husband, not to anybody.

413
00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:32,560
Speaker 1: The thought chilled her, and she pressed Jaden further into

414
00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:35,320
Speaker 1: her naked chest. She knew she was supposed to give

415
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:38,200
Speaker 1: the boys back. At seven PM, a court appointed child

416
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:40,800
Speaker 1: monitor had even buckled Shawn into his car seat, ready

417
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:44,239
Speaker 1: to return to dad, and that's when Britney scooped up

418
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:48,600
Speaker 1: Jaden and bolted for the bathroom. Confounded, the child monitor

419
00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:51,439
Speaker 1: called the cops, and then the cops invited a steady

420
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:55,040
Speaker 1: stream of additional cops as a situation, and Brittany grew

421
00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:59,040
Speaker 1: more agitated. She rejected their sweater even more aggressively than

422
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:03,240
Speaker 1: their attempts to retreat Jayden. It was past ten PM

423
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:06,840
Speaker 1: now and Brittany had lost all sense of time. Her

424
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:10,240
Speaker 1: thoughts tumbled from her lips in incoherent sentences, and the

425
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:13,840
Speaker 1: bathroom reeked a sweat, the air stale from hours spent

426
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:16,920
Speaker 1: during the police standoff. She didn't know it was eleven

427
00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:19,440
Speaker 1: o'clock with the cops finally coaxed her out of the bathroom,

428
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:21,359
Speaker 1: or why they coaxed her out of the bathroom, but

429
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,680
Speaker 1: in doing so, they scooped Jaden to so called safety.

430
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:29,840
Speaker 1: In the music video for every time, paramedics retrieved Brittany

431
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:32,359
Speaker 1: from the bathtub and wheel her limp body outside on

432
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,720
Speaker 1: a gurney. In real life, they strapped her to the

433
00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:38,320
Speaker 1: gurney under a white sheet before they brought her outside

434
00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 1: to the ambulance. The next scene played out exactly the

435
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:44,800
Speaker 1: same as in the video. It was life imitating art

436
00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:49,120
Speaker 1: imitating life flashes, friends in fucking disregard for the severity

437
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:55,960
Speaker 1: of the situation, vultures. This was two thousand and eight.

438
00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:59,200
Speaker 1: Brittany had already righteously lashed out with her two thousand

439
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: and seven album Blackout, a tipsy burst of pop perfection

440
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:04,639
Speaker 1: meant to be played on the brink of slipping in

441
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:07,680
Speaker 1: between states of consciousness of the club and loving every

442
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:10,760
Speaker 1: second of it, despite the fact that it was Britney's

443
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:13,760
Speaker 1: first album to not debut atop the Billboard two hundred.

444
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 1: Blackout illuminated the public demand for Britney's music, not just

445
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 1: their pr mishaps. The record sold more than one hundred

446
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 1: and twenty thousand copies of the day had dropped and

447
00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:25,919
Speaker 1: set a new record at the time for weekly digital

448
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:29,600
Speaker 1: album downloads by a woman. Its iconic sleeves earned it

449
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:31,200
Speaker 1: a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

450
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:36,119
Speaker 1: Musical Archive. Blackout was peak pop perfection, built on embracing

451
00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:40,640
Speaker 1: life's imperfections. Brittany admonished the media with edgy auto tune

452
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:43,359
Speaker 1: on the album's second single, Piece of Me, and the

453
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 1: paps let the threat roll out their lenses and accepted

454
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:50,760
Speaker 1: the challenge and their response, give me More. Paparazzi hungrily

455
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:53,639
Speaker 1: wove their cars in between six police cruisers and ambulance

456
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:56,400
Speaker 1: and a fire truck to climb the summit Britney's mansion,

457
00:26:56,600 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 1: purchased post divorce. A helicopter surveyed the full scene, a

458
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 1: mosaic of unwelcome guests, grambling for unflattering photos of a

459
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:07,919
Speaker 1: woman during a mental health crisis. An ambulance rushed Brittany

460
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 1: to Cedar sign I Medical Center on a fifty one

461
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:12,680
Speaker 1: to fifty hold medical speak for a person who was

462
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 1: in danger to themselves or others as a result of

463
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,439
Speaker 1: a mental disorder. Individuals on a fifty to one fifty

464
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:21,119
Speaker 1: are supposed to be subject to seventy two hours of

465
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:25,680
Speaker 1: involuntary psychiatric hold for treatment and evaluation. If the situation

466
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:28,720
Speaker 1: doesn't improve, it can be upgraded to a fifty two

467
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 1: to fifty, which entails of the fourteen days of intensive

468
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:36,560
Speaker 1: psychiatric treatment. But Britney never got that far. Instead of

469
00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:42,840
Speaker 1: seventy two hours, Britney barely lasted twenty four. During her

470
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 1: brief stay. She not only temporarily lost visitation right through

471
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:50,359
Speaker 1: their boys, but gained an unwelcome visit from doctor Phil

472
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,399
Speaker 1: in her hospital room, chatting her up from material to

473
00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 1: use in his next episode. She was, as the celebrity

474
00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,760
Speaker 1: pseudo psychologist put it, in dire need of both medical

475
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:06,439
Speaker 1: and psychological intervention. Privacy and personal space were luxuries that

476
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:10,639
Speaker 1: she had almost forgotten. Fuck this back to the summit,

477
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,680
Speaker 1: Brittany went. If only she had stayed for the full

478
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,720
Speaker 1: seventy two hours, the next decade of her life might

479
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 1: have gone much differently. One dozen motorcycle officers, two police cruisers,

480
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:49,080
Speaker 1: two police helicopters. The team of cops moved in tandem,

481
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 1: securing what they called the package within the safety of

482
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:56,480
Speaker 1: their human barricade. And the package, of course, was Britney spears.

483
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 1: The caravan forced a path on the driveway of the

484
00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:03,959
Speaker 1: summit to move the package as swiftly as possible. They

485
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 1: lumbered down the hill with confidence. The paps scattered on command,

486
00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: the exact same paparazzi who jammed the driveway shut for hours,

487
00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:16,440
Speaker 1: hence the extraordinary police escort. The sheer number of unwonted

488
00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:19,200
Speaker 1: cars and people that evening pushed to Los Angeles City

489
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: councilmen to propose new legislation that would guarantee celebrities in

490
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,880
Speaker 1: LA a personal safety bubble with twenty five yards. Their

491
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 1: presence was that dangerous and that expensive for the city.

492
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 1: The total cost of Britney security for one hospital ride

493
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 1: was twenty five thousand dollars. The paps crowding the driveway

494
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 1: muttered amongst themselves as the ambulance cruised by, so much

495
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 1: for the suicide tip off they had received. Brittany was

496
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 1: clearly very much alive. Boohoo, But then again they lost Brittany.

497
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 1: Who were they harassed night after night, day after day,

498
00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 1: and who would bring those easy millions earned from forcing

499
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:59,320
Speaker 1: themselves into somebody else's meltdowns and mental health crises. They

500
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:01,960
Speaker 1: could consider that their chance for a jaw dropping snap,

501
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 1: because life at Camp Britney was about to go radio silent.

502
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:11,760
Speaker 1: January thirty first, two thousand and eight, another fifty one

503
00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:14,880
Speaker 1: to fifty hold for Brittany, only four weeks into the

504
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:18,959
Speaker 1: new year. Jamie Spears her dad was ready to pounce

505
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 1: this time. As police and paramedics wieled Brittany to the

506
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:27,080
Speaker 1: UCLA Medical Center, Jamie got out of pen a paper

507
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 1: an old Captain Redass started spilling out a hodgepodge of

508
00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:33,440
Speaker 1: legal jargon. He was about to file a request for

509
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:38,080
Speaker 1: a temporary conservatorship of his daughter. Hold up. The word

510
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 1: conservatorship has been thrown around hundreds of times in the

511
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 1: past two years, but rarely is it explained in detail.

512
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: A conservatorship is a legal arrangement put into place when

513
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:51,000
Speaker 1: a person is unable to care for themselves or their finances.

514
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:54,720
Speaker 1: In some cases, conservators work on behalf of a person

515
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 1: who is not capable of fulfilling their basic needs finding food, water, shelter, clothing.

516
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:04,520
Speaker 1: Other times, conservators control all of someone's financial assets lest

517
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 1: the conservative be duped into giving their money away. Jamie

518
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:13,840
Speaker 1: filed for both types, a conservatorship of Britney's person and

519
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: her estate. It shouldn't be surprising that most conservatives ships

520
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 1: assist elderly people who are forget, gullible, or generally confused.

521
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 1: What is surprising is that Jamie Spears filed for a

522
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,160
Speaker 1: temporary conservatives ship for his twenty six year old daughter

523
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: and checked off orders related to dementia placer as the reason.

524
00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:37,160
Speaker 1: Jamie Spears, the man who tormented his family with his

525
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:40,600
Speaker 1: anger and alcohol problems, was asking for complete control of

526
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:43,640
Speaker 1: his adult daughter because she suffered from so called dementia

527
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:48,240
Speaker 1: like symptoms. A Superior Court commissioner placed Britney under Jamie's

528
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:52,560
Speaker 1: care via a temporary conservativeship on February first, two thousand

529
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,840
Speaker 1: and eight, one day after her second mental health emergency.

530
00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:01,280
Speaker 1: One day. Jamie had been waiting for this, waiting for

531
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:05,280
Speaker 1: six weeks to be exact. His scapegoat for the situation

532
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:09,120
Speaker 1: was a man named Sam let Feet. Sam had suspiciously

533
00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:11,920
Speaker 1: squeezed himself into Britney's inner circle at a time when

534
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:15,600
Speaker 1: Britney's in her circle barely existed. In two thousand and eight,

535
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:19,280
Speaker 1: she had no manager. Instead, she had Sam, her quote

536
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 1: unquote life coach. But from where Jamie was sitting, Sam

537
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:27,400
Speaker 1: was Britney's undoing, the devil, perched on her shoulder, whispering

538
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,400
Speaker 1: nonsense in her year at all hours. There was only

539
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:32,800
Speaker 1: room for one bad guy in Britney's life, and that

540
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:38,200
Speaker 1: was Jamie. And Sam had sway, too much sway, a

541
00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:41,120
Speaker 1: dangerous amount of sway and kind of get from crushing

542
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 1: pills into someone's food. They also claimed on the day

543
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:47,360
Speaker 1: of Britney's bathroom stand off that Sam informed her that

544
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:49,680
Speaker 1: Kevin called the house and stated that she could keep

545
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 1: the boys for a few more hours. He even lived

546
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,640
Speaker 1: at the Summit in his own private bedroom only two

547
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 1: doors down from Britney's bedroom. With that privilege came his

548
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,840
Speaker 1: self appointed datus as gatekeeper to Brittany. He welcomed some

549
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:08,000
Speaker 1: paparazzi inside and barricaded certain loved ones out. Sam Lutfi

550
00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:15,480
Speaker 1: had the inn, Jamie wanted him out. On February first,

551
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, Jamie Spears gained complete access to Brittany,

552
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 1: more access than Sam, more access than the thirty to

553
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:27,200
Speaker 1: forty five daily paparazzi could ever imagine, more access than

554
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 1: Brittany even add to herself. Her dad gained the ability

555
00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:33,960
Speaker 1: to speak with their doctors to examine her medical records

556
00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:37,320
Speaker 1: to okay, every single person Brittany worked with to enforce

557
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:40,840
Speaker 1: around the clock security. He was a conservator of her

558
00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:44,360
Speaker 1: person now and the co conservator of her estate, alongside

559
00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:47,360
Speaker 1: a lawyer named Andrew Wallett. And that's the guy's real name,

560
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:50,760
Speaker 1: Andrew Wallllett. You could say that a father decided to

561
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:52,920
Speaker 1: step back into his daughter's life to help her break

562
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:56,720
Speaker 1: a self destructive cycle of chaos, but more evidence would

563
00:33:56,760 --> 00:33:59,680
Speaker 1: point towards the fact that one man saw the chance

564
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 1: to see he's control over a massive amount of talent, money,

565
00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:08,960
Speaker 1: and celebrity, and he took it and called the situation temporary.

566
00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan in this episode of Disgraceland is to

567
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 1: be continued. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is

568
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:38,760
Speaker 1: produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode

569
00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:41,600
Speaker 1: can be found on the show notes page at disgracelampod

570
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:45,480
Speaker 1: dot com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member,

571
00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:48,200
Speaker 1: thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it.

572
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:50,719
Speaker 1: And if not, you can become a member right now

573
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:55,279
Speaker 1: by going to disgracelampod dot com slash Membership. Members can

574
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:59,239
Speaker 1: listen to every episode of Disgraceland ad free, Plus you'll

575
00:34:59,239 --> 00:35:03,560
Speaker 1: get one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted

576
00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:07,520
Speaker 1: bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise

577
00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:12,560
Speaker 1: and events. Visit disgrayslampod dot com slash membership for details,

578
00:35:12,880 --> 00:35:15,800
Speaker 1: rate and review the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,

579
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 1: and Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot

580
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:26,360
Speaker 1: com slash at disgrace Slampod, Rock a Roller He the

581
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:27,600
Speaker 1: bed Don Man