WEBVTT - Britney Spears (Pt. 1): Trauma Pop 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.480 This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:07.880 Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:18.280 a production of Double Elvis. The stories about Britney Spears 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:23.319 are insane. She was once offered ten million dollars for 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.080 her virginity. At the peak of her fame, thirty to 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:31.400 forty five, predatory paparazzi followed her every move every day 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:36.400 during twelve to fourteen hour shifts. One company logged forty 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:40.080 thousand hours of stalking her, accrued between only eight men. 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:45.120 Her father tormented her childhood with anger and alcohol issues, 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.600 and decades later a judge granted that same man a 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:53.840 conservatorship over Brittany. His turbulent track record be damned. But 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.880 despite the challenge is thrust upon her between her family 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:01.480 and a constant media frenzy. Britney Spears may great music, 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:04.240 unlike that music. I played a few at the top 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.520 of the show that wasn't great music. That was a 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:12.120 preset loop for my melotron titled Candid Camera MK. Two. 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.640 I played you that loop because I can't afford the 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.319 rights to low By, Flow Rider and T Paine, And 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.480 why would I play you that specific slice? Of boots 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.000 with the fur cheese? Could I afford it? Because that 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.880 was the number one song in America on February first, 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.640 two thousand and eight, and that was the day that 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:37.440 Jamie Spears was granted a temporary conservator ship over his daughter, 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:42.800 a temporary conservator ship that would stretch on for thirteen years. 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:48.640 On this episode Predatory Paparazzi, I'm not so a temporary 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:53.800 conservatorship and this is extra extra, This just in Britney Spears. 0:01:54.640 --> 0:02:26.880 I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgrace Land. Jamie Spears 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:28.560 knew he had to be fast if he wanted to 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.000 get away with it. His legs trembled, he could barely 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.639 keep his knees from buckling. The ground swayed before him 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.360 like a ship tossed around at sea. But it was 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.400 the preschooler squirming in his arms that slowed him down 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:46.000 the most. Jamie's sloppy steps sunk into the Louisiana dirt. 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.800 As he trudged towards the car, his labored exhales cast 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.480 out the odor of liquor on his breath, a sterile 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.280 smell so strong that had overpowered the scent of the 0:02:55.280 --> 0:03:00.000 family crawfish boil he was leaving behind. Perhaps, just perhaps 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.840 Jamie was so hammered that afternoon that no one had 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:05.959 bothered to see what he was up to. Jamie couldn't 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:07.880 do any harm when he was slumped on the sofa, 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.200 wasted right, couldn't start trouble at a lighthearted family affair 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:15.519 centered around finger looking Southern fair wrong. He could saunter 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.720 off and slip behind the steering wheel. Jamie hampassedly buckled 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.320 his daughter Brittany into the back seat. Now no more 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.880 than five years old, Brittany already knew better than to 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.680 ask questions. She was all too familiar with her family's routine. 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:31.919 Daddy drinks, Daddy picks on mama. Daddy and Mama fight 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:34.079 until they run out of breath. Brittany runs off to 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:37.520 her on Shonda's trailer until the screaming stops, until her 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:42.000 own internal terrified screaming stops. Returns home. Don't complain about 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:43.640 the mystery made on any plate, and go on with 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:48.120 your business. Jamie slammed the door on Britney's doughide expression 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.040 in the back seat. Muscle memory helped him get behind 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.880 the wheel. He slumped in the front seat and aimlessly 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.080 jobbed the side of the steering wheel with his keys. 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:01.760 Where was the goddamn ignition? Jamie was so wasted, he 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.360 swore he saw an arm reach inside and knock the 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.520 keys from the ignition, and the arm spoke to him 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.200 in a familiar Southern drawl, asked him if he was 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.080 out of his mind and how much he had to drink? 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.800 Or was that Willie his brother? Shit, it was Willie, 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.400 It was all real, Like a reflex. Jamie slugged the 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:22.800 face attached to that arm right in the face, and 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.080 the blow bowled Willy over. Jamie wabbled out of the 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.000 front seat of the car and rolled up his sleeps. 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.000 A full on family feud broke out, and each brother 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.560 had the same question, what the fuck do you think 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:37.800 you're doing. Britney, still secured in the back seat, had 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.080 a front row view of what her family did best, 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.880 knocked down, drag out fights. She kicked and wailed, trying 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.120 to flag down a family member before someone lost a 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.799 tooth and Britney lost any more of her childhood innocence. 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.040 Just as Jamie raised his fist to hit Willie one 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:55.960 more time, her mother Lynn scampered over the break up 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:58.560 the brawl. After all, she was used to putting it 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:00.760 end to fights with Jamie. She did it all the 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:06.000 time in the eighties and nineties. Life with Jamie Spears 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:09.080 was not stable. Not when he cheated on Lynn in 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.080 their own trailer, now when he changed careers from welder 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:14.719 to chef to small business owner. Not when he was 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.760 pounding drinks and picking fights with his own family, saying 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.400 Lynn was surely too stupid to have finished her ardor 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.720 and college degree. The Spears didn't nickname him Captain red 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.760 Ass for nothing. But just as Britney saw nothing out 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.520 of the ordinary when she watched her parents' marriage dissolved 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.560 argument by argument, Jamie didn't see the dysfunction either. He 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.640 came from his own busted childhood, stained by the day 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:39.880 he matured from boy to man. When his mother left 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:44.039 the house one afternoon, he never returned. Instead, they found 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:46.839 her corpse in a cemetery, led out just a few 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.520 feet above the final resting place of her infant son, 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:53.760 Austin Wayne. A shotgun rested by one bare foot was 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:56.400 used to pull the trigger. It was the kind of 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.159 scene that could really fuck up not just one family, 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:05.039 but two. As a result, Jamie was an unstable man, 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:08.520 passing trauma from one generation to the next, floating through 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:12.880 a sleepy, hard working, but equally unstable town called Kentwood. 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.760 With the population of barely more than two thousand people, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.320 the town rest ninety miles north of New Orleans, a 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:23.960 rural contrast to the extravagance of the Big Easy. Kentwood's 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:27.120 median annual income is only half of the national medium, 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.880 and the Spears weren't exactly breaking it in themselves. Lynn 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.160 brought home a modest school teacher's wage, while Jamie dedicated 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.239 himself to a venture he called Total Fitness by Jamie, 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.200 a quote unquote health spa built in a barn near 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.839 the Spears residence. More accurately, he owned a gym with 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:46.040 a hot tub and a steam room in charge members 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:48.719 three hundred dollars a month, and the luxury of the 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.280 concept was novel at first, but interest in Kentwood's new 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:56.200 spa eventually tapered off. Neighbors were no longer paying up 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.200 to kick back, and Jamie grabbed his gun and resorted 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:03.000 to dire measures to provide for his family. When the 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.720 fridge was empty in the Spears household, the food on 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.440 the table was rabbit. When there was a rabbit, squirrel 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:13.000 would do all freshly caught, skinned and cooked in the 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:17.200 Spears backyard. Brittany never questioned that either she knew much 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:19.440 of her family's income was funneled into the dance and 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.840 gymnastics lessons. She enjoyed so much she had to haunt. 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.880 Her mother enjoyed the lessons as well, bringing out the 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.360 child's star. Brittany was Lynn's final attempt to make the 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.840 Spears a happy family, Like a flimsy band aid slapped 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.760 over a shotgun wound in the Endless classes calm some 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.840 of the chaos and the Spears household better. Yet they 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:41.960 removed Brittany from the house so she wouldn't have to 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:44.720 remove herself from Lynn and Jamie inevitably broken to nasty 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.160 bouts of fighting. But the lessons did more than get 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.280 Brittany out of the house. They put her on stages, 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.800 on screens. She made her debut on Star Search at 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:58.160 age ten, belting the old Jud's tune love Can Build 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.960 a Bridge with remarkable maturity. She was an understudy for 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.320 a role in the off Broadway show Ruthless. As a 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:08.200 pre teen, Britney sailed closer to stardom when she was 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:10.600 selected as one of the seven new recruits for the 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.120 hit Disney Channel show of The Mickey Mouse Club in 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:17.120 nineteen ninety three, and Brittany fought for that spot twice. 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:21.080 The agent's adorater during her first audition, but ultimately passed 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.920 when they realized she was only eight years old. The 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:27.080 second time, she beat out twenty thousand other children for 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:31.800 her spot as a mousequetier working long days in Orlando, Florida. 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:35.080 Of the seven recruits in nineteen ninety three, four would 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:39.960 assent to superstardom, justin Timberlay, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, and 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:44.120 of course Brittany herself. But in the mid nineties, no 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.439 one would have guessed if Britney Spears would be the 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:49.440 child's star to come out on top, especially when The 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:51.960 Mickey Mouse Club said see you Real soon for the 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.760 final time in nineteen ninety four and stopped filming new episodes. 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:00.000 When Brittany returned to Kentwood, things were not the same. 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.320 They were worse. When The Mickey Mouse Club ended, so 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:07.240 did Britney's weekly one thousand dollars paychecks, the same checks 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.520 that were helping keep squirrels and rabbits off their dinner plates. 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:14.000 There was also a new Mouth defeat. In addition to 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:16.400 big brother Brian, who is three years older than Brittany, 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.600 little sister Jamie Lynn, was born when Brittany was nine 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:23.119 and a half, Employees at the health spa went unpaid 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:26.880 and the family's Ford probe was repoded. Phone lines were cut, 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:34.360 Total fitness by Jamie collapsed. Eventually, Jamie was filing for bankruptcy, 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.600 but he wasn't sweating it too hard. Jamie knew Brittany 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.280 was about to come through for the Spears family again. 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.000 His teenage daughter just linked a development deal with Jive 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.160 Records to pivot from silver screen to pure pop star. 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:52.000 Jive Records the home base of Nsync, a tribe called 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:56.720 Quest and Aliyah aka the Big Ones. Why daughter is 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:58.319 going to be so rich? He's going to buy me 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:00.960 a boat, he told the senior director marketing at Jive. 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.320 At the moment, Jamie's financial woes were the last thing 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.040 on his mind. Brittany was about to go big, way big. 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.320 He could smell it. The cover of Rolling Stone, a 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.720 single topping the billboard hot one hundred ten million copies 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:20.440 sold worldwide, an American bubblegum teen dream come true. She 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.880 even had a hit single already in the can Hit 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.120 Me Again or something like that. TLC didn't want it, 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.080 and the Backstreet Boys didn't want it, but Britney seized 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:31.360 the opportunity and flew all the way to Sweden to 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.840 record it. Jamie might not have known much about show business, 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:37.200 but he knew for damn sure the record labels didn't 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:41.160 fly nobody's halfway around the world. His daughter was going 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:43.839 to be a star, and he was going to get 0:10:43.880 --> 0:11:08.760 that fucking boat. Britney Spears counted the dots hovering at 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:13.320 her periphery one dozen, two dozen, three dozen, and maybe 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.199 there were even four dozen, but she couldn't tell for certain. 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:19.280 When they kept darting around so frantically, closing in on 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.440 her against the hood of her white convertible. She didn't 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:24.840 need to count them one by one anymore. She had 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:28.280 played this game enough times to estimate with precision three 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:32.280 dozen for sure, she concluded to herself. Brittany blinked in 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.400 an attempt to clear her vision. She narrowed her eyebrows 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.720 and looked straight ahead. Dots be damned. She eased her 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.360 foot down on the gas pedal the Mercedes and crept 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:45.160 forward with hesitation, not unlike the hesitant look plastered on 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.960 Britney's face, one hand cupped over her mouth, teary eyes 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.719 shielded with designer shades, the kind of look you wear 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.520 when you've just been informed we've lost all visitation rites 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:58.400 for your children. It was October two thousand and eight. 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.199 Britney's son Sean and Jaden were legally in the care 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.400 of her ex husband, Kevin Federline. Now, as the judge 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.040 just informed her in the courthouse, she was leaving or 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:10.400 attempting to leave anyways, but the dots weren't having that. 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.400 The dots were always there when bad news found Brittany, 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:16.960 the dots made bad news out of her reacting to 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:22.480 bad news. Photo hungry pricks Brittany, Look this way, Brittany. 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:25.880 Her foot slipped and pressed down harder on the gas pedal, 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:28.560 and the convertible lurched forward before she gets slam on 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:30.760 the brake. Her descent down the ram of the parking 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.480 garage lasted longer than a world tour. She eased her 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:35.640 foot on the pedal one more time, and the speedometer 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:38.320 crept from zero miles an hour to three, and then 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.960 the screaming started. Whoa, whoa, wow, Wow, whoa. The horde 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.439 of Paparazzi finally backed off, discussed, and heard their faces. 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:47.959 From where they were standing, all the paths heard it 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.920 an audible crack as at tire crushed at Paparazzo's foot 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:56.160 under the weight of Britney's Mercedes. Brittany saw her chance 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:59.520 and made her ungraceful exit, peeling out into the street. 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.400 The greedy photographer in question wagged his proof to a 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.280 fellow cameraman, pointing out the filthy tire mark that grays 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:10.680 the top of his socked foot. Poking out from a 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.280 pair of sandals serves him, right, I mean, what kind 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:15.960 of man wears sandals to work anyways? Right? But I digress. 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:19.240 The guy didn't know whether to cry in pain or ecstasy. 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:21.440 He had much more than a broken foot. He had 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:28.280 a headline and a lawsuit against Britney Spears jackbox in 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:32.120 the late two thousands. Britney Spears was an industry, but 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:36.600 covering Britney Spears that was an empire. There was no 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.240 Instagram in two thousand and seven, no TikTok. There was 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.080 barely even Facebook. If the public wanted to hear about 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:46.240 a celebrity's life. They needed newsstand staples like people Okay, 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:50.880 US Weekly. Nobody was liking photos of carefully curated interior 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.439 design or Latte Fomer. They were searching out photos of 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:58.800 costly couture, designer drugs, and sloppy penthouse parties, the kind 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:01.440 of excess that makes the of your stomach feels sick, 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.439 so sick you almost kind of like it. It was 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.000 an error that was before the explosion of social media 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.680 and before the recession of two thousand and eight. It 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.800 prompted magazines like US Weekly to have a weekly photo 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.520 budget of one hundred and forty thousand dollars and if 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.040 the staff wanted photos of Britney Spears that week, well, 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.480 let's just say they can easily exhaust that budget for 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.600 only one or two photos to be Britney Spears in 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:27.200 Los Angeles in two thousand and seven meant to be 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:30.120 the most sought after, most snapped celebrity on the market. 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.960 Paparazzi made a business out of Britney Spears a business 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:36.600 and took a piece of Britney Spears and gave it back. 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.680 One exclusive photo of Brittany doing literally anything came with 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.200 a price tag of tens of thousands of dollars. Stills 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.640 and videos of a bald Brittany ramming the tip of 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.440 an umbrella into the four explorer of one Pushy pop 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:51.920 you know, the one, racked up close to four hundred 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:55.560 thousand dollars well. By the fall of two thousand and seven, 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:58.440 long after the day Brittany took clippers to her scalp 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:02.560 pre dented that unlucky paparazazzo's car, exclusive photos of Britney 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:07.000 Spears didn't exist anymore. They didn't exist because between thirty 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:12.000 and forty five, paparazzi followed her every move, every single day. 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:14.520 They pursued her with the hopes that she'd be willing 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.800 to give it up a real hyper sexual industry term 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.040 meaning as celebrity will indulge a paparazzo and pose for 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.320 a memorable photo or two. Paris Hilton gave it up 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:27.040 all the time, but Britney Brittany was a wild card. 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:29.160 She only gave it up some of the time and 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.640 not so much. In two thousand and seven, there were 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.520 regulars in the game who proudly flaunted their aptitude for 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:39.400 ambushing Brittany. There was Hollywood dot tv, the outlet responsible 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:43.120 for capturing incidents like the aforementioned foot mutilation. Then there 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.160 was X one seven online, a celebrity gossip site that 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:48.720 claimed to have earned three million dollars in two thousand 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.120 and seven from Britney photos alone, a whopping one fourth 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:55.720 of revenue from the paparazzi photos. That year, one group 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:58.160 of eight men working under the group named MBF for 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:02.280 X one seven Online log forty thousand man hours stalking 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:06.160 and shooting Brittany. A leaked memo from the Associated Press 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.800 even stated to staff that anything Britney does is news. 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.200 They had her obituary saved in drafts at the time, too. 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:19.840 Britney spears wanted dead or live dark. Hollywood's most patient 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.600 and well paid photographers practiced doorstepping, a term for literally 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:27.040 waiting outside of a celebrities driveway or doorstep until they departed. 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.160 Cops often rousted paps three to four times a day 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:33.360 at Britney's residence, and they scattered like roaches, only to 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.080 circle back later for another chance at their predatory Pulitzer 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.440 Prize moment and their days spent doorstep. It could last 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:42.800 anywhere between twelve and fourteen hours. But once the a 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:46.360 lister in question was on the move, that's when the 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:51.480 real fun began. Fuck a stop sign, Peel through those 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:53.800 red lights, make that pedal go all the way down, 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.400 all the way to the metal. God damn it. Paparazzi 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.160 couldn't be bothered with traffic laws because even if they 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.000 did catch a ticket, the fine would pale in comparison 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.040 to the money they were about to make. Their recklessness 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.560 was matched only by their stamina. When it came to 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.240 car chases. To catch a frame or two of Brittany's behavior, 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.680 paparazzi happily trailed her for up to four hours. The 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:17.760 exhaustion was not an option, not when a single click 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:19.879 of a button could earn you a down payment on 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:23.600 the house in Beverly Hills. If Britney vomited on herself 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.000 in her car, if she stepped out of her convertible 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.080 without a pair of panties, if she so much as 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.679 walked with her dog London in her arms, they were 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:34.320 there to document it. Another sloppy entry into Hollywood's diary, 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:38.919 paired with a snarky, hypercritical caption. Often the media circus 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.919 crowded Brittany to the point of near blindness. Only a 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:45.359 month prior to crushing the paparazzo's bones to bits, Brittany 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.000 hit a parked car on her way to pick up 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.520 some vitamins. As they trailed her convertible and jumped in 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.399 front of it. Brittany diinged another car in the parking lot, 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.040 and then she picked up her pills and left. And 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:58.240 the incident not only racked up a hit and run charge, 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:00.240 but revealed that Brittany was behind the wheel lot a 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.359 license and that was the final fuck up in her 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:07.840 custody battle with Kevin. But if people followed your every 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:11.159 step sip, smoke and shopping spree, someone, we'd catch you 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.360 fucking up eventually, plaster some sort of oop. She did 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.600 it again. Headline on there and you've got supermarket checkout gold. 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.159 A camera greeted Brittany in every direction literally. It's a 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.600 well known tactic that the paparazzi work in threes, boxing 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:29.080 a celebrity into a triangle that they can't turn away from. 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:31.960 The days of a virgin of bubbly Britney Spears had 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.240 passed the sweet Southern bell, prancing around in a Catholic 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:39.919 schoolgirl uniform, collecting accolades, collecting fans worldwide, really winking at 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:43.679 risk a behavior was in early odds phase. Now the 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:48.720 public demanded a disaster, David, and the paparazzi's involvement ensured it. 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.200 Her misery meant that there was money to be made. 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:54.320 And you can say the media wasn't always this invasive, 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:58.439 but it was. The disrespect was always there, it just 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.480 wasn't so visceral at the time. Are your breasts real? 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.440 Are you a virgin? Did you fuck Justin Timberlake? Never mind? 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.480 Justin just went ahead and answer that one for you. Slut. 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.400 One man offered Brittany ten million dollars for her virginity 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:17.080 in two thousand, when she was barely eighteen. Now, when 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.959 rumors of a sex tape with Kevin Federline started spreading 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:23.000 via US Weekly, a judge wouldn't even hear Brittany out 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.600 for a case of defamation. Their logic, Brittany had been 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.800 disrobing in public for almost a decade. Now, Brittany did 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.200 this to herself. People, the media, the powers that be 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:36.320 always wanted the public to think Brittany did this to herself. 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:40.480 Whether this was an unflattering photo, an overwhelmed meltdown, or 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:44.680 a nasty, hypersexual rumor. They never mentioned the pushing, the groping, 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:48.439 the greedy hands of the world's trashy tabloid readers. But 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.520 Brittany was about to fall into a new set of hands, 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:54.600 a set of hands so greedy they wouldn't let her 0:19:54.640 --> 0:20:00.679 go for thirteen years. We'll be right back after this 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:10.119 word word word. Hands slapped the windows, fists pounded on 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.520 the car's hood, Fans left handprints every time Britney's limo 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.400 paused for a stop sign. She couldn't peek it much 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.359 through the tinted windows, but she knew reporters how to 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.560 be tagging along too, obscuring the brilliant neon of the 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.280 Las Vegas strip with their own camera flashes. An empty 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:28.760 bottle of booze rolled around the back seat and clinked 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:33.480 against Britney's heels. For once, Brittany felt grateful for the commotion. 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.560 It filled the silence between her and the boy toy 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:39.080 sharing the back seat with her positioned an awkward few 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:42.119 feet apart from each other. She preferred the sound of 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.800 harassment to the sound of their strained relationship. She preferred 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:48.520 the sound of harassment to the feel of harassment too, 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:51.439 and the limo halted at the ornate lobby of her 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:58.399 hotel last stop. Brittany burst through the limo door, embraced 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:01.879 for the worst ahead with every ounce of energy in 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:05.320 her five foot four frame, but the crowd outside consumed her, 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.679 swallowed her in a sea of microphones, spit her up, 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:12.720 disheveled and disorient her. Mystery man shouldered his way through 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:14.919 the crowd by her side and got a similar smack 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:17.480 down When he then passed along to a smattering of 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:21.400 tabloids bearing Britney's face on the cover. He literally smacked 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.520 them down off a nearby newsstand. Images of her face 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:28.000 covered the floor, and the mob marched right over them. 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:33.040 Privacy was a luxury, Brittany learned, so too was personal 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:36.360 space luxuries that she one of the most lucrative pop 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:39.960 stars in the world, somehow couldn't afford. The irony made 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:43.920 the glistening luxury of her presidential suite feel meaningless. Pointless 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:48.639 even once inside, Britney stormed off to the bathroom. Everyone 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:50.639 could step the fuck out of her way for good. 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:53.639 The boy Toy two, he launched a vase filled with 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:57.000 exotic flowers at the wall and frustration. But Brittany was 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.760 already turning away, away from him, away from fame, away 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:06.080 from everybody. Enough, she locked herself in the bathroom and 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:11.760 acted mechanically. Faucet on, pearly gown off, bathtub filled, step 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:16.560 inside and sink sink. Blood matted in her hair from 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.320 a paparazzi inflicted gash to the back of her head, 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:23.240 the bathwater turned a sickly shade of red. It didn't matter. 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:30.879 All she needed to do was sink, sink, sink. In 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.080 two thousand and three, that's how Britney Spears pictured her 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:40.080 final unraveling. Alone, abused, entirely misunderstood. She acted out her 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:42.720 worst fears in the video for her song every Time, 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:46.560 a bawling ballad from her album in the Zone. Hard 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:49.400 to believe such a downers on the same record as Toxic, 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:51.920 the single that solidified her name in the long term 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:54.560 pop game, the song that proved that once Brittany got 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:56.560 passed the hole not a girl, not yet a woman 0:22:56.640 --> 0:22:59.360 phase and into the totally a woman phase, she could 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:03.600 fucking But back to every Time. The video hands at 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:07.840 reincarnation for Britney Spears the soul while Britney Spears, the celebrity, 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:11.359 sinks to the bottom of the bathtub. And five years later, 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:15.840 that wasn't quite how Britney Spears' life actually unraveled. She 0:23:15.920 --> 0:23:21.000 got the bathroom detail right. Though. Brittany was shouting through 0:23:21.000 --> 0:23:24.439 the door of her private bathroom, I'm fucking hot. No 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:27.199 cop was going to tell her to cover up. Not today. 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:32.399 January two thousand and eight, Brittany clutched her son Jaden 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:34.920 with a grip that was so tight it was almost painful. 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:38.399 Her bare back rested against the bathroom door. She bounced 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:40.280 them up and down in her lap in an attempt 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:42.240 to sue them in spite of the circus waiting on 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:44.919 the other side. The police wanted her to put on 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:47.960 a sweater. They said, uh uh, keep your sweater. I'll 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:50.959 keep my kids. How about that? The time for Brittany 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:53.480