How Did SOMEONE Not Tell Us?
Looking back and reading this Chuck Klosterman article from October 2003 (don’t let the datestamp fool you) makes me wonder how nobody figured out how nuts Britney Spears really was. I guess 90 minutes with a star only gets you so far. Only allows you to start to wonder whether you are being fed BS on schedule, whether the star is spinning you (in the huh? way) on purpose, whether she is actually that stupid or…
Well, no, really, this is the 21st century, the age of reality TV where nothing is real and everything is rehearsed or reshot or retouched.
Obviously.
Except maybe not.
Before Kevin, before ruining multi-thousand-dollar dresses with dog shit, before Lufti and Adnan (not even ashamed that I know these names), before custody battles and paparazzi street fights, there was this:
“Had I not gone into music,” she tells me, “I probably would have gone to college and become a schoolteacher. That was my dream, because I love kids. Either that, or an entertainment lawyer.” For a moment, I think this is a joke. But it’s not a joke. But it’s brilliant. Schoolteacher, entertainment lawyer, pop star, African warlord — what’s the fucking difference? “I’m famous,” she concedes, “but I’m not famous like freaking Brad Pitt or Jennifer Aniston. But in my weird little head, I just think we’re all here to inspire each other. We’re all equal. We just bounce off each other and show the world what we can do.”
…
“Actually, the record label wanted me to do certain kinds of songs, and I was like, ‘Look, if you want me to be some kind of sex thing, that’s not me.’ I will never do that. I’m still doing what I love to do.”
…
“I was just talking about sexuality with my makeup artist,” she tells me. “And I was explaining to her that when I was thirteen years old, I used to walk around my house completely naked. And my dad would say, ‘Britney, put some clothes on, we have people over.’ My family just always walked around the house naked. We were earthy people. I’ve never been ashamed of my body. We were very free people.”
Only now, nobody gives her the benefit of the doubt that she’s trying to play us all.
