In 2007, when a California judge chose to take custody of Britney Spears’ two sons, TMZ founder Harvey Levin, New York Times Spears needed a “wake-up call.”
“It’s no longer a pointless story,” he said. “This is a woman who loves her childless children. She now took tragic elements.
Levin and the late television producer Jim Paratore founded TMZ in 2005. Like almost all gossip outlets at the time, the junk media site made good money posting Spears and meticulously followed his every move. detention incident, NYT Reporter Mireya Navarro wrote at the time that the intense scrutiny surrounding Spears’ erratic behavior “had become a force in its own right—selling magazines and music, increasing Web traffic, and giving obscure characters their minutes of fame.”
Based on TMZ’s new “documentary” Britney Spears: The Price of Freedom, not much has changed. When it comes to traffic, in Levin’s words, “Britney Is Old Loyal” Times Even in 2007 and after all the learning and growth we’ve supposedly done since then, the business of speculating about his life and well-being is still booming.
The hour-long special, which began Monday on Fox and now airs on Hulu, documents the “growing signs of trouble” in Spears’ life after her conservancy ended. TMZ reports that multiple sources have claimed that Spears “gets physical” multiple times with her husband, Sam Asghari. The program claims the couple’s marriage is in trouble and Spears’ “struggle with his mental health is getting worse.”
Some news sites are already starting to get revelations about Spears’ irregular sleep schedule, his alleged habit of “driving around aimlessly” in his Los Angeles neighborhood, and more. Never mind that TMZ has already released many of these “news” as promotional fodder for the special event.
These details, all disclosed out of a supposed horror for Spears’ sake, hark back to a time when the singer couldn’t throw a cigarette out of the car without TMZ taking a photo and publishing a story calling her “ass-headed.” .
TMZs The Price of Freedom He also notes that those who “looked at” Spears before her conservatism ended provided her with a list of recommendations, including whether the singer should continue therapy. While Spears admitted with a laugh that she needed “a little therapy” in her June 2021 statement, she also noted that she had to work with therapists she had never chosen during her conservatism.
TMZ’s exclusive allegations that Spears later “taunts” the therapy cite a video the singer posted on social media in December 2021 as evidence. The original video featured a caption where Spears wrote that she was “forced” to do “10 hours” of therapy. one day, 7 days a week. “[I]In this beautiful nation, it would be fair for me to dedicate my life to sketches to the wonderful therapist.”
This context is completely absent in the private. Instead, viewers media personality Dr. They hear from sources like Drew Pinsky: “Teasing treatment is definitely not a good sign, but it’s a brain disorder and it’s pretty biological and really requires a lot of therapy, not medication.”
It’s not clear what Pinsky means by “it” here—perhaps the so-called brain disorder. Spears hasn’t made any diagnoses public, so it could be Britney Spears: The Price of Freedom It leans too much on an ambiguous overarching term like “mental illness.”
Later, Pinsky cites Spears’ behavior on social media as an exhibit of “rapid cyclic mental illness.”
“They’re not good,” he says. (Again, TMZ offers no context for who “they” are in this example.) Pinsky continues: “Their brains are not working right. If it makes you angry, be careful because it’s not about you.”
From the dramatic music as Spears looks into the camera and screams the lyrics to “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and dances at her home, to the ominous videos curated from social media, a terrifying energy is felt throughout the documentary.
last winter, when New York Post The tabloid, which fabricated an article about “former #FreeBritney fans” now supposedly “deeply concerned” for the singer, seemed to confirm that in some people’s eyes Spears’ freedom was still temporary. as the sole source for to mail “Freedom can be very dangerous for someone who has no idea how to move forward in life unchecked.”
Moments like this highlight how Spears’ personal plight reflects the broader struggles of the disability community. As reporter Sara Luterman, who is autistic and blind, put it in a 2021 Slate interview about conservatism, “When people think you’re crazy, nothing you say is believable. Everything can be undermined.”
“In the age of social media, even a pop star’s fans can help spy on them; TMZ’s special event includes a viral TikTok video of several fans apparently filming themselves while searching for the cops.”
Maybe that’s why Spears is being watched so tightly even after she’s been released from the custody arrangement. For example: TMZ’s doctor also makes sure to mention an incident this January when police came to Spears’ home for a checkup. Reason? Fans had recently started calling authorities to say he might be in danger, based on his surprising behavior at a restaurant and his choice to change his Instagram display name before deleting his account. In the age of social media, even a pop star’s fans can help spy on them; TMZ’s special event includes a viral TikTok video of several fans apparently filming themselves while searching for the cops.
Spears said in part after her police visit: “I love and adore my fans, but this time things went a little too far and my privacy was violated. The police never entered my house and when they came to my door they knew it was okay and they left right away.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the hardest part The Price of Freedom She disputes Spears’ ability as a mother. Just as in the past the media has tarnished him as “white scumbag” and an unfit parent, The Price of Freedom She seems determined to do the same, going so far as to use four years of videos that Spears’ ex-husband Kevin Federline posted (and then deleted) last summer in an attempt to embarrass a poor mother. Federline’s attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, also appears as an expert source in TMZ’s special publication.
Psychiatrist Charles Sophy—former medical director of the Los Angeles County Department of Child and Family Services, also describes himself as a “frequent contributor” on his website. Dr.”—goes so far as to say that Spears “didn’t know how to parent, and that’s why she did it in these desperate ways.”
Levin also offers his own analysis: “The truth is, there’s no real reference point for how to be a parent,” she says. “His father was mostly absent when he was growing up, and his mother, I mean, was a classic stage mother. Britney wasn’t much of a kid as she was a commodity.
So ironic that the only optimistic note in it The Price of Freedom It comes to a close as the experts (and for some reason Paul Anka) discuss the possibility of Spears returning to the stage one day. Are we supposed to believe that the same industry that exploited Spears was his best path to salvation?
Despite all the discussion on TMZ’s production about how painful Spears’ isolation could be, neither the doctor nor his “experts” seem too keen to consider how their comments might contribute. Spears has spent years not being able to tell her story, and while she’s reportedly getting ready to publish a memoir this fall, it’s hard to escape the feeling that others have already defined her narrative (and made good money doing it).
As disappointing as it may be to see the tabloids continue to scrutinize Spears’ every move, there are at least encouraging signs that the public is less willing to tar and feather him as we did in 2007. spoke out against the doctor, Spears’ fans rallied against TMZ for a massive social media blog. (More amusingly, they’ve also started making fun of some exaggerated “revelations” like Spears’s. reported caffeine habit.) Spears may be stronger than yesterday, but they don’t have to be; what she really deserves is just a piece of dignity.