The legal battle over who should control Britney Spears’ finances and personal life will return to court later this week amid a renewed discussion of how she was treated during her meteoric rise as a teenage pop star and during her ensuing mental health battle.
The issue has resurfaced over the past few days after ‘Framing Britney Spears’, a documentary by The New York Times, premiered on FX and Hulu on Friday. The film focuses on the conflict over Spears’ conservatism, a legal arrangement that allows other people – mainly her father – to manage her career, her personal life and her finances since 2008.
The documentary tells the origins of the current legal battle and tells the story of a gifted artist who has been surrounded for decades by people who want to exploit her and is eventually driven to desperation by a treacherous culture of celebrities and paparazzi that leaves her alone not.
The film also explores the #FreeBritney movement, a campaign by fans who want to portray the conservatory as a money-hungry means to exercise control over Spears.
Since the debut of the new documentary, these calls have multiplied, with several celebrities taking part in a movement that was once confined to a niche group of activists and superfans.
A post on Instagram and Twitter On Tuesday, it appears that Spears indirectly commented on the documentary by sharing a performance of her from a few years ago and writing: ‘I would always like to be on stage …. but I take the time to learn and be a normal person ….. I like to simply enjoy the basics of everyday life !!!! ”
“Remember, no matter what we know about a person’s life,” she writes, “it is nothing compared to the person living behind the lens.”
With a hearing scheduled for Thursday in Los Angeles, an outline of the controversy over the conservatory.
What is a conservatory?
Sometimes known as guardianship, and a conservatory is a complicated legal arrangement usually reserved for the elderly, sick, or disabled. A representative is appointed to manage the person’s affairs and estate if it is deemed that he cannot take care of himself, or is vulnerable to outside influence or manipulation.
Spears has been living under a conservatory since 2008, following a number of public collapses (which, according to the documentary, were aggressively caught by paparazzi who followed Spears almost everywhere). Spears’ father, James P. Spears, known as Jamie, has been overseeing the financial and personal life of his daughter as one of the custodians for more than a decade. The appointed custodians have control over everything from Spears’ mental health care to where and when she can travel; the draft means Spears’s preservation staff is required to file detailed accounts of her purchases with the court – even minor charges such as $ 5 purchases at Sonic Drive-In or Target.
Conservatism is always portrayed as protecting someone. Representatives of Jamie Spears said his stewardship over her career is likely to save her from financial ruin. He said in court documents that his “only motivation was the unconditional love for his daughter and a strong desire to protect her from those who wanted to exploit her.”
Jamie Spears resigned in 2019 from his role as personal conservator of his daughter, citing health issues; a professional conservator took his place temporarily. The current court battle revolves around control of Spears’ estate.
Where does the issue stand in court?
Last summer, the contours of the case changed drastically when Samuel D. Ingham III, a lawyer appointed by Spears in court, said for the first time that his client ‘strongly opposed’ her father as conservator. Ingham called for the permanent personal conservator of Spears, Jodi Montgomery, a professional in the field, to be made permanent, and Ingham left open the possibility that Spears might one day terminate the conservatory in full.
“Without in any way relinquishing her right to terminate this conservatory in the future,” Ingham wrote, “Britney wants Montgomery’s appointment as her person’s conservator to become permanent.”
In November, a judge refused to remove Jamie Spears immediately as head of his daughter’s estate; at the same time, the judge added a corporate fiduciary, Bessemer Trust, as co-conservator, as the singer requested.
In December, Judge Montgomery’s temporary role as personal conservator extended until September this year.
The hearing in Los Angeles on Thursday will likely include a discussion of the roles Jamie Spears and Bessemer Trust will play in managing the estate. An attorney for Jamie Spears did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What does Britney Spears want?
What has become clear through her lawyer in recent months, according to court documents, is that Britney Spears no longer wants her father to serve as her conservator.
The singer’s lawyer said during a court hearing in November that she was afraid of her father, with whom she had not spoken for a long time, and that she would not perform again if her father retained control of her career, The Associated . Press report.
For years, Spears largely ignored the calls from fans to #FreeBritney, but recently she expressed some approval when her lawyer wrote in court that her client “welcomes and appreciates the informed support of her many fans.” (Her father referred to #FreeBritney activists as ‘conspiracy theorists’.)
What is less clear is whether Britney Spears intends to end the conservatory in the near future. Her initial dislike of the arrangement was evident in 2008, when Spears in an interview with MTV compared her circumstances to an endless prison sentence.
Spears wrote in her social media posts Tuesday: “Every person has their story and their own ideas about others’ stories.”
Her current boyfriend, Sam Asghari, came out earlier Tuesday with blunt criticism of Jamie Spears and wrote in an Instagram story that he “has no respect for anyone who tries to control our relationship and constantly throws obstacles in our way.”
Who else spoke?
The #FreeBritney movement has previously garnered attention from celebrities, such as when Miley Cyrus shouted out the phrase during a 2019 concert. But the film bolstered the support – and spurred a diversion from journalists and others on how they might be in the hypercritical Britney obsession of the aughts.
In the days after the documentary is gone, celebrities like it Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler and Andy Cohen tweeted the hashtag. Actress Valerie Bertinelli calls the documentary a ‘gut punch’ tweeted a list of men she believes have harmed Spears throughout her career. The singer Hayley Williams wrote that “no artist today” will have to endure what Spears did.
In the days after the debut of the documentary, another message was popularized by celebrities, including the singer Courtney Love, began to tend, “We’m sorry, Britney.” It was a sad acknowledgment that the intrusions into Spears’ private life, the fixation on her sexuality, and the relentless focus on her faults on the shoulders of many rest.
Joe Coscarelli reported.