There are two Britneys now.
There’s the Britney Spears who stands for strength and liberation, the force behind the new Broadway hit musical ‘Once Upon a One More Time.’
Then there’s the sad and struggling Britney, the real Britney, who spent the night after July 4th following newly minted NBA star Victor Wembanyama through a Las Vegas hotel lobby and getting smacked in the face.
The police investigation found that she smacked herself, though Spears maintains Wembanyama’s security guard was to blame.
Regardless, it’s hardly the post-conservatorship Britney we’d all hoped would emerge.
Spears is 41. Wembanyama, the number one overall draft pick for the San Antonio Spurs, is 19.
Video of the slap shows Spears from behind, in a dated, belly-baring green top, her hair extensions fraying, as she tries to get Wembanyama’s attention.
There are two Britneys now. There’s the Britney Spears who stands for strength and liberation, the force behind the new Broadway hit musical ‘Once Upon a One More Time.’ Then there’s the sad and struggling Britney, who spent the night after July 4th following newly minted NBA star Victor Wembanyama through a Las Vegas hotel lobby and getting smacked in the face .
This is how far she’s fallen. Once the biggest pop star in the world, Britney Spears, now reduced to chasing after a much younger athlete who’s been famous for less than a month, and she’s swatted away like a gnat.
And all the world has seen it.
Spears, who now posts alarming near-naked photos and strange dance clips on social media, has always been a fascinating example of American fame and its dark side.
She recalls no one so much as Marilyn Monroe — the bombshell beauty, the sweet nature, a complicated mental illness that she cannot seem to overcome.
Monroe was only 36 when she died. Perhaps Spears was protected by her conservatorship more than we knew, more than any of the #FreeBritney advocates understood.
That said, this isn’t an argument for her conservatorship to be reinstated.
Spears is clearly unwell, but her children are older and no longer live with her. She is married to her third husband, 29-year-old Sam Asghari, and seems a danger to no one but herself.
Let it be said: Britney is still a cultural phenomenon and a relevant artist.
Broadway show aside, ‘Hold Me Closer’, her recent collaboration with Elton John, went to number one on iTunes in over forty countries, debuted at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was used in the opening scene of the second season of ‘And Just Like That’.
Prior to the single’s release, Elton told the UK’s Guardian newspaper that he saw his younger self in Spears.
Spears, who now posts alarming near-naked photos and strange dance clips on social media, has always been a fascinating example of American fame and its dark side.
That said, this isn’t an argument for her conservatorship to be reinstated. Spears is clearly unwell, but her children are older and no longer live with her. She is married to her third husband, 29-year-old Sam Asghari (pictured), and seems a danger to no one but herself.
‘Britney was broken’, he said. ‘I was broken when I got sober. I was in a terrible place… Now I’ve got the experience to be able to advise people and help them because I don’t want to see any artists in a dark place. A lot of artists, you’d think they’d have self-esteem, but they don’t. And that’s why we go onstage and we get the applause, and then we come offstage and we’re back to square one.’
Britney seems once again back to square one. Her recovery, her life, her career — none of it will ever again likely follow a linear path.
She is a middle-aged woman who may or may not be on drugs, whose hyper-sexuality was encouraged and commodified by a music industry that made billions off of her, who in many ways never had a chance.
Back in January, members of her inner circle told Page Six that as much as Spears struggles, no one thinks she should ever be placed under anyone’s control again.
‘Nobody outside the very small conservatorship circle knows what Britney’s medical status really is’, one well-placed source said. ‘If people knew Britney’s actual medical status, I think it would reveal that her mental problems are far more severe than people realize. Regardless… it isn’t necessarily appropriate for her to be under a conservatorship. There are less harsh ways to handle it.’
Indeed. To hear and see her perform, to hear the testimony of a veteran star such as Elton, is to recognize that Spears does have the ability to flourish.
At the height of her conservatorship, she starred in her own Las Vegas residency for four years straight, from 2013 to 2017. She did 248 shows with an average run time of 90 minutes. It was a critical and commercial smash, raking in nearly $138 million.
Britney’s residency was one of the most successful in Vegas history, ranking only behind those of Celine Dion and, yes, Elton John.
‘Everyone was saying they don’t think she can sing anymore,’ Elton told the Guardian. ‘But I said she was brilliant when she started, so I think she can. And … I was so thrilled with what she did.’
Let it be said: Britney is still a cultural phenomenon and a relevant artist. Indeed, to hear and see her perform is to recognize that Spears does have the ability to flourish.
Andrew Watt, who produced ‘Hold Me Closer,’ agreed.
‘She’s unbelievable at layering her voice and doubling, which is one of the hardest things to do,’ Watt said. ‘She’s so good at knowing when she got the right take. She took complete control.’
That’s the Britney Spears we all root for, the one who has at least one place where she seems functional. The real world may be too much for her. It probably always will be.
This incident with Wembanyama — who, by the way, looks arrogant and full of himself for refusing to apologize, this guy who’s been famous in America for like five minutes, who told the press he couldn’t believe that it was the Britney Spears who’d approached him — shouldn’t define Britney or make her the butt of an ongoing joke.
Britney actually does deserve an apology. That slap may have been accidental, but it was a humiliation she didn’t deserve.
‘This story is super embarrassing to share with the world,’ Spears tweeted on Thursday, ‘but its [sic] out there already. However, I think it’s important to share this story and to urge people in the public eye to set an example and treat all people with respect.’
Something tells me once Wembanyama has a bad game or two, he’ll understand what it’s like to be publicly humiliated.
Meanwhile, over in New York City, Britney’s story has a happier ending.
In ‘Once Upon a One More Time,’ her first big project since the conservatorship was terminated in 2021, Britney’s songs tell the stories of famous fairytale princesses who decide to forge their own fates after reading ‘The Feminine Mystique’.
‘It’s just a giant celebration of Britney,’ co-director and choreographer Mari Madrid told USA Today.
This incident with Wembanyama (pictured) — who, by the way, looks arrogant and full of himself for refusing to apologize — shouldn’t define Britney or make her the butt of a joke.
Britney actually does deserve an apology. That slap may have been accidental, but it was a humiliation she didn’t deserve.
Every aspect of the show was submitted to Spears for approval, and she profits monetarily from the production.
It’s also a reminder that Britney Spears is a survivor.
‘We get to celebrate her freedom every night,’ star Aisha Jackson told the outlet. ‘We uplift her, she uplifts us — it’s a great feeling.’
Maybe Victor Wembanyama should catch a performance.
And maybe Britney will, one day, get her fairytale ending.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk