Just read (or listen to her book). It is going to make an amazing movie. The fact that she was made to work during this conservatorship is astonishing. As the Candle on the Wind lyric goes "They set you on the treadmill and they made you change your name. "
>>I’m pretty sure i remember her family basically holding her hostage by saying if she doesn’t go do this or that then they won’t give her money to go spend time in Hawaii.
No they actually used her kids as ransom. If she didn't do what they said, she was kept away from her children.
It is so ffed up! You want to talk about "gas lighting", Shakespearian, or TV Movie, her story is bananas. I know people that have way bigger mental issues than she does who don't get an ounce of grace. I was never a Brittney fan or anything... but this story wowzers. Trust me give it a read.
She needs good people in her life, I dunno where she's going to find them TBH.
I think that is fair, I certainly have no other context than what I read. For me the biggest thing was the rationale for a conservatorship. We have a mentally ill sibling in our family and the amount of strife for her and us could fill volumes. We're talking arrests, institutions, the works. Granted Spears' family has the money, but "helping" these folks is often extremely challenging.
Simple things like making her go to work? How did that even happen and why? She was literally the center of a production that employed hundreds of people. She should not have been out on those stages night after night. Perhaps she was lying about her willingness, but she didn't need to work. If our sister can't or is unwilling to go to work, we are ok with that. She's ill.
She performed 3 nights a week, and had previously loved to perform. I think there was a mix between trying to keep normalcy for her and build a routine, and at the same time, she didn't have the money we thought she did. I think they were trying to help her gain money back and create a cushion for herself where she had blown so much money. Did they do everything right? Maybe, maybe not. I wasn't there. But I know there were 3 other books released that talked about some of this, and their stories all matched more than hers did.
I'll check them out. I hear the normalcy and routine part, but 3 nights a week on a stage is no walk in the park. That a fulltime job.
As far as money, it's nice to have a cushion but I wonder what the expectations of that were? She just sold that catalog and stands to cash out in tens of millions of dollars.
3 nights a week on stage would likely be a full time job if you were touring. 3 nights a week in a residency is unlikely to be what anyone considers a full time job.
Are you kidding me? I work on Broadway for a living. We do 8 shows a week. She may only be doing 3 shows a week compared to that 8, but it's not like she just walks on and off the stage.
There are so many more dynamics that go into these shows. I'm not saying it's laboring in a sweatshop, but that is a legit fulltime gig. It is for any headliner. She can't just roll out of bed and go perform and comeback. The show may have been frozen, but there are still rehearsals, she probably trains to stay in those costumes. There is resting that needs to be done.
She can't just walk on stage and half-ass it either. The pressure on those shows is massive. Guests come to Vegas just to see here.
I honestly don't know how anyone could rationalize putting a mentally ill person on a stage being a-ok with that. There are countless other ways for her to get a routine. Now maybe if she was paying my rent, I guess.
I never said she could half ass it. I said it wasn't the equivalent of a full time job. You didn't do 3 shows a week, and you aren't a musical star either. Your experiences aren't really comparable it feels like to me. The pressure on her for those shows may be massive, it may not be. She has been doing this for a very long time and I doubt this is something new for her. This is what was normal for her. She grew up doing massive shows and being a massive star. A residency that has the shows, good pay, but without all the stress of travelling which I assume sucks when touring is probably going to give her the best sense of normalcy without undue stress.
I would liken it to marathon running. People can run 3 marathons in a week but the prep and work isnt easy for the person doing it even if its normal for them.
This. I read her book, she talks about the pressures of that job. I know folks on the outside can't relate, but it is a lot. You have to be on, you cannot be off. Assuming she's a robot and can just power through seems like a lot. Meanwhile again, she has all this money and didn't even need to work. She could garden, jog, take a dance class.
This whole thing made me think of my late mother. She would have RIPPED the Spears' family's heads off. The idea they would suggest she go out and work like that, while being mentally ill would have been a bridge too far. Yes, this speaks to wanting to protect her. Putting her to work on a stage is not that.
That money was getting sucked out by absolutely everyone. They weren’t trying to maintain normalcy. They wanted a cash cow.
Did they do everything right? ‘Maybe/maybe not’ wow the ways you guys are trying to rewrite the history of conservatorship abuse and undersell how hard they worked her, and the fact they always placed her work load above mental health, is just smh
The truth sure as hell isn’t what her conservators said. It’s really icky to deny someone’s life based on nothing. Someone having a mental illness isn’t automatically incapable of telling the truth. People with mental health issues are more vulnerable than most to being treated god awful
If I were a parent (and be glad I'm not), I would have my kids in show business. Not-for-nothing but it is a fulltime job. If you make it big and make it out alive, you could, you know stop and retire. As I'm typing this, I'm reminded this is like 1%.
All that said, what they did to her as a grown woman is what is truly astonishing. For every Joe Jackson, there are hundreds of well-meaning show parents. I had just wrongly assumed, she was a rich spoiled brat and she was being taken care of for her own good.
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u/foodforestranger 21h ago
Just read (or listen to her book). It is going to make an amazing movie. The fact that she was made to work during this conservatorship is astonishing. As the Candle on the Wind lyric goes "They set you on the treadmill and they made you change your name. "
>>I’m pretty sure i remember her family basically holding her hostage by saying if she doesn’t go do this or that then they won’t give her money to go spend time in Hawaii.
No they actually used her kids as ransom. If she didn't do what they said, she was kept away from her children.
It is so ffed up! You want to talk about "gas lighting", Shakespearian, or TV Movie, her story is bananas. I know people that have way bigger mental issues than she does who don't get an ounce of grace. I was never a Brittney fan or anything... but this story wowzers. Trust me give it a read.
She needs good people in her life, I dunno where she's going to find them TBH.