BRITNEY GOES WILD!
Sex.
Stalkers.
Tantrums.
GIRL YOU'LL BE A WOMAN SOON
WORDS JOHN AIZLEWOOD
EVEN ICONS GET THE BLUES. PESTERED BY FRED DURST AND HOUNDED BY THE VIRGINITY POLICE, BRITNEY SPEARS HAS PUT ASIDE HER GROWING PAINS AND COME OUT FIGHTING. IT'S AMAZING WHAT SUCKING FACE WITH MADONNA CAN DO...
It is one of these endless summer Saturdays, when the sun is far too fierce and the air too still. Britney Spears's suite at London's Royal Kensington Hotel is air-conditioned, but sweltering. There are legions of make-up artists, TV crew and their lighting rigs, plus a coterie of hostile flunkies of indeterminate occupation. In a distant corner is a small settee where I am perched, ready to interview America's new sweetheart.
I am allocated 10 minutes. It feels like 110. She has little to say and little interest in saying it. Worse, she is eating loudly, and would rather be sunbathing. She trots out the usual lines about being tired but happy, and, gee, how she really likes London. One last shot: what will you be doing in four or five years' time?
"Oh, I don't know," she sighs. "I hope I'm still doing this. I think I will be." With that, I squelch off, comforted only by the certainty that, as she clearly has the shelf life of Tiffany, our paths need not cross again.
Four years later, it is one of those endless summer Thursdays, so hot that the streets of Manhattan are thinking of melting. Britney Spears has not faded into burger-flipping obscurity. Instead, the mall rat superstar has grown into a global icon capable of putting the world in a spin simply by visiting the shops without wearing a bra. Now, when Madonna needs to drain the life force from a sexy, younger woman whose star is in the ascendent, it is Spears who gets the call.
Her suite at the Trump International Hotel And Tower is on the fourth floor and overlooks Central Park. "I just got up from a nap," Spears explains. This is not true. Moments earlier, I had inadvertantly opened a wrong door and stumbled upon her and her entourage tucking into a hearty lunch. No matter.
"I always take naps," she says.
A long-standing habit?
"Oh yes, for the past five weeks. I get to a certain point of the day, either around 2 or 6pm, and I crash. Then I wake up and I'm a different person. It's instilled in my body and I love it."
When Britney Spears first waltzed into our lives with ...Baby One More Time in February 1999, she was an awkward, immature teen. Now, she had blossomed into a statuesque woman. She has dressed down today today, favouring a flesh-coloured top - none of that bra business though - longish white skirt and part pixie, part cowboy ankle boots.
"Almost every day Fred Durst left a card in my mailbox."
She offers me coffee, then pours a manly serving.
She's a funny fish, full of tics and contradictions. She fidgets incessantly, fiddles with her hair as if were made of snakes and her legs cross and uncross so frequently she'll chafe them if she's not careful. He catchphrases are "whatever...", accompanied by a thin-lipped smile, and "honestly", accompanied by a deadening of her eyes. Like any multi-millionairess 21-year-old, sne enjoys the current legal activities of drinking and smoking, often at the same time. It's the smoking that's tickled the tabloids. Her suite is smoke-free. Perhaps that's why she fidgets so.
How do you deal with the saturation coverage? Can you ever go out without the entourage?
If I put a hat on [she has a hat on] I could wander around Central Park if I wanted to [she makes it clear that she does not want to. I sometimes do my own groceries. I love grocery shopping.
And what about a night out?
I go to clubs. I love to hear what people are listening to.
Don't you get hassled?
No. I have my own little area with a velvet rope and a very huge man.
Is that normal?
It's normal for me.
For Britney Spears, normality has also meant growing up in public, with all the humiliations that implies. Almost as soon as she arrived, she hooked up with former Mickey Mouse Club co-star Justin Timberlake, proclaimed her virginity too loud (she was too old for school when ...Baby One More Time was released) and set herself up for the inevitable fall. Although her record sales had dipped before Crossroads - her disasterous film debut - that fall publicly began in August 2002 in Mexico. She stopped a concert after four songs, claimed a thunderstorm forced her offstage and flipped her middle finger to the world (or at least the paparazzi). Then she announced she was going to have a little rest.
More life-lessons interrupted this supposed calm period. Two stalkers (separate stalkers, they don't stalk in pairs) were seen off by her lawyers. She financed the Nyla restaurant in New York; after an expensive opening night, food poisoning and stabbings kept it in the news but off diners' radars. It closed with $400,000 debts. Worse, Crossroads continued to be damaging. It won awards: Spears tied with Madonna's efforts in Swept Away for Worst Actress at this year's Razzies.
The smoking was followed by the smoking gun in the portly shape of Fred Durst, singer with Limp Bizkit. He produced a track for Spears' new album, In The Zone, and claimed they'd slept together at her Hollywood home.
"I've never felt this way before," he gushed. "Anybody out there who has a serious problem with my feelings for Britney should chill and worry about your own feelings. You can't help what happens in life because everything happens for a reason. I am a good judge of character and so is she."
She looks slightly pale.
"Oh gosh."
Spears denies anything happened. Their musical collaboration will never see daylight. And when Limp Bizkit played London in September,
"WOULD I HAVE VOTED FOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER? SURE. HE'S A GOOD PERSON."
"PEOPLE THINK I'M SCARY BECAUSE I'VE HAD SO MANY PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES."
Durst dedicated a track to "that ****ing ***** Britney Spears." Classy.
Sex shouldn't be a problem for Fred Durst. Why would someone in his position say such things?
You tell me. It was a little bizarre because he came to my house one time and then he left. After that, he continuously, almost every day, left a card in my mailbox.
Ooh, creepy.
Yeah, whatever. But I guess people are desperate for attention sometimes. It's my fault for associating with him. That's what I get for hanging out with people I shouldn't. I was so stupid, so innocent, so naive and I thought everybody was great. Boy was I wrong.
Have you spoken to him recently?
Not long ago actually, but it was a bull**** conversation. That's the only way you can talk when someone is like that.
Did you imagine your life would turn out this way?
It hasn't been how I thought it would be. It's been a cool adventure, it really has, but you have to be careful what you pray for. It's so weird: when I visualise something, when I meditate something in my mind, it happens. Knock on wood [she knocks on a glass table], I don't want to jinx myself, but it really does. It's so funny when you experience your dreams: when I was recording my album, I was dreaming of this moment. Now I'm dreaming of lying in a vineyard on a ranch.
What on earth happened in Mexico?
Listen, before Mexico, I did an HBO Special, then I went overseas to promote Crossroads, then I went on tour. Everything became very monotonous to me and I needed something that was calming, soothing and nothing to do with chaos, so I took a break. It was so funny that people thought it was because of the Mexican thing. I'd been planning it long before that. I shouln't have made an announcement because it made an issue of it. I just wanted time to myself.
So it wasn't a breakdown?
No.
People were thinking, Poor, poor Britney.
People didn't think that. That would be sad.
This came after your split with Timberlake. Lest we forget, his Cry Me A River video featured a Britney Spears lookalike in the shower.
Oh my gosh, I would never do that. Never ever.
People will be looking for lyrical insights into the relationship on your new album.
I'm prepared for people looking. If that's what they want to, that's fine. I can't have a say over what they feel or what they want, so it doesn't bother me.
OK, but the critical panning of Crossroads must have bothered you...
Well, it was my first movie. It did $17 million in the first week and went to Number 2. Honestly, it was an experiment, something my production company wanted to do. It wasn't as massive as we wanted it to be.
Is that the end of your acting?
No. It was a learning lesson for what I wanted to do next. That's the way I perceive and look at it.
Anything lined up?
Er, no. I'm focusing on music.
What about the Nyla restaurant - not your finest investment?
Mmm, that was stupid. It was a silly idea. I was never much for it. I did it for my dad, because he had this brilliant idea of being a chef, and it didn't work out.
[She ruminates on her year]
I show people what I choose. If I'm going through an emotional day it's up to me to be professional and go to my room and cry. Sometimes it's nice to have a quiet cry, especially when it's the time of the month. Most of the time it's not good to dwell on things.
[She begins to dwell on things]
People make their own experiences. When something comes over the, they become better people. I don't know if I've handled these things properly. I feel like, you know when you've had a big cry, a sleep and you wake up? Now, I feel like that, like I've taken a Valium and I feel just great. Sometimes God allows things to happen so you can break down a little bit, get stuff out that you need to get out.
Later that evening, Jive Records is presenting its autumn release schedule to its American sales force at Show, a hideous faux-vaudeville clun. Insanely, mobile telephones are confiscated, but drinks have been free since six o'clock, so men with loose ties and bald pates totter around women with short skirts and smudged make-up. It it hotter than hell - in fact we may have died and this may well be hell - and in a clumsy ruse to suggest Bacchanalia there are pole dancers.
Every half-hour, Jive acts such as the hopeless R&B singer Joe play new material (alas, a metal detector has ensured guns cannot be brought in). Without fail, each act obsequiously thanks Jive's top brass, with glower in a corner behind a velvet rope wishing they were in their weekend homes in the Hamptons.
Eventually, Spears emerges and is presented with a disc commemorating 50 million album sales. She looks bored. Accompanied by earpiece-toting security, Britney Spears shakes hands with the head of Jive Benelux and, after 15 minutes of standing, arms folded, making small talk with the high and mighty, she scuttles off without a backwards glance. In the background, her new album plays more quietly than Cry Me A River just has.
Spears says In The Zone is "more sensual, more sexy and a lot more me." A small army of producers, including Rodney Jerkins, The Neptunes and Moby, has been hired to push the singer towards adulthood. Madonna herself features on the single Me Against The Music. Even the unfortunate R. Kelly lends a hand, porn charges withstanding. She felt no discomfort working with him; he sent in a pre-existing track, she added the vocals. "The other stuff is his personal life and I'm not involved in that."
As Spears is at pains to note, she not a little girl anymore and intermittent writing credits on the new album suggest she is taking some responcibility for her career. The sea-change came as ehr parents (reticent gymnasium-owning building father Jamie; teacher-@#%$-showbiz-mom Lynne) finally divorced after years of bickering.
Was your parents' divorce a painful experience?
Actually, you know what? My parents' divorce was the best thing that ever happened. I started feeling more pleasant when they did it. Two people can completely love each other, but when they come from different worlds, sometimes it doesn't work. They're best apart and they're both happy now. It makes a pleasant environment for everybody.
Has it changed your attitude to people in general?
I trust myself and my instincts and keep my circle small. It's sad when people go out every night searching for themselves, trying to pretend they're friends with everybody. That's so draining. People who don't have many friends, just four or five really close ones and are content with themselves are cool, man. Being home watching TV is real life. I like that.
Do you want to be taken seriously?
Oh no [she sputters as if the aforementioned R. Kelly had suggested a date]. Once you need to be justified, you're setting yourself up to fail. To a certain point I would love people to respect my music, that's logical thinking, but it doesn't come down to that with me. It's more refreshing when it's there plain as day. Right now I just want to have fun.
Are you a girl or a woman?
I don't know what I am. You tell me. "Girl" and "woman" are just words. You are you, whatever that is. I don't like defining things. Some things just are. Does that make any sense?
Not really...
Well, I don't see me as moving from girl to woman. I've matured into what state I am and maybe I'm a little more comfortable with myself, but you can be 48 and still jump up and down like a girl when your daughter is having a birthday.
Do you like yourself?
I don't define myself that way. My actions define myself each day: how I treat people and the person that I am to my family. Am I a happy person? I think so, but I'm not like, "Hiiiii", ecstatic.
What do you really like doing?
I took a two-hour bath last night and had the time of my life. My skin went all wrinkly and pruney: the feet are the worst. I could soak in the tub forever. I love it. It doesn't take much to make me happy. Money doesn't mean anything to me. Honestly, I'm very simple. I like practicality.
What's your favorite board game?
Cranium. I love that. There are four catagories: spelling; using play dough; drawing pictures, like Pictionary; and hard political questions. I don't usually win, but I'm getting better.
Outrageous Fortune
A life in controversy.
The moment: Giving it some mucky schoolgirl on the cover of Rolling Stone, 1999.
Buttons pushed: Paedophilia!
The moment: Waggling a boa constrictor at the MTV Video Awards, 2001.
Buttons pushed: It's a phalic symbol, you know!
The moment: Posing in dominatrix cap and rubber gear, MTV Video Awards, 2002.
Buttons pushed: S&M!
The moment: Smoking a @#%$ outside Baluchi's Indian Food Factory, New York, 2003.
Buttons pushed: She's a proper rebel!
The moment: Kissing Madonna - with tongues? - at the MTV Video Awards, 2003.
Buttons pushed: Lesbianism!
Shortly after we met in New York, she quitely visited London "to see
a friend" (she won't say who, but she has British relatives) only to
have the tabloids claiming she spilled some slimming pills at Heathrow. A
few weeks later she telephones to deny any knowledge of the incident.
She does, however, remember kissing Madonna at the MTV Video Music Awards as they sang Like A Virgin.l "We'd talked about it, but it wasn't pre-meditated," she claims. "I enjoyed it, but it didn't need to bring me any closer to her. She's a great lady and she's very important."
And it was there that Madonna agreed to sing on Spears's album, symbolically handing over the American icon torch. "She really liked it, so I said she could sing on it. She did it in her studio in London. It's the first time I've done a collaboration. I'd never dreamed about working with Madonna before, because I thought it would have been impossible. I do feel honoured."
What does Madonna like about you?
Well, I'm very much drawn to her energy. The same applies to her with me.
What do you talk about?
Kabbalah [a branch of Jewish mysticism]. She's very open about that. I'm a very spiritual person and I'm searching for answers right now. Having been raised a Baptist, I've always been spiritual. I know there's something out there, definitely.
Being spiritual, you must have had a few paranormal experiences?
Oh, plenty. People think I'm scary because I've had so many. I believe there are spirits around us, good angels and bad angels. In this castle hotel in Germany, I came back very, very late and was very, very tired. I tried to go to sleep but there was all this noice on the ceiling. "Britney," I said. "you must be dreaming." Then there was this rush of wind all over my face. I woke up and ran to my assistant, who was sleeping in the next room. I just sat there crying until she opened the door. Then I got into bed with her. Next day, all my dancers said they had similar experiences.
Would you have voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Sure. He's a good people person and a hard worker. I met him once.
Did he grope you?
No, he didn't grope me.
And should we meet again, say, four years?
Hopefully I'll have done a couple more movies, hopefully a couple more albums, hopefully I'l be a little taller. And I'd like to be skinnier, so I'll have lost five pounds...
Skinnier? That's just stupid.
Oh [she laughs] whatever, whatever, whatever.