Britney answering your questions at E! Online
All she wanted was to be a Mouseketeer.
So, an eight-year-old Britney Spears tried out. But believe it or not, it is possible to be too young for those big black ears. Her talent didn't go unnoticed, though, and one of the producers lined up an agent for her in New York City. So her family packed up and left their hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana, for the Big Apple, and two years later sweet little Britney landed a role in the off-Broadway show Ruthless, playing a sweet little kid with a not-so-sweet side.
Then it was back to Mouseland for another try--this one successful--and Britney wore the coveted rodent ears for two years, before heading back to school and a more normal teen life of shopping and hanging out at the mall.
The urge started bubbling again at the ripe old age of 15, and before long, Britney was developing her career as that snappy "baby, baby" crooner.
Now at 17, Britney's raising eyebrows with a chart-topping album, Baby One More Time, and a steamy schoolgirl spread in Rolling Stone. And if that's not enough, she has mouths flapping over whether her breasts are real or Memorex.
This fall, she begins a stint on Dawson's Creek, the WB's hit series about overripe teens.
So, what's life really like for a teen turned superstar? How does she deal with those trashy tabloid stories? And what's in her fridge right now?
Well, she took time out of her recent tour to tell you all this and more...
From cookies: I saw an interview with you on TV where you said you're just like any other teenager. What "normal teenager" things do you do, and when do you get the chance to be normal?
Like at home, I still hang out with my same friends. We go shopping, to the movies, out to eat. My mom still makes me help with the dishes and make up my bed!
From rotterdamned: Are there people who don't take you seriously because of your age?
Yes, it bothers me a bit, because I've worked so hard to get to where I am. I'd like to be taken seriously.
From mragent: Do you feel a lot of pressure being such a big star so young? Do you get scared that people ask too much of you?
I put lots of pressure on myself because I'm a perfectionist. The label asks a lot of me, but they always pick the most important things for my career.
From Pfw: What do you miss the most about Louisiana?
My mom's GREAT cooking!!
From Nothfanatic: There is a ton of talent coming out of the Mickey Mouse Club. How did your experience with the show help you get where you are now?
On the show we got to sing, dance and act. That's when I figured out that I loved to sing the most.
From marianne46: What would I find in your refrigerator?
At home, sweet tea! On the road, water and Gatorade (orange and purple).
From themeat: The tabloids are pretty horrendous these days. How have you adjusted to the tabloid stories printed about you?
I just don't read them anymore. Now I realize they'll do anything to sell a magazine.
From Marianne: Who is the first guy you ever fell for?
A friend of my brother's. We went to the same school.
From alan777: What would your perfect date include?
Something really normal like dinner and a movie, a stroll on the beach or just a fun dance club.
From supermike_k: What qualities would you look for in a boyfriend, and do you have one now?
No time for one right now; it wouldn't be fair! But I like a guy who can make me laugh, who has his own thing going on, like hobbies, school and friends. One who seems self-confident but also really nice!
From Vakim: How has the music business affected your life? Do your friends treat you any different?
My friends still treat me the same; we hang out when I'm home. The music business has allowed me to touch lots of folks with my talent and given me the ability to meet lots of neat people.
From chantal_p: What are you planning to do about college now that your career is taking off?
I still have to finish high school via a home-schooling program. I'd love to go to college someday, but now I'm doing what I've always dreamed!
From jessie23: Do you have a favorite song off your album?
I love "Baby"--of course--and I really like "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart."
From cool_stuff_jb: I was wondering what your next single is going to be. When is it coming out?
My next single will be "Crazy," and I think it'll be out at the end of August.
From Empea: Do you do any of your own choreography?
No, I like to help on a lot of it, but I work with really great choreographers: Darrin Hensou, Wade Robson, Fatima, Randy Connor and more.
From spears4ever: How do you keep your head above it all, and where do you get your inspiration?
I just tell myself daily how blessed and very thankful I am. I write my prayers nightly in a book. My mom is very inspirational and upbeat, and that keeps me going.
From Jaseana: Who are some artists you listen to when you're at home or during your spare time?
Blackstreet, Janet, Madonna, Prince, Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, Monica, TLC, the Corrs.
From radarman2: Do you have any preshow rituals?
I love to drink hot water with lemon and honey. I also sometimes go in a quiet room and scream until my voice opens up.
From Hancelito: Now that you are a celebrity, what is your next goal?
I guess to continue to make good music and improve each time. I hope to reinvent myself, like Madonna does--that is, to continue with my music but get into other things, too, like films.
From Andi_mcphee: I heard you signed on for three episodes of Dawson's Creek. Do you know what type of character you'll play. And one more thing: Dawson or Pacey?
I don't know who my character will be. I did, however, tell them I don't want to play myself. Oh, and Dawson.
The famous June 1999 FHM interview....
When Gail Porter sorted through her wardrobe to find an outfit for her recent 28th birth-day bash, she wanted a get-up which would make her instantly desirable something that would guarantee that men's eyes stood out on stalks, and hopefully get her a snog at the end of the night. Unsurprisingly, she chose a school uniform. Gail knew there is nothing better than a woman in knee-high socks, pleated skirt and bunches to get grown men slavering with desire. It's no coincidence that "specialist" magazines regularly feature busty babes squeezed into blazers and short skirts; that one London night spot, School Dinners, encourages punters to pay for the pleasure of being caned by women in school uniforms; or that a whole generation of men are overwhelmed with misty-eyed nostalgia by the befreckled face of Jimmy Krankie. School uniforms rock!
So it's no surprise that when the video for Southern belle Britney Spears' Baby One More Time appeared on British cable TV channel The Box in February the station was flooded with calls for a repeat viewing. The video, which features a nubile Britney in school skirt and white shirt tied up to reveal a golden tummy, causing mayhem in a school corridor through the medium of dance, has so far been requested a whopping 31,000 times. But the problem is, she's only just 1 7 - and while she's street legal, there's something unset-fling about fancying someone half your age..
Then, in April, she enraged the wholesome church~going folk of America by appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in a sexy jail bait pose, clutching a Telly Tubby. The bizarre set of pictures, one of which featured Britney in tight white shorts with the word "Baby" stencilled on her not-unattractive bottom, pushing a child's bicycle, proved too hot for European confectionery giant Nestle, which pulled out of sponsoring her forthcoming tour
It also got the American Family Association's knickers in a twist: they described the pictures as "a disturbing mix of childhood innocence and adult sexuality", then demanded that the magazine be pulled from the shelves, while calling for "God-loving Americans to boycott stores selling Britney's albums."
Ms Spears herself is bemused by the furore the pictures caused. "Everyone has their own opinions, she says. "I wouldn't have dressed like that in a teenage magazine, but Rolling Stone is an edgy publication. I thought it was fine - it wasn't like I was wearing a bathing suit. I think it's good to see myself in a different way
However, her image could have been very different. The original concept for the video was a three-minute animated cartoon romp starring the dimpled teenager as a pink Power Ranger action figure. Thankfully it was binned, Britney herself coming up with the concept of a schoolgirl day-dreaming of "cutting a rug" in high school.
"I thought it would be cool because there are so many kids who can relate to that," says Britney "I would have been so embarrassed by the Power Ranger thing, so we came up with this idea for school uniforms - but not boring, cheesy ones.
People have different perceptions of being sexy or sexiness. If they think I'm like that, then I'm flattered. It's something else I can add to my package."
While every other magazine in the world frantically scrambles around for every picture and secondhand interview with Britney they can find her record company has cancelled all press because she's so busy - FHM has flown to Los Angeles for Britney's only European magazine photoshoot. We're to meet in the ornate Chateau Marmont hotel on Sunset Boulevard - the infamous street where Hugh Grant introduced him-self to Divine "nice lips" Brown.
Britney's in town for two days, and in addition to meeting FHM she'll make an appearance on The Jay Leno Show-the top-rated TV chat show which only features the biggest names; last week's guests were Hollywood heavyweights Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson and Gwyneth Paltrow.
A sleepy Britney opens her hotel-room door dressed in grey T-shirt and wearing thin, light blue pyjama bottoms. "Brit" is petite, yet still has traces of puppy fat clinging to her face. She invites us into her bedroorn, which looks like the stock cup-board of a high street store: rails otTommy HiIlfiger clothes are lined against the wall, and piles of Tommy T-shirts litter the arms of the plush chairs.
"I think they're sent me a bit too much," she says sheepishly in a distinctive Southern drawl. "I get loads of free clothes. My mom and my sister are, like, totally walking around in Tommy stuff."
Free Tommy threads have been an everyday part of Britney's life since the release other single in the US last September - she's already in the record books for having a simultaneous number one single (1.5 million) sold and album (3 million sold) in the Billboard charts. In the UK, the album, ...Baby Ore More Time, with its bubblegum pop tracks like Soda Pop and E-Mail My Heart, has gone gold, shifting more than 214,000 copies.
However, all of Britney's success is off the hack of just one single. Her second release, Sometimes, is only now about to hit the stores. So where did this phenomenon come from? Born on December 2, 1981 in Kentwood, Louisiana, one hour's drive north of New Orleans, Britney Jean Spears auditioned for The Mickey Moose club at the age of eight. Told she was too young to wear the hallowed black ears, she spent the next three years in New York, treading the boards off-Broadway and using her angelic face to land parts in TV commercials.
When she turned 11, Mickey finally gave her the thumbs up and Britney spent two years as a Mouseketeer, hoofing to dance routines and covering Janet Jackson and Boyz II Men songs.
Then the show was cancelled, Britney returned to the city of jazz and gumbo, but she found humdrum, normal life frustrating. "I was bored out of my mind, so my mum pestered my lawyer in New York," she recalls. "Six weeks later he called and said that pop music was coming back and there wasn't a single girl in America singing on her own, so he asked me to send a tape."
After a nerve-wracking meeting with Jive Records in New York - confronted by 12 music executives sitting in a boardroom - Britney was signed and packed off to Sweden to team up with Max Martin, the one-time member of heavy metal band It's Alive who now writes and produces irritating songs for pin-up kids Back Street Boys. The, in the autumn of 1998, Britney went on a promo tour of American malls - a trick that jad already shot the likes of Tiffany and Debbie Gibson to heady pop heights. America took note, and when the single was released it flew off the shelves.
Britney at times acts and speaks like any other American mall rat teenager. During lunch she chats about how she "Lurrves" Drew Barrymore; she gets excited about having her hair styled in a different way; and becomes moody when she can't listen to her favourite Lenny Kravitz song on the stereo. But in the next breath she can switch into a formal, programmed mode when discussing her future - seeing herself as a product to be sold and talking about her "package" and how she's "opening herself to a wider audience"
Whether it's due to the Rolling Stone pictures or the even more recent rumours that Britney has gone under the surgeon's knife for a breast enlargement, each item of clothing and every pose on FHM's photoshoot is scrutinised before being given the green light. When it's suggested she eat a strawberry in one of the pictures a whispered conference results in a polite "no" - although, confusingly, "a chilli pepper would be fine."
Among the entourage looking after her every need are two publicists, a PA, a minder and even a physiotherapist, here to keep a careful eye on any stress Britney is putting on her left knee, which she dislocated in March during a dress rehearsal.............
You've been laid up with a serious, ahem, "knee" injury. What actually happened? I was in the dance studio rehearsing for the video for Sometimes and, as I kicked my right Leg in the air, my left leg dislocated and collapsed on me. I had a scan, but they said there wasn't anything wrong with it. Three weeks went by and my Leg was still hurting; as we were about to go on the road, I had it checked out again - and realised there was something seriously wrong. I cancelled everything and went into surgery for an hour. It was painful afterwards, but they gave me medicine to knock me out, so I didn't feel that bad.
When you went back home to recuperate, did you tie on the sofa scoffing tubs of ice-cream and watching daytime TV?
No! I was having therapy twice a day. First I'd have to ride a bike for 15 minutes, then do weights and bench-presses, and at the very end I'd try to dance. It feels so much better now. I'm just happy to walk on it again, because I couldn't do that for six weeks.
Did it become frustrating?
Yeah, because I'm so energetic and I love to be crazy and wild and on my feet all the time.
As do we. The New York Post reported that you've had your breasts enlarged. What's the story?
I went to Japan, and when I got back I heard all these rumours. I guess it's the business I'm in. I don't know why people are saying it: at first I was flattered, but as I read more I was like, "Oh my goodness!" I think people have just got carried away and there's nothing I can do about it
So it's not true...
No. It's just rumours.
What other rummours have you heard about yourself?
Just about certain guys I'm supposed to be dating. One of them linked meto Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys. But I can't complain unless it goes really over the top.
What do you hate most about your body?
My big feet - they're so ugly. I'm a size six-and-a-half and I don't like people looking at them.
What's been the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you on stage?
In my performance I wear this little yellow number which I rip off - but I'm wearing something else underneath! It's supposed to have Velcro where the crotch is, but this one time it wasn't fixed right, so when the dancers tried to pull it away it wouldn't come off. They were tugging it and I was whispering, "Take it off, take it off In the end I had to rip it off myself. Everyone noticed - I was completely humiliated.
It sounds like you were having a bad day...
Yeah! Before that show my head-set kept falling off. Every time I shook my head it would dangle down. I was so jet-lagged I didn't know what time it was, and I just started to cry. I get very emotional when I'm tired - snap your fingers and I'll cry.
You have a 21-year-old brother called Bryan. Do his mates ask you out?
Well, actually, my previous boyfriend, Reg, knew my brother. But no, they don't do that any more. I'm just friends with them.
Can you remember your first date?
It was the homecoming ball with Reg. We'd already been going out for a while.
What about your first kiss?
It was with a guy catted Mason when I was 14. We were watching TV at a friend's house and it just kind of happened - but the next day at school he completely dissed me. I had a major crush on him, but he wouldn't even talk to me.
What do you think of America's no sex before marriage lobby group, True Love Waits?
I believe that even if you meet the right person, you should wait until you know you really love him. People can change so much.
Were you in love with Reg?
I thought I was, but it was hard because we were both growing into different people. We basically grew out of love.
Do you believe in love at first sight?
Yeah, I really do - but I've never experienced it.
What sort of man do you go for?
Someone who doesn't care about the business I'm in. They need to be a confident person, tall with a good smile and pretty eyes. Someone like Ben Affteck - he's a hottie.
The Britney phenomenon is really taking off -there's even talk of a TV show. Is that true?
Yeah, that's something I want to do in the future, but right now I'm so focused on my music I don't have time. My Lawyers have agreed a deal with TriStar, but nothing is set in stone. I'd Like to do a young 90210. I'm supposed to film some episodes of Dawson's Creek in September, too.
Is it true you've only ever seen one episode of South Park and hated it?
Yeah, although I heard the episode I saw wasn't a good one. I just found it offensive and sacrilegious.
Excellent! You're number 14 in FHM's Sexiest Women In The World. How do you feel about that?
I'm really flattered. I'm not sure what else to say. This is the first list like that I've ever been in, although I was voted "most beautiful" in my high school yearbook.
The photos you've done for FHM are really sexy. After all the fuss over your previous shoots, how do you fuel about these pictures?
I feel fine about it. My favourite shots are of me in the blue dress. If I was appearing in a teenage magazine I'd just wear jeans and stuff, but this is FHM - if it opens me up to another audience then that's fine. I try and look after my body. I work out and don't overdo it.
