JUST like the title of her panned and soon-forgotten film debut, Britney
Spears’ life is at a crossroads.
Not so long ago she was the squeaky-clean bubblegum pop princess, styled in
bunches and school uniform, appealing to the Dawson’s Creek generation.
Baby One More Time stands as one of the pop classics of the last decade.
She dated one of the world’s most eligible bachelors and was the envy of
millions of schoolgirls, also in uniforms and bunches, as she showed off NSYNC’s
Justin Timberlake. But it was a sugary-sweet liaison, with Britney
famously confessing she was a virgin...an admission that meant she was still
palatable to conservative Middle America.
Then, BANG!
Dumped by Justin, spotted smoking, partying, rumours of boob jobs,
plunging necklines, with record sales to match. Oops! indeed.
So what does the future hold for Britney and why has she allowed her
crown to slip?
Can she reinvigorate her career and public image and reawaken the generation
who made her so rich? She is just 20, but the music industry is abuzz with
whispers of burn out. Her name has been mentioned alongside those of
Debbie Gibson and Tiffany — two 80s singers groomed as the new Madonnas who
disappeared up their finely-honed bottoms. As I told you earlier this
week, Britney’s mum is a worried mum. And rightfully so — her daughter has even
resorted to herbal remedies for depression.
It’s textbook meltdown.
Perhaps Lynne’s eye has been off the ball — her own sister is fighting cancer
and she has to launch the career of Britney’s 11-year-old sister Jamie Lynn,
(I’m not Mystic Mohan, but no doubt I’ll be writing this same article about
Jamie Lynn in 2012.) This has left the singer wallowing in LA, a
dangerous place for a girl with a no-limit black AmEx card and a taste for
cocktails and Marlboro. But now Mum has stepped back into the game. A
friend of hers told me last night: “Lynne has put her foot down. Britney’s not
been taking care of herself and has lost focus.
"The split with Justin hit her hard — and her sorrows weren’t exactly drowned
— more buried 3,000 leagues under the sea. She has put on weight and started
smoking. Her mum has told her she needs to sort it out.” The wounds of
Britney’s final split with Justin are starting to heal some five months after
the event, but as she candidly admitted this week: “The break-up was horrible.
Very upsetting and it took a lot out of me. “He was my first real love and
I doubt I’ll ever be able to love anyone like that again.”
She has also started to go on the defensive, trying to justify partying and
falling record sales by admitting she has felt stifled by her goody-two-shoes
image. It is a startling insight into the mind of a 20-year-old star who
fears she is losing the plot as she says: “I need this break to rejuvenate
spiritually and to just play. “I never wanted to hide who I was, but until
about a year ago, I was trying to fit an image and trying to be someone I
wasn’t. If I have a drink or I’m with someone, I’m human. I’m no different than
anyone else my age. “Smoking, drinking, sex — why is it such a big deal
for me? As you get to 20, you grow up, you experiment.”
There is a joke in the industry that says Britney’s record label has had to
move its offices to a skyscraper to accommodate the down arrow on her sales
chart. That may be milking it but the figures make worrying reading
for the moneymen. Her debut album shifted 8.9million copies — the Britney album
sold half that. A prima donna with an entourage that could barely
squeeze into one of her mansions, Britney may have ditched the uniform but she
made a schoolgirl error on her last UK visit. At the premiere of
Crossroads six months ago, she was booed after snubbing fans and refusing to
pose for pics. She did the same around the world — Mexicans demanded their money
back after she walked off stage during a rain storm.
I am often asked: “Can Britney come back?” My reply is always the same: It
depends on the songs. She must rejuvenate herself, find another Baby One
More Time and truly decide whether she wants to try to oust Madonna as Queen Of
Pop.
The demons of Justin must finally be put to rest, fitness regained and
the partying restricted. The entourage must be dumped and the fans’ love
rekindled.
The 21st century music business has no loyalty — and neither do its fans. Just
ask George Michael, Hear’Say and Michael Jackson. But I believe Britney
has the beauty and talent to survive. If she can get the right songwriters and
image tweaks she can once more become a force to be reckoned with.
That’s unless a certain Jamie Lynn Spears comes along...and usurps her own
sister.