Netflix’s Britney vs Spearspremiered on Sept. 28, 2021, just one day before a major court hearing for the “Toxic” singer’s conservatorship. Watching the new doc, it’s obvious that getting those close to Spears to talk on the record wasn’t easy, with the filmmakers indicating that it would be a challenge to dig to the bottom of the 13-year web of legal controls surrounding the 39-year-old pop icon. Since 2008, Spears has been living under a conservatorship that gave her father, Jamie Spears, control over her finances and almost every single decision she makes, including allegedly forcing her to have an IUD to prevent pregnancy despite her wanting to have more children. Details of the conservatorship never came to light for the general public until the #FreeBritney movement put the spotlight on the arrangement—and until Britney herself spoke out in summer 2021, begging a judge to eliminate her father from the role and to give her back her freedom to do what she pleases as a grown woman. While Britney herself has been vocal about wanting to break free, those in her circle and involved with the conservatorship have been notoriously tight-lipped. “It was just a pervasive mystery of what happened to this really good person,” Britney vs Spears director Erin Lee Carr explained to The Los Angeles Times ahead of its release. “So I very naively was like, ‘Well, maybe I can figure it out.’ I called an industry insider at the beginning, and the person was like, ‘Yeah, good luck getting anyone to talk. It’s not gonna fly. It’s this story that nobody talks about.’” Until they did. Britney vs Spears features interviews with several members of Britney’s inner circle at various points of her life, including Adnan Ghalib (a paparazzo and former boyfriend), Osama “Sam” Lutfi (her former manager, against whom she has a restraining order), her former assistant and close friend Felicia Culotta, and backup dancer Tania Baron, as well as Adam Streisand (an attorney she previously tried to hire to represent her), ex-husband Kevin Federline’s attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan, Britney’s former business manager Howard Grossman, private investigator John Nazarian (who Britney’s team hired during her divorce proceedings from Federline), Dr. James Edward Spar (a geriatric psychiatrist who wouldn’t confirm nor deny evaluating the singer), conservatorship attorney Tony Chicotel, Lorilee Craker (Lynne Spears’ co-author of Through the Storm), BreatheHeavy.com founder Jordan Miller, and Andrew Gallery, a cinematographer on Britney’s 2008 Britney Spears: For the Record documentary. Netflix’s Britney vs Spears was largely made possible by an anonymous source who connected Carr and executive producer and Rolling Stone veteran Jenny Eliscu with documents about the conservatorship case, as well as audio recordings and other information about the case. Keep reading to find out about the biggest bombshells from theBritney vs Spears Netflix documentary.
Britney likely should never have been under a conservatorship at all.
According to Chicotel, an expert in the field of conservatorships, the fact that Britney was placed under a conservatorship whatsoever is questionable. “We have very particular standards for conservatorship. You have to be unable to meet your needs for food, clothing, health and shelter,” he said. “Let me put it this way: I’ve represented dozens of conservatees in court; not one of them has ever had a job.” During her conservatorship, Britney has toured, performed a mega-successful Las Vegas residency, sold millions of bottles of perfume, appeared on How I Met Your Mother and raked in a lot of cash. Chicotel explained in the documentary, “A conservatorship is a legal process for taking somebody’s ability to make their own decisions and giving them to some third party, a.k.a. the conservator, or in a lot of other states, it’s the guardian. Obviously, any process to deprive someone of those liberties and those freedoms would be something we would want to impose very rarely, only as a last resort, having tried and exhausted all other alternatives. Some people have called conservatorship tantamount to ‘a civil death.’”
Britney’s original conservatorship attorney was probably just in it for the money.
Spears has indicated in the past that she had a friendly-enough rapport with Sam Ingham, the attorney who represented her in her conservatorship from the very beginning until just a few months ago. In June 2021, she told the court, “I’ve grown a personal relationship with Sam, my lawyer… We’ve kind of built a relationship, but I haven’t really had the opportunity by my own self to actually hand-pick my own lawyer.” However, it seems Ingham never informed Spears about her right to petition the court to end her conservatorship, which certainly seems like a pretty glaring omission considering how much Spears wants the arrangement to end. Spears told the court that same month, “I didn’t know I could petition the conservatorship to end. I honestly didn’t know that.” She then added tellingly, “My attorney says I can’t—it’s not good, I can’t let the public know anything they did to me. He told me I should keep it to myself, really." So why would Ingham not make his client fully aware of her rights, or dissuade her from advocating for herself? It could be because of how well he was being paid by the conservatorship. By some estimates, Ingham made as much as $3 million off Spears. Perhaps that’s why Chicotel didn’t mince words when he told the Britney vs Spears cameras about Ingham: “My reaction is that he’s on a gravy train and he’s going to ride it all the way to the end.”
Louise “Lou” Taylor emerged in Britney Spears’ life when Britney was hospitalized for a psychiatric hold.
Culotta refused to speak about LouiseTaylor, explaining, “I will not touch that one, sorry. She will chew me up and spit me out.” Taylor’s husband is a pastor and joined Jamie Spears at his baptism at the Jordan River. Lou became Britney’s business manager during her conservatorship. Craker said that the Spears family likely trusted Taylor because of her Christian background. Taylor and her company Tri Star’s attorney sent a legal letter to the Britney vs Spears producers denying Taylor’s advocacy for the conservatorship but admitting she may have been party to conversations about the arrangement. In 2019, after Britney stepped away from her Domination Las Vegas residency and refused to perform, Taylor alleged in documents that Tri Star had lost $400,000 due to Britney’s refusal to perform and requested to stay at $500,000 per year to remain as Britney’s business manager even though Britney wasn’t working. She sent Jamie a bill for $308,974.51 in December 2019, which he paid within a day of receipt.
Britney Spears was deprived of five days’ notice of her conservatorship arrangement.
Britney’s conservatorship filing was labeled as being for “orders related to dementia placement,” according to a document obtained by the producers of Britney vs Spears. Of course, dementia is rare among young people. She was deprived of five days’ notice, which is standard to allow conservatees to hire their own attorneys and contest the arrangement. The only reason given for that was her involvement with Lutfi, who her family allegedly viewed as a major threat to her health and safety: Craker said that Lutfi was crushing drugs into Britney’s food. Lutfi denied the allegations and pointed out that he wasn’t ever charged with any crimes, claiming he was simply a scapegoat for the Spears family. It’s worth noting, however, that Lutfi was also linked to once-troubled starletsAmanda Bynes and Courtney Love, who both later blasted him, with Love and her daughter Frances Bean Cobain obtaining a restraining order against him in 2019.
Britney Spears tried to end her conservatorship as early as 2009—and Britney vs Spears executive producer Jenny Eliscu tried to help her do it.
Eliscu recalled that she, Lutfi, and Ghalib attempted to help Britney get her own attorney in an effort to end her conservatorship, with Lutfi and Ghalib requesting Eliscu deliver a document to Britney to sign expressing her lack of faith in Ingham, her court-appointed attorney. Eliscu met with Britney at a Beverly Hills hotel, where Britney signed the document and expressed her gratitude for the gesture. “She looked at me and said, ‘Thank you,’ and I said, ‘I’ll see you again,’” a tearful Eliscu said. “She definitely seemed scared. It was hard to tell because I was so scared but she was so appreciative.” Unfortunately, it didn’t end well. “It had been ruled that she lacked [the] capacity to choose her own lawyer and that they had cast enough doubt on to whether that was her signature. I never heard anything of it again. No one ever talked about it again,” Eliscu said. “Still, no one talks about the fact that there was another attempt to get a lawyer that somehow didn’t work out.”
The Circus Tour was allegedly bad for Britney Spears’ health.
Background sources allegedly told Carr and Eliscu that Britney was rushed into the Circus Tour in 2009 as an effort to prove how well the conservatorship was working for her. However, those close to her alleged that the traveling and grueling work involved with the tour was detrimental to her mental health. “They said it was a mess,” Eliscu recalled. “They said it was bad for Britney’s health.” The conservatorship, however, claimed in documents that Britney’s ability to make money and perform successfully was indicative of the arrangement’s success—and a good situation for her, as she was given an allowance and privileges in exchange for her compliance.
Britney Spears’ ex Jason Trawick allegedly thought the conservatorship was far too restrictive on her life.
According to documents obtained by Britney vs Spears, Britney’s ex and former agent Jason Trawick, to whom she was engaged from 2011 until their 2013 split, believed the conservatorship placed far too many restrictions on the singer’s life. Trawick is, by all accounts from the documentary, a good guy. One document from a doctor involved with the conservatorship detailed an interview with Trawick. “I found him to be forthcoming and open, though fearful that whatever he said might be held against him or place him at odds with others with whom he might need to get along in the future,” the document read in part. “He appears to be genuinely in love with Britney. His philosophy is that eventually, Britney will have to learn to live without a conservator. He feels that the present arrangement is too constrictive.” Trawick detailed having to ask permission to ride a golf cart in their gated community, to spend money on books for her children, to have to call ahead to grab a burger—and that at times they had to wait 20 minutes to over a day to get clearance to do anything. After becoming engaged to Trawick, Britney requested that Trawick be her new conservator, but Jamie refused, instead compromising and listing Trawick as co-conservator.
Britney Spears was concerned about her father’s drinking after her Femme Fatale Tour.
According to documents obtained by the Netflix special, after Britney’s mega-successful Femme Fatale Tour, she complained that as long as she had to be drug tested, Jamie Spears should undergo the same. “This seems to be a lightning rod for all her complaints about the conservatorship itself,” a document read in part. “In a simple way, she feels that if she is drug tested, so should he be. And if she were to suffer a great penalty like losing her kids if she tested positive, he should suffer an equally great penalty for his drinking… Britney wants to come off the conservatorship.” The document stated that Britney wanted to end the conservatorship, especially the conservatorship of her person—directly refuting Jamie Spears’ team’s prior allegations that she never indicated any desire to do so.
The conservatorship was in chaos during Britney Spears’ X Factor stint.
Spears’ medical team alleged that judging X Factor in 2011 put undue pressure on her and wasn’t good for her mental health. At the time, however, her manager Larry Rudolph alleged in documents that “the harm will no greater with a meltdown than a withdrawal [from the show].” Documents claimed that Spears’ management pressured her medical team to have her participate in the series, and her medical team put strict guidelines in place for her to be able to do so, including making Trawick’s presence mandatory on the set. According to Carr and Eliscu, documents also show that the dosage of a medication Britney liked taking was increased if she worked: Jamie Spears allegedly acknowledged the success stimulants brought Britney through her work, but generally did not want her to take them. Somewhat corroborating this account: In June 2021, Louis Walsh, who sat in for Simon Cowell during some episodes, told the Irish Independent, “I was sitting with Britney for two days, and after every few auditions, she would [slump over]. They would literally have to stop the show and take her out because she was on so much medication and other stuff. I felt sorry for her.”
How much money did Jamie Spears make from Britney Spears?
From 2013 to 2018, Jamie Spears allegedly earned $2.1 million from Britney’s tour revenues and a $16,000 monthly salary. Britney was paid $8,000 per month in an allowance. In July 2020, Jamie alleged that Britney’s estate was forced to refund a $1 million fee after the singer refused to show up for a pop-up store appearance. He alleged in the documents that this was a valid reason the conservatorship must stay in place, claiming, “The Conservatee’s lack of cooperation in her own financial well-being and preservation of her continued stature as an iconic artist has deteriorated, rather than improved.” He also claimed that to support Britney’s lifestyle, they’d have to reevaluate the conservatorship, not mentioning that the conservatorship was costing her millions to uphold despite her wanting to end it. He requested nearly $1.4 million in legal fees, including over $500,000 for “media matters” in relation to his daughter. Ingham made $3 million from the conservatorship and maintains that Britney never asked to end it. Britney’s new attorney, Matthew Rosengart, who has actively worked to end the conservatorship, said in a statement in the film, “Jamie’s abuses revealed in this film corroborate what Britney and I have said in court: Jamie Spears is toxic to the well being of Britney and she deserves to be free.” Next, find out Britney Spears’ net worth—and how much her conservatorship has cost her through the years.
