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Britney Spears 2002 Film ‘Crossroads’ Returning to Theaters for Global Fan Event

By Rebecca Rubin

Rebecca Rubin

Senior Film and Media Reporter

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Cinemas are looking to pop stars to save the box office this October.

Weeks after the debut of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” concert film, the 2002 coming-of-age movie “ Crossroads ” — the first feature to star  Britney Spears — will return to theaters. It’s playing for just two nights, on Oct. 23 and 25, as part of fan event from Trafalgar Releasing, Sony Music Entertainment and RCA Records. The theatrical re-release is tied to Spears’ upcoming memoir, “The Woman in Me,” which drops on Oct. 24.

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Shonda Rhimes, who went on to create “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” wrote “Crossroads” which was directed by Tamra Davis. The   story follows three childhood friends, Lucy (Spears), Kit (Zoë Saldana) and Mimi (Taryn Manning), who, after eight years apart, rediscover their friendship on a cross-country trip. “Crossroads” originally premiered in 2002 and, despite negative reviews, grossed $61 million globally.

“I recently rewatched ‘Crossroads’ and was so enthralled with the time capsule of nostalgia that this incredible ensemble cast brings to the screen,” Davis said. “Britney is absolutely breathtaking to watch, and Shonda is showing us her early expertise in writing complicated female characters. We had the best time in the world making this picture and the connection the actresses bring to their performances shows in every frame. I’m so grateful that ‘Crossroads’ will be available so people can see Britney shine again.”

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Baby, one more time! Britney Spears' 'Crossroads' movie returns to theaters in October

If you're been begging "Gimme More" for "Crossroads," you're in luck: Britney Spears ' first feature film as a leading lady is cruising back into to theaters in October.

The 2002 film written by Shonda Rhimes is getting the big screen treatment once more on Oct. 23 and 25 only, bookending the release of Spears' memoir "The Woman in Me" on Oct. 24. Start doing your vocal exercises now because the screenings, dubbed the "Crossroads Global Fan Event," will include a sing-along featuring two of Spears' "Crossroads" tunes.

In the film, Spears played the shy and sheltered Lucy, who is "Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" as the songstress' track included on the soundtrack is titled. She longs to connect with her absentee mother (Kim Cattrall) against the wishes of her dad (Dan Aykroyd). Lucy and her besties, Kit (Zoe Saldaña) and Mimi (Taryn Manning) on a road trip to California with the handsome Ben (Anson Mount).

The trailer is worth a rewatch to refresh your memory and also because Spears sings NSYNC 's "Bye Bye Bye." She and boy band member Justin Timberlake were pop's power couple when they dated from 1999 to 2002 (and even attended the film's LA premiere together).

Britney Spears says in an Instagram video that she is 'shocked' about Sam Asghari filing for divorce

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How to get tickets to 'Crossroads' movie's return to theaters

According to the announcement, "Crossroads" will be released in more than 875 theaters throughout 24 countries. Tickets for the screenings will be available for purchase online at 9 a.m. EDT on Sept. 28.

'Crossroads' movie soundtrack special edition will remix Britney Spears songs

As if that isn't enough to make Spears fans feel "Lucky," RCA Records is releasing a "Crossroads: Special Edition" soundtrack on Oct. 20. The compilation will feature three new remixes of Spears tracks: "Overprotected" (Richi Lopez Remix), "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" (Snakehips Remix) and "I Love Rock 'N Roll" (Frank Walker Remix).

Last year, Spears confirmed on Instagram she was writing a memoir , describing the process as "healing and therapeutic… it's also hard bringing up past events in my life," she wrote. "I've never been able to express openly!!! I can only imagine that I do sound childish but I was extremely young with those events took place."

In August, Spears' husband Sam Asghari filed for divorce after one year of marriage.

'The publishing event of the year': Britney Spears memoir will be released in October

NSYNC reunion gets spicy with upcoming 'Hot Ones' appearance: Watch the teaser

Britney Spears’ Crossroads Is Returning To The Big Screen

Lets time travel back to 2002.

This year’s spooky season is for the ghouls and pop girls. In early October, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert movie will make its big screen debut. And now, Britney Spears will close out the month with Crossroads . Yes, the 2002 film that gave one of her most iconic ballads , “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman,” the spotlight it deserved. To celebrate Spears’ upcoming memoir, the cult classic movie will be re-released in theaters on Oct. 23 and Oct. 25. Someone alert Miley Cyrus , stat.

According to a press release, Crossroads will hit over 875 theaters across 24 countries. The film’s two showings are tied to Spears’ long-awaited book The Woman in Me , which releases on Oct. 24. Crossroads was Spears’ first (and last) starring role in a movie. Directed by Tamra Davis and written by Shonda Rhimes, the movie — which also stars Zoe Saldana and Taryn Manning — follows three childhood friends and their chaotic road trip from Georgia to Los Angeles.

Despite many critics not loving the movie at the time , Crossroads became a blockbuster hit. It eventually developed a loyal following over the last fifteen years, and recently, Davis gave Spears her flowers for her role. “I recently rewatched Crossroads and was so enthralled with the time capsule of nostalgia that this incredible ensemble cast brings to the screen,” Davis said in a new statement about Crossroads’ re-release.

Davis continued, adding Spears’ performance is “absolutely breathtaking to watch.” “We had the best time in the world making this picture and the connection the actresses bring to their performances shows in every frame. I’m so grateful that Crossroads will be available so people can see Britney shine again,” the director ended her statement.

While the idea of seeing (or for some, re-witnessing) this movie on the big screen is iconic, there’s more to the surprise. This version of Crossroads will include a new soundtrack, featuring remixes of “Overprotected,” “I Love Rock ‘N Roll,” and “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” from her 2001 self-titled album.

The end of the film will also have a bonus sing-along of two songs from Spears. While the track’s name hasn’t been revealed, I’m crossing my fingers it’s her singing another track from Britney — hi, “That’s Where You Take Me.” Lastly, the re-release will include merch and recreations of wardrobe pieces worn by the cast in the film.

This movie might not sit in a high tier of Rhimes’ cinematic universe, but it’s still a gem nonetheless. Clear your fall schedules and learn about Crossroads’ re-release below.

Crossroads’ New Takeover Is Around The Corner

The 2002 film will be re-released in theaters on Oct. 23 and Oct. 25.

How To Buy Crossroads Tickets

According to the press release, fans can purchase tickets for the Crossroads re-release on the Crossroads Fan Events website on Sept. 28.

Why Britney Spears’ ‘Crossroads’ Is a Lost Classic

By Rob Sheffield

Rob Sheffield

At long last, Crossroads is back. It’s the answer to a Britney Spears fan’s prayers. Britney’s 2002 movie-star showcase is finally returning to the big screen for two nights , on Oct. 23 and 25, to go with her new tell-all memoir, The Woman in Me , which drops on Oct. 24. Crossroads was a box-office smash at the time, but it’s been scandalously unavailable for years — most fans have never gotten the chance to see it since it’s not streaming anywhere. This movie has been hidden away for far too long. But, like Britney herself, it deserves a chance to break free.

This reissue makes sense right now because it’s the ultimate “Britney Will Rise Again” statement. Since she’s got so many fair-weather fans right now, it’s worth noting that the film came at a time when our girl was the most controversial, most divisive, most hated figure in pop culture. But in Crossroads , nothing can stop her from her voyage of self-discovery. One of so many genius scenes: The girls’ car breaks down in Louisiana, so she decides to raise the money by entering a karaoke contest at a New Orleans bar, singing “I Love Rock & Roll.” The karaoke host is none other than old-school hip-hop legend Kool Moe Dee. Spoiler: She wins the contest, rocks the house, raises the cash, and learns life lessons.

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In her new book, Britney reveals how she got lost in “Method acting” while making Crossroads . “The experience wasn’t easy for me,” she writes. “My problem wasn’t with anyone involved in the production but with what acting did to my mind. I think I started Method acting — only I didn’t know how to break out of my character. I really became this other person.… I didn’t have any separation at all.”

Britney felt herself getting possessed by the role. “I ended up walking differently, carrying myself differently, talking differently. I was someone else for months while I filmed  Crossroads . Still to this day, I bet the girls I shot that movie with think,  She’s a little …quirky.  If they thought that, they were right.”

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The experience didn’t leave her craving more. “That was pretty much the beginning and end of my acting career, and I was relieved,” she admits in The Woman in Me. “I hope I never get close to that occupational hazard again. Living that way, being half yourself and half a fictional character, is messed up. After a while you don’t know what’s real anymore.”

The most poignant scene: Britney knocks on the door of her birth mother, who abandoned her years ago. She turns out to be Kim Cattrall. Britney greets her with a smile that says, “Hi, Mom! It’s me, the long-lost daughter you pretend you never had! The secret nightmare you prayed you’d never face! What’s for dinner?” Shockingly, it doesn’t go well. This was Cattrall’s first big movie after her Sex and the City career resurgence — not to mention her brand new book, Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm . Love how Crossroads imagines a timeline where Aykroyd and Cattrall spawned Britney — both of them were movie stars in 1982, the year she was born. This means they would have had sex somewhere in between Porky’s and Doctor Detroit . (Kim’s real beau at the time: Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, a mere 37 years her senior. Face it, she would have made a cuter couple with Elwood Blues.)

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Crossroads hits theaters at the same time as Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour . But it’s fitting since Tay is such a Britney fan — when she played Louisiana in 2011, she sang “Lucky” as her local hero tribute to Kentwood’s Finest.

Crossroads is a mess, for sure. There’s a clumsy subplot about an unwanted pregnancy that is handled with a mind-blowing lack of empathy, like this is a 1950s soap opera or something. But it ends on a high note. Aykroyd arrives in L.A. to fetch his wayward daughter home, but he can only stand there and watch as she takes the stage. When she blows everyone away with “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” he realizes this is where she belongs. Sure, right, it’s a blatant rip off the Dirty Dancing “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” scene. So what? It’s perfect. Crossroads turned out to be a one-shot fluke for her movie career. Yet it sums up her quintessential Brit-dom so perfectly that she didn’t really need to ever go back and try again. Crossroads proves that you can’t keep a good not-a-girl, not-yet-a-woman down.

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How To Watch Britney Spears’ ‘Crossroads’ When It Returns To Theaters In 2023

Earlier this month. Taylor Swift broke the record for the biggest single-day ticket sales with her The Eras Tour concert film . Now, Britney Spears is about to shake up the world of cinema as her 2002 movie Crossroads returns to the screens.

The “Toxic” pop star’s film will show on only two nights, October 23 and October 25, in 875 locations across 24 countries. Tickets go on sale on September 28. There will be a bonus sing-along of two Britney Spears’ hits from Crossroads that weren’t on the big screen before. There will also be a soundtrack album called Crossroads: Special Edition , full of remixes.

“I recently rewatched Crossroads and was so enthralled with the time capsule of nostalgia that this incredible ensemble cast brings to the screen,” Director Tamra Davis said, according to Variety . “Britney is absolutely breathtaking to watch, and Shonda [Rhimes] is showing us her early expertise in writing complicated female characters. We had the best time in the world making this picture and the connection the actresses bring to their performances shows in every frame. I’m so grateful that Crossroads will be available so people can see Britney shine again.”

Meanwhile, Spears’ highly anticipated memoir The Woman In Me is slated for publication on October 24.

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Britney Spears’ Cult 2002 Movie ‘Crossroads’ Is Coming Back to Theaters

Britney Spears is heading back to the big screen.

Variety reports Spears' cult-favorite, coming-of-age movie Crossroads is returning to theaters next month in celebration of the pop icon's new memoir, The Woman in Me .

"We are excited to […] create an opportunity for fans to enjoy this highly sought after film in cinemas, and to rally in support of Britney telling her story in her upcoming memoir release,” Marc Allenby, CEO of Trafalgar Releasing, told Variety about the forthcoming re-release of the 2002 teen flick.

READ MORE: Britney Spears Eyeing Comeback Album Deal Amid Divorce

According to IMDb , the film's plot centers around three teenage girls who discover who they truly are during a cross-country road trip before heading off to college. The screenplay was written by Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes.

The film stars Spears, Anson Mount, Zoe Saldana and Taryn Manning alongside acting heavyweights Kim Cattrall and Dan Aykroyd.

Crossroads was a moderate success at the box office upon its release, grossing $61 million against a $10 million budget.

When Does Crossroads Come Back to Theaters?

Crossroads will be back in theaters for two nights only on Monday, Oct. 23, and Wednesday, Oct. 25.

Crossroads will play at 875 locations across 24 countries. According to Variety , the theatrical re-release will include a bonus sing-along featuring two Spears songs.

How to Get Tickets for the Crossroads Re-Release:

Tickets will be available to purchase at 9AM EST beginning Sept. 28. Tickets can be purchased here via the official Crossroads Fan Event website.

Fans can also check ticket availability and showings with their local theater.

Where to Watch Crossroads at Home: 

Can't make it to your local theater? Crossroads can be streamed at home via Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies, Apple TV and Vudu.

The film is available to be purchased for $3.99 on most platforms.

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Britney Spears Is Always Dancing With Herself

Britney Spears is gonna let us watch Crossroads again. The nearly unstreamable dramedy and the pop superstar’s debut film role will head back to theaters in October to accompany the release of her tell-all memoir, The Woman in Me . A new trailer specially cut for the rerelease gives us a 30-second glimpse of Spears sneaking away in the night to rendezvous with her friends and performing the hit song the movie spawned. Though the Shonda Rhimes–written film premiered to so-so reviews back in 2002, it gave us the aforementioned power ballad, “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman”; a financially successful box office (grossing $61.1 million against a $12 million budget); and critical praise for Spears, who was at the height of her career at the time. It tells the story of three childhood friends who rekindle their friendship on a cross-country road trip.

Fans can look forward to a bonus sing-along of two Spears tracks played on the big screen, plus a new release of the Crossroads soundtrack, including remixes of “Overprotected” (Richi Lopez Remix), “I Love Rock ‘N Roll” (Frank Walker Remix), and “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” (Snakeships Remix). The film hits theaters on October 23, a day before the memoir arrives on bookshelves and gives everyone tea about the conservatorship Spears escaped and other decades-simmering mess . Crossroads will go up against Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert film, making October 23 a national holiday for pop stans everywhere.

This post has been updated.

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Britney Spears Opens Her Heart in New Trailer For ‘Crossroads’ Movie Re-Release

In addition to singing the Madonna song, Brit croons "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" in the new preview.

By Gil Kaufman

Gil Kaufman

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In advance of Britney Spears coming back to the big screen in next month’s re-release of the singer’s movie debut in 2002’s coming-of-age road-trip dramedy Crossroads , a new trailer is getting fans hyped for the special event.

Britney Spears’ ‘Crossroads’ Headed Back to Movie Theaters For…

The 30-second trailer for the global fan event on Oct. 23 and 25 opens with Spears’ Lucy enthusiastically singing Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” into a spoon in her teenage bedroom, which just happens to have a poster of Madge’s debut album cover in plain view on the wall.

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“So I’m going all the way to California,” Mimi says, as Spears’ Lucy counsels, “you can’t go by yourself with some guy.” We also see Akroyd berating Lucy for sneaking away in the middle of the night and ordering her to return right away. The clip ends with Spears crooning “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” one of the hits from the singer’s 2001 Britney album.

The two-night event from Trafalgar Releasing, Sony Music Entertainment and RCA Records will support Spears’ upcoming tell-all memoir,  The Woman in Me  (Oct. 24). The movie written by Shonda Rhimes ( Scandal ,  Grey’s Anatomy ) and directed by Tamra Davis ( CB4 ,  13 ) will include bonus features never before seen in theaters — including a sing-along to two of Spears’ songs from the film.

“I recently rewatched  Crossroads  and was so enthralled with the time capsule of nostalgia that this incredible ensemble cast brings to the screen,” director Davis said in a statement when the re-release was announced last week. “Britney is absolutely breathtaking to watch, and Shonda is showing us her early expertise in writing complicated female characters.”

Watch the new Crossroads trailer below.

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Britneys Spears movie ‘Crossroads’ returning to theaters for 2 nights

The movie events coincide with the release of her upcoming memoir, 'The Woman in Me.'

• Bridget Sharkey
• September 22, 2023

Grab your bucket hat and your low-rise jeans. “Crossroads” is coming back to the big screen!

Yes, the Britney Spears movie is getting a much-needed revival for just two days only. On Oct. 23 and 25, the movie will return to the theaters to promote the release of Spears’ new memoir , “The Woman In Me.” (You can pre-order the memoir now ahead of its release on Oct. 24.)

Fans can sign up for updates about movie tickets and theater locations. You will be able to buy tickets to the re-airing of “Crossroads” on Sept. 28 beginning at 9 a.m. EST. And, on Oct. 20, look for a special edition of the “Crossroads” soundtrack featuring remixes of a few of Spears’ hit songs with artists like Snakehips.

Although “Crossroads” was roundly panned by critics when it came out in 2002, it has become a nostalgic fan favorite, especially thanks to the renewed attention on Spears in recent years.

Upon review, movie critic Richard Roeper joked that Spears is “not yet an actress, not quite a singer,” and New York Post critic Lou Lumenic wrote, “So mind-numbingly awful that you hope Britney won’t do it one more time, as far as movies are concerned.”

The intended audience (read: Britney Spears fans) could not have disagreed more. The movie made over $61 million worldwide , and it has become something of a kitsch favorite among millennials. Not only do we get Spears singing to her then boyfriend’s hit song “Bye, Bye, Bye” (speaking of, the premiere of “Crossroads” was one of the last public appearances she and Justin Timberlake ever made together), we also get Spears’ rousing performance of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock n’ Roll” while wearing a cut-off tee and super-duper low-rise jeans, of course.

And with a supporting cast that included Zoe Salanda, Taryn Manning and Kim Cattrall, the movie was pure Y2K bliss.

MORE: Watch the trailer for the ‘Taylor Swift the Eras Tour’ film

And, here’s something we didn’t realize until today: “ Crossroads ” was actually written by  the  Shonda Rhimes! No wonder the movie had so many epically dramatic scenes, like that infamous fall down the stairs (no spoilers here, not even 20 years later!) and that dramatic scene between Lucy (Britney) and her mother (Cattrall).

If you can’t make it to the theater to see “Crossroads,” don’t worry: You can purchase “Crossroads” on Peacock. Or, hardcore fans can shell out $80 for a vintage DVD copy on Etsy .

Will you go see “Crossroads” at the movie theater again?

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Britney Spears’ highs and lows — a timeline from ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ to her tell-all memoir

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There’s a lot of ground to cover when it comes to understanding Britney Spears and processing her decades-long career, which has been repeatedly eclipsed by her controversial conservatorship and tumultuous personal life.

Now, with Spears contextualizing it all in her new book , “The Woman in Me,” we’re tracking some of her biggest headlines, sprinkled with the backstory she provides in the tell-all.

Spears’ take on her life has been described as a Southern Gothic, feminist horror story, with the “Toxic” singer “often recounting her mistreatment by most of the men in her life.” There are plenty of takeaways to boot. The tome does little to redeem the men who have shaped her life and career. (It’s been a bad week indeed for Jamie Spears, Justin Timberlake and Kevin Federline.)

Here’s a look back at Spears’ most notable career highs and lows, colored by the personal struggles she experienced along the way:

Review: Britney Spears’ memoir is a Gothic horror story

From her Louisiana roots to the quasi-imprisonment of her conservatorship, Britney Spears’ ‘The Woman in Me’ paints the pop star’s life as a Victorian nightmare.

Oct. 20, 2023

1981 | Born in Mississippi, raised in Louisiana

The pop princess was born on Dec. 2, 1981, in McComb, Miss., to Jamie and Lynne Spears, whom she described in the book as, respectively, a raging alcoholic and a mother “gushing” with blood after giving birth. She has two siblings, older brother Bryan Spears and younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears, of “Zoey 101” and competing-memoir fame .

Spears said her song and dance talents gave her a way to express her voice in a home where it was suppressed: “I worked hard to make things look the way I wanted to,” she writes of being an 8-year-old directing her own imaginary music videos. “Nobody in my town seemed to be doing stuff like that. But I knew I wanted to see it in the world, and I tried to make it so.”

Britney Spears’ ‘The Woman in Me’: 8 takeaways from a book full of fury

Britney Spears is angry at those who put her in a conservatorship and at Justin Timberlake, who broke her heart. These and other pain points from her memoir

In her autobiography, “Britney Spears’ Heart to Heart,” her mom and co-author, Lynne Spears, explained that the family saw to it that her daughter had dance and music lessons even when they were struggling to pay bills. Spears also played basketball in school and worked at a seafood restaurant cleaning shellfish and serving plates of food “while doing my prissy dancing in my cute little outfits,” the singer wrote.

1993-1995 | ‘The All New Mickey Mouse Club’

After initially failing her first audition for Disney Channel’s “The All New Mickey Mouse Club ” because she was too young, Spears eventually joined the star-spawning program. She appeared alongside Ryan Gosling, Christina Aguilera, Nikki De Loach and future beau Justin Timberlake on the show.

1998 | Jive Records deal

Spears was 15 when she signed a deal with Jive Records and felt liberated by her ability to perform without fear, even on her notorious early shopping mall tour. But, as she wrote in the book, the media became adversarial and even grotesque almost as quickly. Spears recalled adult journalists asking her questions about her breasts while simultaneously forcing her to comment on the backlash to her skimpy outfits.

“I was a teenage girl from the South,” she wrote. “I signed my name with a heart. I liked looking cute. Why did everyone treat me, even when I was a teenager, like I was dangerous ?”

1999 | ‘...Baby One More Time’

Spears’ breakout bop — accompanied by its sweet-but-rebellious schoolhouse-romp music video — made her a star at 16 and a mainstay of MTV’s “Total Request Live.” Propelled by the hit single, her eponymous debut album spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and nearly two years (103 weeks) total on the chart . That spring, Spears got tongues a-wagging with her navel-baring, busty Rolling Stone cover, but she seemed unstoppable. She launched her first headlining tour that year and won four Billboard Music Awards.

The next year, the song earned Spears two Grammy Award nominations, for new artist and female pop vocal performance, but she lost in both categories — to “Genie in a Bottle” crooner Aguilera and Sarah McLachlan’s “I Will Remember You,” respectively. The album, however, was a multiplatinum hit.

2000 | ‘Oops! ... I Did it Again’

Spears immortalized the full-body red jumpsuit with her music video for her next big hit, “Oops! ... I Did it Again,” the lead single from her sophomore album of the same name. The song earned her two more Grammy nominations but was panned by The Times as having the “same slick soul-pop, metronomic beats and overwrought balladry” as “...Baby One More Time.”

“But, really, who cares what they think?” reviewer Natalie Nichols wrote. “[A]t 18, she hasn’t escaped that awkward stage between childhood and maturity.”

The album sold more than 1 million units in the first week.

2001 | Pop princess status

With MTV producing the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show, the network brought big-time talent with “The Kings of Rock and Pop.” The televised spectacle featured Aerosmith and NSYNC, with those top-selling acts alternating songs during the performance. They ultimately closed the gig with “Walk This Way,” featuring Spears, Mary J. Blige and Nelly.

The show, Spears wrote, was “just one of the seemingly endless good things happening for me” in that period of time. She also landed on Forbes’ power lists, in Pepsi commercials and in a movie, “Crossroads.” MTV still counts her slinking performance of “I’m a Slave 4 U” — complete with a white albino python — at the 2001 VMAs among the awards show’s most iconic moments. (Surprisingly, quite a few of those moments involve Spears. But more on that later.)

The singer was ubiquitous on magazine covers, from Cosmo to Rolling Stone, and on talk shows, gracing the studios of “Oprah,” “Rosie” and “The Tonight Show,” as well as “Saturday Night Live.” In 2001, she released her third studio album, “Britney.”

“When I think back on that time, I was truly living the dream, living my dream. My tours took me all over the world,” she wrote, and she was having fun “being 19.” She also said she turned down a role in the movie version of “Chicago,” which she regretted. (She also said she didn’t make the cut for the 2004 film “The Notebook.”)

“I had power back then; I wish I’d used it more thoughtfully,” she said, “been more rebellious.”

That same year, she released her third album, “Britney,” and was touring North America while also dating NSYNC frontman Justin Timberlake — before their pop-star romance came to a screeching halt.

Which brings us to ...

The Justin Timberlake years

Spears and the “Bye, Bye, Bye” crooner reunited after working together on “The Mickey Mouse Club.” They started dating in 1999, when she was 17 and he was 18, while both rose to the top of the pop music world. After breaking up in 2002, Spears was blamed for the end of their romance by powerful media figures, including veteran journalist Diane Sawyer, who confronted Spears about Timberlake in a high-profile 2003 interview that brought the “Lucky” singer to tears.

Spears alleged in her memoir that he cheated on her repeatedly, then he broke up with her via a “two-word” text message , went on an infamous PR tour bashing her and wrote songs that painted her as the bad guy in their relationship (Ahem, “Cry Me a River.” ) Spears also admits to cheating once on J.T. when she made out with the band’s choreographer, Wade Robson . (Her book is now being considered a blow to Timberlake’s latest comeback .)

“[A]s much as Justin hurt me, there was a huge foundation of love, and when he left me I was devastated,” Spears wrote. “When I say devastated, I mean I could barely speak for months. Whenever anyone asked me about him, all I could do was cry. I don’t know if I was clinically in shock, but it felt that way.”

In her memoir, Britney Spears reveals she had an abortion while with Justin Timberlake

Britney Spears revealed she had an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake. ‘He didn’t want to be a father,’ she wrote in her new memoir, ‘The Woman in Me.’

Oct. 17, 2023

The biggest bombshell about their relationship was dropped in the week before “The Woman in Me” published: An excerpt revealed that in 2000 Spears had an abortion while dating the musician.

She called her medically induced abortion “one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life” and said she wouldn’t have done it if she was making the decision without Timberlake, who said “we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.”

Although he hasn’t yet publicly addressed Spears’ allegations , Timberlake publicly apologized to Spears in 2021 after the FX documentary “Framing Britney Spears” for his role in the public backlash against her after their breakup, describing the music industry as male-centric and flawed.

2002 | ‘Crossroads’

Playing a virginal high-school valedictorian in “Crossroads” put Spears off acting. She didn’t enjoy how she disappeared into her character — one of three childhood best friends who embark on a road trip with a guy they just met. It should be noted that the film was bankrolled by a wing of the Zomba Group, whose Jive Records label was home to Spears, the Backstreet Boys and R. Kelly. Zomba was reportedly so eager to team up with MTV Films and the cable channel’s mighty promotional machine that it also put up half of the film’s marketing budget.

“‘Crossroads’ is no ‘ Glitter ,’” The Times’ review said. “Spears acquits herself as well as anyone might, in a movie as contrived and lazy as this one. She has a natural screen presence and, despite all those irritating vocal tics, makes herself likable. This may come as a shock, but she’s OK.”

With only a $12-million budget, the film could arguably be regarded as a success, making $61.1million at the worldwide box office. And it also gave us this cover, above, of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll.”

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Feb. 15, 2002

2003 | Jason Alexander marriage

Spears revealed in her memoir that her 55-hour marriage to childhood pal Jason Alexander was the result of an alcohol-fueled bender in Las Vegas at age 22 — an impulsive move that deepened the cracks in her public image.

“I was this little girl who had worked so much, and then all of a sudden the schedule was blank for a few days, and so: Hello, alcohol!” she wrote.

The pair got hitched in a wedding chapel at about 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday in January and the next day arranged for an annulment in the presence of several people, including a lawyer. The short-lived newlyweds “took a joke too far by getting married,” her record label said in a statement at the time. (Incidentally, it was Alexander who crashed Spears’ June 2022 nuptials to Sam Asghari.)

2003 | The Madonna-Christina Aguilera kiss

Creating another of the aughts’ iconic pop-culture moments, Madonna locked lips with Spears and Christina Aguilera onstage during the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards while they performed a wedding-themed version of “Like a Virgin.” Madonna handpicked Spears and Aguilera because they were “the best young dancers around.” The provocative performance also paved the way for Spears’ “Me Against the Music,” which featured the Material Girl. The song was the debut single for Spears’ fourth studio album, “In the Zone,” which also featured her signature hit “Toxic.”

2004 | ‘Toxic’ earns a Grammy Award

After six nominations, Spears won her first Grammy — for her dance recording “Toxic.” The singer had already made her Grammy-stage debut in 2000 when she performed a medley of her hits, including “From the Bottom of My Broken Heart” and “… Baby One More Time.”

The Kevin Federline years

In 2004, a little more than a year after her quickie wedding to Alexander, Spears began dating backup dancer Kevin Federline . The two met at the Hollywood club Joseph’s Café and Spears said “there was a connection between us” from the moment she saw him. Federline had been a dancer for NSYNC and had a “bad boy” image. Spears claims she didn’t know when she met him that he had already had a toddler and that his ex-girlfriend was eight months pregnant.

“It was beyond a sexual thing. It wasn’t about lust. It was intimate. He would hold me as long as I wanted to be held. Had anyone in my life ever done that before? If so, I couldn’t remember when. And was there anything better?” she wrote. “After what I’d gone through with J, I hadn’t been with someone in a real way in so long.”

They got engaged in July of that year after Spears asked him to marry her. He said no and proposed to her instead. They wed in a surprise ceremony in the San Fernando Valley that September, when she was 22 and he was 26. The following year, they put their union on display by co-starring in five episodes of the short-lived UPN docuseries “Britney & Kevin: Chaotic,” which many critics regarded as career suicide for the star.

2005 | Becoming a mom

Spears and Federline welcomed their first child , son Sean Preston, on Sept. 14, 2005, at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center. Almost exactly a year later, she gave birth to their second son, Jayden James.

The public scrutiny heightened for the young mother of two children under 2, and she lived under the glare of the media and the legal system as she navigated being a first-time mom. Paparazzi and tabloids scooped up “bad mom” content and her bizarre behavior was caught on tape — her baby fell out of a highchair and suffered scratches, and she was seen driving down Pacific Coast Highway while holding her infant son in her lap.

Spears said she felt “a little depressed” while her kids “seemed so vulnerable out in the world of jockeying paparazzi and tabloids.” Her hormones “were all over the place” and she was “meaner than hell and so bossy. “

“I now know that I was displaying just about every symptom of perinatal depression: sadness, anxiety, fatigue,” she wrote. “Once the babies were born, I added on my confusion and obsession about the babies’ safety, which was ratcheting up the more media attention was on us. Being a new mom is challenging enough without trying to do everything under a microscope.

“With Kevin away so much, no one was around to see me spiral — except every paparazzo in America,” she said.

In that time, she also said that she and Federline grew more estranged while he focused on his music career and newfound solo fame and “it seemed like he wanted to pretend [Spears] didn’t exist.”

“He really thought he was a rapper now. Bless his heart — because he did take it so seriously,” she wrote.

2006 | Divorce

She filed for divorce from Federline in November 2006 after two years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. Though she was vilified in the media, she believes that the split helped promote Federline’s album, which was released a week after their divorce announcement.

Erratic behavior soon followed (see “head shaving,” below). Spears found herself frequently in the company of Paris Hilton and in the crosshairs of gossip bloggers who followed her every move.

The Spears-Federline divorce was finalized in 2007, and she lost custody of their two sons that year. Federline was also awarded sole custody of their children when the conservatorship was put into place in 2008. Today, Spears still appears to have some custody of the teen boys , but it’s unclear how much and whether it’s physical, legal or both.

2007 | ‘Gimme More’ (or less) at the MTV VMAs

Spears raised even more eyebrows when she opened the 2007 MTV VMAs with a seemingly dazed, confused, underwear-clad performance of “Gimme More.” The show had been touted as a comeback for a singer who had largely left her professional career behind to focus on her family. Instead, it was a fiasco.

But the September flop in Las Vegas, which included Spears failing to lip-sync portions of the song, launched scores of theories and even more questions about her fitness to return to the stage — let alone parenthood. Meanwhile, her fifth studio album, “Blackout,” was released that October and was critically acclaimed for bringing dubstep and other alt sounds to pop radio. Its lead single, “Piece of Me,” has been characterized as “a sneering indictment of Big Gossip.”

2007-2008 | Head shaving and psychiatric holds

The release of “Blackout,” was sidelined by global headlines about Spears’ personal life, including abruptly shaving her head and subsequently using an umbrella to attack a paparazzo’s SUV. At the time, she argued that her hair extensions had been giving her a headache.

Those incidents and others led to welfare checks and psychiatric holds in early 2008 and laid the groundwork for her family to place her under the controversial conservatorship in California that year.

“Flailing those weeks without my children, I lost it, over and over again. I didn’t even really know how to take care of myself. Because of the divorce, I’d had to move out of the home I loved and was living in a random English-style cottage in Beverly Hills. The paparazzi were circling extra-excitedly now, like sharks when there’s blood in the water. ..,” she wrote. “But if I couldn’t see my sons, I didn’t want to see anybody.”

Shaving her newly dyed brunet locks on Feb. 16, 2007 , was her way of “pushing back.” and doing so “felt almost religious” because, she wrote, she had “been eyeballed so much growing up” and had people telling her what they thought of her body for too long.

Days later, when she was again denied entry to Federline’s home to see her sons, she snapped at a paparazzo who just wouldn’t let up.

“I screamed. They liked that — when I reacted. One guy wouldn’t go away until he got what he wanted. He kept smirking, kept asking me the same terrible questions, over and over, trying to get me to react again,” she wrote, describing his “lack of humanity” as he quizzed her about how it felt not being able to see her kids. It was one of the worst moments in her life, she wrote.

“Finally, I snapped. I grabbed the only thing within reach, a green umbrella, and jumped out of the car. I wasn’t going to hit him, because even at my worst, I am not that kind of person. I hit the next closest thing, which was his car. Pathetic, really. An umbrella. You can’t even do any damage with an umbrella. It was a desperate move by a desperate person. “

2008 | Conservatorship begins

Spears’ story is inextricable from her nearly 14-year conservatorship , a legal move by her father Jamie that put him in control of her personal and professional life. The conservatorship was installed against her will in February 2008 and gave him near-total authority of her finances and career. He told her “I’m Britney Spears now,” she wrote in her book.

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“If they’d let me live my life, I know I would’ve followed my heart and come out of this the right way and worked it out,” Spears wrote. “Thirteen years went by with me feeling like a shadow of myself.”

In that time, many players were named in legal documents, and Spears had to get two restraining orders against the Svengali-like figure Sam Lutfi , a man/manager/spokesperson who her family said was trying to release private information about the singer. A slew of allegations also flew against her former business manager, Lou Taylor, the founder of Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group, who allegedly helped set up the conservatorship . Spears also believed it was her mother Lynnes idea to move in that direction as well.

“I think back now on my father and his associates having control over my body and my money for that long and it makes me feel sick … Think of how many male artists gambled all their money away; how many had substance abuse or mental health issues. No one tried to take away their control over their bodies and money. I didn’t deserve what my family did to me,” she wrote.

Still, she performed, notching guest spots on the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” and leading people to believe that the legal arrangement was to her benefit. But, she wrote, her heart wasn’t in it anymore: “As far as my passion for singing and dancing, it was almost a joke at that point.”

In legal documents released in 2020, Spears was revealed to be worth $59 million , but as her fans and #FreeBritney advocates would argue, she had no control over that sum, which was funding the conservators and lawyers who minded the purse.

2011 | ‘Femme Fatale’

Her seventh studio album, released in March 2011, was her last record at longtime label Jive. The record label shuttered that year and Spears became an RCA Records artist. “Femme Fatale” featured the songs “Hold It Against Me,” “Criminal” and “Till the World Ends” and The Times described it as “plainly one of her best.” Her prior album, 2008’s “Circus,” had yielded “Womanizer,” her first song to reach No. 1 on the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart since “Oops! ... I Did it Again” did in January 1999.

2012 | ‘The X Factor’

Spears returned to TV screens by joining Season 2 of Fox’s talent competition series “The X Factor.” She oversaw a crop of talent alongside Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid and Demi Lovato on the judge’s panel for 28 episodes. But in January 2013, Spears released a statement confirming weeks of speculation that she would not be returning for the show’s third season. Spears’ statement maintained that it wasn’t the producers’ decision, it was hers.

“I had an incredible time doing the show and I love the other judges and I am so proud of my teens, but it’s time for me to get back in the studio. Watching them all do their thing up on that stage every week made me miss performing so much! I can’t wait to get back out there and do what I love most.”

Cowell and the other producers did little to stem reports that they were unhappy with Spears’ lackluster judging performance as the show suffered through double-digit ratings declines despite expectations that Spears’ presence would boost viewership, The Times reported then.

‘Piece of Me’ Las Vegas residency

Spears launched what became a four-year Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino just before New Year’s Eve in 2013. Though her personal life had appeared to stabilize under the conservatorship, the release of her album “Britney Jean” earlier that month showed that her business was still hurting: It opened with the lowest sales of her 15-year career.

But the show — with songs including her early hits and “Work, Bitch,” “Womanizer,” “Circus” and “Till the World Ends” — was so popular that she extended it in 2015 for two more years.

With more than 140 performances under her belt, she closed out the residency on New Year’s Eve in 2017 — the last time she performed live for an audience outside her Instagram feed until now. The show grossed more than $138 million and won the best of Las Vegas award in 2015 and 2017.

Review: Britney Spears offers just a ‘Piece of Me’ in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- The show is called “Piece of Me,” and that’s exactly what it delivers -- no more, no less.

Dec. 29, 2013

2016 | ‘Glory’

Her ninth studio album, “Glory,” came amid her Vegas renaissance. She hasn’t released a new album since.

“Even when the songs are providing her with flimsy messages, Spears on ‘Glory’ sings with real style and attitude, as in ‘Make Me…,’ in which she switches between a breathy murmur in the verse and a euphoric falsetto in the chorus, and ‘What You Need,’ a surprising neo-Motown jam in which she comes far closer to Amy Winehouse than anyone would ever have predicted,” Times pop music critic Mikael Wood wrote.

“As a whole, the performance is a vast improvement over her flat, robotic delivery on ‘Britney Jean’; indeed, it’s the very performed nature of the singing — with Spears’ full battery of signature vocal tics — that makes ‘Glory’ such a good time.”

2017 | Britney’s ‘Gram’

With the singer appearing more and more in the public eye — primarily on Instagram — Tess Barker and Barbara Gray launch a podcast, “Britney’s Gram,” dedicated to humorously dissecting Britney Spears’ enigmatic Instagram account. The podcast ultimately gives rise to the powerful #FreeBritney movement that protested her conservatorship.

2018 | ‘Domination’ axed

Spears put her follow-up residency “Britney: Domination” on hold in late 2018 after her dad’s colon ruptured and he spent a month in the hospital. In January 2019, she abruptly canceled the gig altogether just as it was set to begin. She then checked into a mental health facility.

In a November 2020 court filing, Spears alleged that she was afraid of her father and would reportedly not perform until he no longer had control over her career. In a related hearing, her then-attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III, also blamed the singer’s professional hiatus on her father.

In her book, Spears said she refused to do a dance move for her second residency because she considered it too dangerous. That resistance, she wrote, led to months spent in a $60,000-a-month “luxury” rehab facility in Beverly Hills after her father told her that over-the-counter “energy supplements” had been found in her purse.

“My father said that if I didn’t go, then I’d have to go to court, and I’d be embarrassed. He said, ‘We will make you look like a f— idiot, and trust me, you will not win. It’s better me telling you to go versus a judge in court telling you.’

“I felt like it was a form of blackmail and I was being gaslit,” she wrote. “I honestly felt they were trying to kill me.”

In rehab she was taken off Prozac abruptly, then put on lithium and forced to go through extensive therapy. She spent two months solo and then a month in a building with other patients.

“Three months into my confinement, I started to believe that my little heart, whatever made me Britney, was no longer inside my body anymore.”

2018 | GLAAD’s Vanguard Award

At 36, the pop star stepped out to the Beverly Hilton to accept GLAAD’s Vanguard Award, an honor that is presented to media professionals who have “made a significant difference in promoting equality and acceptance of LGBTQ people.”

“This is so incredibly amazing,” Spears said in a speech about acceptance and inclusion. “I feel like our society has always put such an emphasis on what’s normal. And to be different is always seen as unusual or seen as strange. But to be accepted unconditionally and to be able to express yourself as an individual through art is such a blessing.”

She added, “Events like this, the one we are attending here tonight, show the world that we’re not alone. We can all join hands together here and know that we are all beautiful. And we can lift each other up and show our gifts without hesitation.”

2019 | #FreeBritney gains momentum

Evolving from a hashtag to a bona-fide movement, the #FreeBritney campaign gained momentum after the “Britney’s ‘Gram” podcasters released a special episode in 2019 featuring a troubling voicemail from someone who claimed to be a former paralegal for a lawyer who worked on Spears’ conservatorship.

The movement was filled with Spears fans as well as disability-rights advocates . Spears said in her book that she first learned of the movement from a kindly nurse in her rehab facility who was willing to show her videos. Now, she credits #FreeBritney with helping her find the courage to challenge and eventually escape the legal arrangement.

2020 | New music

Although Spears hasn’t released an album since 2016, she put out a trio of singles in 2020: “Mood Ring,” Swimming in the Stars” and “Matches,” with the Backstreet Boys.

2021 | ‘Framing Britney Spears’ and ‘Britney vs Spears’

A tectonic shift in the narrative around Spears emerged when a series of documentaries — somewhat fueled by #FreeBritney interest — arrived in 2021. The New York Times-produced “Framing Britney Spears ,” which premiered on FX and Hulu, highlighted the invasive media frenzy surrounding the pop star as well as the built-in misogyny that dogged her career. And Netflix queued up its secretive “Project Red” offering later that year, debuting “Britney vs Spears” amid Spears’ pivotal court hearing at the end of September. (TMZ would deliver its take, “TMZ Investigates: Britney Spears: The Price of Freedom,” in 2023.)

Spears didn’t collaborate on either project, but had plenty to say about others telling her story .

2021 | Britney’s explosive court testimony and the end of the conservatorship

Between FX and Netflix’s dueling documentaries, Spears described her conservatorship as “abusive” at an explosive hearing in June, saying, “I’m not happy. I’m so angry it’s insane, and I’m depressed. I cry every day.” She said her father, Jamie Spears, “ loved the control he had over me” at times. “He loved it.”

At a momentous Sept. 29 hearing, Judge Brenda J. Penny said that Spears’ situation was “not tenable” and that it reflected “a toxic environment, which requires the immediate suspension of Jamie Spears today.”

On Nov. 21, the L.A. judge ruled to terminate the controversial conservatorship , ending the oversight that had supervised the pop star’s person and estate for nearly 14 years.

Penny restored Spears’ legal rights, effective immediately.

2021 | Music break

Weeks after her conservatorship ended, Spears took to Instagram to explain that she would continue her break from making music and performing, arguing that nobody knew the “awful things” that were done to her and that she was scared of people and the music business.

“They really hurt me!!!!!! Not doing music anymore is my way of saying ‘F— you’ in a sense when it only actually benefits my family by ignoring my real work,” she wrote on Instagram.

2022 | ‘Hold Me Closer’

Spears made a triumphant return to music in August 2022 when Elton John released their splashy duet “Hold Me Closer.” The track featured Spears’ vocals over a mash-up of his early-1970s classic “Tiny Dancer” and the title track from his 1992 album “The One.” Although it was a clear bid to replicate the success of “ Cold Heart ,” his 2021 collaboration with Dua Lipa, the song debuted in Billboard’s Hot 100 and marked Spears’ highest-charting single since her will.i.am collaboration “Scream and Shout” in 2012. (She and will.i.am released a second collab titled “Mind Your Business” in early 2023.)

Britney Spears calls out paparazzi on new track ‘Mind Your Business’ with will.i.am

Britney Spears called out the paparazzi on her new song, ‘Mind Your Business’ with will.i.am, released on Friday.

July 21, 2023

2022 | Sam Asghari romance, wedding and divorce

After dating for five years, the pair got married in June 2022, about half a year after she undid her conservatorship. But in August, after “The Woman in Me” was finished, Asghari filed for divorce from Spears .

“After six years of love and commitment to each other my wife and I have decided to end our journey together,” Asghari wrote in his Instagram story . “We will hold onto the love and respect we have for each other and I wish her the best always. S— happens,” he continued. “Asking for privacy seems ridiculous so I will just ask for everyone including media to be kind and thoughtful.”

Spears sang a different tune when she broke her silence a day later.

“As everyone knows, Hesam and I are no longer together… 6 years is a long time to be with someone, so I’m a little shocked but… I’m not here to explain why because it’s honestly nobody’s business!!!” the 41-year-old wrote on Instagram.

“But I couldn’t take the pain anymore, honestly!!!,” she added. “I’ve been playing it strong for way too long and my Instagram may seem perfect but it’s far from reality and I think we all know that !!! I would love to show my emotions and tears on how I really feel but some reason I’ve always had to hide my weaknesses !!!

2022 | Miscarriage

Backing up to May 2022, about a month after announcing she was pregnant with her third child , she revealed she‘d had a miscarriage

“It is with our deepest sadness we have to announce that we have lost our miracle baby early in pregnancy,” the pop singer said in an Instagram post signed by Spears and her then-fiancé.

2023 | ‘The Woman in Me’

The pop princess’ memoir, “The Woman in Me,” hit bookshelves Tuesday, culminating the $15-million book deal she had signed with Simon & Schuster in February 2022. The deal was made on the heels of her younger sister’s bombshell tell-all , which Spears said she did not approve of.

Her book, she said, was “a labor of love and all the emotions that come with it,” and reliving everything had been “exciting, heart-wrenching, and emotional, to say the least.” For those reasons, she added, she would read only the introduction for the audio version of the book and leave Oscar winner Michelle Williams to recite the rest.

“Freedom to do what I want to do has given me back my womanhood,” she wrote. “In my forties, I’m trying things for what feels like the first time. ... Now, finally, I’m roaring back to life.”

Times assistant editor Christie D’Zurilla and staff writers Christi Carras, Alexandra del Rosario and Jonah Valdez contributed to this report.

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Nardine Saad covers breaking entertainment news, trending culture topics, celebrities and their kin for the Fast Break Desk at the Los Angeles Times. She joined The Times in 2010 as a MetPro trainee and has reported from homicide scenes, flooded canyons, red carpet premieres and award shows.

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Melissa Joan Hart  says that, in retrospect, taking Britney Spears to her first-ever club was not the best way to be a sister and role model to the pop icon.

The 48-year-old actress recently sat down to do a rETrospective with ET and opened up about her decade-spanning career, her most iconic projects -- including Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina the Teenage Witch -- and her friendship with Spears, 42, which began when she starred alongside her in the music video for "You Drive Me (Crazy)."

"Britney and I got to do a lot of press together. And we had a lot of fun together during this time," Hart shared while looking back on clips and photos of herself and the singer from 1999 and beyond. For the actress -- who is six years older than Spears -- she felt a sibling-style bond with the then-teen. 

"I saw that she was just surrounded by people, never able to break free. And I was like, 'Hey want to come?'" Hart shared of getting the GRAMMY Award winner to break out of her shell and go to a nightclub with friends. "I would go to a club every night -- I love dancing and I loved going out, but I also knew to be responsible and, like, when to stop."

The "Womanizer" singer was 17 when the song and the wildly popular music video Hart appeared in was released. The track was from Spears' debut album,  Baby One More Time,  which came out just months before her 18th birthday.

The video -- which has more than 206 million views on Spears' YouTube channel -- also features The Devil Wears Prada actor and late 90s heartthrob Adrian Grenier , and follows Spears and Hart playing dress up with friends before partying and dancing in a warehouse-like setting. The song and music video accompanied Hart and Grenier's film, Drive Me Crazy , which released around the same time as Spears' album. 

Hart says that while she was young and didn't know better at the time, it's something she thinks about "to this day" as hindsight is 20/20. The "Oops!... I Did It Again" singer later struggled with partying in the early 2000s, but has also written about drinking with her mom at an early age in her 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me . 

"She was underage and young and -- but I [was] just like, 'Let's go out. We're just gonna go out and have some fun.' And yeah -- and I feel really guilty about that still to this day because I should have known better, being a big sister," Hart told ET. 

As fans well know, less than a decade after she first went out with Hart to a club, Spears would find herself in a highly contentious conservatorship with her father, Jamie Spears , who "temporarily" took over as she purportedly struggled with mental health issues. An Los Angeles court later made the conservatorship permanent , giving Jamie, 71, and another co-conservator power over her finances and medical decisions.

In November 2021, after 13 years and a passionate #FreeBritney movement, a judge terminated the conservatorship , granting Spears the freedom to control her career, finances and big life decisions, including the ability to get married or have a baby -- which she testified in September 2021 she was not allowed to do while under the conservatorship. 

Hart tells ET that she hasn't maintained constant contact with the singer and Crossroads star, but that she did get to see her while Spears was performing in her Las Vegas residency, Britney: Piece of Me . 

"I saw her when she was doing her Vegas residency a few years back, but she was doing her show so, you know, it was a quick hello backstage and that was it," Hart told ET of their most recent encounter. 

For the Melissa & Joey star, however, Britney's struggles and life story have forever impacted her, she says, including the decision to sign onto her new Lifetime film, The Bad Guardian . The upcoming film sees Hart star as Leigh, a woman desperately trying to get her father out of a toxic guardian situation. 

"When Leigh’s (Hart) father Jason (Eric Pierpoint) suffers a fall while she’s out of town, the courts assign Jason a guardian, Janet (La La Anthony). At first Janet seems to be a big help to Jason, but things quickly take a terrible turn. Janet is legally in charge of every aspect of Jason’s life, and doesn’t waste any time placing him in a nursing home, auctioning off his house, all worldly possessions, and using the excuse that the proceeds are needed for his care," a description for the film reads. 

Hart says she was inspired to tell the important story partially because of Spears and Wendy Williams -- who is currently under a guardianship -- and to keep the dialogue surrounding the difficult topic going. 

"It's kind of encompassing a lot of different stories. It's not one person's story, but this is happening all across the country where people are losing family members to guardianships, to these permanent guardianships that judges put in place to protect the person, usually seniors," she shared. 

"I mean, we know as Britney or Wendy Williams, having guardianships that are, you know, causing conflict. But in a lot of cases, it's families who lose a senior family member," she continued, emphasizing how difficult and costly the situations can be in real life. 

Hart continued, sharing that while some guardianships are necessary and beneficial for a person in need, there is a lot of duplicity in the business. In 2021, Rosamund Pike starred in a film from the side of a scrupulous, but malicious court-appointed guardian in Netflix's I Care A Lot , which earned the Saltburn actress a Golden Globe. 

"Once the doctors and the judges decide this person needs help, a guardian is put in place and a lot of times, it's not a family member. It's a $2.9 billion business," Hart said. "And while most of them are legit guardianships that people that need guardianships, there's a lot of corruption. And so we're kind of highlighting the corruption in this movie."

She told ET, "I'm really proud of it.. think it's a captivating movie and I'm -- I'm really happy that we could get the story out."

The Bad Guardian premieres on Lifetime on May 18. 

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Britney Spears claims her massively swollen foot is ‘already better’ after it was ‘broken’ at Chateau Marmont

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Britney Spears is insisting her broken foot is healed — despite sharing a week-old video of it massively swollen.

“Just last week can you believe it !!! How is it already better ???” the 42-year-old pop superstar wrote Friday alongside a video on Instagram that showed her enlarged foot covered in bruises.

“Well I was stubborn and did it my way !!!” she gloated. “I didn’t listen to a motherf–king soul !! I even wore heels at night and danced with the saints !!!”

In her lengthy caption, Spears raved about all the things she got to do over the last few days as her foot was healing, including skinny dipping in Mexico, drinking “expensive wine” and singing in her outdoor shower.

“I finally told someone to their face for the first time ‘f–k you’ !!!” the “Oops! I Did It Again” singer further celebrated.

After hinting that she took some racy swimsuit photos, Spears revealed she caught a cold and then returned home.

On May 2, the “Womanizer” hitmaker claimed she injured her foot after falling at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles “like an idiot.”

“It’s so bad. F–king idiot here tries to do a leap in the living room of the Chateau, and I fell — embarrassed myself — and that’s it,” she added at the time.

Last Saturday, Spears told fans she was “walking on a broken foot” and that she refused to get professional help for it.

“They always said it can heal on its own but theres a huge chance it can snap and break again 😬 !!!” the “Circus” singer explained on Instagram.

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“Well I always did the surgeries and it was more painful afterwards so I’m being stubborn this time .. I’m gonna see if my body knows how to heal itself 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️ !!!”

Spears’ injury came about after her alleged “deadbeat” boyfriend   Paul Richard Soliz reportedly got into an altercation with her at Chateau Marmont, prompting an ambulance to be called.

The Grammy winner did not go to the hospital at the time and was transported back to her $7.4 million Thousand Oaks, Calif., mansion in the middle of the night, Page Six previously confirmed.

A source also told us she was “fine” after returning to her residence.

Following the incident, Spears assured fans that nothing of concern happened at the luxe hotel and even claimed paramedics came to her door “illegally.”

“Just to let people know … the news is fake !!!” she wrote via Instagram.

“I also twisted my ankle last night and paramedics showed up at my door illegally. They never came in my room but I felt completely harassed.”

Soliz, 37, was hired as a housekeeper for Spears’ home in 2022, but by September 2023, Page Six confirmed they were dating .

Page Six also confirmed he was fired at some point in 2023 because of his criminal past.

A handful of Spears’ friends told Page Six this month they are concerned about their relationship.

One pal even described Soliz as “extremely dangerous.”

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Melissa joan hart says she still feels guilty for taking britney spears to her first club.

The women starred alongside each other in Spears' music video for "(You Drive Me) Crazy."

By Christy Piña

Christy Piña

Associate Editor

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Melissa Joan Hart opened up about her friendship with Britney Spears after they co-starred in a music video.

In a retrospective with Entertainment Tonight , the Sabrina the Teenage Witch star looked back on her decades-long career, which began when she landed the title role in Clarissa Explains It All in 1991. A few years later, Hart and Spears worked together on the artist’s “(You Drive Me) Crazy ” music video.

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“I saw that she was just surrounded by people, never able to break free. And I was like, ‘Hey want to come?'” she said of when she convinced the artist to go to a nightclub with her friends. “I would go to a club every night — I love dancing and I loved going out, but I also knew to be responsible and, like, when to stop.”

In the music video, Hart and Spears play dress up with friends before going out to a party, where The Devil Wears Prada ‘s Adrian Grenier is. It was released alongside Hart and Grenier’s 1999 film Drive Me Crazy , which came out around the same time as “(You Drive Me) Crazy.” The hit song was featured on Spears’ debut album, Baby One More Time , when she was 17.

In the early 2000s, shortly after the artist began gaining popularity and turned 18, Spears was frequently spotted in the party scene. Hart explained she now feels guilty for inviting Spears out to parties with her.

“She was underage and young and — but I [was] just like, ‘Let’s go out. We’re just gonna go out and have some fun,'” the actress recalled of their first night out. “I feel really guilty about that still to this day because I should have known better, being a big sister.”

Years later, Spears was forced into her controversial conservatorship with her father, Jamie Spears. A judge terminated the conservatorship 13 years later after the #FreeBritney movement , allowing the artist to regain control her life , including finances, career and big decisions like getting married and having children, which she was not allowed to do beforehand.

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Amc slaps ‘goodfellas’ with trigger warning for ‘offensive’ content that includes ‘cultural stereotypes’.

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They’re whacking a classic.

AMC Networks added a trigger warning to the classic mob movie “Goodfellas” — rankling those who were in the film and wiseguys alike.

“This film includes language and/or cultural stereotypes that are inconsistent with today’s standards of inclusion and tolerance and may offend some viewers,” a message reads at the top of the film when screened on the network.

The warning was first affixed to the movie during the height of Black Lives Matter riots when many businesses and cultural institutions made avoiding offense to various groups a core part of their missions.

Disney has made a cottage industry of affixing warnings to their century-long oeuvre of content.

“In 2020, we began adding advisories in front of certain films that include racial or cultural references that some viewers might find offensive,” an AMC rep told The Post.

But the warning for Goodfellas apparently doesn’t apply to other mob flicks. “The Godfather” — which also plays on AMC and features many of the same themes — is presented with a more standard “viewer discretion” warning covering “brief nudity, strong language and intense violence.”

“The f–king political correctness has f–king taken everything away,” Bo Ditel, a former NYPD cop who played a police officer in “Goodfellas,” told The Post. “This is how life was back then. It was not a clean beautiful thing. You can’t cleanse history. If you want to tell true history, you gotta tell it the way it is.”

Michael Franzese, a one-time captain of the Colombo crime family, said he was amused by the note

“We don’t need anyone protecting mob guys. It’s crazy,” he said.

The 1990 Martin Scorsese film is widely considered one of the best mob flicks ever made , and earned Joe Pesci an Academy Award for his memorable performance as the psychotic gangster Tommy DeVito. In 2000, the United States Library of Congress declared the film “culturally significant” and added it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

The film also stars Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino.

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Who’s Afraid of Double Denim?

It’s twilight time for the era of hoodies and sweats. Make way for another kind of suit, pairing a trucker jacket with matching jeans.

By Guy Trebay

Leave it to the Parisians to ace the “Canadian tuxedo.” Taking to Instagram recently with a series of street-style posts, the French photographer Ludovic Pieterson (@thestylearchivist) posted a reel titled “How people style total denim in Paris” and proved beyond any reasonable doubt that a style last in favor during the Rolling Stones’ “Voodoo Lounge” tour was back.

Fashion savants, of course, have been proclaiming the return of “double denim” for some time, predicting, with the bland assurance of carnival fortune tellers, that the future lies ahead. Yet, suddenly, in look after look, there was the proof: full denim outfits worn with theme-and-variation twists on a classic get-up comprising a denim trucker jacket and bluejeans, captured by Mr. Pieterson in seemingly every possible wash, permutation and silhouette.

Surely the best of these belonged to an anonymous man caught striding around a corner on the Right Bank, smack in the middle of the city’s old financial district, wearing aviator shades, an indigo four-pocket jacket that hit right at the waistline and some mid-blue jeans so crisp they could probably stand on their own. With the denim he wore a sharp white spread-collar shirt and a neatly knotted necktie. Possibly it was a Gallic touch too much that he had accessorized the look with a baguette tucked under one arm.

The next time naysayers cluck that the suit is dead, his is the image I’ll point to, with the admonishment that, four centuries into its evolution, the foolproof combination of jacket and trousers in matching fabrics seems as vital as ever.

One thing that time and recent events have altered is our relationship to the formality of traditional suiting and, for that matter, to formality itself. “Effortless is the new take on ‘I don’t care,’” the stylist Mark Avery said one recent morning from London. “Purposeful but casual,” he added, is the logical alternative to the schlumpiness of hoodies and sweats that dominated the early pandemic years.

Hollywood insiders know Mr. Avery as Ryan Gosling’s stylist, the guy that dressed the “Barbie” star in a pink silk suit and creased black Stetson for the Oscars. He is also someone who has worn double denim for decades, a horseless cowboy who serves as a walking advertisement for a style he first fell in love with watching old Westerns on TV.

In London for the filming of “Project Hail Mary,” Mr. Gosling’s new film about an astronaut rocketed into the galaxy in an effort to save an endangered Earth, Mr. Avery had taken his eye-catching style for a jet-lagged walk along Portobello Road, dressed like Gene Autry. Not everyone could pull off the battered cowboy hat Mr. Avery sported. As for the double denim suit, “it’s pretty much a foolproof formula anyone can wear,” he said.

Celebrities seem to think so, judging by sightings of people as stylistically unalike as Pamela Anderson, Julianne Moore and Gigi Hadid — all dressed in head-to-toe denim. Designers, too, have grabbed onto the look, with double denims all but ubiquitous on runways at Louis Vuitton, Victoria Beckham, Willy Chavarria and even Chanel.

“What I love is that double denim does the same thing a suit does,” Mr. Avery said. “Even when you do it in denim, it creates this vibe of being put together and intentional.”

There is something else, Samuel Hine, a fashion writer at GQ, said about double denim: With its roots in workwear, it is unambiguously American in its origins and stands as a corrective to a lot of the giddier and sometimes unwearable stuff designers crank out. At least in part it is an acknowledgment — tacit at Chanel, explicit at Louis Vuitton — of values aligned with the needs of new consumers. “Simple utilitarian clothing is connecting in a meaningful way,” Mr. Hine said.

And, like any suit, it is essentially a recipe. “The great thing about double denim,” Mr. Hine said, “is that you don’t have to overthink it.”

That is almost true. Given the light years it will take for the horror of Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s appearance at the American Music Awards in 2001 wearing coordinated head-to-toe stonewashed denims to fade from memory, it is clear that, if not styled smartly, double denim can easily veer into cosplay or, worse yet, dadcore.

“There was always a stigma about double denim,’’ said James Scully, a former modeling agent who opened Jamestown Hudson, a multibrand retail store in Hudson, N.Y., early this month. “We sold a ton of denim jackets and trousers in our first two days,” he said, referring to labels like RTH, RRL, Samuel Zelig, Transnomadica and Officine Générale. “Obviously, you can go to more places in double denim than you can in a tracksuit or sweats.”

Was anything ever worse than the sweats trend? Not for Jess Cuevas, a creative director in Los Angeles who has worked with Willy Chavarria and who styled the artwork for Madonna’s “Celebration” tour. “For me, double denim is a classic,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s giant jackets with giant pants, tiny jackets with big pants, the oversize and creased 501s that are a staple in Chicano culture. You can’t go wrong.”

In the lexicon of style, double denim is a constant, the designer Todd Snyder noted last week over lunch in Manhattan. “I’ve always loved denim-on-denim, even when it was out.” Anyway, the arbitrariness of “in" and “out” distinctions seems out of step in an era when designers and consumers draw freely from a decontextualized slipstream of Pinterest imagery. “Anything styled the right way is right,’’ Mr. Snyder said.

How does he style it? “The classic Canadian tuxedo is straight-leg five-point jeans with a trucker jacket,” Mr. Snyder said. “A belt is a must to keep it from looking like a costume.”

Todd Snyder aficionados know that the designer is a fan of rigid denim, which “gives you more of an authentic, Japanese vintage dealer vibe,” he said. Bleached denim, too, is a favorite, provided it’s paired with a second element in the same wash.

And proportion is key. “Maybe you have oversize jeans with a paper-bag waist,” he said. “Wear that with a chore coat or contrast it with a tightfitting trucker.”

Finally, it’s the footwear that finishes the look. “The one thing you don’t want to do is wear double denim with cowboy boots,” Mr. Snyder said. “You can’t be so literal. Add sneakers, a blucher or a desert boot instead.”

Guy Trebay is a reporter for the Style section of The Times, writing about the intersections of style, culture, art and fashion. More about Guy Trebay

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