Britney Dearest

It's the story that just won't die.

Just what is our fascination with this (alleged) dumb-bunny pop tart?

Maybe it's like watching a train wreck - you know it's gonna be tragic, but you just can't look away.

I have never been a Britney fan - and neither have any of my progeny, who are much closer to the demographic that Britney targets. Fortunately, they have more refined taste in music.

You just can't avoid Ms Spears - she's everywhere, all the time, youtuberous, driving dazedly around in her pinging 'Benz (with her kids unbuckled and her purse dog in her lap).

So there she is, lip-synching vacuous lyrics to really bad songs on music awards shows, looking dopey and confused. There she is again slurping Starbucks at the wheel, or scarfing Taco Time, or clear cutting her over-treated tresses (caught on camera phone), or partying hardy, or flashing her Brazilian-waxed nether bits to opportunistic paparrazzi at every opportunity.

As a Mom, Britney first came into my focus with her saucy schoolgirl MTV video in her mid teens. The previously (self-declared) virginal small town southern girl of Mickey Mouse Club origins was making sexy young thing mainstream, and apparently loving every second of it. I remember at the time there was a bit of an outcry from the Mom Majority who were (justifiably) concerned that their tweenies (who idolized the previously wholesome Ms Spears) would be influenced by her not-so-subliminal sex messaging in lyrics and videos. Throw the-then-borderline-raunchy Christina Aguilera and a few other notables into the mix, and you have a recipe for the mass reproduction of pop tartlettes, coming to a mall near you, dressing themselves up in what look suspiciously like pole dancing outfits, and slinging the much-abused "like" every fifth word. Spears' rebuttal: She was just "finding" herself, and it was up to parents to disabuse their daughters of the notion that Britney was any kind of role model. And Aguilara's? It was her way of dealing with some childhood sexual assault. Um, okay.

Spears went on to stellar $uccess: Beverly Hills, swimmin' pools, movie stars. She ramped up her sizzling hot performances with boa constrictors, flashdance showers, tearaway costumes, fondling young studs employed to be her "back up" dancers, and steamy kisses with Madonna. It was a fantasy life fer sure.

After a very public relationship (and break up) with pop icon Justin Timberlake, she married backup dancer/wannabe rapper Kevin Federline (aka K-Fed), raising eyebrows and (all-too-correct) predictions of near-future marital strife. She (very publicly) popped out two little boys in record time, the marriage collapsed (whilst undergoing enormous scrutiny and speculation in entertainment media) and she spiralled into the craziness that is reported ad nauseum in mainstream press.

So why not just ignore this whole sad story? We can't. It's that train wreck thing.

She is clearly a very troubled young lady (I use the term loosely ;^) Her ever-escalating, very public acting out, her apparent willingness to relinquish the custody of her young sons (and then jump in her Benz and go shopping), the secondhand stories of her erratic parenting skills, and the apparent total lack of reality-based self-awareness paint the picture of someone who is clearly not well. The on-going press free-for-all that obviously pervades her life can only add fuel to the fire. She has pushed away her Momager and everyone else who seems to have true good intentions of wanting to help her. It looks like she is giving up custody of her kids to K-Fed who is blending them with his two kids from a previous girlfriend (he's apparently a fertile, though not very monogamous, young man ;^)

Britney is, by all reports, off the tracks - out partying, careening around LA without a licence, missing court dates for custody issues and driving offenses, ditching court-appointed drug and alcohol monitoring. She's currently only allowed supervised visits with her kids. So there she is, out living the big life at the ripe ol' quarter century mark, on the way to what is shaping up to be a colossal crash n burn.

Why are we fascinated by watching the wheels coming off?

It seems humans have always had deities, and the fall of them has always been the stuff of lore. Maybe celebrity is not such a new religion, but maybe the electronic era has made it truly caffeine for the multitudes.

It's a pretty hard tumble for a little girl with big dreams from Louisiana. I empathize (somewhat) with her family. Britney is a long way from home on the burning shores of Malibu. She is a long way from the apparently wholesome place that she came from. I feel sure her mother never imagined that Britney would end up like this.

Teen stars are fickle young things - so many of them become pretty screwed up - maybe it's too much spotlight, too much money, too little rudder, too soon. It's a tricky balance between success and excess.

Explaining the rise and fall of Britney to a teen is tough. Then again, try to explain Anna Nicole Smith. Jeesh.

But in all this, there are some takeaways - including be careful what you wish for.

I hope Britney finds a good therapist. I think she needs one.