#BritneySpearsInterview #FramingBritneySpears #FreeBritney

Citizen Abels discusses Britney Spears and her confusing state of affairs brought to light by the new documentary series by The New York Times called “Framing Britney Spears,” as well as by Britney fans who launched the #FreeBritney campaign. The Citizen reminds his fans that it’s hard to escape strings being pulled on you when it’s the very powers that be you might be turning to to set you free. The video features a Britney Spears interview from 2003, five years before things changed for the pop star.

Rolling Stone Magazine described the whole Britney situation as follows (https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/freebritney-britney-spears-legal-829246/):

On April 22nd, 2019, around 50 Britney Spears fans wielding neon posters bearing the hashtag #FreeBritney gathered outside of West Hollywood City Hall. The collection gathered peacefully, wearing her merchandise, playing her hits and explaining to the news teams on site that they were collectively concerned, specifically about the state of her long-running conservatorship. Tess Barker and Barbara Gray, originators of the #FreeBritney movement, probably never had such a scene in mind when they launched their podcast Britney’s Gram in November 2017.

Barker and Gray gathered with fellow #FreeBritney supporters again shortly thereafter, this time on May 10th outside of Stanley Mosk courthouse in Los Angeles, the same day a hearing would take place on the status of Spears’ conservatorship. That hearing, as with previous and subsequent hearings concerning her conservatorship, did not end in Spears’ favor: In 2008, her court-appointed advocate Samuel Ingham stated that she was incapable of retaining her own counsel after meeting with her for 15 minutes. In Rolling Stone’s 2008 cover story on Spears in the aftermath of the conservatorship, writer Jenny Eliscu commented that Spears seemed “highly functional,” in comparison to the claims by her conservators’ lawyers that she was “gravely disabled.”

Back in 2017, Britney’s Gram was just a place for Barker and Gray to unpack the Princess of Pop’s “basic,” as Gray lovingly puts it, Instagram posts, ranging from fairy-tale memes to impromptu painting sessions.

But then, something strange happened: Two comedians riffing on the Instagram of their favorite star snowballed into a pop-music version of Watergate. After they spent months on their podcast hypothesizing on and investigating the seemingly suspicious events that led to Spears’ Instagram and public life going dark, Barker and Gray received their Deep Throat in the form of an anonymous phone call.

“You guys are on to something,” the source said. Barker and Gray confirmed his involvement with one of the law firms associated with the conservatorship (which has been kept further under wraps to protect his anonymity). For the April 16th, 2019, episode of Britney’s Gram, the actual voicemail was included along with Barker and Gray’s commentary on the new information and recent developments. The episode has been heard over 85,000 times on SoundCloud.

For longtime fans of Spears, her social media presence felt refreshing. In the years since a very public unraveling that ended in January 2008 with an involuntary 5150 hold and a court-ordered conservatorship that put her father Jamie Spears and the lawyer Andrew Wallet completely in charge of her assets, Spears’ Instagram felt like a rare glimpse into the unfiltered interior life of the world’s most protected pop star.

In March, while Spears was still nowhere to be found, Wallet abruptly quit, leaving Jamie Spears as the sole conservator. According The Blast, Wallet stated: “The conservatorship is engaged in numerous ongoing business activities requiring immediate attention and it therefore is in the best interest of the conservatee [Britney Spears] that the acceptance of Wallet’s resignation and the issuance of amended letters of conservatorship of the estate occur immediately and without delay.”

Wallet added, “Substantial detriment, irreparable harm and immediate danger will result to the conservatee and her estate if the relief requested herein in not granted on an ex parte basis.”

“Citizen Abels” – a copyrighted production of Four Strong Media LLC and The Citizen™ Media Group – is a YouTube show and channel produced, directed, and starring David Abels. You can follow Citizen Abels on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or visit The Citizen on his website. He’s a got a million stories to tell. And they’re all true.™ Four Strong Media. High art of the lowest order.™

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