Free Britney and the Framing Britney Spears Documentary on Hulu: What to Know

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Video screenshot by Leslie Katz / CNET

Britney Spears is in the news again, but not for her music. Fans, including celebrities, are speaking out in support of the 1990s pop princess following the release of The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears, currently streaming on Hulu. If you’re wondering why you keep seeing the #FreeBritney and #wearesorrybritney hashtags, read on.

The documentary series

A Spears-focused episode of the documentary series The New York Times Presents aired February 5. The show, Framing Britney Spears, runs for about an hour and 13 minutes and has “generally favorable” reviews on CNET sister site Metacritic. Chicago Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper calls it “a thought-provoking retrospective of Spears’s life and career, right through to the conservatorship battle as Spears continues to fight her father in court.”

The filmmakers reached out to Spears and her family for interviews, the show’s credits show, but none made it into the film. Friends, supporters, former employees and reporters, however, all speak on camera about Spears’ life, career and the campaign to end or change her conservatorship. Two contributors to the documentary, Babs Gray and Tess Barker, are launching a podcast series that will focus on Spears’s life, including the legal battle with her father, and the birth of the # FreeBritney movement to release her.

The last news

First, you should know that the battle for Spears’s money and who controls it continues to change on a daily basis, with the documentary shedding light on the battle to a clearer audience. On Feb. 11, Spears’s father, Jamie Spears, lost his bid to keep control of the delegation of her investments, NBC News reports. That doesn’t mean he’s completely out of the picture. But it does mean he will have to work with the financial firm Bessemer Trust, which was co-curated with Spears in 2020. Spears and the group are now expected to collaborate on a budget and investment proposal for the singer’s sizable legacy. , NBC reports.

What does #FreeBritney mean?

In 2008, a California court placed Spears under conservatorship, which meant that Jamie Spears subsequently had full control over her assets and business affairs.

Attorney Andrew Wallet resigned as co-curator in 2019, leaving Spears the sole curator until a court appoints the Bessemer Trust to work with him. Some fans are backing a movement they call #FreeBritney, hoping that social media pressure will convince the court to release the now 39-year-old singer from the legal settlement. The singer herself called the conservatory ‘voluntary’ in court documents filed August 31, but also said at the time that she was ‘strongly opposed’ to her father’s continued existence as the sole curator – a wish that was granted when the trust was set in as co-curator.

In November, Spears’s court-appointed attorney said she will no longer act as long as her father remains in the role of curator, The New York Times reported. “My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father,” said the lawyer.

Britney on Britney

The singer has not addressed the issue directly, but on February 9 she posted to Instagram and Twitter, and many fans think she was alluding to the situation. Spears posted a video and wrote, “I can’t believe this three-year show from Toxic was up !!! I’ll always love being on stage … but I’ll take the time to learn and being a normal person … … I just love the basics of everyday life. “

And in a follow-up tweet, Spears wrote, “Each person has their own story and their take on other people’s stories !!!! We all have so many different wonderful, beautiful lives! Remember, it doesn’t matter what we think we know. about a person’s stories. life is nothing compared to the real person who lives behind the lens. “

Bette Midler, other stars are speaking out

In addition to Spears fans, some famous people have been addressing the singer’s problems since the documentary came out. Singer Courtney Love was one of many people who tweeted with the hashtag #wearesorrybritney.

Singer Bette Midler also tweeted her support with the hashtag #FreeBritney.

Actor Valerie Bertinelli tweeted that Spears’s story “makes me crazy grateful for my parents and how they protected me as a young girl in this insane business.”

Journalist Tamron Hall wrote, “I finally watched the ‘Framing of Britney Spears’ on Hulu. To call it heartbreaking is an understatement.”

Actor Heather Matarazzo delivered a heartbreaking message, writing, “The anger and sadness I felt watching #FramingBritneySpears last night traveled with me to my dreams. I woke up with a desire to burn everything down and her friend to be.”

Diane Sawyer and Justin Timberlake deal with backlash

Older commentary about Spears is also under scrutiny. Some people call up journalist Diane Sawyer for a 2003 interview with Spears that appears in the documentary, while others do. lauded presenter Craig Ferguson because you said on the air that comics shouldn’t make fun of Spears’s problems. Other fans have criticized Spears’s former boyfriend Justin Timberlake, and others who were involved with the singer in some way, or who once commented on her troubles.

Britney basics

If you somehow managed to get to 2021 without ever hearing from Britney Spears, here’s the quick recap. Spears was only 11 in 1992 when she was released in The Mickey Mouse Club. Her debut album, 1999’s … Baby One More Time, sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and is one of the best-selling albums of all time. She has won a Grammy Award, six MTV Video Music Awards, seven Billboard Music Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There is no doubt that she is one of the best-selling, highest-earning and most-searched stars of all time.

But her personal life has often surpassed her career success. She married childhood friend Jason Alexander in 2004 and that marriage was annulled after just 55 hours. She later starred on a reality show, Britney and Kevin: Chaotic, with eventual husband Kevin Federline – whose girlfriend was still pregnant with his child when he started dating Spears. Spears and Federline had two sons of their own, and she later lost custody of them both, with the couple’s different parental struggles always making headlines.

Her mental health and other struggles became excruciatingly public: In 2007, Spears shaved her head, reportedly saying that she was “ tired of people touching me. ” But the public’s sympathy often seemed in favor of Spears, who came across as a troubled young woman who found fame and fortune too early and understandably couldn’t handle it.

How to watch the documentary

The New York Times Presents Framing Britney Spears is now available on FX and FX on Hulu. You can watch it on streaming service Hulu, on the FX cable channel, or on FX’s website, as long as you pay for a cable plan that includes FX, or subscribe to a streaming bundle that includes the channel.

The official FX YouTube channel is also exceptionally free with clips from the show, if you don’t mind getting highlights in two minute video blocks.

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