FT Blog: Britney’s pink bits - a year on

It was a year ago this week that Britney Spears first displayed her lack of underwear to the world as she got into Paris Hilton’s car after a night out clubbing.

A year ago, that was HUGE news and we, and other gossip sites, were knocked for six as hoards of people came over to investigate what was going on. I remember saying at the time how it would have utterly melted our servers if it had happened a few years earlier - when Britney was at the height of her fame before her career break and kids - but was still surprised at the popularity of it.

Contrast to a year later - there was a Britney upskirt story a few weeks ago and meh. A tiny blip. It’s old news now - I think we even covered it with an “again… yawn” type comment. I think we’ve become jaded after repeatedly seeing her in tiny, bum’n'bits exposing dresses, too small tops/blouses without bras and at times with even less on than that.

It’s been a crazy year from Britney - she started partying with Paris Hilton after splitting from then husband Kevin Federline, then got dumped by Paris, spent just hours in rehab on a couple of occasions before checking out again then shaving her head. Then she went to rehab for a longer stay but it didn’t seem to change her partying and we’ve had nine months of bad hair extensions, bad behaviour rumours and custody disputes. If you’d told me a year ago that Kevin Federline would have custody of their sons, I would have laughed my arse off - now he comes across as the responsible one of the pair.

So what does the next year hold for Ms Spears? I really and truly hope that it’s less chaotic for her and she gets to spend more quality time with her sons - quality for both her and them. We hear rumours but we don’t know for sure what is causing her to act the way she is - drugs? depression or another mental illness? just acting out after years of being told what to do? - but I hope she gets herself sorted out and either gets help, treatment or does whatever she needs to do to find some peace.

The recent stories about her cosmetic surgery plans worry me - as do the signs that she’s already pursuing that path with collagen injections etc. I worry that she’ll be the next Anna Nicole Smith, Lolo Ferrari or the countless other women who get so obsessed with their appearance that they end up looking barely human and become parodies of themselves.

I’ve never been a particular fan of her music - just not my cup of tea - but I couldn’t disagree that a lot of her old stuff was exactly what it needed to be: pop music in its finest form. Catchy hooks and lyrics, with perfectly MTV-friendly videos. Every aspect of it was hyper-produced but everyone knew that’s what it was. Her M&Ms gigs, the MTV VMAs performance and the ‘Gimme More’ video look so amateurish in comparison.

I think it’s possible for her to go back to her previous level of success but she has to understand what made her a success in the first place - it wasn’t just about her, it was the team of people around her. I realise that she probably wants some freedom and independence as an adult performer but perhaps she should accept that in her professional life, she should listen to other professionals - get a stylist, listen to a choreographer and while still develop her sound etc, not shoot too far away from her pop base.

Kylie Minogue was pure bubblegum pop when she started out then her success waned as she tried to mature her sound. She was at her least commercially successful when she worked with Nick Cave (on a song I happen to love) and when she was dating Michael Hutchence etc but then she came back HUGE with ‘Spinning Around’, ‘Kids’ and ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’. Combined with her iconic style (in her videos especially) and fab Showgirl tour, she now rivals Madonna for the Queen of Pop title in the UK and after fighting breast cancer, she’s more popular than ever and seen as a true star. Why am I mentioning this? Because I like to hope Britney has this potential too.

If Fametastic is still around in ten years time (when the internet is six dimensional or something), I hope to be writing about Britney’s chic style while stepping out in Paris (as is a common story for Kylie) and not about how Britney is checking into rehab for the nth time and is suing her doctor over a bodged cosmetic surgery.