Birth Name: Britney Jean Spears Date of Birth: 02 December 1981 Place of Birth: Kentwood, Louisiana, United States Height: 5' 2½" Occupation: Actress, Musician Education: Professional Performing Arts School in New York, New York Off-Broadway Dance Center in New York, New York Mickey Mouse Club Relations: Husband: Kevin Federline (engaged in June 2004; married on September 18, 2004) Jason Allen Alexander (married on January 3, 2004; annulled on January 5, 2004),Father: James Parnell Spears (born in 1952; building contractor; divorced),Mother: Lynne Irene Bridges (born in 1956; former second grade school teacher; divo,Sisters: Jamie Lynn Spears (actress; born on April 4, 1991),Brothers: Bryan Spears (actor; born on April 19, 1977),Grand Father: June Austin Spears (born in 1930; paternal grandfather), Barnett O'Field Br,Grand Mother: Emma Jean Forbes (born in 1933; died in 1966; paternal grandmother), Lillia,Sons: Sean Preston Federline (born on September 14, 2005 at the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center before 1 PM), Kaleb (born on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 in Orange County; mother: Shar Jackson), Kori (born on Wednesday, July 31, 2002 in Orange County; mother: Shar Jackson)
Biography
Born. 2nd December 1981, Kentwood, Louisiana, USA. One of the last teenage superstars of the millennium, Spears enjoyed her breakthrough success at the end of 1998. She appeared in local dance revues and church choirs as a young girl, and at the age of eight auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club. Although she was too young to join the series, a producer on the show gave her an introduction to a New York agent. She subsequently spent three summers at the Professional Performing Arts School Center. She appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions as a child actor, including Ruthless (1991). She returned to the [ Walt ] Disney Channel for a spot on The Mickey Mouse Club, where she was featured for two years between the ages of 11 and 13. She began to audition for pop bands in the New York area, her demo tapes eventually landing on the desk of Jive Records' Jeff Fenster. ''Her vocal ability and commercial appeal caught me right away,'' he recalls. She was expensively groomed by Jive, who put her in the studio with Eric Foster White (producer and writer for Boyzone, Whitney Houston and others). They employed top R&B writer Max Martin (of Backstreet Boys fame) to produce her debut single, ''... Baby, One More Time'', and an album of the same title. They also set up a promotional free phone number where fans could listen to Spears' music and interviews throughout the summer of 1998. She toured American venues for a series of concerts sponsored by US teen magazines, eventually joining 'N Sync on tour. The careful planning paid off when her debut album and single went on to top the American charts at the start of 1999. The album and single enjoyed similar success in the UK and Europe. The ballad ''Sometimes'' and the funky ''(You Drive Me) Crazy'' were also substantial transatlantic hits. ''Born To Make You Happy'' topped the UK charts in January 2000. The demand for new Spears material was satisfied when her sophomore set, Oops! ... I Did It Again, was released in May. The album contained the expected quota of well-produced, expertly crafted pop songs alongside a risible cover version of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.
Spears' personal life has attracted considerable media attention. Some people feel that she has courted it by cultivating, in her early years at least, a chaste, God-fearing and "wholesome" image. It was somewhat at odds, not only with the traditional pressures, temptations and opportunities of "pop 'n' roll," but with the increasingly sexualized content of her own image and songs. Spears' kiss with Madonna at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards received much media attention, as have her romantic relationships. Spears is frequently on magazine covers, discussing her marriage and motherhood.
The sexualized public image of Spears once again became a topic of debate as a result of her 2003 semi-nude photo spread for the men's magazine, Esquire. Prompted by this, Playboy reportedly offered the star over one million USD to pose nude for their magazine, but Spears publicly declined. In an interview with Diane Sawyer, she was asked if she had ever gone further than she wished she had with the sexualized photo shoots. Spears responded, "No, I don't think so, no." After the Esquire photos were held up in front of her, she said, "Okay. Now those are a little much. Yeah, those are a little much. That's one picture, I must say, that I felt kind of weird about, yeah."
The 2004 Onyx Hotel Tour brought new criticism. While Spears and her on-stage dancers performed her songs "Touch of My Hand" and "Breathe on Me," they were seemingly nude and were performing routines simulating gay sex, orgies and masturbation. As there were underage fans in the audience, there was some outrage at the alleged lack of decency of the performances, as well as reports of adult chaperones angrily storming out with children they brought to the concert. Spears has responded to parents' concerns by stating she is "not their babysitter. It's the parents' responsibility. If you don't like it, turn the TV off. The only person I want to be a role model to is my sister, Jamie Lynn." (From ABC's Primetime interview with Diane Sawyer)
In December 2005, Spears sued US Weekly for a story the magazine published in the column "HOTstuff" of their October 2005 publication. The column, with the headline "Brit & Kev: Secret Sex Tape? New parents have a new worry: racy footage from 2004." claimed that Spears and her husband had made a sex video and feared it would be distributed. Spears denies the existence of any such tape while the magazine claims to have a credible source, which they failed to mention in the article, and stands by its story without any evidence or eyewitnesses.
Spears' detractors have accused her of being derivative of Paula Abdul, Madonna and especially Janet Jackson. This is a claim Spears has not outwardly denied nor confirmed, saying "I grew up loving a wide variety of music." There has also been some controversy over her singing abilities, with some even accusing her of lacking them or depending too much on backup singers, backing tracks or digital alterations.
Spears has also been criticized for lip synching. Most critics and musicians publicly express a negative view on this way of performing, arguing that live entertainment should literally be what it suggests, singing included. Some argue that Spears, like other performers, can't practically sing while being engaged in complicated and demanding dance moves. This has led to the counter-argument that performers shouldn't focus on things like dance moves, and instead focus more on singing.
For the film Chicago, producer Harvey Weinstein wanted Spears for the role that eventually went to Lucy Liu. Spears was also offered a role in Scary Movie, but was forced to turn it down due to concert scheduling. She was considered for the part of Allie Hamilton in The Notebook, but was beat out by Rachel McAdams. She also wanted the role in I ♥ Huckabees that went to Naomi Watts. Spears had also expressed interest in the role of Daisy Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard, but fellow pop singer Jessica Simpson was given the part.
She is friends with Sarah Michelle Gellar. She was asked to appear in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "I Was Made to Love You," but turned down the role due to scheduling conflicts. She is also friends with Natalie Portman. Portman was an understudy in the off-Broadway play, Ruthless!, in which Spears had a role. At a Manhattan hotel in 2003 they co-hosted a carnival-themed New Years Eve party together.
The birth of Spears' son was the inspiration behind a statue by Daniel Edwards, Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston, which was unveiled in March 2006. The statue features an idealised Spears giving birth in a provocative pose while hunched on all fours and clutching a bearskin rug. Controversy was further stoked by it being partly supported by the Manhattan Right to Life Committee. The statue has no way been recognised by Spears and is therefore unofficial. It has also sparked controversy as Spears gave birth by caesarean section, unlike the natural birth depicted in the statue.
Photos published on February 7, 2006, showed Spears driving her SUV on the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles with her infant son, Sean, perched on her lap rather than strapped into a car seat in the back. The photos show Spears holding the wheel of the car with one hand, and her 4-month-old baby with the other. In a statement to People, Spears said she did it because of a "horrifying, frightful encounter with the paparazzi" and that "I was terrified that this time the physically aggressive paparazzi would put both me and my baby in danger. I instinctively took measures to get my baby and me out of harm’s way, but the paparazzi continued to stalk us. I love my child and would do anything to protect him." She later told Access Hollywood, "It's kind of like I made a mistake and so it is what is, I guess." No charges were pressed. Later that month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, speaking at an event at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to mark the start of Child Passenger Safety Week said, "Recent photos of Britney Spears driving with her infant son on her lap are troubling...and while Ms. Spears has acknowledged her mistake, her actions still send the wrong message to millions of her fans."
On April 1, 2006, Spears' 7-month-old son fell and bruised his head after slipping from his nanny's arms as she was lifting him from his high chair and "something snapped in the chair." After an initial examination, he was thought to be fine but six days later Spears and her husband took him to the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center for a second checkup. He got the all clear once again. Following this visit, child welfare officials, as well as a sheriff's deputy, visited the Spears home. "While there was an automatic report by the hospital to the Department of Children and Family Services, DCFS immediately responded and determined there was no problem and no reason to open a formal investigation," Spears's attorney Marty Singer told People. "They determined that the parents were not involved in any injury and that nothing improper was done within the home."
Spears' younger sister, Jamie Lynn, is an actress and singer and is currently starring in the Nickelodeon show Zoey 101. Spears wrote the theme song "Follow Me" for Zoey 101, though it is sung by Jamie Lynn. Spears' older brother, Bryan, is one of her managers.
She publicly declared her trust in President George W. Bush, as reported in an interview on Crossfire and featured in the film Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore: "Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens." George W. Bush and top Republicans banned her from appearing at the 2004 Republican National Convention citing "We're a serious political party and don't need Britney to promote us. Besides which, with the headlines she's been recently attracting we think she'd do more harm than good to the Bush cause," mainly for her raunchy behavior.
In May 2004 Spears had a Hebrew tattoo (מהש) inked into the nape of her neck. She was under the impression that it meant "new era," but Hebrew speakers insist that word (which would probably be pronounced "mahash") is gibberish, though it can be seen as an anagram of a Hebrew term for God (השמ), which literally translates to "the name." A source said, "She's taken Kabbalah pretty seriously and this was a big deal for her." This echoes a similar incident in 2003 when Spears was informed by her friend, actress Taryn Manning, that her hip tattoo (the Chinese character 奇) read "weird" rather than "mysterious"
Spears' other tattoos include pink dice on her inner wrist (her husband, Kevin Federline, has matching blue dice), a fairy on her lower back, a daisy on her right toe, a butterfly on her left foot, and a Japanese flower that she reportedly got "down there." Her foot is adorned with many symbols which represent freedom.
She is rumoured to have had "flings" with Colin Farrell and Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst and has been romantically linked with Wade Robson.
Spears is the best selling female artist of the 2000s (2000–2005). She was named "Woman of the Century" by VH1, and has had record sales topping 85 million according to the IFPI and TIME magazine.[15]. Having thirty-one million RIAA-certified albums sold in the U.S., Spears ranks as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history.
Also, she is the only female artist in SoundScan history to have her first four albums debut at number one. In the U.S., Spears, Madonna, Céline Dion, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Dixie Chicks,and Shania Twain are the only female artists with multiple diamond (shipped over ten million copies) albums (Spears has two: '...Baby One More Time and Oops!... I Did It Again). Additionally, she holds the record for youngest artist (at age seventeen) to have his or her first single ("...Baby One More Time") and first album (...Baby One More Time) simultaneously reach number one on the Billboard charts.
In the UK, she holds the record for biggest first-week sales for a greatest hits compilation by a female artist (225,341 copies) with Greatest Hits: My Prerogative. Her album "...Baby One More Time" was the UK's biggest selling single of 1999, and is the 18th best selling single of all time worldwide.
Besides albums, she has grossed over $145 million USD from tour ticket sales and over $30 million USD in merchandise from her tours. She has also topped Yahoo!'s annual list of the most-searched names three times in the past four years.
According to Forbes her net worth is estimate to top $150 Million dollars.
Spears' role in pop music has been largely disputed. While she is often derided as untalented, she's nonetheless become a modern day icon for popular culture. She was ranked number 20 out of the 200 top popculture icons of all time by VH1 and People. Singles such as "...Baby One More Time," "Oops!... I Did It Again," "I'm a Slave 4 U" and especially "Toxic" have gone on to become major successes and pop music classics. She topped FHM magazine's 2004 U.S. and world polls for sexiest woman.
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