Britney: Conservatorship for Life

[jthorn 37]

Honestly though, Britney's life is so out of fathom to ALL of us.

Who knows what it's like to be somebody like her. tbh I don't think I'd handle it very well.

[jojuun 4,159]

I remember 2007 very well...

If Britney is happy with it great, I would probably be ok with extending the conservatorship too if I was in her position.

People seem to unable to realise that Britney was once extremely unwell. The conservatorship was part of a plan to help her maintain her life and flourish. She now has her Vegas show and is able to work while also maintain a fantastic relationship with her kids.

She has completely turned her life around, 8 years ago she was going to lose custody of her kids permanently and there was a justified concern that she was going to die.
This conservatorship is part of what saved her life and if Britney, and everyone else involved, believes that this is allowing her to live a more stable life with more support then that's fantastic.

This conservatorship brought a level of balance into her life:

 "Jamie and Britney's doctors have stabilized her to the point she can successfully work and maintain a personal life." 

" if the conservatorship were to end, there would be significant risk she could backslide. The plan is to continue the conservatorship indefinitely ... because it works."

Where is the problem? The conservatorship worked! It served it's purpose and the decision has been made to continue it so this progress can be maintained.

But that's the thing. It LOOKS like it worked when you look at it from a distance. Her team successfully propelled her back into megastardom so that the brand Britney Spears once again flourished. But is SHE happy now? Truly? Only eight months after being taken into that infamous ambulance she was carefully put back together at the MTV Awards by an entire team, including her own parents. She literally said "I often just want all of this to go away" but nobody listened. And now, nobody knows. It's just weird. No one truly knows the dynamic of her life, which is a good thing, except her true fans don't know either. And they just want to know if she is doing what she wants to do.

 

[RAMROD 96,466]

Well, personally I don't like it.

Most especially because her Dad actually asked to be paid for it.

He was getting $1,600/month for taking care of Britney before asking for a raise to $200,000/month

And the co-conservator, Andrew Wallet was  $35,500/month last year alone.

It is just business for them than actually care about Britney's well being.

So of course they wanted it to be permanent.

[Bebe 16,562]

But that's the thing. It LOOKS like it worked when you look at it from a distance. Her team successfully propelled her back into megastardom so that the brand Britney Spears once again flourished. But is SHE happy now? Truly? Only eight months after being taken into that infamous ambulance she was carefully put back together at the MTV Awards by an entire team, including her own parents. She literally said "I often just want all of this to go away" but nobody listened. And now, nobody knows. It's just weird. No one truly knows the dynamic of her life, which is a good thing, except her true fans don't know either. And they just want to know if she is doing what she wants to do.

 

I remember watching her documentary at that time, "For The Record" when she said basically that. She felt like nobody listened. 

Is that good? No, it was upsetting to see, but we don't know the whole story. For what we know, this was done to rebuild her image and career so that she could show she was capable of working and could look after her kids.

8 months is probably enough to get her back to some level of normality, but the goal was probably to get her busy and allow her to manage her career.

What we do know is that Britney has improved drastically from 2007. Is she completely happy with everything? Probably not. But she is a lot more stable and happy then she was then. At least she isn't at risk of dying.

This isn't a case of it "looking like it worked" from the outside. She was going to lose custody of her children permanently, she was at risk of dying, she was sent to a psych ward. Fast forward to today and Britney has custody of her children and spends a lot of quality time with them, she is healthy and she is in control of her life.  It worked. There is no debate over that.

Are there certain things about it that could be made better? Sure. But really, if she wanted to Britney could take control of this right now and put forward a case that she is capable of looking after herself. She is doing very well. Instead there seems to be no complaints from Britney and I see why, she now has a family, her professional life is great and she still has a substantial amount of freedom and quality of life.

You don't have to think the conservatorship is perfect, but it's better than the alternative. Everything is working well right now. No real need to change things.

[jojuun 4,159]

I remember watching her documentary at that time, "For The Record" when she said basically that. She felt like nobody listened. 

Is that good? No, it was upsetting to see, but we don't know the whole story. For what we know, this was done to rebuild her image and career so that she could show she was capable of working and could look after her kids.

8 months is probably enough to get her back to some level of normality, but the goal was probably to get her busy and allow her to manage her career.

What we do know is that Britney has improved drastically from 2007. Is she completely happy with everything? Probably not. But she is a lot more stable and happy then she was then. At least she isn't at risk of dying.

This isn't a case of it "looking like it worked" from the outside. She was going to lose custody of her children permanently, she was at risk of dying, she was sent to a psych ward. Fast forward to today and Britney has custody of her children and spends a lot of quality time with them, she is healthy and she is in control of her life.  It worked. There is no debate over that.

Are there certain things about it that could be made better? Sure. But really, if she wanted to Britney could take control of this right now and put forward a case that she is capable of looking after herself. She is doing very well. Instead there seems to be no complaints from Britney and I see why, she now has a family, her professional life is great and she still has a substantial amount of freedom and quality of life.

You don't have to think the conservatorship is perfect, but it's better than the alternative. Everything is working well right now. No real need to change things.

But you are ignoring why she was the way she was in 2007. The same people who are surrounding her today are the ones that got her to 2007 (not the ones who got her when she was weak like Lutfi and that paparazzo, I mean her team until 2005/6).

I just don't understand how her parents became the saint in this story? They are the ones who pushed both of their daughters into the entertainment industry. Sure the kids might've really loved it and Britney IS an amazing popstar but I am 100% convinced Jamie and Lynn are your typical Lousiana stage parents. Everyone hates those women on shows like Dance Moms for pressuring their kids but somehow the Spears parents get a pass. The minute she could, her mother released a book about their family, heavily focussing on Britney's breakdown just a while before. Her dad asked a judge 6 times (that we know of by released legal papers) to increase his compensation for being her conservator. Who needs hundreds of thousands of dollars when you are living on your multimillionaire daughter's estate in the first place? The first thing he did was rehire her manager, assistants and agent. Literally a WEEK after becoming her "caretaker". It's in the released documents. Now tell me again they weren't after the money and had her best interest at heart? 

She often seems PRESSURED into giving the impression she's fine. Sometimes I think she truly beliefs that herself, other times you can just feel the pain.

They, as in her father, managers, lawyers and record executives, are in obvious total control of her life. If you don't see that, you are ignoring the evidence.

This part of your post irks me the most:

"There seems to be no complaints from Britney and I see why, she now has a family, her professional life is great and she still has a substantial amount of freedom and quality of life."

You don't know that. She never talks about it and the only time stuff leaked (papers, phonecalls) her team forbid all major outlets to report about it or they'd (or rather SHE would) never work with them or associated companies again. They literally OWN her. 

Listen to this chilling call she made to her lawyer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaCteNxtzfM

When she was asked to be in court in 2011 for a minor business issue, her father and lawyers hid behind the conservatorship. She was "not mentally stable" to answer according to them. The judge agreed. No Britney. When the company that was suing asked for Britney's medical records, which is their legal right, Team Spears once again said no and the judge agreed. Why? What does Britney have that she's incapable of answering questions in a courtroom but capable of answering questions in interviews for major entertainment outlets? It doesn't add up. Why do those judges agree with her father each time?

Read about the 2011 business issue here : http://www.forbes.com/sites/trialandheirs/2011/09/06/is-britney-spears-hiding-behind-a-conservator/

If Britney is "just" bipolar as rumoured it all depends on her "level" of illness. Bipolarity is quite treatable, I have a friend who was a Britney-like 2007 mess just a year ago. She is now a successful business owner and is really doing great. She needs three days a week to relax, the other 4 days she kills it and raises 3 children on her own. Just 11 months ago she was released from the psychiatric ward. Not saying everyone is the same but being bipolar is NOT a reason to be under a permanent conservatorship. It'd be the first time in US Court history I've read. 

If she suffers from schizophrenia or another very severe mental disorder it is just beyond ethical and just plain HUMAN anyone would allow her to return to public life, let alone pick up an enormously pressurising career. They had her in a gym only a month after hospitalisation by the way. In the following seven months she also underwent several skin treatments and had dental veneers to restore her pre-breakdown image. She looked exactly like 2004 Britney at the 2008 MTV Awards, it's almost scary how good she looked. It was the picture perfect comeback and everyone ate it right up. The fallen American Princess back on her pedestal.

Despite all of this, I do believe she's a fighter and a survivor. I admire her.
I just hope Britney can one day be truly healthy and free in all parts of her life. I am just convinced they still control her and she can't escape because they'll take her kids, surroundings, her career or her money away from her. And of course, there's the medication. God knows what she's on.

Oh and her infamous original Blackout named Original Doll with lyrics such as...

Be wary of others
The ones closest to you
The poison they feed you
And the voodoo that they do
But in rebellion there's a sparkle of truth
Don't just stand there
Do what you got to do

You'll find it so compelling
'Cause everyone's yelling
'Cause your soul you're not selling
'Cause you're rebellion

And I suggest everyone reads this in-depth look into that mysterious album her label has denied ever happened, despite Britney herself giving interviews about it. Strange huh? It's a very, very good read and helps to place 2007 in retrospect http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwarz/britney-spears-original-doll-secret-history-lost-album#.vhkJRnLXv

For a financial worth her size, people will do anything and everything, even if she's mentally ill. Like I said before, we don't and probably will never know the truth. It's sad. Of course she got her kids partially back... It's supervised and it's good for her image. Of course they throw her a bone sometimes so that she's photographed genuinely smiling. Yet there's so much evidence that proves she's seriously been used and could very well still be used today. Everyone around her, including her ex-husband, is getting a very royal paycheck. Remember how that Jordan guy from BreatheHeavy appeared on national TV talking about Britney's father and lawyers? They closed his site. Look where it's at today. He's in direct contact with Team Britney now and mental health, legal issues or her father's enormous control is never (or very rarely) mentioned on the frontpage anymore.

I have serious doubts. I still feel like something doesn't add up.

[Bebe 16,562]

 

No... I'm not at all ignoring what made Britney breakdown during 2007. Your not providing me with any new information whatsoever.

Nobody is giving Britney's parents a break, literally nobody is making out that they are saints. They where a poor family that placed all their financial hopes on Britney from a very young age. She has always had a huge amount of pressure on her and that's not ok.  Nobody is saying that they should have pushed her into the business, nobody is saying that Britney's father deserves all the money he is getting.

Has Britney been pressured into stuff? Yes. Is Britney a pop star that's been somewhat controlled by their label? Yeah. That's hardly surprising or new in the entertainment business. I've read about Original Doll, it's in no way creepy, strange, mysterious or shady. The label didn't like it they hid it and tried to bury it, they wanted to protect and control their best financial asset.  I'm not saying that's not difficult or wrong but Britney is hardly the first to be treated like that. All that it shows was that Britney was under a lot of stress, was controlled heavily and was at breaking point. Not new news at all, that's part of what led to her breakdown. A child star with the weight of her family's financial future in her hands who is thrown into the spotlight and heavily controlled from every aspect (music to how she acts in public). That's Britney.

Your views on mental illness are uninformed, but whatever we'll gloss over that. Britney was close to death, she was going to lose her children. She is also in a unique position where she is a multi-millionaire, high earner who was at risk of losing everything.

"before the conservatorship her finances were an absolute mess, and the ship has been fully righted. "

Whether or not you agree with everything that has been done in the conservatorship it's obvious it has served it's purpose well.

The phonecall you have has her saying her Dad is going to take her babies away. That's clearly not true. We don't need to worry about that, she sees her kids regularly and has quality time with them. Was there early resistance from Britney? Sure. Was everything handled perfectly? Nothing ever is.

The court case probably ruled the way it did due to her particular unique case as well. It could be extremely damaging if any of Britney's health records leaked. It was probably decided that the best thing to do for Britney, who was under conservatorship and trying to rebuild her life, was take the action they took. It was a risk balance thing.


There is nothing outrageous about this statement:

"There seems to be no complaints from Britney and I see why, she now has a family, her professional life is great and she still has a substantial amount of freedom and quality of life."

She has her family, her professional life is great (These two aren't really debatable...), she has her huge house and a lot of time to spend with her family. You can't seriously tell me that the girl who traveled to Hawaii just a week ago with her kids and snapped happy family vacation photos doesn't have some level of control in her life. She went to Disneyland last month with her kids and seemed to have a great time. Of course she has a substantial amount of freedom to do what she wants, of course she is living at a high standard of life.

You are doing far more speculation than me. Yes people are getting paid to look after her, do they deserve the money they get? Debatable. Is everything perfect? Probably not but it saved her life and it saved her career.

Without the conservatorship she would have lost her kids, have no music career and would probably be in rehab, jail or dead. The conservatorship helped her, very clearly. Was it hard? Yeah. Was there resistance from Britney? Of course. Is every single aspect perfect? Nope. But there wouldn't be any Hawaii/Disneyland snaps if she wasn't in this conservatorship. 

She could, if she wanted to, fight against the conservatorship at this point. She could argue that she is capable enough to look after herself and her children. She isn't doing that though, probably because it's been very helpful to her and she doesn't want to relapse.

 

[Robotboy 1,700]

ugh im glad no one consider your opinions. she is doing great right now. im sure if she want it removed it will be.

[degenerate 443]

im sure if she want it removed it will be.

[Robotboy 1,700]

okay no. shes her father's slave and is forced to work or she wont ever see her kids again

sorry i havent followed the discussion but everyone is so dramatic.

[PaperIz 7,261]

Makes me sad if true, but if she's happy and healthy, that's what I want for her.

[Nemo 3,968]

Wait, what is a conservatorship?

Legal slavery.