Britney Spears journeys through an awful support system into redemption

Britney Spears has lived with just about every move covered in the press. So her new autobiography The Woman in Me is more of a retelling of everything we already know. That said, when all the stories we've read in the tabloids are added up in the same place, it really is quite the epic American tale of a very sad life that moves from humble beginnings through the horrors of a captive and "I'm a Slave for You"-like fame into what appear to be redemption in the end.

It's a great story and will surely be made into a movie someday. Britney's simplistic writing is a little hard to stomach at times, but she seems to always be clear and direct, and that helps make it a very breezy and enjoyable read. It's different than a lot of rock bios in which the record labels play the bad guys; here, it's her family. 

In my summary of the first half of the book, I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars at that point. I'm bumping it up overall to 4.5 out of 5 stars.

With her relationship with Justin Timberlake and her marriage to Kevin Federline having both fallen apart, the second half keeps marching forward, keeping the faith. Here are the most interesting tidbits to me:

• Britney writes that she was a little depressed after two years of having babies in her belly and suddenly not having them there to protect anymore, unleashing them into “the world of jockeying paparazzi and tabloids.” When she demanded that her wooden floors in her L.A. mansion be swapped out for all white marble, Britney realized that was the moment she became “bossy” and “weird.” She thinks back now about how she should apologize to those contractors. Her spiral at that point was on full display through the tabloids to the public.
• She says that, in hindsight, while she was a good person and innocent and “a bad dresser,” Justin and Kevin were very clever and knew much better how to play the industry games - and they played and manipulated her right along with it. Those two ruined her in a way that she never trusted people again after knowing them.
• Paris Hilton was really nice to Britney as she went through these hard times. The two of them became party friends, but Britney notes that it was never as wild as the press made it out to be. Yes, she did like to drink, but no more than any other twenty-somethings. And the only drug she ever took was Adderall, the ADHD pill that made her feel a little high but mostly less depressed.
• The reason Britney ran into a salon and infamously buzzed her hair was that she was telling the world - and especially Federline for not letting her see their boys - to “fuck off.”
• She goes on for a while complaining about how bad her parents are - her dad basically claiming he alone was the Britney Spears Corporation and her mom writing a gossipy book about Britney in the heart of her daughter’s darkest times - as the famed conservatorship begins to take shape. Her parents even got back together in 2010, with her mom seemingly happy that Britney’s dad now had a “job” running the conservatorship. She said her parents watched Criminal Mind every night. “Who does that?,” Britney asks.
• After starting a wildly successful residency of 248 shows in Las Vegas, her dad sent her to drug rehab in Malibu for a month because she was taking over-the-counter vitamin supplements, and she was given an allowance of $2,000 per month, and told what to eat (nothing yummy). She took her dancers out one night and her $1,000 payment bounced because she didn’t have enough in her spending account.
• Around the time she met her latest husband, Sam Asghari, her parents made her start going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings again. But she writes about how good she had been all along. Great even. Pretty much totally together. This was the point she looked at her parents and realized she was basically in a cult, with her alcoholic dad as its leader.
• After a decade of being completely restrained by her family, Britney began seeking out examples of women she wanted to be like. Reese Witherspoon became a great example for her. Britney was already a naturally nice person, like Reese, but adding Reese’s strength and standing up for herself was the added spark she needed.
• Thrown back into rehab in Beverly Hills by her dad, she was actually on Prozac, which she had taken for years. They took her off that and put her on lithium. Even though she hadn’t told her fans she was locked up again, one nice nurse showed Britney one day that her loving fans had started a #FreeBritney campaign. Her fans just seemed to have an innate sense about Brit.
• When Covid hit, she had just started getting into comedians and learning how to add more humor into her own style, and then she started listening to self-help books all the time and also making jewelry. She finally decided she never wanted to see her family again.
• She finally got out of her conservatorship and hadn’t been doing music for a while until Elton John called her, they struck up a friendship, and then recorded an updated version of “Tiny Dancer” called “Hold Me Closer,” which became a #1 smash.
• Soon after Britney and Sam announced that she was having a third kid, she miscarried and had to “un-announce” the pregnancy. 

That is where the book ends. Since its publication, she and Asghari divorced and Britney has mostly been laying low, other than publishing this book. It will continue to be interesting where her story goes.

Biking with Ivanka Trump and Barrack Obama on a cold D.C. morning

I'm working at a Transportation Techies event tonight, so I took the opportunity for a rare casual, roundabout bike ride to work in frigid 20-degree weather this morning.

My usual route never takes me to Washington D.C.'s Kalorama neighborhood. And, in fact, not many routes to work of mere commoners goes through Kalorama by design. It's a neighborhood of mansions and embassies nestled between Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle, and Georgetown. But none of the streets are all that easy to pass through. So despite being practically smack-dab in the center of D.C.'s action, it has very little traffic.

That might change a little bit soon, as two new neighbors are sure to bring gawkers like me. Barrack Obama and family will soon move in to this lovely red-brick home overlooking Rock Creek Park at 2446 Belmont Road NW. Lots of workers were there getting it ready, as were a few people taking photos like me.

And just a block-and-a-half away, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are moving into this more fortress-like abode at 2449 Tracy Place NW. I imagine the gold-plated interior walls will soon be installed. For now, there was an on-camera interview of some kind happening on the street in front of the house (and just above my thumb's-down sign).

The Bling Ring is the Most Vacuous Film of 2013

Seeking the “most vacuous movie of 2013?” Look no further than The Bling Ring, about a group of lost high-schoolers that breaks into the celebrity mansions of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, and others.

The film is based on a true story captured as a feature in Vanity Fair magazine. I suspect it would have been more enjoyable in that format, but thankfully the movie version is relatively short.

And it's only 90 minutes for a reason. There just wasn't really much there. None of the characters seem to have anything interesting about them or back stories that warrant the movie treatment.

It’s surprising that Sophia Coppola decided to showcase these losers, and it’s definitely surprising she didn’t dig up more dirt to flesh out the story. But it’s also possible she wanted to simply show how narcissistic these people are as a statement on today’s TMZ culture in the U.S.

All that said, The Bling Ring is a significant fall from grace from the way Coppola started out her directing career, with The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation.

**1/2 out of ***** stars

Daryl Hannah Talks Climate at Nature Conservancy Event

It's been a while since I've done a major movie-star interview. I did meet George Clooney and play an extra in an episode of his TV show K Street. But that performance was left on the cutting-room floor. And when I interviewed Dom DeLuise, that was just for a newspaper.

So here's Daryl Hannah, talking oceans and climate, in video. It was fun to meet her. She's nice, and that's saying something, because we could have both been a little tense after not getting served much food at the otherwise excellent event we attended at the UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.

Oh, and I also blogged about the event over at Planet Change.

Sarah Silverman Conquers Another Medium: Books

For those who think The Sarah Silverman Program is among the funniest TV shows of the last decade (along with The Daily Show, Arrested Development, Modern Family, 30 Rock, The Office, The Colbert Report, Curb Your Enthusiasm, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Scrubs, and Chappelle's Show), then The Bedwetter is your book.

I'm (obviously, see the above list, which is indeed my own) included in this bunch. Sure, Silverman's show is laced with juvenile doodie jokes, but the cleverness and originality are cutting-edge and adorable. This autobiography (don't call it a diary, which is a form of writing the author determines should be either abolished or improved by about a thousandfold) is a personal history of her 39 years rather than a joke book.

But it is often hilarious and frequently biting, especially when it comes to FOX News, the right-wing media, and the Media Action Network for Asian Americans.

Silverman impressively bares all about super-personal issues. She doesn't drink alcohol but apparently smokes gobs of marijuana. She frequently goes through bouts of depression, and mostly keeps it together these days because of her Zoloft intake. She doesn't stop there. Plenty of text is given to her hairy arms and upper lip. As if that weren't enough to cripple her early confidences growing up in New Hampshire, her bedwetting well into her teens would have sealed the deal for most weaker people.

She makes some allusions to quitting the comedy game soon, but let's hope not. She is carrying on the traditions of Steve Martin, Bill Murray, and Chevy Chase in fine form. The depth of her material will hopefully sustain our comedy needs for a long time to come.

**** out of ***** stars

Celebrity Sighting Edition: Big Love's Bill Paxton

For some reason, I really know nothing about Bill Paxton. But he's the star of HBO's Big Love, the hit series about Mormon polygamy. It looks like an interesting show. I guess he's one of those people whose face you know more than his name. After all, he's been in tons of great movies, like Stripes, Apollo 13, Weird Science, Club Dread, and Titanic.

While not as thrilling as my recent sighting of Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson, it was still fun to see Paxton and the Big love crew filming today outside the White House among the hunger strikers and other straggling protesters. It was a nice little break in the middle of my 50 state streets ride throughout D.C.

DC Movie Star Sighting Alert

One the way home from Fogo de Chao (Brazilian meats!) and a great movie (The Hangover) last night, Gordie, Zak, Brian and I were driving slowly up 15th Street NW, just south of I Street, and got a nice brief viewing of Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson laughing and chatting with each other.

They were standing in the spotlights and were either sharing a moment between takes or actually shooting. The movie's working title is How Do You Know? and co-stars Owen Wilson and Reese Witherspoon as participants in a love triangle with Rudd.

Apparently these celebrity sightings will become a more regular occurrence now that crusty old George W. Bush has left town and the saucy Obamas now rule the Beltway.

Come to think of it, I haven't really bumped into any major movie stars since way back in 2001, when Hannibal was filming in Union Station. Julianne Moore was sitting in a high director's chair by herself and Anthony Hopkins chatted me up (because, it seemed, I was the only person around not trying to hound him; he sort of hounded me). Much nicer guy in person than in character.

Is The Love Guru Really That Bad?

Often named as one of the worst movies of 2008, I actually enjoyed The Love Guru. The supporting cast was pretty bad, except for Jessica Alba, who was harmlessly perfect in her fairly nondescript role as the Bill Bidwill-like owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Mike Myers may never reclaim his Austin Powers mojo. But even if this movie is not entirely memorable, Myers is weird and funny the whole way through. He's difficult to stop watching and The Love Guru is well worth 90 minutes of your life.

*** 3.5 out of 5 stars ***

Joan Rivers Is Made of Plastic Surgery

Men Are Stupid . . . And They Like Big Boobs: A Woman's Guide to Beauty Through Plastic Surgery (Kindle Edition)

by Joan Rivers (Author), Valerie Frankel (Author)

For whatever reasons (I was trying to gain some insight on the so-called fairer sex, I suppose), this book seemed worthy of glancing through. Joan Rivers is pretty ridiculously funny. This book is not that. It’s a total self-help guide for navigating the fun and regularly scheduled world of plastic surgery.

Maybe it’s my baby face, but this book stinks, and I mercifully deleted the free sample from my Kindle after reading about 10 mind-numbing pages (about the same amount of time it takes Joan to numb her nose before applying yet another layer of petroleum-based materials).

On the bright side, I’m really getting into Nip/Tuck lately.