Britney
The Unauthorized Biography of Britney Spears
By Sean Smith
September 2006
Pan Books (Pan Macmillan)
ISBN: 0330440772
327 pages, Illustrated, 4 3/8 x 7"
$14.95 Paperback
--29 Full-color photographs (including "the kiss")
Since she sashayed down the corridor in a schoolgirl uniform singing 'Baby One More Time', Britney Spears has become the most talked-about woman in popular culture. In this fascinating unauthorized biography, the author chronicles for the first time the amazing story of how a little southern girl described by her tutor at Disney as 'the most innocent person you'd ever want to meet' grew up to become the ultimate tabloid obsession.
Bestselling author Sean Smith has conducted a series of exclusive interviews
across America to discover if she really cheated on Justin Timberlake, what
happened the first time she fell in love and what she finds irresistable about
husband Kevin Federline. He details her journey from American dream to American
nightmare - scarred by her break-up with Timberlake, humiliated by his video
featuring a Britney look-alike, booed at the London premiere of her first
film, Crossroads, and deeply upset by her parents' divorce, she hit rock bottom
with her notorious 55-hour Las Vegas marriage. But she has come back stronger
than ever winning a prestigious Grammy award and starring in her own reality
TV series. Speculating on what an uncertain future holds for new mother Mrs
Federline, this is a thoroughly entertaining and insightful biography of one
of the most misunderstood figures in pop.
"Sean Smith has definitely produced a well researched and thoughtful
analysis. He does a very good job of seperating out and studying both 'the'
Britney Spears as we see her in public and the down home Britney behind the
image.
Being a Britney fan I thought I knew it all, so I was very impressed to read a few things I hadn't been aware of -- he talks to a lot of people from her hometown, and very interestingly her first boyfriend Reg Jones. You definitely get a sense of how Britney's upbringing has always coloured everything she does, and I hadn't realised just how much work Britney had done even before she landed the Mickey Mouse Club.
He's also very fair about weighing up the public perception of events against what actually happened, looking at everything in context (eg. the idea that Crossroads was a flop when actually it recouped its entire costs and made profit within its first week, which I didn't know!). He's very neutral -- some biographies are so gushing and full of praise it's nauseating, but what's great about him is that he shows both sides. He's very fair to Britney and obviously tries not to make assumptions, but at the same time he's not afraid to be critical either.
My only criticisms would be a few factual mistakes I picked up -- mainly dates -- which to be fair could very well just be typos, and he doesn't stick strictly to the chronological timeline so occasionally he gets a little ahead of himself. It's pretty minor and doesn't detract from overall quality, but it is something I noticed.
It's well worth a read for any Britney fan, or even anybody who's just interested in the nature of celebrity and the way they get put up on the pedestal so they can be knocked down. As far as pop culture phenomenons go, they don't get much bigger than Britney and few inspire as much love and hate as she does, so it's well worth looking at this book because Sean Smith does a very good job of looking behind the facade and coming up with a more rounded view of her." ---amazon.co.uk
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