Britney Spears got her X Factor back thanks to Simon Cowell – before she fell into despair

[Z-dawg]

15 minutes ago, floopy22 said:

I think you lost yourself, if you think erasing words makes any sense whatsoever.

The post you quoted was saying we’re in 2021, meaning this day and age, then said “I don’t want to see the word overweight ever again IN HERE.” Meaning, the article called Britney overweight numerous times, and the person who posted it was fed up with that, rightly so, as Britney has not been overweight, Period. So that made sense, but then you quoted it and said, just because it’s 2021 nobody can be overweight anymore (which TO ME didn’t make sense) But I was simply pointing out that what you said didn’t make any sense TO ME! But it’s all good Bro, I wasn’t trying to be nasty in any way

[SlayOut]

2 hours ago, DollyParton said:

For the ‘journalist’ who wrote this: i wanna see your manager. 

the only time a Karen-response is warranted!

[mfanbs]

4 hours ago, pablitonizer said:

overweight? hey TheSun, 1995 called and said they want their article back 

this was my reaction too

[senammoises]

Thia article is a mess

[ICouldntThinkOfOne]

I'm not excusing this article because frankly, some of the descriptions are in poor taste and unnecessary, particularly when the write recognises her shyness and/or self esteem maybe not being as high as it could have been, but its articles like this, and statements from people like Simon Cowell in 2012-2013 post xfactor that really put the extreme control of the conservatorship into perspective...

Every business deal they made never focused on Britney or what she wanted. Her team sold Simon the concept of Britney Spears, while trying to destroy the person, and profiting off the brand. 

[Atrius_Omega]

2billion..and yet she’s only worth 60 million now..

to think that she was FORCED to do all of this. Anything between 2008-now..so sad. I would want OUT of music entirely. I wouldn’t want to work in that soul eating, money grabbing, selfish *** industry

[MyAccountGotBanned]

It’s a tabloid , don’t believe everything you read America 

[Britney4President]

7 hours ago, Prachi said:

Article Link

In 2012, while Britney was firmly under Jamie Spears’ control, I travelled with the singer for several weeks across America. To rebuild her career, she agreed to be hired by Simon Cowell as an X Factor judge. 

Cowell, a shrewd judge of the pop industry, was convinced that Britney was a giant trophy. 

Over those weeks, Britney emerged from her shell and gave us a glimpse of the empowerment which fuelled her current protest for freedom in Los Angeles. Sadly, her liberation in 2012 was snatched away - and it’s been a bitter journey ever since.

Cowell appreciated celebrity madness. Those artists who could survive for a decade qualified, in Cowell’s opinion, to become super stars. 

"I like artists who take charge of their careers," he repeated. "Game changers are those prepared to die while trying." Britney had come closer to the edge than most.

In September 2007 she appeared on American Idol, Cowell’s hit-show. 

"There’ll be no rehearsal," Britney’s managers announced as they walked into the studio. "She’s on medication. The studio must be in lockdown."

Having demanded two Winnebago luxury trailers – every star is normally assigned just one -  Britney demanded Cowell’s own dressing room and refused to meet her host. 

"She’s frosty and I haven’t got a clue why and I don’t care," said Cowell. "I love all this stuff."

When Cowell finally entered the diva’s dressing room, he recalled: "She was just staring at me. I said, 'Have you ever watched the show?'. 

“'No' she said. And I said, 'Touch me I’m human' and I think that broke the ice."

But not even Cowell had anticipated that Britney would mime ‘Womanizer’, her new single, for three minutes during the live show. 

"She forgets her lines," her minder explained. 

"She’s a plain Jane," Cowell concluded after a disastrous appearance. He walked out of the studio, abandoning the singer. But the freak show won a record audience. 

Four years later, in 2012, Britney agreed to re-join Cowell in the American X Factor. 

Cowell, the recent creator of One Direction and Little Mix, was convinced that her army of fans would guarantee millions of new viewers of his trail-blazing show. 

Britney was paid $15million in the belief, Larry Rudolph, her manager told me, that the X-Factor season would boost her annual income to £200million. By then, Spears, most estimates agreed, had earned over $2billion.

"She’s not damaged goods," Rudolph, told Cowell. "She can perform properly." 

Cowell got the opposite opinion from Howard Stern, the famous American Radio Shock jock. "She’s going to be a train wreck," Stern predicted, "who will sit there and eat a lollipop and wear a **** outfit". 

My first sight of the brilliant singer alongside Cowell in a Broadway theatre was an anti-climax. Cowering in the corner of a dimly lit rehearsal room, Britney stood against the wall pulling heavily on a series of Kool cigarettes.

Although it was billed as the glittering launch of the X Factor series to the media, the singer looked utterly miserable.

"It all starts now," chirruped Cowell. "From now on we’re going to have fun. We all look so good together. It’s incredible. It’s going to be a new decade."

Pushed onto a stage, Britney shivered nervously. Wearing a tight white dress and noticeably over-weight, she forced smiles towards the bank of photographers unaware that one snapper’s lens was focused on her nails  - heavily bitten and bloody. 

Her traumatic past had made her insecure and lonely. Worse for Cowell was Britney’s silence. 

"She’ll do no media interviews during the series," Rudolph told Cowell.

"She’s not spoken to the media for years. She doesn’t need to. They create things about her medical history, just twist things and take pot shots. It hurts her when she reads things which are not true."

The celebratory dinner one hour later in mid-Manhattan’s ABC Kitchen was desultory. 

"It’s all strangulated," whispered someone at the table. Every eight minutes, Britney got up and walked outside. No one knew whether she would return. 

"It’s her nervous energy," explained Rudolph. Each time she came back, she looked more miserable. Cowell looked terrified. And on the road, it got worse.

At the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas for the first show, thousands of girls erupted in screams as Britney walked into the spotlight and headed towards the dais. 

LIVING IN ISOLATION

Within fifteen minutes, bursting out of  a fluorescent pink dress, Britney was visibly pained. Her face was blotched, she was over-weight and she  could hardly speak. Unexpectedly in the middle of the show, she stood up, left the stage and disappeared. 

"I don’t think I can do this," Britney told Cowell.  "I can’t do what the job requires." 

Judging people was too much for the legend. "For years," Ruldoph told me. "She only said politely 'Yes sir' and 'No sir' and now she’s gotta go onto the stage and explode. I knew it would be tough start. She’s overwhelmed. She needs to get her sea legs."

 

Spears, Cowell realised, was not suffering from any of the fancy disorders mentioned on the internet like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Association. Instead, she was smarting from fear. 

For years, he reckoned, Spears had lived isolated from the public, behind closed doors.  

During performances, she had been kept far apart from her fans. She had never performed seated in one place for more than a few minutes.

With Cowell, I watched tapes of Spears’s reaction to the crowds in Kansas. When a contestant, just ten feet away,  shouted ‘I love you Britney,’  her face contorted in embarrassment. "She’s not at all narcissistic," Cowell realised. "Just shy."

In his unthreatening manner, Cowell educated America’s Sweetheart about her strengths – showing genuine emotion. There was mystery and depth about a woman which Cowell had not previously encountered. 

"This isn’t about money for her. She’s proving a point."

After a week’s holiday with her children in Hawai, she re-appeared in LA looking better. 

She had lost weight, her facial skin tone was better, the dark hair roots no longer showed and her mood was playful. To help her diet, she visited the gym daily with her bodyguard. 

Every day, her staff brought six portions of fresh chicken soup, six salads and six passion fruit ice teas to her dressing room.

At the show in Miami, I walked with her from the windowless dressing room through a grim tunnel to the concrete steps leading into the auditorium. 

Standing at the top of the stairs listening to 4,500 shrieking girls, I saw that Britney was transformed. Waiting for her name check on the tannoy, she wriggled her rear, then forcefully she wriggled it again and again. Confidently she stepped into the spotlight. 

Finally, she was enjoying herself. She was on the road back to normality. But then, it all went into reverse.

Who TF wrote this?

[Mattyj7883]

[lluaces]

Everybody, can we agree that we won’t click on this stuff??? It’s click bait meant to embarrass her. We don’t want to support that. None of these articles are going to give us new information

[WhatTheHellWhoCares?]

Ok, couple things to go through here. 

1) We were her harshest critics on Exhale during the X-Factor auditions and dragged everything from her hair styles to her nails but literally no one said she was overweight, even in a joking way so the lie detector test determined that was a LIE. And the way the article keeps mentioning her weight is disgusting. 

2) The Sun is not a legitimate source for anything, google it. Their reputation is worse than the daily mail.

3) Britney did do promo for X-Factor, from the top of my head I remember her going on both Ellen & Jimmy Kimmel with Simon.

4) The stuff about Britney walking out and clearly being unhappy during the auditions is not new and she looked happier during the live shows so the ending to the article is ridiculous. 
 

5) Jason should be added to the list of people who need to go to jail because it was obvious he pressured her to do the X-Factor in the first place and he was literally there behind her every step of the way (Check photos and videos from around that time). I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the person that was (allegedly) on Britney’s earpieces telling her exactly what to say. I’m guessing he probably got a cut of that 15 million dollar deal. 

[AlottaWarmHeart]

OMG who wrote this article really didn’t know what they were talking about. The timeline is totally wrong and how dare Cowell say she was overweight? Where??? The woman also put her heart and soul into the Womanizer performance, is he blind? She was skinny as needle there, that was her best Womanizer performance. Omg, this article is nonsense.

[BritneyFreedNow]

Blech what a misogynist this Bower guy is. Kept calling her 'overweight' and being unkind with no actual insight or compassion,  no awareness of himself or the situation, just judgment... I will say, it was probably her 'reward' for doing this - getting to see her kids and go to Hawaii. Just sad. Don't wish to give this so called 'biographer' any attention.  NEXT!

[Onyxgirl17]

This is an awful article. He doesn’t even name the right events (2007 American idol had me like ??? But then I remembered Simon Cowell had her on X factor 2008). The author also seems very misogynistic. Terrible journalism but else could we expect from “The Sun”? 

[Heather T]

8 hours ago, SlayOut said:

I really don’t understand how in 2021 anyone could say Britney was/is overweight…

I also don’t understand the intent of this article. Like are we supposed to praise Simon Cowell for supposedly bringing Britney out of her shell…?  Seems to then suggest that it’s Britney’s fault that she “shrunk back into her shell” after whatever gift Simon apparently gave her…

A bunch of rubbish IMO 

[Slave4Brit88]

This reads like a PR piece for Simon Cowell. I think he has questions to answer over why he was ok with someone working for him under such abusive conditions. Don’t forget that other guest judge saying she was so heavily medicated she had to go off set at times, and everyone was just ok with this? Now we’re supposed to believe this was bringing Britney out of her shell, lol fk off. As for ‘overweight’ coming from these ugly fks...GTFOH!

[ElectricPlatypusLove]

Who wrote this, Jamie Lynn?

[mmseventy]

Wtf? I thought this article was some weird kind of fiction thing as I was reading it, since it was so off about the X Factor 2008 performance, which wasn’t disastrous or bizarre at all. Not to mention the ridiculousness about her being “overweight.”

[nthenwkiss]

did i miss something? who does simon think he is? i literally only know him as a judge on the x factor - and when i knew britney was going to judge the x factor i thought the same thing i thought when she did a residency in vegas "why is an A lister doing D lister stuff?" that is until she made residencies A listers' stuff.

and WTF is this:

Quote

“'No' she said. And I said, 'Touch me I’m human' and I think that broke the ice."

HE was in the presence of greatness NOT her. 

[Britney'sBish]

Did one of Simon's cronies write this shyt?