Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

Britney Spears is back with a vengeance

After years of abuse and being reduced to the status of child-robot, the singer is back on track with soaring album sales and a smash-hit memoir

The singer performing in ‘Britney Spears: Piece of Me. Remixed. Reimagined. Still Iconic’, Las Vegas, February 2016. [Denise Truscello/Bslv/Getty Images for Brandcasting] 
issue 02 December 2023

I am working on a play about Marilyn Monroe at the moment and, reading Britney Spears’s book, the similarities of these two fragile blondes came to mind. Both were celebrated and castigated for their woman-child sex appeal; both struggled with sinister Svengalis – Darryl Zanuck and Mickey Mouse. But one big difference between the two is that Marilyn often wished she had a father, while one imagines Britney often wishes she hadn’t.

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