Issue #02: On Toxicity, Diversity and Being Alive
Exploring the Britney vs Spears doc, the Savage X Fenty fashion show and the Tony Awards!
Well, That Was a Toxic Doc
It’s one hour and one loofa shower after my Britney vs Spears viewing and I still feel dirty. Like, gross. So many slimy men. So many questionable motives. So much exploitation. The toxicity is endless.
Filmmaker, Erin Lee Carr, is a genuine Britney Spears fan. She started this documentary project in 2019 with the intent of focusing on Britney’s “artistry and media portrayal”. However, it appears as though the whole project shifted once Carr received evidence from an anonymous source that seems to prove that Britney has been trying to remove her father, Jamie Spears, as her conservator since the conservatorship began in 2008. The evidence provided in the film is compelling but there are many elements of the documentary that poison that evidence. Britney vs Spears ends up feeling like an exploitation of the moment - hastily changed and thrown together to chase the success of the now-infamous documentary, Framing Britney Spears.
One of the aspects of the doc that leaves me feeling icky is the role of Executive Producer and entertainment journalist, Jenny Eliscu. Eliscu has profiled Britney Spears for Rolling Stone magazine and claims that she once had a good relationship with the pop star. She goes on to reveal a bombshell story that teams her up with Britney’s ex-boyfriends, Adnan Ghalib and Sam Lufti, to try to obtain new legal counsel for Britney in 2009. Eliscu tells a story about arranging to meet a near-captive Britney in a hotel bathroom in order to have Britney sign this petition. By Eliscu’s account, Britney did sign the petition but it was not accepted by the court because there were questions about the validity of the signature. Is it ethical for an Executive Producer of a documentary to have a personal relationship with two key players in the Spears vs Britney saga?
Adnan Ghalib and Sam Lufti are both interviewed in Britney vs Spears. Both men had relationships with Britney Spears and both of them profited from her - Ghalib as a paparazzi and Lufti as her manager. Their names have been dragged through the media over the years as grifters who were out to take advantage of Britney in order to secure her wealth. Lufti has been accused of drugging Britney during the course of their relationship - an accusation that he denies. In the documentary, both men assert that they genuinely cared for Britney and that they were trying to protect her from the media and from her own family members. They both come across as sympathetic characters. And maybe they are.
But I can’t trust the portrayal of Ghalib and Lufti alongside the other men who are interviewed in the documentary. I am talking about the lowest of the low, the shadiest of the shade - Mark Vincent Kaplan, Kevin Federline’s lawyer-turned-Britney-sympathizer, and Dr. James Spar, the Geriatric Psychiatrist who likely assessed Britney and provided a full medical report to the court in 2008. These two men seem like creepy antagonists right out of a Ryan Murphy series (trust me, Murphy is probably writing American Crime Story: Conservatorship as I type this). I can smell the filth hovering over these two men right through the television screen. Yet the documentary appears to cast them in a somewhat apologist light without any critical analysis about their participation in the oppression of Britney Spears.
Carr does have some analysis around the conservatorship. At one point she sums it up by saying, “That’s the patriarchy.” Yes, Erin Lee Carr, go off! But that analysis does not go far enough. Carr and Eliscu are very clear about the exploitive behaviour of Jamie Spears and Britney’s long-time lawyer, Sam Ingham, but they do very little to highlight the exploitive behaviour of the interviewees and that feels unclean to me.
This is not just about Britney vs Spears. This is about The System vs Britney. The System is so wide and complex that sometimes it’s hard to tell who the protagonists and antagonists are. It’s a dirty, dirty system and it seems like Carr and Eliscu get swallowed up in the sludge and, perhaps unintentionally, end up perpetuating the toxic exploitation of Britney Spears in the process.
I’m gonna need another shower!
Wait…A Cleansing!
One day after I watched Britney vs. Spears the court suspended Jamie Spears as the conservator of Britney’s estate. Praise be to Cher!
Savage X Fenty Show Delivers!
One of my biggest obsessions of the week was Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty Vol.3 fashion show. I can truthfully say that I have never watched a lingerie fashion show in my life…no Victoria’s Secret shows…nothing. But Rihanna tapped into my universe by casting drag artists, trans people and many, many gay men as models for the show. Add a large cast of other celebs and non-celebs, people of many genders, people of many sexualities, people of many sizes and people of a wide variety of races and ethnicities and I was all in.
Rihanna haș been intentional about diversity and inclusion. She recently told The Hollywood Reporter:
“If we invite a consumer, they’re never uninvited, we just try to figure out who did we not invite and try to expand on our inclusivity and what that means for us as a brand.”
The show was filmed like an extended video with music from Normani, Nas, Ricky Martin and many more. The choreography was TO DIE FOR. TO DIE FOR!!! The appearances by Symone, Troye Sivan, Gottmik and Jeremy Pope left me sweating.
But what really left me dead on the floor was when Leiomy popped out and gave us one of her legendary vogue performances. Leiomy Maldonado is known as the “Wonder Woman of Vogue”. She is a trans dancer, activist, and model who choreographed the ballroom scenes in Pose. Leiomy is also a recurring judge on the ballroom competition reality show, Legendary (if you haven’t seen this show you need to start watching it immediately!). Just watch her Savage X Fenty performance and tell me that she is not everything!!!!
While the show does serve as a MAJOR platform for diversity there are some issues. Rihanna is being called out for cultural appropriation after white models like Emily Ratajkowski and Vanessa Hudgens walked the Savage X Fenty runway wearing their hair in braids traditionally worn by Black women. Rihanna has not yet commented on this issue. The Savage X Fenty brand was similarly called to task last year after the 2020 fashion show featured a song that included sacred Islamic verses. Rihanna did apologize and she vowed that nothing like that would ever happen again. These missteps will be inevitable until the diversity of the models is met with the diversity of people in all aspects of design and production. Diversity can’t just be on the front end of the show, it must be infused in all aspects of the show.
The other issue is that the show is streamed on Amazon Prime Video and is linked with the Amazon shop. There has been a growing movement to move away from consuming Amazon products and media due to the company’s unethical practices. This is just something to consider if you plan on watching the show or purchasing any of the products.
Am I going to buy anything from Savage X Fenty? Not a chance! It’s not because the brand is sold on Amazon - it’s because I keep my shit covered up! For those who do dare to bare I am glad that there are options for everyone but I’m just here for the entertainment. And the Savage X Fenty show delivers!
The Tony Awards Brought Me Back to Life!
The lights went out on Broadway on March 12, 2020. The closure of the Broadway shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic mirrored what we were collectively going through - sudden and unexpected darkness. For many months my senses were dulled. Colors and sounds were taken over by fear.
What could bring my senses back to life? The Tony Awards, baby! Lights on, curtains up, orchestra playing, dancers dancing, divas singing and costumes swirling! The 74th Tony Awards served!!!!
I initially included YouTube links to some of the best performances of the night but they have all been removed. NOOO!!!! Instead I will just list them and if you are truly interested you can look them up on YouTube.
Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel left me in tears with their reprisal of “For Good” from Wicked. The cast of Jagged performed “Ironic & Jagged Little Pill”. Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell performed “Wheels Of A Dream” from Ragtime. The big winner of the night, Moulin Rouge, gave us a performance that included all of the elements that we have been missing from Broadway!!!!
There must be a god watching over us because the link to Jennifer Holliday’s performance of “And I am Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls does work. Try not to drop dead. I’ve watched this one thousand times and I get full-body chills every single time.
My two other favourite highlights from the Tony Awards came in the form of LEGENDS, dahling! First, Bernadette Peters reprised a vintage Bob Mackie gown that she originally wore in the ’80s!!!!! I AM SCREAMING!!!!!!
Chita Rivera and Andrew Lloyd Webber appeared onstage together. AAAHHH!!! Chita Rivera announced that she originated the role of Anita in West Side Story on that same stage 64 years ago on September 26, 1957!!!! GASP!!!!
I have always been a Broadway baby but, like everything else in life, I didn’t fully realize what these live performances did for me. So seeing these Tony Awards performances jolted me out of the darkness, woke up my spirit and my senses and reminded me of the wonder of being alive!
*only true Broadway lovers will get the Sondheim reference. I love you.
xoxo Bex