Most of us have spent the past fortnight in a deep Britney Spears pop cultural hole, poring over everything from her back catalogue to the ways in which her public image has been scrutinised by tabloid media and, subsequently, the wider public. It was all spurred, of course, by the FX/Hulu documentary Framing Britney Spears, which unpacked her two decades in the limelight, and how her art was continually crushed by celebrity schadenfreude and scapegoating, leading to a battle with her mental health that reached its crescendo in 2007. We know now that since then, Britney has been in a conservatorship, her finances handled by her father and external lawyers despite her being capable of raising her children and being Las Vegas’ most sought after act. The story is still unfolding, and the past decade has been so strange and eventful that the makers of that documentary have revealed plans to create a follow-up.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the New York Times’ senior story editor Liz Day — who worked on the documentary with director Samantha Stark and showrunner Mary Robertson — responded to a question regarding the response to the documentary. “I think we’d love to [make a follow-up]”, she said. “There was so much we had to leave on the cutting room floor and in our notebooks just for time. And also since the documentary aired, we’ve gotten a lot of information that we’re interested in as well that we’re interested in pursuing and reporting out further.”
What’s more, the response from the public to its sympathetic framing of Britney might even make the sources in the follow-up stronger. “[…] People have been very distrustful of the press because they’ve felt burned in the past and I think the documentary’s very sensitive treatment and respect of all parties and everyone helped us further,” Liz added. Could the new documentary involve Britney herself?
Potentially, but what’s also intriguing is how the Netflix documentary that’s been subsequently announced will compare. What else would they like to see explored in more depth? “The circumstances of the conservatorship and how the conservatorship has been running…” Samantha suggested in the interview. “Right now, Jamie Spears is the face of this because he’s the person that was named in the court filings that were filed by Britney’s court-appointed attorney. But it’s clear that he’s not the only person who was working on this…”
So there we have it. A Framing Britney Spears follow-up might be coming to your screens very soon.