That first paragraph is confusing as hell. Who exactly are we talking about? This Asra person, Angie, Mariane, Britney, whoami?

The one thing about that article that stuck with me was the part about her breast implants, and how she'd had them, but was told not to admit it, and that she was basically taught to lie to the public, and somehow this crazy Britney rebellion is her way of shoving the truth down people's throats, whether they like it or not.

That cover picture makes my eyes twitch.

Those colors just look like a bad scan to me.

i want some of what you're smokin, moe.

Rolling Stone started everything by putting her in sexy lingerie, holding a fucking stuffed animal on their cover back when she was 16 or whatever. So there's that.

@ineffable.me: Rolling Stone is one of the worst magazines out there, because people think it's actually kind of credible.

@ineffable.me: @katekate: Rolling Stone is your lame uncle who wants to know if you have "heard of this Strokes band" in 2008.

@ineffable.me: Yeah, considering RS has made money off of exploiting Britney's sexuality for years now, they're hardly in any position to judge the paps and the users surrounding her now. They're just as culpable.

@hortense: hahaha.

@ineffable.me: Ditto. For a RS writer to complain about Britney being an "inbred swamp thing" is like Dr. Frankenstein whining about his monster getting loose to tear shit up in the countryside.

To be honest, I'm having a tough time understanding Moe's point.

@hortense: Brilliant!

The only redeeming quality RS has is Rob Sheffield. But not even my love for this guy can bring me to spend any money on this magazine. (Which is why if you ask me about music today all I can tell you is Hannah Montana and Rihanna and only because I read about them here, haha)

@hortense: That took me by surprise, as well. Going onstage during the VMAs in just a bikini as a way of saying, "This is me, take it or leave it?" It seemed a little farfetched but it does make some sense on the surface.

@hortense: Honestly, I can't say that I wouldn't eventually have gone completely fucking nuts either, with the amount of pressure that's been put on her since she was a teenager. She pranced around in lingerie but still had to tell everyone she was a virgin in order to sell records. She got a boob job but couldn't say anything about it, because it'd ruin her "perfect innocent Christian virgin" image. She was made out to be this fucking sex object for 40 year old men when she wasn't really even old enough to understand her own sexuality!

She has never been allowed to have one single failure in her life. If she shows an ounce of weakness, she's leapt upon and torn apart by the same people who idolized her when she was who they wanted her to be.

I'm still rooting for her. She never got a chance to just be a normal fucking human being, even when she was a little girl.

So here's what I want to know. Whose idea was it to market 16 year old Britney as a naughty school girl? Does this article answer that question? I've been wondering that since 1998 or whenever this whole Britney phenomenon began. Someone once told me it was her parents who decided that, but my guess is her label. Anyone know? Just curious. What a serious mindfuck for a teenager.

@ineffable.me: I totally remember that cover. Underwear no bra. Sideways. 16 yrs old.

@esmemurphy: I saw this special on VH1 where her mom said it was her idea to dress up in the schoolgirl outfit, but she apparently saw it as this fun, innocent thing. The record label went along with it.

@hortense: haha, I'm so glad I am not the only Stones hater!

I read the article on Britney and wondered how much of the article was tabloid fodder and how much was actually, oh, I don't know, real investigating (with real, credible evidence).

They should just continue to follow The Strokes and 50 Cent around. (why did they have Christina wear a quitar for one of their covers? Are guitars ever even AROUND her?)

@SinisterRouge: Here is a picture of the cover you're referring to, just FYI:
[chrisonrails.files.wordpress.com]

@SinisterRouge: when does it start to be kiddie porn?

@hortense: I didn't think that people actually, like, *read* it any more.

So can you read that article online or do you have to actually buy the magazine?

Oh, Rolling Stone prints some pretty good stuff. It's too easy to make fun of their post-sixties relevance crisis. A good friend of mine won a national magazine award covering the war for them. Of course, they once also waited over a year to pay me a kill fee, but…

@Moe: Their war and politics coverage is pretty good. I'll give them that. I thought they were a music magazine though...

@Sukie in the Graveyard: Yeah, I get what you mean. The woman is followed by no less than 20 paps, usually 24 hours a day. How did they miss her screaming at a child in the middle of a mall? Seems like someone would have seen that, right? So is this something they heard from a clerk?

@kitschenette: holy crapola.
And to think how young she was. I'm 26 and I look a few decades younger than she does in that pic. Poor kid.

@kitschenette: Yes, I think I saw an interview with Britney where she was like, "I just got the idea to tie my shirt up." I don't know if it was actually she or the label who thought of it.

I was dating my husband at the time and I still remember my future mother-in-law saying she thought the video was "cute" and thinking it was adorable when my husband's three year old sister knew all the words to "Baby One More Time." Uh, NO.

I feel terrible that she was told to lie about her boob job, but to say that is the start of her downturn? How about when she was shoved into showbusiness at a young age and told to lie about EVERYTHING. To make this about tits and sex is to oversimplify.

If that scene ever happened, it couldn't have happened at the Topanga Mall as it says in the very first sentence of the story. There's no Betsey Johnson there - it's at Westfield Fashion Square Sherman Oaks. So ... it's a minor detail but makes me think they don't have fact checkers and this chick made that entire scene up. And then probably everything else.

@esmemurphy: not just whose idea was it, but regardless of whose idea it was (all sorts of wacky ideas get thrown about during marketing brainstorming), who was the person who signed off on it?!? further, why didn't her parents intervene?

the whole thing is distasteful from the get go.

I'm so tired of this "had no childhood argument" you know who had no childhood, Somali and Darfur refugees who had to walk across a country before they were 10, children who are molested or forced into prostitution. These kids had no childhood. She's just another spoiled little princess from the south filled with excuses.

There I said it, and I don't feel bad about it.

@AthertonMerriweather: Yeah, their foreign affairs coverage has a high batting average. I sorta miss PJ O'Rourke's vacations in hell.

@Moe: Yeah, their non-music articles are aces. Except for Rob, god I love that man, but yeah. I agree.

@rachystyle: well, she shouldnt have gone and gottena boob job in the first place.

@AthertonMerriweather: i oew you a soda.

I blame her moms, yo. VH1 made a very compelling argument, although I was firmly on the 'Hate Mama Spears' train well before that.

@layladylan: I remember thinking the video was so cute when it came out. I must have been 11 or 12 at the time. The song didn't strike me as sexual, nor did the video, really. It just looked like a lot of fun and I wanted to be Britney dancing in the hallway in her schoolgirl uniform. Now that I'm older I totally realize how that image must have titillated millions of older men, despite being outwardly marketed to kids my age.

that LAT letter nomani wrote didn't fly with me. though, i'd be interested to see what her article says.

@jenndavo: I was mostly doubting the history of her childhood. When every second of her life wasn't documented by photographers but by hearsay and speculation.
Now, I'm pretty sure the girl has been driven batshit crazy. (but then if flash bulbs were going off in my face every time I stepped out of the house, I may be batshit crazy as well...)

@kitschenette: Yup. That's the very one I am talking about. And I remember a friend of mine telling me how hot she was. And I was disturbed. I knew this girl was gonna be a hot mess one day.

@NicoleItchy: good point. it's the little things, innit?

@ThaKadinskyPapers: Her mom isn't her only parent, though. Apparently her dad was either drunk or MIA for most of her childhood.

@Moe: Their crap jobs hide the real, good stuff written by real, good writers.
There were a few articles I had to save but otherwise... crap.

@AthertonMerriweather: Agreed.We get RS at my parents house and that's the only thing I ever read. It's very well done!

@SinisterRouge: I remember that. It was a sign of things to come. At the time though, I thought it was hot.

@BeAgrestic: *the war stories

@Sukie in the Graveyard: Yeah, that's true, too. I especially hate the fact that they're taking the word of her first (and still fairly immature) boyfriend to determine when and where she lost her virginity. 'Cause, you know, boys never lie about sex or anything.

@esmemurphy: Some accounts say it was Britney's idea. I think Chuck Klosterman covered a few years ago when he interviewed her for Esquire. The one where she was pantsless on the cover.

I read this and thought it was full of shit. Mr. Pop Psyche needs to shut up.

Britney doesn't care what people think but wants to show us what we've done to her? Sorry, hon. Guilt-free, here. I"m very sorry you lost out in the decent family roulette game, but it's not my fault that after reaching adulthood, you made a string of horrible life choices and then utterly failed to cope with the consequences.

And there is no way she's in control of her out-of-controlness. This is such complete shit.

i used to be the kind of girl who hung out with guys almost exclusively, but lately i'm starting to think that true platonic friendship between men and women is practically impossible. i've lost more than one male friend because of unresolved sexual tension - like, he was secretly really into me and i didn't feel the same way, and he couldn't deal with it. to me it seems like many - not all, but many - male-female friendships there are ulterior motives in one or both parties. female friendships may be more difficult, but at least they're genuine.