Britney Spears and her court-appointed attorney Samuel D. Ingham III filed papers this week in Los Angeles requesting several changes to her conservatorship, most notably that Spears wants a “voluntary” conservatorship, and that she wants her conservatorship court battle to be made public. In other words, she sees you, #FreeBritney.
Spears’s conservatorship battle has been in the news since 2019, when a cancelled a Las Vegas residency and a trip to a mental health facility brought her legal situation front and center, and fans started speculating about whether the pop star’s father, Jamie Spears, was limiting her financial and personal autonomy. But it wasn’t until August where Spears took the first legal steps in recent years towards having her father removed as her primary conservator.
People reports that on Wednesday, Ingham filed papers asking the Judge to deny Britney Spears’s father Jamie Spears’s motion to seal parts of the ongoing conservatorship case.
“Britney strongly believes it is consistent not only with her personal best interests but also with good public policy generally that the decision to appoint a new conservator of her estate be made in as open and transparent a manner as possible,” Ingham’s opposition filing says. Jamie’s motion “is supposedly being brought by her father to ‘protect’ Britney’s interests, but she is adamantly opposed to it.”
Spears’s attorney Ingham cited Jamie Spears’s recent interview with the New York Post as clear evidence of Jamie choosing to make public comments about the conservatorship while taking legal steps to keep it private. On top of that, Ingham says that all of Spears’s confidential financial information is “already protected”, and that since the conservatorship does not involve Spears’s kids, there is no need to keep the legal proceedings sealed for privacy’s sake.
“At this point in her life when she is trying to regain some measure of personal autonomy, Britney welcomes and appreciates the informed support of her many fans,” the filing states. “Britney herself is vehemently opposed to this effort by her father to keep her legal struggle hidden away in the closet as a family secret.”
Earlier this week on Monday, Spears and her attorney filed documents suggesting that Bessemer Trust Company of California, N.A. be appointed as her voluntary conservator, replacing her father Jamie Spears, who served as her conservator from 2008 until 2019, when the role was temporarily taken over by Jodi Montgomery due to Jamie’s health issues.
“Britney is strongly opposed to her father continuing as sole conservator of her estate. Rather, without in any way waiving her right to seek termination of this conservatorship in the future, she strongly prefers to have a qualified corporate fiduciary appointed to serve in this role,” the papers state.
In separate documents, Spears’s mother Lynne Spears supported her daughter’s nomination of Bessemer Trust Company to serve as the conservator of her estate.
It’s impossible to know what Britney Spears has been dealing with under the conservatorship of her father over the past decade of her life. But this legal action seems like a significant step towards Spears asserting her own autonomy over her body, finances, and life—which sounds like a good thing to me. [People]
Vanity Fair reports that Robert Pattinson has tested positive for covid-19, causing production on his upcoming film The Batman to be halted. Warner Brothers declined to comment on any individual person’s health, but did release a statement:
“A member of The Batman production has tested positive for Covid-19, and is isolating in accordance with established protocols. Filming is temporarily paused.”
This is actually the second time the production of the upcoming Batman film has shut down, the first being back in March when much of the entertainment world halted filming on a variety of projects. The recently-released first trailer for the film features Pattinson as the forever-troubled Bruce Wayne, and looks as angsty, gritty, and dark as, well, every Batman-adjacent film for the past few decades.
I’m curious to see how The Batman, slated for release sometime in 2021, is perceived by the general public. Because you know what sounds like topical content that will definitely be well received in the current political moment? The story of a billionaire vigilante superhero who’s all buddy-buddy with cops. [Vanity Fair]
- Jameela Jamil is not quarantining with Meghan and Harry, okay? [E!]
- Stassi Schroeder’s first interview since being fired from Vanderpump Rules in June will be with Tamron Hall. [Page Six]
- Khloe Kardashian was spotted hiking with Tristan Thompson, which doesn’t seem like a recipe for messiness at all. [TMZ]