Originally written October 24, 2005.

In this unauthorised biography, Sean Smith sets himself the task of discovering which of the two Britneys has achieved dominance - the natural, fun-loving, friendly girl who makes lots of mistakes like everybody else, or what he calls "the Britney Spears", megastar icon who threatened to take over and suppress the real Britney.

Originally written February 28, 2005.

“Blonde, beautiful, great body. Sweet natured, ditzy, maybe not too clever. Pretends not to use sex to sell her records. Fair singer, no Whitney or Mariah.” Neat, concise description. But I’ve just described Jessica Simpson, not Britney Spears. The very last thing you want as a megastar celebrity is that the media and public can put you in a box that actually fits you. If that happens, you won’t be controversial - you won’t even be interesting. And fortunately it has never happened to Britney.

Originally written January 23, 2005.

Simon Cowell recently excused all those who were caught miming in 2004. "If it sounds better with the vocal you recorded", he said, "why shouldn't people listen to that?"

It's a pity he wasn't around to excuse Britney Spears when she began the European leg of her Onyx Hotel tour at Wembley in April 2004. The UK tabloids were new to the concept of lip-synching, and were incandescent with outrage. The Daily Star's Joe Mott called for the public to boo her off the stage, or - preferably - boycott the rest of the tour.

Originally written April 28, 2006.

Having a tour around some Britney forums today, I found that the mood is generally somewhat downbeat right now. The news of Britney's second pregnancy in two years hasn't been especially well-received. Although plenty of people are happy for her because she's happy there's also a lot of disappointment that there may not be any new material from her for a while and some are even saying "She had a chance to redeem herself and get it all back but she blew it".