How’d We Let Justin Timberlake Be So Terrible to Britney?

Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. [View in Browser]( [Subscribe]( [Image] with Kevin Fallon Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. This Week: - The Justin Timberlake backlash intensifies. - You need to watch Judas and the Black Messiah. - The only Super Bowl thing to care about. (It’s cheese-related.) - Still the best Britney Spears take, 14 years later. - Serena Williams, always the GOAT. Crying a River Over #FreeBritney A disturbing [revelation of Framing Britney Spears](, the recent FX and Hulu documentary that catapulted a fiery artillery of new discourse into the #FreeBritney movement, is how shitty [everyone has been to Britney Spears](. It turns out, that includes us. There are [villains to point at]( and [righteously shame](. But then, right beside them, giggling to various degrees of obliviousness like a complicit nation of Igors, is all of us, too. [Alternate text] There’s the industry mechanism that hyper-sexualized a teenage girl and the pearl-clutchers that denigrated her in response. And then there’s the rest of us taking in the back-and-forth debate with the thrill of watching Nadal and Federer in the U.S. Open finals. There’s the paparazzi that stalked her every move, and the rest of us who gawked at the photos. There’s the media that practically celebrated her breakdown and bullied her with glee, and the rest of us who couldn’t get enough of those stories or laugh harder at those punchlines. There are the family members, lawyers, and managers possibly taking advantage of her under a conservatorship, and the rest of us who have been a little suspect of the arrangement...but who were more than happy to bury those concerns while chugging vodka sodas at her Vegas residency and tour. The #FreeBritney movement argues that Spears is being constrained against her will to the parameters of a legal conservatorship that controls every aspect of her life. The documentary is a crucial summary of the ins and outs of Spears’ legal battles and the evidence that the #FreeBritney soldiers purport proves that she should no longer be under a conservatorship. But it’s also a brisk history of the life of Britney Spears—no small feat to provide in a 70-minute running time—in order to add context to how she ended up in the conservatorship in the first place. It’s the breakout star of that brisk history that provides one of those slam-the-breaks, screeching-sound moments during which big realizations rush in like an avalanche: My God, Justin Timberlake was so shitty to Britney Spears. But also...what were we thinking? Hell hath no fury like a fan army scorned, so the guns have been blazing for Timberlake this week, [building with intensity]( as more and more people have watched Framing Britney and seen its careful distillation of the ways he used the media apparatus and our society’s default to misogyny to ruin Spears’ reputation and, in turn, elevate his career. Meanwhile we were beatboxing along to his idiot song like giddy accomplices. Considering that Framing Britney Spears, because of its running time, has to cherry pick what dramas and scandals from Spears’ life to focus on, it’s pretty damning that it chooses to shine such a harsh spotlight on Timberlake’s calculating and crass behavior following his and Spears’ breakup almost two decades ago. Maybe you recall the bombshell 2002 video for Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River,” a breakup-revenge song that plenty of people speculated was about Spears cheating on him, even before an uncanny body double for her was cast in the video. Or the ensuing tabloid covers brandishing the scandal in headlines: “Britney & Justin: Did She Betray Him?” “The way people treated her, to be very high school about it, was like she was the school slut and he was the school quarterback,” says New York Times critic Wesley Morris in the documentary. “He essentially weaponizes the video for one of his singles to incriminate her in the demise of their relationship.” Timberlake’s press tour for his solo album seemed to revolve almost exclusively around his former relationship with Spears and the rumors he kept stoking, even while playing coy. He was questioned by Barbara Walters for 10 minutes about his heartbreak; Spears, meanwhile, was cruelly grilled by Diane Sawyer about how she “caused [Timberlake] so much pain” and then accused of being a bad role model. Role model is an interesting concept in the context of this particular celebrity story as, while Spears was being slut-shamed, Timberlake continued talking about the relationship for years, when it was convenient to draw attention to his career. Most shocking to see replayed in the documentary all these years later are the times he crudely discussed their sex life. "Did you fuck Britney Spears?" he was asked in one interview. "OK, I did it,” he replied, laughing hysterically. In another he was asked about having “oral intercourse” with her. “I did it. I’m dirty,” he said. It’s pretty gross behavior, then or now. The collective disgust from Spears fans after being reminded of it in the documentary happens to be timed with what’s become an annual tradition of Timberlake backlash. In recent years, #JanetJacksonAppreciationDay trends on social media every February to remind us of how she was sexistly thrown under the bus and had her career derailed following the infamous #NippleGate controversy at her Super Bowl Halftime Show with Timberlake. There are parallels drawn between the ways Timberlake allowed both Spears and Jackson to be villainized and punished by the media and the music industry while his own career progressed. After so much time, he still has not taken satisfactory responsibility for his complicity in how the women were treated. [Alternate text] All of this is fair. But watching Framing Britney Spears transported me back to how I—and, likely, all of us—behaved at the time. When the “Cry Me a River” video came out and seemed to put Spears on blast, I gasped with delight at the salaciousness of it all. When he spilled those tawdry details about their sex life in those interviews, I ate it up. [I am as big a Britney fan]( as they come, and I still felt that way! It was juicy! We were, and in many cases, still are gossip mongers, and we were eating good. Of course Timberlake hasn’t been held accountable yet, because we haven’t yet held ourselves accountable. That’s not an absolution of how he handled himself. It’s a condemnation of ourselves, too. I think that’s at the heart of what the #FreeBritney movement is about. It’s about justice for the people who deserve it, but it may be even more about demolishing harmful systems. It’s about time. Update: On Friday, after this newsletter was written, Timberlake [posted a note on his Instagram]( apologizing to both Britney Spears and Janet Jackson, saying, “I care for and respect these women and I know I failed.” Read his full post [here](. This Is Now a Daniel Kaluuya Fan Forum Daniel Kaluuya gives that look, and it’s all over. If you’ve seen his performances in [Get Out](, [Widows](, [Queen & Slim](, and now, Judas and the Black Messiah, which is out this weekend, you know that look. His eyes widen just to the edge of what seems biologically possible, firing off laser darts of intensity that would otherwise require special effects. It’s one look, but it’s also so many looks. It’s frightening. It’s menacing. It’s intimidating. Used to such great effect in Judas and the Black Messiah, it’s angry and impassioned, ingrained with purpose and powered by the generations of injustices he’s taking action against. [Alternate text] Kaluuya plays Fred Hampton in the film, a Black activist in Chicago and chairman of the local Black Panther Party who founded the multicultural Rainbow Coalition. In 1967, he was targeted by the FBI as a radical threat. It’s a story that ends tragically, and Judas and the Black Messiah does the proper job of enraging audiences over what happened to him. So much of that power is owed to Kaluuya, who makes a towering, almost thundering figure out of Hampton, someone able to galvanize in the face of such danger but who was also quietly, achingly human. We’re starting to see how the awards races are shaking out now that the final contenders are [finally getting released](. And if Kaluuya isn’t holding some golden trophies and giving acceptance speeches come spring, it will be a travesty. Did the Super Bowl Really Happen? I’m so old I remember that the Super Bowl was this week. That’s about all I remember. I have vague memories of [The Weeknd terrifying middle America]( during the halftime show and [Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher singing]( the Shaggy song “It Wasn’t Me” about Cheetos, but there is no way to be sure either of those things actually happened or whether they were melatonin-induced fever dreams I had. So should you need a recap of what went down on Game Day, might I suggest this genius Twitter thread that Velveeta—as in the cheese—posted live during the festivities Sunday night. “We don't have a commercial for the big game but we wanted to be in the conversation,” the brand tweeted. “Our legal team says we're allowed to live-tweet the commercials but only if we're REALLY CAREFUL and don't mention any other brands/celebrities/anything specific. LETS DO THIS.” [Alternate text] It was exceptionally funnier than any commercial I saw that night. For a few minutes of laughs and confusion, [check out the whole thing here](. Craig Ferguson, Forever the Class Act In the wake of everything happening with Britney Spears in the news again, a clip of a 2007 [Craig Ferguson]( monologue from when he was host of The Late Late Show [has gone viral](. He talks about a cruel trend in late-night humor (much of which was highlighted to audiences’ horror in the Framing Britney Spears documentary): “I kind of had similar feelings when I used to watch America’s Funniest Home Videos. You’d be laughing at the kid falling over, and then you’d go, Wait a minute, put down the damn camera and help your kid! I think we’re kind of holding the camera, and people are falling apart. People are dying. That Anna Nicole Smith, she died.” When the audience laughs, he says, “No, it’s not a joke. It stops being funny.” [Alternate text] He then relates his point to Spears’s then-meltdown, pledging not to make fun of her. It’s a stunning clip, and a nice reminder of why Ferguson was a cut above the rest: “I’m starting to feel uncomfortable about making fun of these people. For me, comedy should have a sentiment of joy in it. It should be about artists attacking the powerful people. Attacking the politicians, and the Trumps, and the blowhards. Go after them. We shouldn’t be attacking the vulnerable people. This is totally a mea culpa; this is just for me. I think my aim’s been off a bit, recently. I want to change it a bit. So tonight, no Britney Spears jokes.” Serena Williams, Never Not Serving a Flex My favorite exercise in fantasy and/or sadism is to watch celebrities give tours of their homes on the Architectural Digest YouTube page. This week, [Serena Williams showed off]( her Miami home, which included a trophy room. Her legitimate bewilderment while attempting to recollect which of her trophies were from what championship and acting legitimately repulsed to discover that there were second-place trophies in the room (they should be in the trash, she says) is the only mood I aspire to from now on. [Alternate text] [Alternate text] - Judas and the Black Messiah: The kind of movie everyone should see! (Friday on HBO Max) - Minari: Another phenomenal movie. Everyone watch! (Friday on VOD) - Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar: Kristen Wiig back to being goofy, praise be! (Friday on VOD) - It’s a Sin: It’s kind of a masterpiece, but, oh boy, will you cryyyyyy. (Thursday on HBO Max) [Alternate text] - American Idol: Yes, they’re really doing this again. (Sunday on ABC) Advertisement [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( © Copyright 2021 The Daily Beast Company LLC 555 W. 18th Street, New York NY 10011 [Privacy Policy]( If you are on a mobile device or cannot view the images in this message, [click here]( to view this email in your browser. To ensure delivery of these emails, please add emails@thedailybeast.com to your address book. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, or think you have received this message in error, you can [safely unsubscribe](.