Britney Spears was just 17 when she first made the cover of Rolling Stone. Now, she’s on the cover again, but for all the wrong reasons.
"I think a lot of us would have thought that when she shaved her head, that that was her nadir but apparently there is much, much further to fall," said Rolling Stone magazine writer Vanessa Grigoriadis. "I mean you still never saw Michael Jackson being wheeled out of Neverland strapped down to a gurney. We didn't see those things with a lot of people in the past."
"An American Tragedy" is the label Rolling Stone gives Britney for having what they say is the most famous fall from grace in history, after being committed involuntarily to UCLA’s psychiatric hospital.
Grigoriadis wrote the ten-page feature article after a six -week investigation that saw her infiltrating Britney’s inner circle.
The picture she paints is of a little girl lost, whose downward spiral she claims can be traced back to her first heartbreak.
"Justin and she were perfect for each other and they were so in love," Grigoriadis said.
Pop music’s power couple – Britney and Justin Timberlake dated for almost three years and it all ended in 2002.
"She had very few friends who were her age. Everybody who surrounded her was somebody who was part of her money making machine," Grigoriadis said. "So there are a lot of her friends who believe that from that time she began desperately looking for love."
The article also claims Britney thrives off of the chaos and drama her erratic behavior causes.
"She wants to pit people against her," Grigoriadis said. "She's got Sam pitted against her parents. She's got Adnan pitted against Sam. Everybody is fighting and this is why Britney can't get better."
At the center of the contentious battle? Britney’s self-proclaimed "manager," Sam Lutfi, and her parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, who just last week persuaded a judge to issue the fourth restraining order against Lutfi.
Inside a written declaration released yesterday was Lynne’s shocking claims, including that Sam drugged Britney by crushing up pills and hiding them in her food.
Lynne also claimed Sam was verbally abusive calling Britney an "unfit mother, a piece of trash and a whore." She further alleged Sam controlled Britney’s every move by disabling her vehicles.
"I met Sam. He seemed awesome," Grigoriadis said. "He's really sweet. He could be a con man. We don't really know at this point."
At times, it appeared Britney trusted Sam more than her father, who upon Britney’s hospitalization was granted control over her estate. It was a decision Britney fought to reverse.
"I think Britney is incredibly angry at her father," Grigoriadis said. "I think her father was an addict through a lot of the time that she was growing up and she was humiliated by his addiction. However in the last few years he has cleaned up his act and by all people that I have talked to he is a great guy now but I don't think she can see that."
