Framing Britney Spears: 5 Winners and 9 Losers (Looking at You, Family Feud!) of Must-Watch FX Documentary

WINNER: BRITNEY SPEARS

Sure, it’s about two decades too late, but the conversation around Spears’ life is finally shifting for the better. After years of undue scrutiny, Spears is being taken seriously as — gasp! — a human being with feelings. Though we can’t undo the hurt we’ve caused her as a society, we can certainly aim to do better moving forward. And with any luck, Spears might someday get the freedom she desperately craves.

“I know at some point she will tell her story,” Spears’ long-time friend Felicia Culotta says at the end of the documentary. “And I am so grateful for when that point comes, that she’s able to sit down and … everything will fall into place.”

WINNER: THE #FREEBRITNEY MOVEMENT

Once discredited as fringe lunacy, the #FreeBritney movement — a concentrated effort by Spears’ fans to have her released from her conservatorship — is gaining traction. The documentary credits the podcast “Britney’s Gram” with furthering the conversation about Spears’ desire for liberation. (The podcast also asserts that Spears is sending coded messages in her Instagram posts.)

WINNER: FELICIA CULOTTA

Spears’ most fervent fans have known about this human ray of sunshine for years, but thanks to her appearance in the documentary, the whole world can now appreciate Spears’ former “assistant.” (Culotta was more of a chaperone for Spears early on, though her role was considerably diminished post-conservatorship.) She comes across as someone who truly believes in Spears, someone who has never doubted her competence — a stark contrast to many of the other people in her orbit.

WINNER: MICHAEL MOORE

One of the few celebrities shown speaking out against the public’s mistreatment of Spears is documentarian Michael Moore. In a brief clip from an appearance on Larry King Live, which was conducted shortly after Spears was admitted to a mental health facility, Moore weighs in on the “sad” story of the pop star’s perceived mental breakdown, saying, “It would be less sad if we just left her alone. Why don’t we just leave her alone and let her just go on with her life?” If only people listened.

WINNER: CRAIG FERGUSON

This one is a bit of a stretch, but only because it wasn’t actually included in the documentary. In the days since the doc’s release, a 2007 clip from The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson has been making the rounds. Filmed just days after Spears famously shaved her head, Ferguson made a plea for decency.

“I’m starting to feel uncomfortable about making fun of these people,” he said. “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.”

Click the image above to watch Ferguson’s full monologue.

LOSER: JAMIE SPEARS

Spears’ father, who recently went on record as saying that the #FreeBritney movement “is a joke,” is unquestionably the villain of this documentary, painted as someone determined to control and suppress his daughter.

Never is this more apparent than when we’re shown footage from the 2008 MTV documentary Britney Spears: For the Record, in which a tearful Spears tells the camera that she’s miserable in her conservatorship. “If that wasn’t there, I’d feel so liberated and like myself,” she says. “When I tell [my team] the way I feel, it’s like they hear me, but they’re not really listening. It’s bad.”

As Kim Kaiman, the former senior marketing director for Jive Records, recalls, “The only thing Jamie ever said to me was, ’My daughter’s going to be so rich, she’s going to be buy me a boat.’ That’s all I’m going to say about Jamie.”

LOSER: ED MCMAHON

Much of the documentary highlights the role casual misogyny has played throughout Spears’ career, beginning with her stint on Star Search.

“I noticed last week, you have the most adorable, pretty eyes,” Ed McMahon says to a very young Spears in a clip from the show. “Do you have a boyfriend?” When she tells him that she doesn’t because boys are mean, he replies, “I’m not mean, how about me?”

Do with that what you will.

LOSER: JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

Speaking of misogyny…

We may never know exactly what led to the demise of Spears and Timberlake’s high-profile relationship — nor are we entitled to know, lest we learn nothing from this documentary — but we do know that Timberlake did everything he could to smear Spears in the media, from implying that she cheated in his “Cry Me A River” music video to bragging about sleeping with her during a radio interview. Classy.

UPDATE: The public outcry from this documentary has led Timberlake to apologize for his actions against both Spears and Janet Jackson for past wrongdoings. Click here to read his full statement.

LOSER: DETAILS MAGAZINE

Piggybacking off of Timberlake, we’d be remiss if we didn’t highlight this insane Details magazine cover line: “Can we ever forgive Justin Timberlake for all that sissy music? Hey… at least he got into Britney’s pants!”

In case you’re wondering, the magazine published its final issue in 2015. Good riddance.

LOSER: DIANE SAWYER

On the heels of Timberlake’s obvious smear campaign against her, Spears sat down with Sawyer in 2003 for an interview that included questions like “You did something that caused him so much pain, so much suffering — what did you do?”

Sawyer also asked for Spears’ response to Kendel Ehrlich, Maryland’s “first lady” at the time, who said she would shoot Spears if she could. But rather than emphasize how outrageous that comment was, Sawyer seemingly defended it, explaining to Spears that it was said “because of the example [she sets] for kids and how hard it is to be a parent.”

LOSER: MATT LAUER

More than a decade before he was fired by NBC over accusations of sexual misconduct, Lauer spoke with Spears about the media’s scrutiny of her new role as a parent. But rather than entering the conversation with compassion, Lauer used the opportunity to perpetuate the ongoing narrative that Spears — who was pregnant with her second child during their interview — was an unfit mother. He wanted her tears, and he got them.

LOSER: FLORENCE HENDERSON

Oh, you didn’t think we’d come for Carol Brady? Think again. The documentary includes a clip from NBC’s now-defunct Later Today in which Henderson says, “It certainly is a paradox [between] the way she works [and the way she dresses]. She doesn’t seem that innocent!” (Good one, Carol.)

LOSER: FAMILY FEUD

One of the most dumbfounding moments in the documentary is a (low-quality) clip from an old episode of Family Feud, in which contestants are asked to “name something Britney Spears has lost in the past year.” Among the guesses are her husband, her sanity and, of course, her hair. It’s unclear exactly when the episode aired, but with John O’Hurley hosting, it had to have been sometime between 2006 and 2010.

LOSER: THE TABLOID MEDIA

The role the tabloids played in Spears’ public unravelling has always been known, but like most things, the treachery is even more unthinkable in hindsight. From the former Us Weekly photo director discussing his enormous budget for paparazzi photos to life-ruining bloggers like Perez Hilton saying, “Thank you, Britney Spears. Being bad is very good for my business,” it’s enough to make you sick.

One particularly infuriating moment comes when former celebrity videographer Daniel Ramos claims Spears “never” indicated that she wanted to be left alone.