This Week in Gossip (April 19)

Britney Spears Enters Rehab

Britney Spears has gone into rehab, a month after she was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. She had been reported to authorities for driving erratically on a motorway. Spears voluntarily checked herself into a treatment facility, according to her representative. Of course TMZ rushed to be the first to report this story, which is consistent with their lack of ethics, if nothing else.

It's been clear for a while that Britney is struggling. She is a woman who has dealt with mental health issues for many years now, and following the end of her controversial conservatorship, she has mostly avoided public life aside from the occasional Instagram post. Regaining autonomy over her own life did not quash the conspiracies that have surrounded her for decades. Some "concerned fans" called 911 to have wellness checks performed on her. Others spread a nutty theory that Britney was still under some nefarious force's control and that the videos of her on Instagram were AI-generated.

People still like to leer and gawk at Britney in uncomfortable and scolding ways. While much has changed from the days where she was chased through the streets as she had a breakdown, there's still this sense surrounding Spears that her pain is a public performance we're supposed to consume. She is, after all, still extremely famous and beloved. Fans want the best for her. But I’m not sure we know how to navigate that space when it comes to someone with major mental health issues whose public behaviour is often odd and uncomfortable to watch.

Honestly, writing about Britney is a bummer. Some celebrity stories are fun to write about, or at least interesting to provide greater context on. Spears’ life has been so thoroughly vivisected and memed and made into content that even nice comments about her frequently feel like a pile-on. It also feels like a lot of people decided they’d “learned their lesson” from the days where Britney was public enemy number one and that we don’t need to think about it further. Haven’t we apologised enough? Nope. Not even close, especially as we see the world going through these EXACT cycles again and again with new targets (Chappell Roan, anyone? Or literally any woman who’s accused a man of abuse?) I think the reason I often feel compelled to talk about Britney, despite it all, is because nobody took the right qualities from her struggle. Truly, I think many decided that, as long as they do some sort of mea culpa in the future when the public narratives change, they can be as cruel as they want to the punching bag of the moment.

The appetite for more Britney is ravenous. With an adaptation of her memoir in the works, things are only going to get more heated. I hope that Spears can find healing and peace, and that she is given the space to make it happen. If there is anything positive to say about this story, it’s that it’s not being as feverishly reported upon, with 24/7 coverage, as it would have been 15 years ago. There’s a lot going on right now (but still, f*ck TMZ for, you know, everything.)

James McAvoy is Right: People in Hollywood Are Starting to Look Weird

James McAvoy is promoting his directorial debut, California Schemin’, a comedy based on the true story of two Scottish guys who conned the music industry into believing they were rap stars. It was largely shot in Dundee, where I live, so I am eager to Leo-point-meme my entire way through it (I did the same thing with Frankenstein and all its Edinburgh locations.) McAvoy is always good for a fun, down-to-earth interview with some sharp political truths regarding the class ceiling that keeps working-class British actors out of the entertainment business. But he’s never rude, even when it’d be funny or correct for him to be so (see him admitting he doesn’t boo England at the football. Dude, it’s our heritage!) If only he hadn’t said yes to the f*cking Harry Potter audiobooks.

On a recent appearance on Romesh Ranganathan’s podcast, McAvoy opened up about the plastic surgery pressures that actors like him face. He said, “I don’t know, there’s a lot of people just starting to look a bit weird. That is the thing, it’s like, you aren’t looking younger, you’re just looking weirder... Absolutely do what you want to do, but as an actor, I don’t want to mess with it too much.”

He’s not wrong, kids.