On the heels of Britney Spears,
tragic testimony regarding her
conservatorship and
the control that her father has
over her personal life.
We're learning more details about
you know what she's trying to do in
order to free herself considering
that it's been incredibly difficult
to get the courts to agree
to releasing her from
this conservatorship.
Now, her next court date is on
July 14.
So we'll see if there's any
development in regard to actually
doing the right thing and
allowing her to have some
agency in her life.
But we're also learning that
she has a different strategy,
a different plan as well, and
that is to retire.
Because as she
said in her testimony, she feels
that family members who are on her
payroll are exploiting her and
exploiting the situation.
So Spears's longtime manager of 25
years, his name is Larry Rudolph.
Has actually resigned,
stating that Spears no longer wants
to be a mega pop star.
So he says this in a statement.
It's been over 2 1/2 and
a since Brittany and
I last communicated at which time
she informed me she wanted to take
an indefinite work hiatus.
Earlier today I became aware
that Brittany had been voicing her
intention to officially retire,
as you know, he continues.
I have never been
part of the conservatorship nor
his operation so I'm not privy
to many of these details.
I was originally hired at
Brittany's request to help manage
and assist her with her career.
And as her manager I believe it
is in Brittany's best interest for
me to resign from her team as my
professional services are no longer
needed.
So he's stepping down.
>> Let me just translate that.
>> Yeah. >> Real quick.
That means I don't want any part of
this s Show, okay, like this is now
I don't want to get blamed for
the conservatorship.
It's not making any money anyway,
now she's retiring, all I can get
is negative press out of this, I
don't want any part of it, I'm out.
>> As part of her testimony
by the way, she talked about how
she's exhausted and
she's ready to retire.
But she was terrified to voice that
opinion because she was concerned
that, that would lead to more
punishment meaning an extension of
this conservatorship, right?.
And so,
she wanted to remove her IUD so
she could have more children.
But under a conservatorship,
the person who's controlling you
essentially gets to decide whether
or not that IUD comes out.
And they decided against it, I mean
that's how insane the story is.
And she was placed under
conservatorship under her father,
Jamie Spears back in 2008.
And listen she was clearly going
through something very serious in
2008.
So while I could understand the
arguments in favor of it early on.
It's now been many many years and
she has proven herself to be
a responsible adult who deserves
her own freedom.
>> Yeah, we were just talking about
this during the break.
You know what, this is a good
opportunity to throw this in.
I want to apologize to
Britney Spears.
>> So do I >> Yeah,
because we were talking about
during the break is who could have
withstood that kind of scrutiny.
Back when she was the megastar and
remember when she shaved her head I
don't remember what I said about it
but I can guarantee you it wasn't
great, right?
And so
there's a lot of people looking and
go haha I hope we've matured here,
I think we've matured and
that's it.
And by the way,
the other thing that
happened in the meanwhile, is that
we've received tremendous pressure
throughout the years, right?
So but nothing like Britney and
the whole world was looking at
judging her and
judging her and judging her.
Now having dealt with a fraction of
that right, sorry for everything
really, and, in this case,
there's something weird here.
There's something inexplicable.
Why would you keep
her like sometimes you have to put
people in conservatorship.
It's true, because sometimes it
could be a danger to themselves,
etc, etc right.
So it's not an easy black and
white thing, okay.
You put everybody you put nobody,
no but in this case, she seems to
have every sign of sanity here.
She's saying please, for God's sake
like me out if she's asking super
reasonable requests, I didn't watch
documentary or anything but
just looking at the news.
I don't get it.
Why did the judge say no?
It doesn't make any sense to me.
>> Yeah. >> So, if things appear to
be what they are on the surface and
they do a whole documentary
by the way, I should say, in
the family doesn't respond at all.
It seems like to me, right?
Now maybe they're trying to protect
Britney, that's sounds less likely
these days, right?
But if people are saying,
hey, you're malicious and
you're terrible and you're robbing
your own daughter blind, etc.
You might come out and say,
you know what, guys,
on Thursday this happened, right?
And I love my daughter and
I hate that it happened but
you see why I can't let go
the conservatorship because I'm
worried about her, right?
But none of that, as far as
I've seen none of that, right?
And so then I just I'm confounded
by why they haven't freed her yet.
>> Well, that might be coming soon.
So I'll give you the details
in just a second.
But before I forget, I do want to
go back to an important point
you made regarding the treatment of
Britney Spears back in 2008, right?
Back when she was placed under
conservatorship.
I did watch that documentary about
this whole situation and you don't
notice it because society and
culture does change slowly, and
it happens when you're not really
paying close attention to it.
But going back and watching the way
that she was interviewed, right?
There's this infamous Diane Sawyer,
part of the documentary where she's
interviewing Britney Spears and
honestly essentially
just shaming her.
For being too risque for
dressing provocatively for
being scantily clad, but
remember at the same time,
the industry demanded that of her.
So you're damned if you do damned
if you don't she was
in a lose lose situation and
I also want to apologize because
I'm not making excuses for myself.
I mean, I should
have been smarter than that, right?
But When that's the culture, and
everyone talks about women that
way, as if it's like the most
normal thing in the world, even
women like myself, you internalize
it and you think yeah, yeah this is
how women should be treated, right?
>> Yeah and it wasn't just for
me I hope it wasn't about women.
But look, I said what I said so
you're right to criticize that I
criticize it, right?
It was about celebrities,
I felt like celebrities were just
something to laugh at, right?
It was free rein, right and
I was way older than you so
it's even more my fault, right?
And I should have been more mature
by that age, but I wasn't, right?
And so it's not just about
sexual stuff, right?
And we did that, right?
But men, when I think back to
the old days, the one thing that
I think about Amy Winehouse because
I have her on my playlist, right?
And I'm like, Whoa, no, no, no,
I know she was going through some
stuff and I know it looked weird,
and we thought we were having fun
with it, but then she died, no.
>> And the fact that she was
addicted to drugs.
>> Yeah.
>> Media decided to victimize her
as a result of her addiction, and
yeah, it was disgusting,
absolutely disgusting.
So I want to give you some more
details on the story though because
as I mentioned July 14 is the next
court date.
I'm hoping that the courts make
the right decision here but
following her testimony,
there were other members of her
team that decided to jump ship
because of how disgusting this
conservatorship is and the fact
that she spoke out against it.
So TMZ reported that Spears's court
appointed lawyer Sam Ingham,
who has represented her since she
was first placed under the
conservatorship in 2008, plan to
file documents immediately asking
to be dismissed as her counsel.
This comes after
the Bessemer Trust,
which was appointed in November as
her co-conservator of her financial
affairs and her considerable estate
filed papers, asking the court to
approve its resignation due
to change circumstances.
Bessemer said that it had been
waiting on paperwork before
starting its work for the estate
and had collected no fees.
So, the reason why there was
a co-conservator was because
Spears's rightly was concerned
about her father managing her
finances and clearly that
is a conflict of interest, right?
Because if the father has control
over the finances of
a superstar he's going to
want to keep her under his control,
because it's a gravy train, right.
So that's why that
co-conservatorship or court
conservators situation took place.
And so the hope here is following
Bessemer's resignation following
all these other resignations, the
courts will look at the situation
and say no, we're done with this.
We're going to lift the
conservatorship and give Britney
the freedom that she deserves.
And Jody Montgomery will not be
stepping down from her role as
Britney Spears conservator saying
that the pop
singer has asked her to stay on.
So a lawyer for
Jody Montgomery says this.
Ms. Montgomery has no plans to step
down as Ms.Spears' Temporary
Conservator of the Person.
She remains committed to
steadfastly supporting Ms.
Spears in every way she can within
the scope of her duties as
a conservator of the person.
Miss Spears has recently or
Miss Spears as recently,
as yesterday has asked
a Montgomery to continue to serve.
Montgomery will continue to serve
as conservator as long as Spears
and the courts desire her to do so.
And that, I would argue probably
makes sense because if Bessemer
pulls out of this
co-conservatorship situation, well,
then who's managing her finances
while we wait for the courts to
decide what happens ultimately?
>> Yeah, the reason I love doing
the show with you guys, because you
make great points, and I'm really
glad I read this in the middle.
One of our members wrote in,
don't shoot I'm the goalkeeper,
that's their name.
Wrote, Kanye west and Gary Boosey
have legitimate mental illnesses
and they don't need a conservator.
I wonder what the difference is
between them and Britney.
Great question, I have no idea,
that's such a great question.
Kanye obviously has massive mental
health issues, right?
And yet no conservatorship, and
let alone the things he's doing in
public.
My God, what is he
doing with his money?
You remember, a couple years back,
he came out and
was begging Mark Zuckerberg to give
him money because he's black.
And he was saying you can't
let a black billionaire go bankrupt
like this or
some insane diatribe like that.
And nobody ever says we should get
a conservatorship for him, right?
So Britney was a young woman when
they put her into
the conservatorship and
they just will not let her out.
And look last thing on this story
is so we talked about how we were
complicit in this culture about
celebrities partly because I think
we're all had this thing that goes
back to the mainstream media of
they're rich, they're
famous will get pound them, right?
>> That's right. >> And by the way,
they have no political power,
they have nothing, they're not
going to affect anything else, etc.
So it's an easy way for so
called journalists to look tough by
going after Britney Spears.
I always remember Mike Wallace
just devastating Ricky Williams,
a random NFL player who had done
a little bit of marijuana, etc.
And I remember him being
really like,
he was supposed to be so tough.
But I also watched a whole bunch of
interviews when I respect him.
And I'm like, man, you went really
soft there on the politicians,
businessmen and then Ricky
Williams, he just obliterated, why?
because Ricky Williams has no
power >> Right.
>> Right and Britney had no power
and so we're all guilty of that.
But the last set of people who
are guilty, but in a lot of these
instances and here again the courts
are hiding all of the evidence
is so hard to tell.
Maybe the family has some points
and we just have never ever ever
seen them right but anyways,
is usually the family members and
the friends.
So there's a story of the guy who
started I think Zappos.
And in that case, the family and
friends became enablers, because
once somebody has an obscene amount
of money, the worst kind of people
circle around.
>> Yep. >> Right and so not the
best family members aren't the best
friends but usually the worst.
And so they either enable drug
habits, et cetera, et cetera, or
they find a way to capture in this
case, quite literally
right through the courts, and
they siphon off the money.
And so man,
be careful what you wish for.
Money is a hell of a thing and
it really pollutes so many people.
But if things are as they
appear to be for
God's sake free Britney Spears