An Open Letter to Britney Spears

Worldnetdaily ^ | 01/10/2004 | Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

[Keyes2000mt]

Dear Britney,

I don't know all that much about you, and the little I do know makes me not like you very much. Please forgive me for not having studied your life in greater detail. That has little to do with my resentment toward you and everything to do with simply being busy with my own existence. I realize that this may unnerve you, that by now you may have become dependent on people like me wanting to read what you ate for breakfast. So I apologize at the outset, both for my judgmentalism, as well as for inadvertently startling you. Although I plan to speak my mind in this letter – and you may consider me highly unfair – I believe it is important that I finally share my thoughts with you.

You and I once met, in the hotel room of Michael Jackson in late 2000 (I was the short one with the frizzy whiskers; Michael was the one with the high-pitched voice and the sunglasses). On that occasion, I barely knew who you were, although I had heard some reports of your striptease at the MTV music awards. When we met, you were all of 19 years old, and you looked it. You were unsure of yourself in front of Michael and your boyfriend, Justin Timberlake – some boyfriend he turned out to be – did most of the talking.

Who would have thought that meeting would have prophetically portended your having become the female Michael Jackson. That three short years later you would have tragically deteriorated into a female celebrity train wreck. A woman famous not for her music or dance, but increasingly for her irresponsible public antics. A performer notorious no longer for her albums, but for the outrageous sexual impact she has on young kids. A celebrity renowned not for public talent, but private desperation, not for virtue, but for being prepared to do almost anything for one more headline (did I say the word almost?).

Perhaps, Britney, this should make me pity rather than dislike you. Not knowing much about your childhood, I am unsure whether you were given the attention you needed as a young girl, and if not, whether this obsession with tawdry publicity is simply a cry to be loved. But pity, sadly, is the last emotion I feel since you have decided to pursue your fame at the expense of something that was once honored as a woman's dignity.

I can hardly turn my head these days without seeing you in a bra or panties on some magazine cover. Now, you can tell me not to look and, to be honest, my subjective dislike for you makes it pretty difficult to find you attractive, even when you strike those artificially sexy poses in your underwear. (That serious, determined stare you seem partial to can look comically incongruous coming from a woman decked out in her skivvies. Try to smile more.)

The problem is that whether or not I look, it is my five young daughters that I am far more concerned for. They see pictures of you and the kind of attention that sleaziness garners. And even though they are being raised in a religious household where modest dress is always mandatory, and attend a girls-only school where they thankfully need not seek popularity with the boys, your seedy image cannot help but negatively influence them. Thus, you are one of the people largely responsible for religiously inclined people like me feeling that our daughters must be increasingly cut off from the popular culture.

We are having to become much more strict with how our daughters dress, what music they listen to, who their friends are – all because we would rather be mauled by Rottweilers than ever allow our daughters to grow up dressing and acting like you. And the increased discipline leads to increased tension between parents and their offspring. It does seem a bit unfair that because you may not have gotten the love and attention you needed from your parents – for which I am truly sorry – you are now serving as a wedge between mothers and daughters.

Isn't there a better way, a healthier way, for you to get the love you crave? Lord knows, your recent 55-hour elopement marriage with a childhood sweetheart – reported even in the New York Times – showed that perhaps what you seek all along is a real relationship with a real person. I would urge you to pursue this. A man who really loves you – and not just your stardom – would provide the necessary balm for your aching heart. Flashing your underwear at a husband would be as appropriate as it is inappropriate to be flashing it at complete strangers.

No doubt you will feel that I am judging you harshly in this letter and that I am not being understanding of how all the racy, saucy stuff – the near naked photo spreads, tongue-kissing Madonna – is a necessary part of your rebellious public persona, something that a non-famous mortal like me could never understand. So let me share with you a story from someone who even you would agree should know something about fame.

A few weeks after your meeting with Michael Jackson, he and I were watching you on TV. You were doing some interview (and though I don't remember exactly what you said, I do remember that you were partial to the word "like").

Michael turned to me and said, "In a few years, this girl is gone from the public eye. Nobody's gonna care about her. She is all over the place. There is no mystery. I would never do what she does. I hold myself back."

Michael, of course, was only half right. He predicted, correctly, that a few years down the road your fame as a performer would already be on the wane. But what he did not see – what he could not see because he is blind to it even in his own life – is that it would be eclipsed by the notoriety of being a rash ruin, an unfortunate young woman, her self-respect in tatters, becoming more prominent as she becomes more misshapen.

And here is where, amid everything I articulated above, you do truly elicit my sympathy. Because I can only imagine how painful it must be – amid your obvious talent – to be famous for being one step above porn star.

My old friend Michael Jackson should be a lesson to you. At heart he is a decent man, a kind-hearted and humble spirit. But what destroyed him – and what is destroying you – is being bereft of a normal life, the sting of which is compensated for by the soothing warmth of the spotlight.

I close by asking you to forgive me for being so harsh while I urge you to please get your life together. Not for me (I assume by now that I'm not exactly your most favorite person) or even for the young women of the world. But for yourself, so that you can finally discover the happiness that has been denied you.

[Gerasimov]

He lost me completely here ...

My old friend Michael Jackson should be a lesson to you

No matter what the good Rabbi might say, she does look good in her underwear.

[Robert_Paulson2]

The rabbi is turned off by a drop dead gorgeous and extrremely attractive american born and bred female but offers seeming admiration for the opinions of a (more than alleged) child molester and pervert? Who probably wears his own silk panties and bra to bed with little boys... just wait folks, pictures at ten... one of these nights.

how appropriate. Perhaps his five little girls will grow up to emulate the very twisted same sex, lust for minors of their own gender that his beloved michael seems to emulate.

puke.

Perhaps the good rabbi ought to encourage heterosexual, non-minor/adult relationships with members of the opposite sex, instead of quoting michael jackson in a critique of Brittanies rather tight and appropriately cute short shorts.

She is after all,NOT the first hollywood-hyped-american-beauty-starlet to go through a whirlwind "36 hour later" anulment, or slip into her skivvies more than religionists can abide, for a magazine cover or centerfold. There is something all american about brittany, but many of us have come to believe michael is a very very dark pervert. Interesting that this rabbi, seemingly admires michael. and rather concerning.

[GreatOne]

When she first came on the scene, with her talk of being a virgin and wanting to stay that way until marriage, I was hoping she'd be a secular Rebecca St. James. Maybe even be pro-life. It's obvious that she's come from a troublesome family background (parents divorced, with her saying it should have been done years ago), and her mom pimping her out to the American masses. Can any decent mother stand by and allow their daughter to dress like that? Yeah, she's an "adult" (allegedly), but mom is part of her management team.

When she's 50 pounds heavier and a punch line like Vanilla Ice 10 years from now, hope those millions were worth it.

[Johnny_Cipher]

When she's 50 pounds heavier and a punch line like Vanilla Ice 10 years from now, hope those millions were worth it.

I'll take those millions, thanks. (I've already got the 50 pounds heavier part done).

[WackyKat]

I was hoping she'd be a secular Rebecca St. James.

What about a secular Amy Grant? Or Sandy Patty?

Oh wait... they were hypocrites weren't they?

Give me an honest, sexy girl any day

[uglybiker]

Tell her ya loved the bit with the snake. Didn't we all?

She was overdressed.

[GreatOne]

Sandy Patty? Oh, she pulled an Amy Grant, right? (That's divorcing your husband for someone else)

[judgeandjury]

Dear Britney,
If you read the whacko's letter there is a chance you may read mine. I admire the way you take chances and the way you show your audacity. Don't let these small minded, judgemental freaks put you off. Your success is commendable, and I'm sure it will continue. Don't worry about making anyone happy, except yourself and your fans.

Sincerely,
An old, fat, bald guy

Barf!

[judgeandjury]

The rabbi is turned off by a drop dead gorgeous and extrremely attractive american born and bred female but offers seeming admiration for the opinions of a (more than alleged) child molester and pervert?

Drop dead gorgeous? You've got to be kidding! Britney isn't that great looking. On a scale of 1-10, I'd give her a 7, and that's being a bit generous on my part.

[Begin]

Well said, Rabbi. Well said.

[Robert_Paulson2]

So we can safely assume that Michael is your kind of "ten" too eh?
You and the rabbi, must be buddies?
ROFL...

[ETERNAL WARMING]

Tell it like it is, Rabbi!

[PGalt]

New B.S. same as the old B.S. Repackaged B.S. B.S. = B.S.

[L.N. Smithee]

Michael turned to me and said, "In a few years, this girl is gone from the public eye. Nobody's gonna care about her...

Michael, of course, was only half right.

Yeah. He forgot the part about how even though she would slowly slide from the scene, her latest CD would nonetheless kick the spit out of his greatest hits collection on the Billboard Top 200.

[Agnes Heep]

Drop dead gorgeous? You've got to be kidding!

To my mind "drop dead gorgeous" implies the usual female charms allied with a special aura comprised of love, modesty, grace and personal integrity. These are qualities not usually seen in your average whore.

[Thinkin' Gal]

A ping for you!

[DonQ]

I have the nagging feeling that this rabbi has, himself, descended to self-promoting and celebrity-chasing. It is a very very old Jewish rule that rebukes are given privately, not as public scoldings.

[itsinthebag]

The rabbi is turned off by a drop dead gorgeous and extrremely attractive american born and bred female but offers seeming admiration for the opinions of a (more than alleged) child molester and pervert?

Not everyone agrees with your standard of beauty. Blonde and blue-eyed is not beauty to a lot of folks.

[MitchellC]

Seems like the good Rabbi was so dazzled by Ms Spears that he was (and remains) blind to the real EVIL in that hotel room.

That's a pretty harsh thing to say about Justin Timberlake... 8)