We are always rooting for Britney Spears. We know that right now, as of this column, her personal life has hit a bit of a rough patch, and the messages coming through to the public are mixed, so it’s tough to know what’s really happening. But we live in hope that all will be well. In the meantime, her professional life keeps looking up. There’s the upcoming stage musical built around her hits, called Once Upon a One More Time to be directed by Kristin Hanggi (Rock of Ages, which seems appropriate) with a book by Jon Hartmere, coming to Broadway in 2020. And news just broke that Sony just bid up the film rights, a movie that Spears will produce with her manager, Larry Rudolph, as well as John Davis. And the plot is fascinating, too, concerning four fairy-tale princesses who read Betty Friedan’s pioneering second-wave feminist book, The Feminine Mystique. And no, we’re not making that up, and yes, it does sound more radical than Mamma Mia’s which-one-of-you-old-guys-is-my-father nonsense. So go Britney! We’re ready for anything and everything.
You have to hand it to Lee Daniels, he knows how to keep the conversation going and how to steer it in his own direction. Recently, at the Time 100 Summit, he breezed right past Van Jones’ questions about Empire and Jussie Smollett in order to dish about his own past using money from drug sales to take his career to the next level, and then to hype up the project called Superbitch. Based on a real-life Instagram personality of the same name, a cape-wearing queen who does backflips (meanwhile every Drag Race contestant is thinking, “Oh yeah?”), Daniels will produce the film but not direct. And the star? Will it be Superbitch herself? Or an actor with superbitchy qualities? It’s unknown at this time, and Daniels isn’t ready with more details, but you know it’ll be wild when it hits. Casting tip to drive the media wild: put Jussie in it.
Romeo San Vicente will always love Britney Spears!
