What happened
Britney Spears’s mother is writing a book on parenting. Lynne Spears has signed a deal with Christian book publisher Thomas Nelson Inc. to co-write Pop Culture Mom: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World with author Lorilee Craker. The memoir is scheduled to come out on Mother’s Day 2008.
What the commentators said
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What a great idea, said Stuart Heritage in the blog HecklerSpray.com, a “how-to manual for anyone who wants to raise their kids to be just like Britney Spears.” But maybe that’s not fair—Lynne Spears obviously cares deeply for her daughter. “It’s a strange love that involves hoiking young Britney Spears around all kinds of talent agencies when she should have been enjoying her childhood, encouraging her to dress as a fetishised schoolgirl” during her teenage years, and then “selling” Britney’s “secrets to magazines as soon as things started going south.”
The sad thing is, said Karen Brooks in News.com.au, with all the trouble Britney’s had lately, her mom’s book is “guaranteed in this consumer-eat-celebrity-culture to be a bestseller.” Lynne Spears ought to be ashamed of herself. “Desperate for the attention her daughter has received in buckets,” she seems ready to “sacrifice not only Britters but 16-year-old Jamie Lynn” and “older brother, Bryan, on the altar of celebrity narcissism.”
It’s strange, said iVillage.com’s blog Daily Blabber, because things looked like they were improving between Britney and her mom. They “seemed to make progress in their strained relationship, when Lynne hopped on a plane to be with her little girl when all the custody madness ensued.” If Lynne Spears really wants to gain some credibility as a responsible parent, she should put down her pen and try to “help her extremely troubled daughter get her life together.”
