‘Controlling Britney Spears’: FX & Hulu Premiere Follow-Up Documentary From NY Times Tonight

Erik Pedersen
·2 min read

As the widely watched Britney Spears conservator case plays out, another documentary about the legal battle and its fallout launches tonight. FX and Hulu will premiere Controlling Britney Spears, a follow-up film from the team behind the Emmy-nominated Framing Britney Spears.

Part of The New York Times Presents series, Controlling Britney Spears bows at 10 p.m. ET on the cable net and the streamer. It arrives four days before Netflix’s docu Britney vs. Spears.

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Directed by Samantha Stark and Produced by Liz Day, Controlling Britney Spears promises bombshell allegations from whistleblowers who were among those with intimate knowledge of the singer’s daily life inside the conservatorship.

In a confidential report obtained by The Times, Spears told a court investigator in 2016 that her conservatorship had become “an oppressive and controlling tool against her.” As the investigative docu plays out, a portrait emerges of an intense surveillance apparatus that monitored every move she made.

“When Britney spoke publicly about her conservatorship in detail for the first time during a court hearing in June, she said a reason she hadn’t spoken up earlier is she didn’t think people would believe her,” Stark said. “She said she felt abused under the conservatorship and questioned whether the judge thought she was lying. Britney’s speech motivated the people in this film to seek us out to share their stories — at great risk to themselves — because they felt compelled to back up what Britney was saying with evidence they had or moments they witnessed.”

The New York Times Presents is produced by The New York Times and Left/Right, a Red Arrow Studios company. Executive producers are Ken Druckerman, Banks Tarver, showrunner Mary Robertson, Jason Stallman, Sam Dolnick and Stephanie Preiss.

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