The most scandalous photo moment of Britney Spears
In 2008 the paparazzi decided to embark on a journey to prove that Britney Spears wasn't pregnant after rumours had started circulating that she may have been expecting a child.
Back then agencies were making hundreds of thousands of dollars every week just by selling pictures of her to the media and the “juicy” ones (her screaming or hitting someone, upskirts with or without underwear, etc) could reportedly sell for as much as one million dollars.
The paparazzi knew that if they proved she wasn't pregnant they would make a lot of money, and they decided to take action. An action that made Nick Stern, a paparazzo at the time who had been on “Britney duty”, quit after a week.
In an interview with Glamour he explained what a normal day for him during that week was:
You would get to her house early morning at first light, up on Mulholland Drive and invariably there’d already be a large number of photographers already up there.
Then you’d sit there until her white convertible Mercedes appeared and as soon as the first person spotted that car, all hell was let loose. It was a high-speed pursuit along Mulholland, you were driving bumper-to-bumper with the car in front at speeds that were incredibly dangerous. Mulholland is a long, windy clifftop road and you were driving watching the tail lights of the car in front of you. I saw cars tail end each other because they just didn’t stop fast enough.
Britney was not treated as a person. She was treated as a commodity or even a consumable. That she was there to serve a purpose as subject for a supply of pictures.
That picture is an actual picture of her driving by dozens of paparazzi who knew that she was in the middle of a very serious mental breakdown, but they also knew that that's why her pictures were worth so much. Her pain and suffering were getting them paid and kept the public entertained and craving for more, which would pay the paparazzi even more, which would in turn make Britney lose her sense of reality.
During his week working as a paparazzo something happened that made Nick decide that he could no longer be part of what his colleagues were doing to Britney:
At that time, there were rumours that Britney could be pregnant again. And then one of the photographers had got a photograph up Britney's skirt with her bloodstained underwear. And they put the picture out and the caption was, "Britney is not pregnant... Period.” It was then sent around to publications to see if they wanted to buy the picture. And even then, as I am now, I was lost for words when I heard that an agency had actually done that. And a photographer had done that.’
That is (obviously won't show it) in my opinion the most scandalous photo of Britney Spears. Not because of her, but because a photographer and the agency he worked for wanted to sell this picture which was beyond disgusting and inhumane.
Paparazzi are vermin, and they have gotten away with so much. Isn't it time they face consequences for their actions?
