Latest news with #TheMickeyMouseClub
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Waiting for Britney Spears': 5 shocking (allegedly true) stories from a former tabloid writer
In his new book, "Waiting for Britney Spears: A True Story, Allegedly" — a mix of fact and fiction — music writer and L.A. native Jeff Weiss brings us back to the last gasp of the celebrity gossip-mongering machine of the early aughts. It was the prelapsarian age of the dumb phone, when we weren't all taking photos of everything all the time and paparazzi were commanding six figures for shots of Angelina Jolie's baby bump. Fresh out of college and dreaming of Pulitzer glory, Weiss instead takes a job with Star magazine — called Nova in the book — to pay his rent and winds up being present during ugly episodes of the celebrity stalking era: Britney Spears' meteoric rise and career lows in the early 2000s, a few years before her personal and business affairs were placed under a court-ordered conservatorship controlled by her father, Jamie. Weiss bears witness to this particularly gruesome episode with clenched teeth, filing dispatches for rent money alongside photographer Mel Bouzad (referred to as Oliver Bournemouth in the book), who acts as his Virgil, smoothing the writer's way through Hollywood's red velvet ropes. Weiss in short order is engulfed by Spears' world until it becomes his organizing principle. The writer becomes an unrepentant co-conspirator in the plot to knock down Spears, one breaking news item at a time. "We wanted more and more, until she had no energy left to resist and no place left to hide," writes Weiss. Here are some of the most shocking stories from the book. Read more: Britney Spears' highs and lows — a timeline from 'The Mickey Mouse Club' to her tell-all memoir As a cub reporter in 2004, Weiss gets a hot tip about Spears' wedding to Kevin Federline at the Studio City home of a Spears confidant. Accompanied by Bouzad, Weiss scouts a neighboring house and pays off its owner in order to witness the nuptials next door. 'An hour before the ceremony, the bridegroom swaggers in in his white undershirt,' Weiss writes. 'The groomsmen look like lost members of 98 Degrees, wearing squiggly goatees and gummy-worm braids.' After the reception, where Federline 'removes [Britney's] garter belt with his teeth,' the wedding party packs into black SUVs wearing monogrammed Juicy Couture sweatsuits: 'Britney's announces Mrs. Federline. His just reads, Hers.' Weiss' Britney beat is temporarily placed on hold so he can dig up information on Ben Affleck's budding relationship with actor Jennifer Garner. In search of the duo, Weiss drives to Affleck's Brentwood house. He's in luck: Affleck materializes and hops into his car, prompting Weiss to tail him. 'My wobbling, elephantine car is no match for his agile V12 Mercedes, but I somehow keep up,' he writes. But Affleck is onto Weiss and swerves across lanes of traffic along the 101 en route to the San Fernando Valley. Weiss is nearly side-swiped by a Range Rover, 'and suddenly, it's over. [Affleck's] car heads into the parking lot of Bob's Big Boy.' When the visibly shaken driver emerges from the Mercedes, it turns out to be Affleck's brother, Casey. On assignment for People magazine in 2005, Weiss attempts to sneak onto Brad Pitt's beachfront compound in Santa Barbara, hoping to grab some tasty morsels about the megastar's new relationship with Jolie. He has been tasked, alongside a two-paparazzi team, with monitoring Jolie's son's fourth birthday party. 'I'm on the verge of breaking open one of the decade's biggest stories,' he writes. 'For the last six months, you haven't been able to buy a Snickers at the supermarket without missing the all-caps headlines' about the love triangle between Pitt, Jolie and Jennifer Aniston. No sooner does Weiss climb a bluff and whip out his binoculars than he is surrounded by 'four goons' with Glocks tucked into their shorts. He is harassed and finally released, but not before Pitt appears. 'He shakes his head slowly, confidently, letting me know that I've lost.' The next day, Weiss himself becomes a tabloid story: In the U.K., the Daily Mail headline reads, "People Paparazzo Popped Trying to Snake Pitt." Weiss has his first 15 seconds of infamy. Read more: Britney Spears' 13-year conservatorship is done. Here's how we got here In 2007, Weiss and Bouzad chase Spears — recently divorced from Federline — to a nondescript hair salon in Tarzana. 'Shielded by her security, Britney scurries in like a frightened deer,' Weiss writes. From an open window, Weiss hears Spears tell the hairdresser, 'I want you to buzz my hair off.' When she refuses, Spears grabs the trimmer and clicks it on: 'The extensions are hacked into lifeless scraps … the stray hairs curl on the floor like writhing snakes.' Hours later, Spears' hair is auctioned on eBay. 'The bidding reaches $1 million before the online auction house removes the listing. The authenticity of the hair cannot be verified.' In her own memoir, 'The Woman in Me,' Spears explained the reason for the bold act. 'Shaving my head and acting out were my ways of pushing back,' Spears wrote. That same year, Spears attempts a musical comeback with a new album and series of one-off performances. Weiss nabs an exclusive interview with the pop star at a rented mansion in the Hollywood Hills. It doesn't go as planned. A disoriented and agitated Spears shows up late, rejects the pre-selected wardrobe choices for the photo shoot and locks herself in the bathroom. Finally, Weiss' moment arrives. Over lunch, 'Britney shrugs and summons me like she has something to confess.' Weiss is about to get his first face-to-face with Spears, but it's a false alarm: She thinks Weiss is a production assistant. 'She hands me her empty plate filled with bones and fat to throw away.' Get the latest book news, events and more in your inbox every Saturday. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Waiting for Britney Spears': 5 shocking (allegedly true) stories from a former tabloid writer
In his new book, "Waiting for Britney Spears: A True Story, Allegedly" — a mix of fact and fiction — music writer and L.A. native Jeff Weiss brings us back to the last gasp of the celebrity gossip-mongering machine of the early aughts. It was the prelapsarian age of the dumb phone, when we weren't all taking photos of everything all the time and paparazzi were commanding six figures for shots of Angelina Jolie's baby bump. Fresh out of college and dreaming of Pulitzer glory, Weiss instead takes a job with Star magazine — called Nova in the book — to pay his rent and winds up being present during ugly episodes of the celebrity stalking era: Britney Spears' meteoric rise and career lows in the early 2000s, a few years before her personal and business affairs were placed under a court-ordered conservatorship controlled by her father, Jamie. Weiss bears witness to this particularly gruesome episode with clenched teeth, filing dispatches for rent money alongside photographer Mel Bouzad (referred to as Oliver Bournemouth in the book), who acts as his Virgil, smoothing the writer's way through Hollywood's red velvet ropes. Weiss in short order is engulfed by Spears' world until it becomes his organizing principle. The writer becomes an unrepentant co-conspirator in the plot to knock down Spears, one breaking news item at a time. "We wanted more and more, until she had no energy left to resist and no place left to hide," writes Weiss. Here are some of the most shocking stories from the book. Read more: Britney Spears' highs and lows — a timeline from 'The Mickey Mouse Club' to her tell-all memoir As a cub reporter in 2004, Weiss gets a hot tip about Spears' wedding to Kevin Federline at the Studio City home of a Spears confidant. Accompanied by Bouzad, Weiss scouts a neighboring house and pays off its owner in order to witness the nuptials next door. 'An hour before the ceremony, the bridegroom swaggers in in his white undershirt,' Weiss writes. 'The groomsmen look like lost members of 98 Degrees, wearing squiggly goatees and gummy-worm braids.' After the reception, where Federline 'removes [Britney's] garter belt with his teeth,' the wedding party packs into black SUVs wearing monogrammed Juicy Couture sweatsuits: 'Britney's announces Mrs. Federline. His just reads, Hers.' Weiss' Britney beat is temporarily placed on hold so he can dig up information on Ben Affleck's budding relationship with actor Jennifer Garner. In search of the duo, Weiss drives to Affleck's Brentwood house. He's in luck: Affleck materializes and hops into his car, prompting Weiss to tail him. 'My wobbling, elephantine car is no match for his agile V12 Mercedes, but I somehow keep up,' he writes. But Affleck is onto Weiss and swerves across lanes of traffic along the 101 en route to the San Fernando Valley. Weiss is nearly side-swiped by a Range Rover, 'and suddenly, it's over. [Affleck's] car heads into the parking lot of Bob's Big Boy.' When the visibly shaken driver emerges from the Mercedes, it turns out to be Affleck's brother, Casey. On assignment for People magazine in 2005, Weiss attempts to sneak onto Brad Pitt's beachfront compound in Santa Barbara, hoping to grab some tasty morsels about the megastar's new relationship with Jolie. He has been tasked, alongside a two-paparazzi team, with monitoring Jolie's son's fourth birthday party. 'I'm on the verge of breaking open one of the decade's biggest stories,' he writes. 'For the last six months, you haven't been able to buy a Snickers at the supermarket without missing the all-caps headlines' about the love triangle between Pitt, Jolie and Jennifer Aniston. No sooner does Weiss climb a bluff and whip out his binoculars than he is surrounded by 'four goons' with Glocks tucked into their shorts. He is harassed and finally released, but not before Pitt appears. 'He shakes his head slowly, confidently, letting me know that I've lost.' The next day, Weiss himself becomes a tabloid story: In the U.K., the Daily Mail headline reads, "People Paparazzo Popped Trying to Snake Pitt." Weiss has his first 15 seconds of infamy. Read more: Britney Spears' 13-year conservatorship is done. Here's how we got here In 2007, Weiss and Bouzad chase Spears — recently divorced from Federline — to a nondescript hair salon in Tarzana. 'Shielded by her security, Britney scurries in like a frightened deer,' Weiss writes. From an open window, Weiss hears Spears tell the hairdresser, 'I want you to buzz my hair off.' When she refuses, Spears grabs the trimmer and clicks it on: 'The extensions are hacked into lifeless scraps … the stray hairs curl on the floor like writhing snakes.' Hours later, Spears' hair is auctioned on eBay. 'The bidding reaches $1 million before the online auction house removes the listing. The authenticity of the hair cannot be verified.' In her own memoir, 'The Woman in Me,' Spears explained the reason for the bold act. 'Shaving my head and acting out were my ways of pushing back,' Spears wrote. That same year, Spears attempts a musical comeback with a new album and series of one-off performances. Weiss nabs an exclusive interview with the pop star at a rented mansion in the Hollywood Hills. It doesn't go as planned. A disoriented and agitated Spears shows up late, rejects the pre-selected wardrobe choices for the photo shoot and locks herself in the bathroom. Finally, Weiss' moment arrives. Over lunch, 'Britney shrugs and summons me like she has something to confess.' Weiss is about to get his first face-to-face with Spears, but it's a false alarm: She thinks Weiss is a production assistant. 'She hands me her empty plate filled with bones and fat to throw away.' Get the latest book news, events and more in your inbox every Saturday. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Movie Review: 'Pee-wee as Himself' unmasks Paul Reubens
Some bio documentaries are carried mostly by the reflective, archival footage that send you back to the subject's heyday. But in Matt Wolf's 'Pee-wee as Himself' — as wonderful as much of the archival stuff is — nothing is more compelling than when Paul Reubens is simply himself. Before his death from cancer in 2023, Reubens sat for 40 hours of interviews with Wolf. His cooperation is clearly uncertain and sometimes strained in the film — he stopped participating for a year before talking about his infamous 2001 arrest — and his doubts on the project linger throughout. Reubens would rather be directing it, himself, he says more than once. The man many know as Pee-wee Herman is used to controlling his own image, and he has good reason for being skeptical of others doing so. But beyond that tension over authorship of his story, Reubens is also delightfully resistant to playing the part of documentary cliche. 'I was born in 1938 in a little house on the edge of the Mississippi River,' he begins. 'My father worked on a steamboat.' Talking heads have gotten a bad rap in documentaries in recent years, but in 'Pee-wee as Himself,' nothing is more compelling than Paul Reubens simply sitting before the camera, looking back at us. Pee-wee may be iconic, but Paul Reubens is hysterical. And Wolf's film, with that winking title, makes for a revealing portrait of a performer who so often put persona in front of personhood. In that way, 'Pee-wee as Himself,' a two-part documentary premiering Friday on HBO and HBO Max, is moving as the posthumous unmasking of a man you can't help but wish we had known better. Reubens was a product of TV. He grew up transformed by shows like 'Howdy Doody,' 'The Mickey Mouse Club' and, later, 'I Love Lucy.' 'I wanted to jump into my TV and live in that world,' he says. Part of the delight of the first half of Wolf's film is watching the wide range of inspirations — the circus culture of Sarasota, Florida, where his family moved to; Andy Warhol; performance art — coalesce into a singular creation like Pee-wee. That name, he says, came from a tiny harmonica that said 'Pee-wee' on it, and a kid named Herman he knew growing up. 'It was a whole bunch of things that had never really connected connecting,' says Reubens. Wolf carefully traces the birth of Reubens' alter-ego through the Groundlings in Los Angeles, on stage at the Roxy and then out into the world, on 'The Gong Show,' on Letterman, in the 1985 Tim Burton-directed 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' and, ultimately, on 'Pee-wee's Playhouse.' 'I felt in a way I was bringing the character out into the wild,' he recalls. 'I just stayed in character all day.' That came with obvious sacrifices, too. For the sake of his career, Reubens stayed closeted as a gay man. He grew intensely private and seldom appeared in public not in character. Reubens also jettisoned some of his close collaborators, like Phil Hartman, as his fame grew. There's tragedy, both self-inflicted and not, in Reubens' increasing isolation. When Reubens was arrested in 1991 and charged with indecent exposure, Reubens' carefully guarded persona came crashing down. The scandal was worse because people knew only Pee-wee and not Reubens. There was also injustice in the whole affair, particularly the 2002 arrest that followed on charges of child pornography that were later dropped. In both cases, homophobia played a role. When Reubens does get around to talking about it, he's most resistant to painting himself as a victim, or offering any, as he says, 'tears of a clown.' Wolf, the director of films like 'Recorder,' about Marion Stokes, who recorded television all day long for 30 years, and 'Spaceship Earth,' about the quirky 1991 Biosphere 2 experiment, is better known as a talented documentarian of visual archives than as an compelling interviewer of celebrities. 'Pee-wee as Himself' would have probably benefited from less one-sided interplay between subject and filmmaker. But Wolf's time was also limited with Reubens and just getting this much from him is clearly an accomplishment. Above all, Reubens says he's doing the film to clear a few things up. In the end, the full portrait of Reubens — including all his playful, self-deprecating charm in front of the camera — add up to a much-needed retort to some of the misunderstandings about Reubens. The day before he died, Reubens called Wolf to say one last thing: 'I wanted to let people know who I really was and see how painful it was to be labeled as something I wasn't.' "Pee-wee as Himself,' a Warner Bros. release is unrated by the Motion Picture Association. Running time: 205 minutes. Three stars out of four.
Hamilton Spectator
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Movie Review: ‘Pee-wee as Himself' unmasks Paul Reubens
Some bio documentaries are carried mostly by the reflective, archival footage that send you back to the subject's heyday. But in Matt Wolf's 'Pee-wee as Himself' — as wonderful as much of the archival stuff is — nothing is more compelling than when Paul Reubens is simply himself. Before his death from cancer in 2023, Reubens sat for 40 hours of interviews with Wolf. His cooperation is clearly uncertain and sometimes strained in the film — he stopped participating for a year before talking about his infamous 2001 arrest — and his doubts on the project linger throughout. Reubens would rather be directing it, himself, he says more than once. The man many know as Pee-wee Herman is used to controlling his own image, and he has good reason for being skeptical of others doing so. But beyond that tension over authorship of his story, Reubens is also delightfully resistant to playing the part of documentary cliche. 'I was born in 1938 in a little house on the edge of the Mississippi River,' he begins. 'My father worked on a steamboat.' Talking heads have gotten a bad rap in documentaries in recent years, but in 'Pee-wee as Himself,' nothing is more compelling than Paul Reubens simply sitting before the camera, looking back at us. Pee-wee may be iconic, but Paul Reubens is hysterical. And Wolf's film, with that winking title, makes for a revealing portrait of a performer who so often put persona in front of personhood. In that way, 'Pee-wee as Himself,' a two-part documentary premiering Friday on HBO and HBO Max, is moving as the posthumous unmasking of a man you can't help but wish we had known better. Reubens was a product of TV. He grew up transformed by shows like 'Howdy Doody,' 'The Mickey Mouse Club' and, later, 'I Love Lucy.' 'I wanted to jump into my TV and live in that world,' he says. Part of the delight of the first half of Wolf's film is watching the wide range of inspirations — the circus culture of Sarasota, Florida, where his family moved to; Andy Warhol; performance art — coalesce into a singular creation like Pee-wee. That name, he says, came from a tiny harmonica that said 'Pee-wee' on it, and a kid named Herman he knew growing up. 'It was a whole bunch of things that had never really connected connecting,' says Reubens. Wolf carefully traces the birth of Reubens' alter-ego through the Groundlings in Los Angeles, on stage at the Roxy and then out into the world, on 'The Gong Show,' on Letterman, in the 1985 Tim Burton-directed 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' and, ultimately, on 'Pee-wee's Playhouse.' 'I felt in a way I was bringing the character out into the wild,' he recalls. 'I just stayed in character all day.' That came with obvious sacrifices, too. For the sake of his career, Reubens stayed closeted as a gay man. He grew intensely private and seldom appeared in public not in character. Reubens also jettisoned some of his close collaborators, like Phil Hartman, as his fame grew. There's tragedy, both self-inflicted and not, in Reubens' increasing isolation. When Reubens was arrested in 1991 and charged with indecent exposure, Reubens' carefully guarded persona came crashing down. The scandal was worse because people knew only Pee-wee and not Reubens. There was also injustice in the whole affair, particularly the 2002 arrest that followed on charges of child pornography that were later dropped. In both cases, homophobia played a role. When Reubens does get around to talking about it, he's most resistant to painting himself as a victim, or offering any, as he says, 'tears of a clown.' Wolf, the director of films like 'Recorder,' about Marion Stokes, who recorded television all day long for 30 years, and 'Spaceship Earth,' about the quirky 1991 Biosphere 2 experiment, is better known as a talented documentarian of visual archives than as an compelling interviewer of celebrities. 'Pee-wee as Himself' would have probably benefited from less one-sided interplay between subject and filmmaker. But Wolf's time was also limited with Reubens and just getting this much from him is clearly an accomplishment. Above all, Reubens says he's doing the film to clear a few things up. In the end, the full portrait of Reubens — including all his playful, self-deprecating charm in front of the camera — add up to a much-needed retort to some of the misunderstandings about Reubens. The day before he died, Reubens called Wolf to say one last thing: 'I wanted to let people know who I really was and see how painful it was to be labeled as something I wasn't.' 'Pee-wee as Himself,' a Warner Bros. release is unrated by the Motion Picture Association. Running time: 205 minutes. Three stars out of four.
Winnipeg Free Press
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Movie Review: ‘Pee-wee as Himself' unmasks Paul Reubens
Some bio documentaries are carried mostly by the reflective, archival footage that send you back to the subject's heyday. But in Matt Wolf's 'Pee-wee as Himself' — as wonderful as much of the archival stuff is — nothing is more compelling than when Paul Reubens is simply himself. Before his death from cancer in 2023, Reubens sat for 40 hours of interviews with Wolf. His cooperation is clearly uncertain and sometimes strained in the film — he stopped participating for a year before talking about his infamous 2001 arrest — and his doubts on the project linger throughout. Reubens would rather be directing it, himself, he says more than once. The man many know as Pee-wee Herman is used to controlling his own image, and he has good reason for being skeptical of others doing so. But beyond that tension over authorship of his story, Reubens is also delightfully resistant to playing the part of documentary cliche. 'I was born in 1938 in a little house on the edge of the Mississippi River,' he begins. 'My father worked on a steamboat.' Talking heads have gotten a bad rap in documentaries in recent years, but in 'Pee-wee as Himself,' nothing is more compelling than Paul Reubens simply sitting before the camera, looking back at us. Pee-wee may be iconic, but Paul Reubens is hysterical. And Wolf's film, with that winking title, makes for a revealing portrait of a performer who so often put persona in front of personhood. In that way, 'Pee-wee as Himself,' a two-part documentary premiering Friday on HBO and HBO Max, is moving as the posthumous unmasking of a man you can't help but wish we had known better. Reubens was a product of TV. He grew up transformed by shows like 'Howdy Doody,' 'The Mickey Mouse Club' and, later, 'I Love Lucy.' 'I wanted to jump into my TV and live in that world,' he says. Part of the delight of the first half of Wolf's film is watching the wide range of inspirations — the circus culture of Sarasota, Florida, where his family moved to; Andy Warhol; performance art — coalesce into a singular creation like Pee-wee. That name, he says, came from a tiny harmonica that said 'Pee-wee' on it, and a kid named Herman he knew growing up. 'It was a whole bunch of things that had never really connected connecting,' says Reubens. Wolf carefully traces the birth of Reubens' alter-ego through the Groundlings in Los Angeles, on stage at the Roxy and then out into the world, on 'The Gong Show,' on Letterman, in the 1985 Tim Burton-directed 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' and, ultimately, on 'Pee-wee's Playhouse.' 'I felt in a way I was bringing the character out into the wild,' he recalls. 'I just stayed in character all day.' That came with obvious sacrifices, too. For the sake of his career, Reubens stayed closeted as a gay man. He grew intensely private and seldom appeared in public not in character. Reubens also jettisoned some of his close collaborators, like Phil Hartman, as his fame grew. There's tragedy, both self-inflicted and not, in Reubens' increasing isolation. When Reubens was arrested in 1991 and charged with indecent exposure, Reubens' carefully guarded persona came crashing down. The scandal was worse because people knew only Pee-wee and not Reubens. There was also injustice in the whole affair, particularly the 2002 arrest that followed on charges of child pornography that were later dropped. In both cases, homophobia played a role. When Reubens does get around to talking about it, he's most resistant to painting himself as a victim, or offering any, as he says, 'tears of a clown.' Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. Wolf, the director of films like 'Recorder,' about Marion Stokes, who recorded television all day long for 30 years, and 'Spaceship Earth,' about the quirky 1991 Biosphere 2 experiment, is better known as a talented documentarian of visual archives than as an compelling interviewer of celebrities. 'Pee-wee as Himself' would have probably benefited from less one-sided interplay between subject and filmmaker. But Wolf's time was also limited with Reubens and just getting this much from him is clearly an accomplishment. Above all, Reubens says he's doing the film to clear a few things up. In the end, the full portrait of Reubens — including all his playful, self-deprecating charm in front of the camera — add up to a much-needed retort to some of the misunderstandings about Reubens. The day before he died, Reubens called Wolf to say one last thing: 'I wanted to let people know who I really was and see how painful it was to be labeled as something I wasn't.' 'Pee-wee as Himself,' a Warner Bros. release is unrated by the Motion Picture Association. Running time: 205 minutes. Three stars out of four.
