The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 15 September 2001
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In her one and only Australian press interview, pop diva Britney Spears tells The Daily Telegraph's DINO SCATENA that it's OK to be young, sexy and in lurve... IF Britney can't go to Brazil, let's bring Brazil to Britney. This is one of the contingency plans that was being discussed over the past few days: cancelling Britney Spears' promotional visit to Rio De Janeiro and, instead, flying all the South American media over here to Sydney. Just like that. Such is the scale of Britney Inc, the business that surrounds the world's biggest young pop starlet. Spears' visit to Australia this week, the first stop in a whirlwind promotional world tour to launch her new album, simply entitled Britney, saw her drag along an entourage of 20 people from the US. There's a hair and make-up person, two wardrobe people, three burly security guys, four dancers, production people, record company people and sponsors. Oh, and a musician. The Sydney visit also covers the rest of Asia, so 85 media reps have been flown in from around the region. Everyone is given a show bag, which contains the book she's co-written with her mother Lynne (called A Mother's Gift), a glossy pamphlet outlining the 19-year-old's achievements thus far (37 million albums sold, Grammy nominations, countless Billboard and MTV awards, her face on the cover of every magazine imaginable), and a personal, plastic Barbie-styled Britney Spears doll. While Spears' scheduled press conference on Thursday was cancelled following this week's tragedy in America, the rest of the press corps has to make do with mini-press conferences -- 15 journalists at a time for 15-minute slots. Except your beloved Daily Telegraph, of course. We get Spears one-on-one, and we're pleasantly surprised to find she's nowhere near as plastic as the doll in the show bag. Obviously somewhat drained and bored following two straight days of talking to the media, she's still articulate, candid and funny. And unlike every other singer who comes through town, there's no briefing session before the interview takes place about what subjects not to broach. Which means we can talk to her about anything. We do and she obliges with polite responses to everything. Like, out of all the boys in the world she could choose to make hers, why Justin Timberlake from fellow teen idol outfit 'N Sync? ``Just because he's everything to me,'' Spears says. ``I don't know what it is. Words can't describe it. You just get a feeling when you're in love with somebody that you just can't describe.'' Since breaking on to the world scene in 1998 as a 16-year-old with her debut hit Baby ... One More Time, the virgin starlet has been accused of projecting an overly sexual image for her age. Not fair, says Spears. ``Honestly, with Baby ... One More Time, it wasn't something like, `I'm going to try to be sexy'. I wasn't like that at all. I just tied my shirt up and I was dancing and I guess it maybe gave that vibe off from that.'' Spears says she's fairly hands-on across the spectrum of Britney Inc. At least the stuff she can be bothered with, anyway. ``At the end of day, if that's going to bring a smile to everybody's faces -- the Barbie dolls and things like that -- that's really, really cool. ``I'm definitely hands-on with every business aspect that I do.'' Spears and her entourage were scheduled to fly out of Sydney today, on their way to Madrid for the European leg of the promo tour. But all those plans are now up in the air. ``At this time right now, I feel really kind of awkward talking about my album when so many lives were lost at home,'' she offers sombrely. ``And I do wish I was with my family.''
