"She was absolutely lovely, and she worked incredibly hard. I was very impressed by her work ethic," Dick tells PEOPLE about 16-year-old Spears

Nigel Dick directed Britney Spears' music video for "Baby One More Time"
"Who better to tell me what other 16-year-old girls are going to want to see in their video than a 16-year-old girl?" he tells PEOPLE
Of Spears' current situation, Dick says, "I am hurt about what's happened in Britney’s world"
It was the music video watched 'round the world.

In 1998, an upcoming 16-year-old Britney Spears was set to release her debut single “Baby One More Time” and needed a music video to accompany it. With the help of director Nigel Dick, the music video remains her most-viewed solo video, 25 years later.

How does one of the world’s most iconic music videos come to be? Says Dick, 71, “The magic ingredient is a hit record.”

The English director is known for making some of the most influential videos in music history — “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses, Cher’s “Believe” and the 1995 Oasis hit “Wonderwall” — and believes that it’s the music itself that makes the video. “If you make a video for a song, which goes nowhere, nobody notices,” he tells PEOPLE.

It was the music that led Dick to direct a video for a relatively unknown teenage Spears, now 42, despite discouragement from others.

“I had done a few videos for [her label] Jive Records and they sent me the track and I thought, ‘This is a great record,' " Dick recalls. “And I was actually advised not to consider doing it because it was an unknown 16-year-old girl. But I said, ‘Look, it’s a great song. This is a hit.' ”

Trusting his gut, Dick pitched an idea for the music video — and was immediately shot down.

“The rep at the label said, ‘Look, we don’t like your idea, but Britney has a great idea so why don’t you have a phone call with her?’ And I put the phone down and I’m like, ‘Oh this is f---ing great. I’m now going to be told how to make a video by a 16-year-old girl,' " he recalls.

After a “moment of clarity,” Dick realized, “ 'Who better to tell me what other 16-year-old girls are going to want to see in their video than a 16-year-old girl?' ” The idea from Spears was simple: “We had a phone call and she just said, ‘I want to be dancing in a school with cute boys.’ And I’m like, ‘... and that’s it?’ So I put the phone down, wrote the idea and everybody loved it,” Dick adds.

While working alongside Spears went well for Dick — “She was absolutely lovely, and she worked incredibly hard. I was very impressed by her work ethic,” he recalls — there was one topic of contention.

“I assumed that she was going to be wearing gym clothes, and we did a wardrobe fitting beforehand, and she’s trying on all of this stuff — T-shirt, gym shoes and whatnot — and says, ‘Well, why wouldn’t I be wearing a school uniform?' " Dick recalls. “I went ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, we don't want to go down that road,’ but her record company person and producer were there, and they overruled me.”

Dick admits now that Spears seemingly made the right call, as “it’s become iconic,” but reveals that he “took a lot of stick” for the decision afterward.

“There was one review in a British music paper, which said, ‘Britney Spears is obviously dressed by dirty old men in raincoats,' " he says.

After a positive experience working together on “Baby One More Time,” Dick was approached by Spears' team two years later to direct the video for her new single, “Oops!... I Did It Again,” the first track off of her second album of the same name. “We had a phone call and Britney said, ‘I want to be with a spaceman. I want to be wearing a red suit. I don’t want there to be any rockets in it. And you’ll do the rest,' " he says. “I had no concern about if she was going to pull it off. She was always going to deliver.”

Dick adds, “We actually got a red suit together, which I really liked. And then the night before, somebody rang me up and said, 'Just so you know, Britney’s having the guy who did a suit for Michael Jackson make a suit for tomorrow.' So she turned up and it's all shiny and clingy, and I preferred my choice, but there you go.”

After filming wrapped on their second music video together, Dick and Spears never saw each other again. “I am hurt about what's happened in Britney’s world,” Dick says, referring to the coverage of the pop star over the years and her recent book, The Woman in Me. “For a young person to go through that, obviously there was some damage there. And I try not to feel responsible for that. But yeah, I mean, it's a vicious business.”
Still, he remains impressed by young Spears' stick-to-it-iveness.

He adds, "There's a few other artists in that vein that I worked with who could have learned a lot by following her example."

Source: https://people.com/25-years-after-britney-spears-baby-one-more-time-director-nigel-dick-looks-back-exclusive-8645237

Mild SPOILERS ahead for We Are Lady Parts Season 2, now streaming with a Peacock subscription.

If the musical act in We Are Lady Parts wasn’t already quickly becoming one of our favorite fake bands after the hilarious and fun debut season back in 2021, the latest season only makes fans want to see them in concert even more. In Season 2, Lady Parts has some incredible song moments, from Malala Yousafzai making a cameo in a cowboy hat to an amazing punk cover of Britney Spears’ “Oops! I Did It Again”. CinemaBlend had the chance to speak to the show’s creator about making the latter happen.

When I had the pleasure of speaking to the creator behind We Are Lady Parts, Nida Manzoor, about the new season, she told us about filming the punk Britney Spears cover Lady Parts perform in one episode of Season 2. In her words:

One of the first things in the script was that Britney song was in there. And although you see the characters are a little bit like, ‘No, I don't wanna play Britney’, I was so ready to do a Britney cover. I'm like, ‘I need to do this. It's gonna be iconic.’ And my costume designer, PC Williams just was so excited to style them 'cause I was like, I want them to be in suits, but she's like, wanted to give them each of our unique suit look and the styling was so important and just iconic to the moment and setting it in a kind of a sort of a church venue and just everything just made it so fun and exciting to get to shoot.

In Episode 3, titled “It’s Britney Bitch,” the all-Muslim female band known as Lady Parts aren’t necessarily hyped to cover a pop song at a wedding rather than play their own music, but it was a different story behind the scenes. As Manzoor told us, she was “so ready” to have the fictional band take on the song, especially in their fly black suits. As she continued:

Lady Parts have a ton of great originals like “Bashir With The Good Beard” and “Voldemort Under My Head Scarf” but it was also fun to see them take on some awesome covers last season between Queen’s “We Are The Champions” and “9 to 5.” This season, the punk band have even more great music moments, but their Britney Spears cover is a real stand out. You can listen to the awesome cover here on YouTube:

In the middle of We Are Lady Parts Seasons 1 and 2, Nida Manzoor released Polite Society. It became a must-watch movie out of the Sundance Film Festival many couldn’t stop talking about before making our list for the best movies of 2023. At the time of the theatrical release, Manzoor told us she’s excited to make more “genre” movies in the future, in addition to We Are Lady Parts, of course.

You can check out six brand new episodes of We Are Lady Parts (along with the entirety of Season 1) on Peacock now. Also, check out what other 2024 TV premiere dates are out now and on the way.

Source; https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/we-are-lady-parts-muslim-band-punk-cover-britney-spears-season-2-nida-manzoor

Hart said that she “should have known better,” being an older sister to her own set of siblings.

By Francesca Gariano
Melissa Joan Hart is expressing her regret after she revealed that she took a teenage Britney Spears to her first club.

Hart spoke to Entertainment Tonight on May 16 about her friendship with the popstar which developed after she appeared in the music video for her song “You Drive Me (Crazy).”

The former “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” star, who is six years older than Spears, said that she and the singer would often do press together and “had a lot of fun” at the time, which lead to a sisterly bond between the stars.

Hart recalled a time when she tried to get Spears out of her shell and join her and her friends at a nightclub, explaining, “I saw that she was just surrounded by people, never able to break free. And I was like, ‘Hey want to come?’”

“I would go to a club every night -- I love dancing and I loved going out, but I also knew to be responsible and, like, when to stop,” she added.

Hart noted that she should have known better than to invite Spears to the club with her and said it was a moment she still thinks “to this day.”

“She was underage and young and -- but I [was] just like, ‘Let’s go out. We’re just gonna go out and have some fun,’” Hart said. “And I feel really guilty about that still to this day because I should have known better, being a big sister.”

https://www.today.com/popculture/melissa-joan-hart-britney-spears-regrets-rcna152902

"That was the first time I saw that kind of power," the producer and writer said of Spears' stage presence.

By Rania Aniftos

Shonda Rhimes‘ talent knows no end, as she’s the mind behind classic TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal and more. In the film world, she wrote many hits including 2002’s Crossroads starring Britney Spears.

The Television Hall of Famer recalled meeting the pop star before filming to Jennifer Hudson on the Thursday (May 23) episode of the latter’s talk show. “It was crazy. I was a serious nerd, so I did not know, like, who she was in terms of what her music was,” Rhimes revealed. “I just knew she was a pop star, but I didn’t know anything about her music or anything

She continued, “So, our first meeting was when I went to her concert and I met her backstage. That was the first time I saw that kind of power. She would move her eyebrow and the audience would lose their minds. It was amazing to watch that kind of command at that age. It was spectacular.”

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05/23/2024

Shonda Rhimes Recalls Meeting ‘Spectacular’ Britney Spears Before Filming ‘Crossroads’

"That was the first time I saw that kind of power," the producer and writer said of Spears' stage presence.

By Rania Aniftos 

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Shonda Rhimes attends ABC's Scandal 100th episode celebration at Fig & Olive on April 8, 2017 in West Hollywood, Calif.

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Shonda Rhimes‘ talent knows no end, as she’s the mind behind classic TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal and more. In the film world, she wrote many hits including 2002’s Crossroads starring Britney Spears.

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The Television Hall of Famer recalled meeting the pop star before filming to Jennifer Hudson on the Thursday (May 23) episode of the latter’s talk show. “It was crazy. I was a serious nerd, so I did not know, like, who she was in terms of what her music was,” Rhimes revealed. “I just knew she was a pop star, but I didn’t know anything about her music or anything.”

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She continued, “So, our first meeting was when I went to her concert and I met her backstage. That was the first time I saw that kind of power. She would move her eyebrow and the audience would lose their minds. It was amazing to watch that kind of command at that age. It was spectacular.”

In October, the coming-of-age film returned to screens around the world for two days to celebrate Spears’ memoir, The Woman in Me. Crossroads – based on a story idea from Spears — also co-stars stars Zoe Saldaña, Taryn Manning, Kim Cattrall and Dan Aykroyd in a tale of three estranged childhood friends (Spears, Manning, Saldaña) who reunite on the night of their high school graduation to dig up their “wish box” and set off on an adventure-filled, cross-country road trip that rekindles their friendship.

Source: https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/shonda-rhimes-recalls-meeting-britney-spears-crossroads-1235692019/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3hXuaqlV5a-KZSMeegd9iQstQyPs6DQtqwsFa2g4cexSHCAuYxqI5-uYc_aem_Ad1D8Z-2mp9Zs5Ts0wCbMxAdgjmvfMmRI4xnyiESwSd_FvE61WMAE-x8OmezmuCHubiBvDa5KLOacU5C2N9dGEFi