Latest news with #BritneySpears'
Perth Now
a day ago
- Automotive
- Perth Now
Britney Spears' notorious Mercedes going up for auction
Britney Spears' famous black Mercedes is going up for auction. The Toxic hitmaker was regularly pictured behind the wheel of the 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLK350 in 2007 when her life began spiralling out of control and after the convertible spent almost 15 years on display at the Volo Auto Museum in Illinois, it is now being auctioned off. The museum are putting a number of their vehicles and vintage items up for auction between 1 and 7 August, including the Mercedes, TMZ reports. Britney was regularly followed by paparazzi during the time she owned the car and was seen driving through red lights in a bid to shake off the photographers, and the vehicle was also involved in a hit-and-run incident in August 2007. The Gimme More singer bumped into another car in a Los Angeles parking lot but charges were later dropped when she reached a settlement with the other driver. Perhaps most notoriously, Britney was in the Mercedes when she famously got out and attacked a paparazzo's car with an umbrella, having recently shaved her head. Volo believe the vehicle is the most documented celebrity-owned car of all time. Earlier this month, the 43-year-old star revealed she had bought herself a new car but "hates" it already. She wrote on Instagram: "Got a new car but I hate it. The roof doesn't come off, WTF !!! The pedals are not like my old car at all. I almost ran into my house, oh well !!!" Britney who regained control of her multimillion-dollar fortune and various aspects of her life when a conservatorship that had been governed by her immediate family was terminated in November 2021 - also bought a new car towards the end of last year but admitted at the time that she had "no idea" what it was. She said: "l'm driving in my new car. I have no idea what kind of car this is. I think it's a cheap "Corolla or something. But it feels like, almost like a, it just kind of drives by itself. Corrola is a model by Toyota, but when the camera panned around, the steering wheel revealed the Nissan logo. Despite her apparent confusion, the '...Baby One More Time' hitmaker was "excited" to be taking her new car for a spin. She said: "But I'm excited because I'm going to go ride horses. I'm excited, here we go. Yes, oh God. It just kind of drives by itself. But l'm excited because l'm going to go ride horses. I'm excited, here we go. Yes, oh God."
Eater
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
We, As Kitsch-Lovers, Approve of OLIPOP's New Retro-Cool Hotel Rooms
Leave it to a soda brand to bring me the kitsch hotel stay of my dreams. OLIPOP — as in, yes, the prebiotic soda company that has us addicted to its gut-friendly facsimiles for root beer, cream soda, and Hawaiian Punch — has decided to enter the world of unique hotel stays by launching a series of retro-inspired, themed, ephemeral hotel rooms in Austin, Texas. And as my coworker and I confirmed to one another on Slack, 'the rooms are actually so cute.' Feast your eyes on my personal favorite, crowned the 2002 Cherry Cola Suite: It feels like no collaboration is off-limits in this new era of chaos marketing (see: the new Tresemmé hot sauce), and while a lot of these food collaborations balloon into surrealist territory that steers them away from brand authenticity, I'm absolutely here for the fantasy that OLIPOP is pitching us, which is that of a 'Time Travel Agency' takeover of the Austin Motel from June 24 to July 8. As OLIPOP explains, 'guests can enter for a chance to win one of three immersive, soda-inspired suites [that bring] an OLIPOP flavor to life through the lens of a different decade.' In addition to the Cherry Cola Suite, there will also be a 1986 Cream Soda Suite decked out in pastel stripes, neon lights, and retro arcade details… … As well as the 1995 Strawberry Vanilla Suite, which pays homage to OLIPOP's (honestly very taste) Strawberry Vanilla prebiotic soda, and is described by the company as having 'all-pink everything and '90s maximalism at its finest.' All of the rooms feel inspired by theatrically decorated, vintage-inspired hotels and motels like the iconic The Madonna Inn (as seen in many a photo shoot and music video), upstate New York's The Roxbury (known for its coconut-cream-pie-themed room), and the numerous themed couples' hotels in the Poconos. Over the years, Airbnb and other brands have offered elaborate, raffle-based themed hotel stays — often, to promote the likes of Hocus Pocus 2 or Shrek (the latter of which had an incredible swamp set-up), so it's actually nice to see another company throw its vacation hat into the ring in a way that doesn't feel haphazardly inauthentic. It has also been a big year for soda, from the 'dirty' concoctions of Mormon wives to Addison Rae's earworm 'Diet Pepsi' — which evokes a smart branding nod to Britney Spears' 2000s partnership with the company (even if Spears was adamant about not drinking diet Pepsi, 'just regular Pepsi'). In any case, I will absolutely co-sign the creation of more kitsch hotel rooms, particularly when it feels like America's own retro love hotels are increasingly going out of business. Will OLIPOP continue to dip its toes into more experimental — and experiential — marketing techniques à la Liquid Death? Time will tell if the company veers into similar shock marketing territory, but I hope it stays the course of curating activations with identity coherency. Oh, and shag rugs. Learn more about how to stay at OLIPOP's themed rooms here . See More: Add to Cart Eater at Home Shopping and Pantry Guides Travel Guides
Los Angeles Times
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel' reveals the man behind the sleazy billboards
American Apparel's billboards were hard to miss when traversing Los Angeles in the 2000s. The ubiquitous ads for the L.A.-based clothing company featured gritty, amateurish photos of seemingly ordinary young women, posed suggestively, in various states of undress. As for the clothing, there wasn't much of it. A tube sock here, a thong there. American Apparel's apparel clearly wasn't the draw. The underage appearance of the models was disturbing but not entirely shocking given the controversial Calvin Klein ads over previous decades, and by the year 2000, Britney Spears' schoolgirl-meets-stripper-pole routine in her 'Oops! ... I Did it Again' video was popular with tweens and moms alike. Yet there was something about the voyeuristic, predatory nature of American Appeal's ad campaign that felt different, worse, beyond exploitative. 'Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel,' a documentary now streaming on Netflix, explains why those billboards felt more like criminal evidence than sexy ads. The 54-minute film breaks down what was happening on the other side of the camera at the company, led by problematic founder and CEO Dov Charney, and there's nothing hip or fashionable about the abuse chronicled in it, which features footage, research and firsthand accounts from former employees. The doc is part of a Netflix series that touches on messy, disastrous events, brands and people such as the Balloon Boy scandal and the so-called Poop Cruise. High-end stuff it's not, and this installment of the series isn't nuanced or long enough to be an in-depth exploration of a troubled company and its volatile founder. It does, however, lay bare an abusive culture at American Apparel and how Charney — who shot many of the ads himself — turned his own alleged regressions into a wildly successful branding campaign. The documentary tracks the rise and fall of American Apparel and its CEO from the company's inception in 1989 to it becoming one of the largest garment manufacturers in the United States until its bankruptcy in 2015. Reimagining plain sweatshirts and other wardrobe basics as hip alternatives to blingy jeans and gawdy UGG boots, the L.A.-made clothing was promoted as 'Ethically Made — Sweatshop Free.' It later garnered the unofficial title of indie sleaze, just in time to resonate across a new thing called social media. Charney is seen in action through reams of footage captured by employees and others in his orbit. Former workers tell their stories, recalling how they were hired or advanced into management positions despite having no experience. One recalls how new hires at the company received a welcome gift box that included a vibrator, a book by Robert Greene titled 'The 48 Laws of Power,' a Leica camera and a Blackberry so Charney could contact them 24/7. They were also asked to sign nondisclosure agreements which would later make it difficult to hold Charney accountable for alleged misconduct. Footage shows Charney as a wiry, supercharged figure who frequently berated his staff as 'losers' and worse. He housed chosen employees at his Silver Lake mansion, the Garbutt House, and they included a gaggle of young women whose roles seemed to be as surrogates and enforcers for Charney — workers referred to them as Dov's Girls. Then in his 40s, he's shown verbally accosting young employees, some of whom were teenagers at the time. At least one clip captures him parading around naked in front of two female employees. After defining fashion for roughly a decade, the thriving company began to nosedive by the 2010s as news of Charney's inappropriate behavior and oppressive conditions in the workplace surfaced. He was accused of mistreating young employees in the company's stores and offices, as well as exploiting undocumented employees in the factory, but it was allegations of sexual misconduct and assault in the workplace that made headlines, leading to his ouster as CEO. Women who claim they were sexually assaulted by Charney are interviewed in the documentary. Charney did not disappear after his fall from grace. He founded another clothing manufacturer, Los Angeles Apparel, and he reportedly works on Yeezy, the fashion brand created by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. Rolling Stone reported that Charney printed West's controversial 'White Lives Matter' T-shirt. As for American Apparel, it was bought by a Canadian clothing company that relaunched the brand shortly before the pandemic. The clothes are no longer made in L.A., but curiously, the indie sleaze billboard campaign has returned to the city. It's disturbing in a throwback kind of way, pointing to a time when pedo-marketing was king, and the creepy folks behind the ads were heralded as marketing geniuses.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Britney Spears appears to delete Instagram just days after she launched scathing attack on her exes
Britney Spears' Instagram page has been deactivated. The 43-year-old pop icon had more than 40 million followers on the social media site and it had become her sole method of communicating with fans after the conservatorship that had been governed by her immediate family was terminated in November 2021 but on Friday (13.06.25), the page disappeared altogether. Her profile link now redirects to a message that reads: "Sorry, this page isn't available. "The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed. Go back to Instagram." The news comes just days after the Oops! I Did It Again singer posted a scathing rant about two of the men she had dated in the past on her Instagram page. Britney was initially married to childhood friend Jason Alexander for a period of 55 hours in 2004 and was then married to Kevin Federline from 2004 until 2007 but was then married to Sam Asghari from 2022 until 2024. She wrote: "I dated two f****** complete a**holes. 'I realized I loved their dogs more than them and I think it's because their dogs bowed to me every time I entered the room!!!" The Baby One More Time hitmaker - who has sons Sean, 19, and Jayden, 18, with her second husband - did not name either of the men in question but branded them as "cruel humans" who faieled to "acknowledge" her during their time together. She added: "Now the guys were of course cruel humans that never even acknowledged and never held my hand in the car for 6 years !!! I choose animals over people anyday !!! "I'm so turned off by humanity and the way people have literally … I have no words !!!" Britney has deactivated her Instagram account on numerous occasions in the past, having once left the platform after seemingly criticising fans for approaching her in public, and before that, she closed it without any warning or reason.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Britney Spears appears to delete Instagram just days after she launched scathing attack on her exes
Britney Spears' Instagram page has been deactivated. The 43-year-old pop icon had more than 40 million followers on the social media site and it had become her sole method of communicating with fans after the conservatorship that had been governed by her immediate family was terminated in November 2021 but on Friday (13.06.25), the page disappeared altogether. Her profile link now redirects to a message that reads: "Sorry, this page isn't available. "The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed. Go back to Instagram." The news comes just days after the Oops! I Did It Again singer posted a scathing rant about two of the men she had dated in the past on her Instagram page. Britney was initially married to childhood friend Jason Alexander for a period of 55 hours in 2004 and was then married to Kevin Federline from 2004 until 2007 but was then married to Sam Asghari from 2022 until 2024. She wrote: "I dated two f****** complete a**holes. 'I realized I loved their dogs more than them and I think it's because their dogs bowed to me every time I entered the room!!!" The Baby One More Time hitmaker - who has sons Sean, 19, and Jayden, 18, with her second husband - did not name either of the men in question but branded them as "cruel humans" who faieled to "acknowledge" her during their time together. She added: "Now the guys were of course cruel humans that never even acknowledged and never held my hand in the car for 6 years !!! I choose animals over people anyday !!! "I'm so turned off by humanity and the way people have literally … I have no words !!!" Britney has deactivated her Instagram account on numerous occasions in the past, having once left the platform after seemingly criticising fans for approaching her in public, and before that, she closed it without any warning or reason.
