The #FreeBritney movement is stronger than ever following the release of Framing Britney Spears, but has the pop star herself seen the documentary?
According to Samantha Stark, the director and producer who chronicled the dark side of Britney Spears' rise to superstardom and the conservatorship she's now under on the Feb. 5 episode of FX's The New York Times Presents, probably not.
Britney herself certainly hasn't revealed one way or another, but Page Six reported on Feb. 9 that the "Stronger" singer had indeed watched the doc. Andy Cohen pointed this out to Stark on the latest edition of SiriusXM's Andy Cohen Live, but she remained unconvinced.
"I don't believe that story," Stark told Cohen. "I don't, I believe they got that from...Yeah, that's a Page Six [story] with an anonymous source. They also posted that she hadn't seen it as well with a different anonymous source. So I'm sorry to say, I don't believe it."
Cohen revealed that he does believe Britney's seen the documentary, telling Stark, "I spoke to someone yesterday who makes me think that she did."
"If that's true, then that makes me very, very happy," the director responded.
While the Watch What Happens Live host apparently got the scoop from an unnamed acquaintance, some of Britney's fans are under the impression that she's watched Framing Britney Spears based on her recent Instagram posts.
For example, on Tuesday, Feb. 9, the 39-year-old shared a throwback video of herself performing "Toxic" in 2018, captioned, "Can't believe this performance of Toxic is from 3 years ago !!! I'll always love being on stage .... but I am taking the time to learn and be a normal person ..... I love simply enjoying the basics of every day life !!!! Each person has their story and their take on other people's stories !!!!"
Britney continued, "We all have so many different bright beautiful lives [flower emojis]!!! Remember, no matter what we think we know about a person's life it is nothing compared to the actual person living behind the lens [camera and sparkles emojis]!!!!"
Discussing the post with Cohen, Stark found it difficult to say whether or not Britney was subtly referencing the documentary.
"I mean, it's confusing because that went up on her Instagram and her Twitter at the same time," Stark explained. "And that, that usually doesn't happen. There's not a lot posted on her Twitter that's not promotional."
This, along with Page Six's reporting that Britney is supposedly working on a documentary of her own, "raised questions" for the director.
"But, I don't know what's going on," she continued. "And you know, that does seem like, yeah, a response."
At the end of the day, "it's so hard to say" whether or not Britney's sending subliminal messages, or if she even runs her own social media, Stark added.
"There's such a tight circle around her that will—that's enabled by the conservatorship, I'll say, that you can't get to Britney and journalists can't interview her," she told Cohen. "If they do interview her, it's very, it's with a lot of oversight by her team...And so of course, everyone wants to look to her Instagram and see what she's saying. It's the only way you can actually see her and hear her now. But it's, it's just really confusing what's going on. It's hard to tell in my opinion."
Andy Cohen hosts SiriusXM's Andy Cohen Live Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. on his exclusive SiriusXM channel Radio Andy.
Framing Britney Spears is streaming on Hulu.
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