Anti-Fans Burst Britney's Bubble

NEW YORK – The princess of pop may be on top right now, but there are plenty of people who'd like to burst Britney's bubble.

"I don't think she's talented. She sings a lot of songs she didn't write [and] performs dance moves that someone else has told her to do," Louise Elliott, creator of The Anti Britney Homepage, wrote in an e-mail. "She hasn't chosen to be a singer for the music. She's in it for the fame and for the money."

Elliott, a 16-year-old from Wales, is only one of a countless number of people who have joined the latest trend in popular culture: hating Britney Spears, be it for her 'N Sync boyfriend, her eternal perkiness, her innocent image, or her not-so-innocent outfits.

"I work at my church and baby-sit, and all of these little girls were always like, 'I want to be like Britney Spears,' and were trying to dress like her," said another anti-Britney Webmaster, Elizabeth, of Knoxville, Tenn. "I was like 'Whoa!' I never wore clothes like that until recently, and even then it's for parties."

The counter-Britney trend is so widespread that it's even spawned a counter-countertrend: the anti-anti-Britney movement. The pop star's defenders have their own Web sites, or pop in on those that attack their idol.

"To All Haters of Britney Spears: You losers are so pathetic!" one critic named Antoinette wrote on the "For Britney Spears Haters" site. "What the hell did Britney do to make you hate her so much? I can't stand the ... haters who say they 'hate' her but then watch her on TV all the time. ... You need to get a life!"

Some Britney champions have become so worked up over the clash between the pro-Britney and anti-Britney folks that Elizabeth, 18, asked that her last name not be printed because of all the hate mail she's received.

"I've had people threaten to kill me and beat me up if they ever found out who I was," she said.

It's not as if the bash Britney movement were unexpected. As a mega-success who is all over the airwaves, movie screens and billboards, Britney was bound to experience some backlash. The ubiquity of anti-Britney talk and the plethora of anti-Britney Web sites — just do an Internet search for "anti-Britney" — could arguably be the truest indicator that the Southern sensation has made it to the big time.

Perhaps the most comprehensive spearing of Britney can be found at www.britneyspearsfree.com/antibrit.html, where anti-Britney films and games range from the mildly satirical to the outright offensive.

The themes of the jokes don't exactly qualify as high humor. Among the common jabs: Britney is white trash, she has breast implants, her sexy schoolgirl look is meant for pedophiles, she's not very smart, she's a bad musician.

Taking the Britney mockery to new heights is a live-action mini-movie, www.britney2032.com, by screenwriter and director Marc Sedaka, made in conjunction with Warner Brothers Online.

Britney 2032, which Sedaka said has been getting millions of hits, imagines the peppy singer as a chubby has-been at a book signing 30 years in the future. A paunchy Justin Timberlake even makes an appearance with his onetime-raunchy, onetime girlfriend.

"The initial impetus was I was walking in Target one day and I saw an actress from the '50s who was famous back then, and no one was coming to get her autograph," Sedaka said in a telephone interview. "I thought, 'Who's so big now that you'd think in 30 years you couldn't imagine her selling books in Target?' Given that Britney's such a superstar at such a young age and is so recognizable, there was really no one else I could do this movie on and make the same impact.

"And the idea of a pigtails and a belly top on a 50-year-old was enough for me to take the liberty."

Sedaka knows all about the pitfalls of music-world fame — his father is 1960s pop singer Neil Sedaka.

"I've seen all the ups and downs," he said. "I know how, in the course of a couple of years, someone's fame can just lessen. You are forgotten quickly until you reinvent yourself."

Not Britney, though, Sedaka said. He said that, despite his movie, he's a fan and doesn't see Britney 2032 as a true vision of her future.

"I think the girl's really good!" he said.