I’ve tried really hard to defend Lynne Spears - at least to a reasonable point. I don’t think it’s fair that all the blame fall on her, especially when Britney has a father that doesn’t get blamed, and she’s an adult now. But as more revelations come to light, Lynne’s making it pretty hard for me to stand by her side. Rolling Stone is doing a cover story on Britney titled “An American Tragedy.” The article is based on interviews with her friends, employees, and others who’ve come into her life over the last fifteen years. Rolling Stone has released a few excerpts, some of which make it pretty hard not to blame Britney’s parents a good deal.

As a teen, the singer’s mother, Lynne, allowed her to get breast implants. But after going under the knife, “she regretted the implants, particularly because her chest was still growing,” a friend says. “When her natural breasts became larger, she had the implants removed.” But Spears kept the surgery a secret. Adds the friend, “When other girls did their boobs [they admitted it] and moved on, but Britney was brought up to lie about herself.”

[From Us Weekly]

The magazine also says Britney never bonded with father Jamie Spears because he was an abusive alcoholic. That’s not exactly brand new information, but explains why it must be extra aggravating for Jamie to be in control of Britney’s life right now. Britney’s record label also worked her very hard. If Rolling Stone’s reporting is accurate, then it’s definitely in violation of child labor laws.

When Britney was just beginning her career in the 1990s, she was bribed to work around the clock. “If she didn’t want to come out of the trailer, the label would come to me saying, ‘Please talk to Britney, make sure she performs, and we’ll take you on a shopping spree,’” a close friend says. Adds her former driver: “We would wake Britney up at 6 a.m., and she’d work on a video for three or four days straight for 20 hours a day.”

[From Us Weekly]

It’s long been rumored that Britney and Justin Timberlake broke up because she cheated on him. Rolling Stone says that Britney started sleeping with choreographer Wade Robson around the time of the 2001 VMAs, and Timberlake found out in February 2002 when the two were appearing on “Saturday Night Live” together. He confronted her and refused to accept her apologies. Now I really want to get a hold of a copy of that show and see if it’s possible to see anything between the two.

According to Rolling Stone, Justin really had his head screwed on right and was good for Britney, with the exception that - after dating him - she expected all the men in her life to rescue her and fix everything. While it sounds like she had a lot of help falling to where she is, a lot of people have endured far worse. Hopefully doctors can figure out what’s wrong with her and at least bring her back to some level of sanity, if not to performing.

Picture Note by JayBird: Here’s Britney in some older file photos. Images thanks to PR Photos.