One kid knocked up at 17, the other battling a total meltdown in her career, parenting ability and mental health. That didn’t stop extreme stage mother Lynn Spears from writing a book on her experiences as a mom trying to guide her daughters in Hollywood. “Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World,” will go on sale in September. This was the book that started out as a parenting guide, but had to be re-formulated after both the Spears daughters turned out to be less-than-stellar examples of parenting gone right.

The highly anticipated book by Britney Spears’ mother is set to hit store shelves next month.

Lynne Spears’ Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World, a memoir about her “backseat role in Britney’s path to fame,” will go on sale on Sept. 16.

According to the publisher Thomas Nelson — a publisher of inspirational books and Bibles — the book will take readers “beyond the reach of the paparazzi and outside the narrow orbit of the Hollywood glitterati to share the inside story of the Spears family-as only a mother can tell it.” Topics she discusses include:
- Her regret in abdicating parental authority to managers, agents and record companies
- Her response to Jamie Lynn’s teen pregnancy
- The startling events that led to Britney’s meltdown and Lynne’s showdown with manager Sam Lufti

[From Star Magazine]

I’d have a lot more respect for Lynne Spears if she could prove herself capable of making a living on her own- without pimping out or living off her kids. As for the “startling events” that led to the meltdown, I think I could write that myself, and it would take two words: K-Fed. Not that startling, really.

In other Britney news, the pop star herself, accompanied by her dad/conservator, is supposed to be giving a tell-all interview to OK! Magazine. If OK! can make little sister/new mommy Jamie Lynn and her 19-year-old fiance look like Ken and Barbie living the perfect life, they’ll surely be able to spin Brit-Brit’s ramblings to make her sound like a Fullbright scholar. Also, Britney is appearing in a spot with MTV UK host Russel Brand to promote the upcoming Video Music Awards. She looks pretty good, but she still seems out of it to me.

17 year-old Jamie Lynn Spears took her 7 week-old daughter, Maddie Briann, to a pediatrician yesterday. She went out for lunch at NYLA’s burger basket and to a friend’s house and was also spotted at a Walmart in McComb, Mississippi. Britney’s younger sister looked annoyed and considering all places she was seen the photographers must have followed her all day. She is said to have been reluctant to do her last interview with OK! which included photos of Maddine in her new home in Liberty, Mississippi. The resulting interview was full of superlatives about how perfect and great everything is with her new baby.

The latest from OK! is that Jamie Lynn is planning a fall wedding with her fiance, Casey Aldridge, 19, to take place at home. I assumed that they had some insider information since they have a relationship with Jamie Lynn’s family after paying her a million for the pregnancy announcement and baby photos. Interestingly enough, OK! claims the exact same thing this week about Jennifer Aniston planning a fall wedding in her backyard, a story her rep calls a “complete fabrication.” Maybe the Jamie Lynn wedding story is made up too and she just didn’t call them on it.

About two weeks before Maddie was born, a photographer was arrested in the small town where Jamie Lynn lives on suspicion of stalking her. He was let out on bond and we haven’t heard much about it since. The arrest didn’t solve her problem with photographers, judging from these pictures.

Credit: Fame Pictures

OK! Magazine made a reported million dollar deal with 17 year-old Jamie Lynn Spears for exclusive coverage of her pregnancy and new baby. The magazine now has details of her upcoming wedding, and that probably means we can expect to see the photos there too. She plans to have a low-key ceremony and reception at her new home in Liberty, Mississippi, where she currently lives with her fiance and the father of her baby, Casey Aldridge. Jamie Lynn’s sister, Britney, will be her maid of honor, and the festivities will take place in Jamie Lynn’s backyard. OK! notes that they’ll have plenty of space as the house sits on three acres:

Despite their worldwide notoriety, the young couple won’t be swapping their vows at some 5-star celeb-filled resort, but will be sticking close to home. Jamie Lynn’s new house is in Liberty, Miss. — just 30 minutes from her mom Lynne Spears’ house, Serenity, in Kentwood, La. — and it sits on three acres, which is more than enough space to put up a tent for a private, late fall ceremony.

“She loves everything about the area where she lives. She’s not going to get married at some luxury resort in the Caribbean or a hotel in Beverly Hills,” a friend of the bride-to-be tells OK!. “Her own backyard with just the people who matter most is more Jamie Lynn’s style.”

And with the wedding approaching quickly, Jamie Lynn is planning to look her best on the big day. “She’s already down to her pre-pregnancy weight,” says the friend. “She has the cutest figure!”

Of course, big sis Britney Spears will be her Jamie Lynn’s maid of honor, and Casey’s sister Ashlee will be one of her bridesmaids. And tiny toddler Maddie will be an integral part of the wedding — possibly in a basket decorated with flowers and carried into the ceremony by the bride and groom’s mothers.

[From OK! Magazine]

The photos from her wedding will fetch good money for Jamie and it’s not like she’s got a lot of career options at this point after Zooey 101. Is it a good move for her to publicize her wedding though? There were rumors that she was reluctant to pose for photos with her newborn, Maddie, because she didn’t want the media exposure, but that she had no choice because the contract was already signed. It’s also not the wisest move to get married at 17, even if you already have a baby with someone. There’s a lot of life experience lacking and you may end up missing things you could have done in your 20s. Last week the Enquirer had a story that Jamie Lynn and Casey were fighting over calls to another woman she found in his cell phone records. Even if that wasn’t true, it’s hard to believe that these two are ready to commit the rest of their lives to each other.

Jamie Lynn Spears, 17, and Casey Aldrige, 19, looked happy playing house with their month-old baby, Maddie, in a happy perfect-looking spread in OK! Magazine. The reality might not be so rosy for the young couple. The National Enquirer reports that Jamie Lynn kicked Casey out of the house after she found calls to another woman on the bill for his cell phone. She is also said to try and keep track of his Internet usage to see if he’s getting up to anything sneaky online. Casey is back in the house now, and it sounds like Jamie Lynn really wanted to teach him a lesson:

New mom Jamie Lynn Spears threw her fiance Casey Aldridge out of their home – after she discovered he’s been calling other girls on his cell phone! It’s the latest in a series of battles between the teens since the birth of their daughter, Maddie Briann, on June 19…

The confrontation occurred soon after the couple moved back into their new 5-acre home in Liberty, MS, after spending three weeks at Lynn Spears’ gated mansion Serenity in Kentwood, LA.

While sorting through the mail, 17 year-old Jamie Lynn saw phone calls to other girls on Casey’s cell phone bill and confronted him.

“Casey told Jamie Lynn that she is ‘hormonal’ and that all the rumors of his cheating are just her imagination, but Jamie Lynn didn’t believe him,” said the insider. “It was too much for Jamie Lynn and she threw him out of the house. He stayed out all night.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, August 4, 2008]

The Enquirer’s insider adds that Jamie Lynn thinks Casey “might be cheating with his old girlfriend.” They add that she’s been “searching the Internet for other evidence of his cheating” and that she obviously “doesn’t trust him.”

Have any of you been in in a relationship where you were so suspicious of your partner that you monitored their online usage and went through their cell phone records? Did it end with you finding nothing and were you able to patch things up and/or keep the relationship going? It seems like if you’re that distrustful of your partner the relationship is at a point where it will take an awful lot of work to repair it. Either the other person is cheating and you’re looking for confirmation or you don’t trust them enough to feel confident that they’re faithful. Either way, the relationship is in trouble. There’s also the chance that someone is so insecure they need to constantly keep track of their partner for reassurance, but snooping like that for no reason might drive the other person away. We’ll have to see if Casey and Jamie Lynn work this one out.

Jamie Lynn and Casey are shown shopping at Walmart on her 17th birthday on 4/4/08. Credit: Fame

While it seemed like everything was getting better for Britney Spears lately, several sources claim she had a significant mental health relapse after little sister Jamie Lynn Spears gave birth to her daughter last month. Now magazine claims that Britney’s visit to see her new niece Maddie was so short (just one day) because she had a severe emotional breakdown. She and father Jamie hightailed it back to Los Angeles, where Brit was seen visibly upset at the airport. Everyone assumed that was because of the paparazzi crush, but now it looks like it might have been due to some emotional turmoil.

And for the next two days, says the publication, Britney’s dad Jamie — who is staying with the troubled star because he’s in control of all her affairs — became more anxious about his daughter’s deteriorating state.

A source says Britney was “a bit dazed and distant”, wouldn’t answer any of her dad’s questions and “had no enthusiasm for anything”. And on June 21, at around 9.30pm, Jamie found his daughter naked on the bathroom floor, crying hysterically and mumbling to herself about wanting a baby girl. Jamie rang the doctor, who rushed to Britney’s side and diagnosed a breakdown.

A source says, “Seeing her little sister give birth was too much for Britney. It made her realize what a mess she’s in. She’s insanely jealous of Jamie Lynn having a girl because she’s always been desperate for a daughter. Jamie found her sobbing her heart out and repeating: ‘It’s not fair, Dad, it’s not fair.’ He sat with her, cuddled her and stroked her hair. Then he got her some clothes and helped her into the bedroom before calling the doctor, who ordered her to rest. They bumped up her Melleril and Ativan because of the drama she was creating.”

[From Showbiz Spy]

If it’s true, that’s an incredibly sad story. It sounds like Brit’s dad did just the right thing, and she’s really lucky to have him around to take care of her. I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this, but I don’t think this is actually completely scary behavior. Children and babies are a sensitive subject; and feeling brokenhearted at the loss of her own sons makes sense. Shortly after this, Britney was granted her first overnight visit with her sons in months, so her psychiatrist must have felt she recovered decently well.

Brit clearly isn’t entirely put back together yet, but I can understand how something like this could trigger an emotional break for her. It’s long been reported that she wanted a daughter. She barely sees her two young sons anymore. She’s widely viewed as a bad mother. Seeing her much younger sister have a daughter and handle the whole thing reasonably well probably triggered some feelings of deep inadequacy. It’s incredibly hard as an older sibling to feel like you don’t measure up to the younger one, and that’s probably a new feeling for Britney.

She still has a ways to go in terms of getting her life on track. Who knows, in ten years Brit may be totally together, have a great family, and be able to really appreciate the things that matter.

Here’s Britney arriving at LAX after spending one day in Louisiana. She was surrounded by 30 paparazzi and that there was a fight between one of her bodyguards and a photographer, which resulted in the cops being called. Images thanks to WENN.

OK! Magazine has posted more photos of their exclusive photoshoot with 17 year-old Jamie Lynn holding little baby Maddie and rocking that overly-frosted hair and bad makeup. In the quotes they include with the photos, Jamie Lynn says things like “I love taking care of her. It is so much fun. I just want to hug her and kiss her, and I’m happy all the time.”

A lot of you posed the question whether the positive press surrounding Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy set a dangerous precedent and glorified teen pregnancy. There was that story with all the teens getting pregnant in the small town of Glouchester, Massacusetts that caused a lot of uproar. At least some of the teen moms admitted to the National Enquirer that they were influenced by young stars like Jamie Lynn and Nicole Richie having cute babies and making it seem easy.

This didn’t seem like such an issue to me when I read the earlier excerpts from the OK! interview. Jamie Lynn said she took parenting courses and she admitted that Maddie gets up every few hours to feed at night, but said she doesn’t cry much and is a good baby. She got her GED before she had the baby and it sounds like she’s trying to be a responsible mom and be there for her child.

Now that I see she’s saying stuff like “it is so much fun” to care for a newborn it does give me pause. There’s no way I would describe caring for a new baby as “fun.” “Fulfilling,” maybe, but it’s possible Jamie Lynn lacks the vocabulary to explain how she’s feeling exactly, or maybe she really does think it’s great fun. She says she’s “happy all the time.” I was crying my eyes out for the first few weeks, but I definitely had postpartum depression. It’s great that Jamie Lynn is happy with her baby and all, but fun takes on a completely different meaning once you have a baby. Fun happens on the child’s schedule, not yours. You wonder if young girls are grasping that when they see Jamie Lynn and her sweet infant. She even said “I had a perfect pregnancy and a perfect delivery. I was very blessed.”

Life isn’t so perfect for the average teen mother who might not get to finish high school and could be struggling for the rest of her life to support a child, both financially and emotionally.

Jamie Lynn also says that her boyfriend Casey was great with Maddie right from the start, and “It was amazing. Guys are always a little awkward, and he was perfect with her.” How many times can she use the word “perfect?”

One thing Jamie Lynn does that makes her life a lot easier with a new baby is have her sleep right in the same room in a bassinet. That definitely helps you get more sleep when they’re little and may be contributing to Jamie Lynn’s great mood. That and the million dollars she got paid to say how wonderful her life is.

The header image is slightly disturbing to me. The girl may be a mom, but she’s just 17 and they didn’t have to pose her in lingerie like that.

For more photos of Jamie Lynn and Maddie, including the baby’s nursery, check out OK! Magazine’s website.

Jamie Lynn and her Lynne in October, 2007

The Spears family continues their full-on media blitz about what a star mom 17-year-old Jamie Lynn is. Maybe they’re trying to make up for all the damage Britney caused. The very fact that Jamie Lynn moved home to Kentwood, Louisiana and seems to be planning on raising daughter Maddie there does say a lot about her commitment to doing what she feels is best for her baby. OK! has some sort of deal worked out with the Spears clan, and had an interview with Lynne yesterday, in which they talked about how Jamie Lynn is handling being a new mother.

How proud are you of the way Jamie Lynn handled the pregnancy?
She’s been totally responsible. She is an old soul and very wise at such a young age.

As she was getting closer to her due date, what were your biggest concerns for her?
We have a history of difficult labors, and I didn’t want her to be terrified and never want to have another baby because mine were traumatic. I really worried about that, but my goodness, she just flew right on through it.

Describe that first moment when you saw Jamie Lynn, Maddie and Casey together.
Oh, my god. That is one of your most precious moments ever. Just that sight. It is indescribable.

What do your grandkids call you?
I started out being Nonnie, but it turned into Me-Ma.

What kind of mom is Jamie Lynn going to be?
A very good mom. She’s warm and nurturing. And the most fun time will be when she’s the soccer mom, the carpool mom. That was the most fun I had as a mother.

You don’t live very far away from Jamie Lynn. Are you planning to babysit?
It’s too soon for that yet with an itty-bitty baby, but I’ll go over as often as she wants and help with the dishes or the laundry. I’m always ready for my phone call.

[From OK!]

It’s always hard to tell how much of what’s said is honest and how much is PR bullshit, especially with a magazine like OK!. That said, it seems like Jamie Lynn is doing a really good job handling an unexpected situation. True, she has more advantages that most teenage mothers, but it’s got to be overwhelming for her no matter what.

Celebitchy reported that Jamie Lynn and Lynne were supposedly fighting because Lynne was planning on going to Los Angeles to help big sister Britney. OK! reports that she did indeed jet off to the west coast on Thursday. Jamie Lynn has had three weeks of being a mom… under most circumstances, it seems like it’d be fine for Lynne to leave. But it really does sort of seem like her 17-year-old daughter with a new baby should have a bit more of a priority than being with Britney while she puts out a new CD.

In early June Celebitchy wrote an article pointing out the obvious bias against southerners that could be found in some of the coverage of Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy. Now that she’s given birth to Maddie, the press hasn’t exactly laid off her. Page Six reports that Jamie Lynn is turning into Britney.

When I saw the headline, I was assuming they had a story about how she’s a negligent mom or making dumb mistakes or something. Nope. She’s turning into Britney because of her penchant for Diet Coke and the fact that she probably won’t marry her baby’s father. And we all know what a slippery slope that is. Diet Coke clearly leads to driving with your baby on your lap.

Jamie Lynn Spears, who just gave birth to daughter Maddie Briann Aldridge at the ripe old age of 17, is in danger of heading down the same road as her sister, Britney. A Louisiana source tells us, “She only has Diet Coke in the house. How redneck is that?” As for her engagement to Casey Aldridge, the spy adds, “I doubt that’ll ever happen. Her mama [Lynne] doesn’t like him and thinks she can do better. They don’t want him anywhere near [Jamie Lynn's] cash.” Britney, whom Jamie Lynn refers to as “my crazy sister,” has a well-known affinity for soda and Cheetos and had her first marriage, to Jason Alexander, annulled at her mother’s insistence. A rep for Jamie Lynn didn’t return calls.

[From Page Six]

I only have diet orange soda in my house. I’m pretty sure that makes me a “redneck” by that definition. It’s the joy of soda, but with the class of Cheetos coloring. I will grant that a new mother should probably have some milk. But it’s not like she’s only got some Boone’s in her fridge.

I really think the press should lay off Jamie Lynn if she makes some mistakes. Pretty much all new parents do, they just don’t have Page Six examining their every move. But Jamie Lynn is only 17. I’m sure that she’s just as overwhelmed and scared as most new parents are – perhaps more so. Some mistakes are inevitable, but it’s unfair for people to be watching everything she does to see when she’s about to fail like Britney did. I’m guessing she’s probably learned from her older sister’s mistakes, and will likely be able to keep it together.

Jamie Lynn Spears appears with little Maddie in the next issue of OK! Magazine. It includes the kind of glowing “everything’s great” interview that also includes some details about her day to day life with the baby. OK! reports that Jamie Lynn had a natural birth and didn’t have a c-section as some outlets reported. It also sounds like she nurses her baby, but she only hints at that. I’m only going on what the website has, though, and it’s possible there is more concrete information in the print version.

Around here, everyone has the same focus,” Jamie Lynn tells OK!. “The focus is family, and that’s a good way to live.”

The 17-year-old actress opens up to OK! about everything — from taking parenting classes to life inside the new home she shares with Maddie and boyfriend Casey Aldridge, to her first experience with labor pains.

“They’d told me it would be an eight- to 12-hour labor, and I was ready to have the baby in three to four hours,” Jamie Lynn tells OK!. “I had a perfect pregnancy and a perfect delivery. I was very blessed.”

While the former Zoey 101 star and her fiancé have not yet set a date for their wedding, the couple remains closer than ever. Jamie Lynn, who tells OK! that while her labor was induced, she gave birth naturally and without complications, says that Casey was the one person she wanted in the delivery room with her.

“Once I got in there, my doctor was just so calm and so good it was not bad at all,” she says. “I was just talking to Casey. And you know what’s so weird? I was asking him if he was okay. He was like, ‘Yeah.’ We were both so excited.”

A baby nursery is set up for little Maddie at the other end of the house, but for now her proud parents like having her next to them at night, so she sleeps in a bassinet in the same room as Jamie Lynn and Casey.

“She is very good,” says Jamie Lynn. “She’ll feed every two or three hours. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, I’ll feed her and she goes right back to sleep. There’s no screaming and crying.”

The proud mama continues, “We get up in the morning, and she gets her little bath. Then I get my bath. We have a routine, and I love routines. I’ve worked one out with her, and we’re happy going about our little life.”

[From OK! Magazine]

The baby sure is cute and Jamie seems like a devoted and caring young mother. She’s only 17 but she manages to sound mature in the interview and like she did her best to prepare for motherhood. It’s a great idea to have the baby sleep in the same room with you and we did that when my son was born. We got a lot more sleep than having him in another room.

This week’s National Enquirer reports that Jamie Lynn wasn’t happy with her mom’s deal with OK! for the first photos of Maddie. Lynne made the reported $1 million deal with OK! back when they shockingly announced then 16-year-old Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy in the magazine. Jamie Lynn is said to want to keep Maddie out of the spotlight because she wants to avoid the media circus that surrounds her sister, Britney, and her two sons. It was too late to back out at this point, though, so she did her best with the interview and photo shoot. Jamie Lynn and Lynne are also said to be fighting because Lynne plans to return to LA soon to help Britney.

Star Magazine has a cover story this week titled “Jamoe Lynn: Delivery Room Drama!” OMG! Jossip offers invaluable analysis of this probably half bullshit, half embellished story. They say that by having an exclusive deal with OK! Magazine for photos and stories about her baby, Jamie Lynn incurred the tabloid editor’s wrath more so than your average celebrity.

Here are the supposed details of Jamie Lynn’s “Delivery Room Drama!” Star claims Casey passed out, Britney pled with Jamie Lynn to have a cesarean, and mother hen Lynn insisted on being in the room when Jamie Lynn gave birth, cursing her out like a movie cliché of a delivery room scene:

In the new issue of Star, on newsstands now, we have all the details about Jamie Lynn’s delivery room drama — including her life-threatening decision, emergency surgery to save the baby, Britney’s jealous episode, Lynne Spears fighting with everyone and the brouhaha over a paternity test.

“The baby’s heart rate dropped every time she tried to push,” a family insider tells Star. “They did an ultrasound and quickly discovered that the umbilical cord was too short.” But despite the doctors’ dire warnings, the 17-year-old “was adamant about having a natural delivery.”

Everyone in the room at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in McComb, Miss., pleaded with Jamie Lynn to listen to the doctors — including big sister Britney. Brit had already been with Jamie Lynn for hours, massaging her back as she endured painful contractions. “But she got mad,” says the insider. She told Jamie Lynn to “just have a damn Caesarian,” as she did. “Britney then ran out in tears because she couldn’t bear to see what was happening.”

The girls mother, Lynne, only added to the tension. “Lynne was already angry because her daughter didn’t want her in the delivery room at all,” says the source. “But she had insisted on being there, along with Casey Aldridge, Jamie Lynn’s boyfriend. Jamie Lynn cussed and yelled at her mom, and told her to get out. She cursed Lynne for bringing her into the world to bear such pain.”

[From Star Magazine's website]

How poetic of Star: “She cursed Lynne for bringing her into the world to bear such pain.” I love that line. I’ve never heard of an umbilical cord being too short, but I Googled it and it does happen and can result in increased infant mortality.

Jossip notes that the article also claims that “Lynn Spears, Maddie’s grandma, wants a DNA test right away because she doesn’t believe Aldridge is the father.” Their explanation of how so many things went wrong with the birth is a lesson in a tabloid scorned:

You know what you get when you’re a celebrity and you sign an exclusive deal with a tabloid? Bad karma from the rest of the magazines.

Jamie Lynn Spears, who signed a $1 million exclusive deal with OK! for her pregnancy story and pics, is getting stabbed by Star with a dramatic cover story exclaiming, “Delivery Room Drama!” Since Spears is prohibited from playing ball with the other celeb weeklies, there’s only one thing Star can do: deliver one piece of bad news after another. If only Spears hadn’t signed with OK!, she could’ve scored some protection.

[From Jossip]

Star spreads a lot of fake news about celebrities but it’s particularly malicious when they’re blocked from a coveted story. On the remote chance that all of this is true, you could also say that Jamie Lynn had an unremarkable natural birth despite some minor complications and pressure from her doctors and family to have a c-section.