The entertainment industry’s exploitation of its child stars has a long history. The difference is that in the old days, MGM put Judy Garland on a cycle of amphetamines and barbiturates behind closed doors, while the saga of Britney Spears played out for all the world to see. Or so we thought. As the New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears explores, the reality was even worse than it seemed at the time.

The singer went from child starlet to hard partying pop princess under the microscope of paparazzi chasing her across Hollywood and predatory news anchors and media executives waiting for her to fail. But since her highly publicized mid-aughts breakdown, you know, the shaved head, the umbrella, the hospital stints, Spears’s public persona has been micromanaged by her father Jamie, with whom Britney Spears is now in an all out legal battle against.