November 24, 2008

Britney Spears Doc Shows 'Where She Is And Where She Is Going,' Manager Larry Rudolph Says

By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Matt Elias (MTV.com)

Britney Spears' longtime manager Larry Rudolph has been by his client's side as she stages her comeback with the release of Circus and her documentary, For the Record (premiering on MTV November 30).

"I was very involved in putting [the film] together, so I saw the process," Rudolph told MTV News on Thursday night at a media preview of the film in Los Angeles. "It was a very interesting process. We made a deal from the very beginning - everybody sort of shook hands with the understanding that there were going to be no boundaries on this thing. We were going to make an open and honest film and that we weren't going to leave the good stuff on the cutting room floor.

"We went there with it," he added. "You see Britney in a light you're not used to seeing her in. She's intelligent, she's introspective, she's honest. By the end of the film you really understand who she is in a way that you just never imagined. ... It is so not a puff piece."

Rudolph, who is credited with shaping Britney's early career, wouldn't speak about how he and Spears reunited after a falling-out in 2007. At the time, many speculated that she fired him for encouraging her to enter rehab.

Focusing the conversation on the doc, Rudolph insisted that it shows everyone what he already knows about the singer: "She's got a unique set of talents. She's got a blend of certain talents. She's a great singer. She's a great dancer. She's got an amazing image. She's incredibly likable," he listed. "She's got this intangible thing that makes her a star."

For the Record is part of the game plan for reintroducing Britney, the pop star rather than the tabloid magnet, back to her fans, Rudolph said. The movie makes a case for Spears' future, by giving the audience "a good taste of the music and where she is and where she is going."

The next step in Brit's comeback is a video for the album's second single, "Circus," shot by "I'm a Slave 4 U" director Francis Lawrence, set to debut around the release of the album on December 2. "It is amazing," Rudolph said. "The video is extraordinary. It is really, really good."

Although Blackout came out only a year ago, Rudolph said that this was an organically right time for her to put out new music again. "It wasn't that there was a rush," he explained. "The album got completed on its natural timetable. And it just was the right time to put it out. So we decided to put it out on her birthday and make it a birthday present to her and to the world."