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Who is Felicia Culotta, Britney Spears’ former assistant? She was the teacher in the ‘ … Baby, One More Time’ video – but why did Brit cut her out?
STORYLynn Farah
Culotta saw Britney grow up from the age of 5, was the singer’s assistant from 1998 to 2007, got a lot of airtime around the #FreeBritney movement, and took part in The New York Times’ Britney docus
Directed by Jon M. Chu, the big-screen adaptation of Britney Spears’ memoir The Woman in Me is continuing to create buzz, this time as her former pal and assistant Felicia Culotta shares her two cents on who should be cast in the biopic’s key roles.
Who is Felicia Culotta, you might ask? She was there when Britney first burst onto the scene with the release of her debut single “ … Baby One More Time” in 1998. Culotta also got a lot of airtime around the #FreeBritney movement – something the singer herself was not happy about.
Here’s what to know about the woman who was by Spears’ side as she experienced the best and worst of fame.
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Who was Felicia Culotta before the fame?
Culotta said she first got to know Spears when the singer was just five years old, per Us Weekly, adding that everyone knew “her talent was just extraordinary”. Culotta started working for Spears in 1998, a year after the artist’s signing with Jive Records. She was a nanny in New York when Brit’s musical career started to take off, per PopSugar. Lynne Spears, Britney’s mother, asked Culotta to act as a “chaperone” to the young musician. Culotta and Lynne have remained close friends, according to a February 2021 interview with Us Weekly.
Felicia Culotta was there during Britney Spears’ dark times
In Spears’ memoir, The Woman in Me, the singer revealed that she had an abortion when she was 19 years old. She was dating Justin Timberlake and said that he believed they were too young to start a family. She detailed how Culotta and Timberlake were there when she took the abortion pills. She added that she was “messed up” for a while afterwards.
Felicia Culotta was in Britney Spears’ most famous video
The iconic music video for Spears’ hit debut single “ … Baby One More Time” featured none other than her assistant. The team behind the video suddenly realised they needed a teacher, but did not have the budget for it, per New York Post. Culotta said it was at that point that Spears volunteered her for the job. “I literally went to the Salvation Army, which wasn’t far, and got this polyester suit and these old-lady brown shoes and a pair of glasses with no lenses and just simply stood at the desk,” she said.