{"id":854,"date":"2007-02-20T18:34:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-20T18:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html"},"modified":"2007-02-20T18:34:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-20T18:34:00","slug":"oh-my-stars-and-crosses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html","title":{"rendered":"Oh, My Stars and Crosses! Britney’s Long, Strange Faith(s) Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britney Spears’ much-balleyhooed head-shaving meltdown over the weekend had (at least) one religiously confusing aspect to it. While she was getting a white-and-pink cross tattooed on her lower hip, the former teen idol sported a large Star of David necklace that at one point was on backwards so it hung down her back–facing the many cameras that were filming her through the tattoo parlor window. Apparently, the one-time Southern Baptist has been wearing the star<\/a> since January as a gesture of solidarity with her recent (Jewish)<\/a> boyfriend.<\/p>\n

A brief religious history of Britney Spears, for those who need a refresher:<\/p>\n

1981-2003: Britney is raised a Southern Baptist, and touts her faith as her inspiration for remaining a virgin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2003: Britney becomes friends with Madonna, who brings her into the celebrity Kabbalah fold.<\/p>\n

January 2006: Britney dabbles in Hinduism<\/a>, taking her baby son to be blessed at a Malibu Hindu Temple.<\/p>\n

May 2006: Britney splits from her buddy Madge and renounces Kabbalah<\/a>, declaring, “my baby is my religion.”<\/p>\n

February 2007: Newly divorced, Britney briefly dates Isaac Cohen (hmm, do we think he’s Jewish?) and is photographed wearing a large Star of David necklace on the party circuit even after they break up.<\/p>\n

Bloggers and entertainment reporters are all atwitter about the possible reasons behind Britney’s bizarre behavior, speculating about everything from addiction to post-partum depression to irreversible follicle damage from harsh chemical hair dyes. But whatever the specific reason for her weekend oddities, no one can deny that this is a young woman who seems lost and overwhelmed in a media climate that she herself works really hard to perpetuate. It sounds more exhausting than fun. And not a little sad that she can’t even find a single faith to be a lasting port in the long, long storm of her life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Britney Spears’ much-balleyhooed head-shaving meltdown over the weekend had (at least) one religiously confusing aspect to it. While she was getting a white-and-pink cross tattooed on her lower hip, the former teen idol sported a large Star of David necklace that at one point was on backwards so it hung down her back–facing the many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities"],"yoast_head":"\nOh, My Stars and Crosses! Britney's Long, Strange Faith(s) Journey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oh, My Stars and Crosses! Britney's Long, Strange Faith(s) Journey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Britney Spears’ much-balleyhooed head-shaving meltdown over the weekend had (at least) one religiously confusing aspect to it. While she was getting a white-and-pink cross tattooed on her lower hip, the former teen idol sported a large Star of David necklace that at one point was on backwards so it hung down her back–facing the many…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-02-20T18:34:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/BritneyBald0702220.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hrossi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Oh, My Stars and Crosses! Britney's Long, Strange Faith(s) Journey","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Oh, My Stars and Crosses! Britney's Long, Strange Faith(s) Journey","og_description":"Britney Spears’ much-balleyhooed head-shaving meltdown over the weekend had (at least) one religiously confusing aspect to it. While she was getting a white-and-pink cross tattooed on her lower hip, the former teen idol sported a large Star of David necklace that at one point was on backwards so it hung down her back–facing the many…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2007-02-20T18:34:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/BritneyBald0702220.jpg"}],"author":"hrossi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html","name":"Oh, My Stars and Crosses! Britney's Long, Strange Faith(s) Journey","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/BritneyBald0702220.jpg","datePublished":"2007-02-20T18:34:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-02-20T18:34:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/BritneyBald0702220.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/BritneyBald0702220.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/02\/oh-my-stars-and-crosses.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Oh, My Stars and Crosses! Britney’s Long, Strange Faith(s) Journey"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687","name":"hrossi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","caption":"hrossi"},"description":"Holly Lebowitz Rossi is Beliefnet's Health and Relationships Editor. A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Divinity School, she has more than a decade of experience writing about religion and spirituality for Newsweek, The Washington Post, Spa Finder, Sojourners, Search, and many other publications. Her commentaries have also been heard on NPR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Things Considered.\" When not at her desk, you can find her baking, in her garden, or rockin' out in water aerobics class. She lives in Arlington, Mass. Visit http:\/\/www.hollyrossi.com for more.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/hrossi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}