German Jews Horrified by Britney Holocaust Role
Britney Spears may hit the silver screen as the star of a Holocaust-era tragedy.
June 24, 2009 — -- After the 2002 cinematic flop "Crossroads," few would have been surprised if teen-talent-turned-adult-disaster Britney Spears never again appeared on the silver screen. According to reports this week, though, Spears is weighing a return to acting -- and it is a comeback that Jews in Germany are viewing with extreme distaste.
Spears, who is currently in the process of successfully resuscitating her recently languishing music career with her global "Circus" tour, is reportedly reviewing a script for a film tentatively titled "The Yellow Star of Sophia and Eton." The flick would see her playing a character named Sophia LaMont who travels back in time to fall in love with a Jewish concentration camp prisoner named Eton. In a tricky critique of ongoing anti-Semitism, the script concludes with the lovebirds travelling back to the present day before being killed by Nazis.
Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has said she is horrified at the prospect of Britney making a Holocaust film. "In films that deal with the Holocaust, the script should be carefully chosen and the cast picked with care," Knobloch told the German tabloid Bild. "It is reprehensible to combine the issue of the Holocaust with Britney Spears in an attempt to secure financing for the film 'The Yellow Star of Sophia and Eton.' Ethical considerations should have priority."
Spears' music career got off to an impressive start and she quickly became one of the most successful acts of all time, having sold more than 87 million albums. But the 27-year-old's image has taken a hit in recent years with a seemingly unending series of scandals involving custody of her two boys, substance abuse problems and a number of salacious pictures circulating across the Internet.
Whether her presence on the cast of the new film would be enough to secure funding remains questionable. Her first film was universally panned and she won the Golden Raspberry award in 2002 for worst actress. The "Circus" tour is scheduled to make a stop in Berlin at the end of July.