Britney Spears And Madonna 'Tease' Fans In 'Me Against The Music' Video

'I wanted it to be a bit of a cat-and-mouse sort of game,' director Paul Hunter explains.

By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Matt Elias

It was the changing of the guard - or at least the meeting of two of the most influential pop divas of all time - when Britney Spears and Madonna hooked up for Brit's single "Me Against the Music," from 2003's In the Zone. The superstars tantalize the audience (and each other) throughout the flirty video.

"Madonna is an icon of an earlier generation, and then Britney of the newer generation. She was at her peak at that point," director Paul Hunter told MTV News about the video. "So it was a challenge to kind of bring both of the worlds together. I wanted it to be a bit of a cat-and-mouse sort of game and a little bit of a foreplay between Britney and Madonna and just sort of tease the audience."

A few years back, Britney revealed that the collaboration came together thanks to the 2003 VMAs - you know, the show where Britney and Madonna locked lips. "I was in the middle of rehearsals for the VMAs and I played her the song, and she was like, 'That's your first single, right?' " Britney recalled. "I was like, 'Yeah, hopefully.' She was like, 'I really like it.' I was like, 'Really?' I was like, 'Well, you wanna do it with me?' She said, 'Yeah.' "

Hunter said the video was all about setting Spears and Madonna apart. "I try to play opposites, when you have Britney in dark and Madonna in white," he said. "And then we see them kind of dance around the bed ... and you think they're gonna get on top of each other and do something crazy."

But Spears said nothing crazy was supposed to happen; it was all about teasing people. "I never actually see Madonna or touch her; I just feel her presence there," she said. "[The song is] basically about just going to a club and letting yourself go and battling with whoever is around you and battling against the music as well. This is my first time doing a collaboration, and it's with Miss Madonna herself."

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1626705/20091119/spears_britney.jhtml

Britney Spears Took Aim At The Media In 'Piece Of Me' Video

'When she goes for it, she goes for it,' director Wayne Isham says of tongue-in-cheek clip.

By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Matt Elias

Britney Spears might not have been at her personal peak when she released Blackout in 2007, but she also wasn't afraid to show the world that she was in on the joke.

On her single "Piece of Me," Britney sings about how every move she makes is reported by the media. And what better place to film a video for the song than in a nightclub with reporters and paparazzi trying to capture Brit's every move?

"On 'Piece of Me,' I really just wanted to put the mirror back onto the whole experience," director Wayne Isham told MTV News about the video's concept, which finds Britney flirting with boys and dancing around the club. "You can see that she had that kind of confidence. And, literally, every take became a more and more confident take, so that she could have fun with what was going on. Not being over-the-top sarcastic, but ... having a laugh at everything that was going on around her, with confidence."

At the time, Britney had become a tabloid staple. And, even when she was trying to get her career back on track, it seems the paparazzi were there to mess with any comeback plans. "She was late," Isham recalled. "People made a big thing about it, [but] how could she not be late, when you have 50, 65, 75 people running down the street chasing her car? That was a long day for the crew. It was literally a 20-hour day for the crew. She was there for the last six hours of it. She got there late, showed up and just kicked ass."

Isham encouraged the pop star to get loose for the video and (literally) let her hair down.

"The very last dance of the piece, she had her hair up, and I go, 'Can you just do one for me with your hair down?' She dropped her hair down," Isham recalled. "You'll see we intercut with her hair up and her hair down. That was the last piece. She just rocked it from her heart. She choreographed that last dance at the very end. She did that on her own and said, 'Let's go for it.' "

The video, which earned the singer three VMAs in 2008, would prove that no matter what was happening in her life, she could bring it. "When she goes for it, she goes for it," Isham said. "You know, it's about the story line, it's about her dance, it's about her appearance," he said. "I just love that she's one of the few that are still left that step up to what music videos are about."

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1626910/20091123/spears_britney.jhtml

Britney Spears' 'Womanizer' Clip Proved She Still Had It

'We just need to tell everybody that she's OK,' director Joseph Kahn says of the first video after Britney's rough patch.

By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Matt Elias

By the time 2008 rolled around, Britney Spears had once again taken her rightful place as the pre-eminent princess of pop. There was no question about it: Britney was back and "Womanizer" confirmed it. After all, what better way to show everyone you're back than to appear naked in a sauna?

"It was an actual sauna and we built a big tent around it ... and Britney, naked again. I guess I have one of the best jobs in the world," Joseph Kahn, who also shot Britney in the nude for her "Toxic" clip, told MTV News. "I was like, 'You know, if we do this video, and she went through all this work to get a new paint job, I was gonna show off the paint job - she's gonna be naked in this video.' "

The idea, however, like so many videos before, was all Britney's suggestion. "She pitched to me a very detailed idea of what she wanted to do," Kahn explained. "She wanted to dress up in costume, she wanted to follow her man to work, and she eventually wanted to show at the end that she is all three of those women."

He went on to say that this video was the one where he and Britney would prove that she was still at the top of her game. "It was, like, her first video that no one really knew if she could even come on set, you know? It was just a big question as to you know, like, what would that video look like?" he said. "What shape would she be in? Can she really dance? Can she perform? Who is she at this point?

" 'Womanizer,' for me, was a great experience on a personal level, because it completely verified that she was coming back," he continued. "By the time I worked with her on 'Womanizer,' you know, that was the Britney that I knew and it was a fun experience for me."

Kahn had to basically turn the video around overnight, and it was worth all the hard work - the video quickly became a fan favorite. "By the time it got out - and the beautiful thing about the Internet is that you get instant reaction - the reaction seemed to be very positive. I'm going to sound like such a wuss, but I think I cried," he said. "That sounds super lame, but come on, man - that's five days of some serious stress. And I had to end the video on her smiling, for sure. Like, we just need to tell everybody that she's OK."

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1626947/20091123/spears_britney.jhtml