Film and television

Spears attended New York City's Professional Performing Arts School for three summers, beginning when she was eight years old. She has also performed as an understudy in 1991's Ruthless! and made appearance in several off-Broadway productions. When Spears was eleven, she joined the The New Mickey Mouse Club where she was featured from 1991–93. In the show, she appeared in various sketches and musical videos, mostly displaying her comedic and singing abilities. In late 1999, Spears appeard on an episode of ABC's sitcom Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, playing herself and she sang song "Soda Pop". Spears had her first starring role in the 2002 film, Crossroads. She played the character "Lucy", a Georgia high school graduate who decides to find her long-lost mother in Arizona, and travels along with her two friends who wish to visit California. The movie, along with Spears's performance, was poorly received by critics who mostly saw it as an advertisement for Spears's music and endorsements. Crossroads debut at number two on the box-office charts in its first weekend. The film grossed over US$60 million worldwide, about five times its budget of US$12 million. Spears received a Razzie Award for Worst Actress and for Worst Original Song "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman". In other films, Spears has made cameo appearances in Austin Powers in Goldmember in 2002 as herself, and Longshot in 2000 as a flight attendant. Spears has appeared on Saturday Night Live both as host and musical guest twice; first on May 13, 2000, and secondly on February 2, 2002 She also was a musical guest on October 18, 2003 with Halle Berry as host. In a September 2003 interview with Tucker Carlson of CNN, on the subject of the 2003 Iraq War, Spears said, "Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision he makes and should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens." The footage of this quote later appeared in Michael Moore's documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11. On March 30 2006, Spears was a guest-star on an episode of NBC's television show Will & Grace titled Buy, Buy Baby. She played "Amber-Louise", a closeted lesbian posing as a conservative Christian, to co-host with Jack McFarland on his talk show "JackTalk". NBC received criticism from conservative Christian groups for the episode. The episode was the third highest rated in the final season of the series. On May 28, 2007, Spears made a cameo appearance on the premire of the E! reality-show Sunset Tan. There were rumours that she had only appeared because her then-manager Larry Rudolph is one of the co-owners of the shop, a few weeks later, these rumours were confirmed to be true. NBC has a show in development reportedly titled Occasional Wife, with Matthew Perry as the lead. This supposed remake of a sitcom of the same name in the 1960's would also star Spears as the opposite since she has tested the role and received positive response.