Revealed: Britney's Gay Ghostwriter, Sam Lansky

Ghost writers are commonplace for celebrities who wish to tell the tale of their lives through memoir, but Sam Lansky seems especially well-suited to have helped Britney Spears put her story on paper.

Lansky, who is reportedly the writer Spears worked with for her new memoir "The Woman in Me," is an openly gay journalist, novelist, and author of his own memoir – an impressive feat given his youth. British tabloid the Mirror recounted that though he's only 35, it's been seven years since Lansky published "The Gilded Razor" – an account of his youth, the Ivy League aspirations that did not come to fruition, his affairs with older men, and his struggles with addiction.

UK newspaper the Independent noted that the tagline for "The Woman in Me" calls the book "a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope," with the article's author, Annabel Nugent, writing, "The same – bar motherhood and fame – could be said of 'The Gilded Razor' (not to mention 2020's 'Broken People,' a novel that initially began as a memoir, about a sober, single gay man who works in media and turns to hallucinogens in hope of curing his self-doubt and crushing insecurities)."

"While the circumstances of their lives are wildly different (for one thing, Spears grew up poor in Kentwood, Louisiana), there is some comfort, I imagine, to be taken in the knowledge that the person writing your memoir knows a thing or two about facing terrible times themselves," Nugent posited.

Of Lansky's professional credentials, the Independent detailed that while he was still a college student, Lansky "blogged about music. He took up the hobby professionally after graduation, becoming a freelance music critic before venturing into the world of celebrity gossip."

His career as a journalist has seen him publish with "New York magazine, The Atlantic, Esquire, and the LGBT+ magazine Out," the article added.

"Notably, he is no stranger to the celebrity interview. In his tenure as west coast editor of Time magazine, where he remains a contributing editor, Lansky profiled a rarefied who's who of A-list stars." A sample: "Adele, Nicki Minaj, Timothée Chalamet, TJ Osborne, Johnny Depp, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bradley Cooper, Lorde, James and Dave Franco, Andrew Garfield, Meryl Streep, DJ Khaled, Carly Rae Jepsen, Madonna, Lily Allen and Kylie Minogue," the Independent detailed.

The article put Lansky's life into context with that of the global pop music icon whose life story he's reportedly ghostwritten. "Born in 1988, Lansky was 10 years old when Spears, then 16, released her debut single '...Baby One More Time.' He was 13 when she draped a yellow python around her neck and performed 'I'm a Slave 4 U' in one of the most iconic VMA moments of all time; 14 when she made her big-screen debut in the Shonda Rhimes-[written] drama 'Crossroads'; 15 when she tangled tongues with Madonna on stage in yet another history-making VMA appearance; 16 when she married Kevin Federline; 18 when she divorced him; 17 when she became a mum for the first time; and 19 when she had her very public breakdown and shaved her head in front of the cameras."

"All this is to say that Lansky grew up alongside Spears; by the time she was freed from her conservatorship, he was 33 and an established journalist in the entertainment industry. He lived her highs and lows as they happened in real time, his age and interests putting him in prime position to write a book that does its best not only to understand Spears, but also to situate her experience within the tabloid culture in which she grew up."

Which brings us back to the raves Spears' memoir is getting, as well as the plaudits Lansky received for his own memoir, which, the Independent recalled, "was well received; one critic called it 'the addiction memoir for the next generation,' with Lansky's writing praised for its candor and humor – two adjectives, incidentally, that also crop up on the jacket of Spears's new book."