As a TV star, Britney’s kid sister is all that and more
She’s been surrounded by celebrity just about all of her life, but Jamie Lynn Spears would have you believe she’s just another teenager blown away by the fact she gets to travel to Los Angeles to make TV shows, and they sometimes let her keep the clothes she wears on set.
But then Britney Spears‘ little sister, still kidlike and disarmingly polite at 13, makes a pretty good case for her innocence when she recounts her reaction to learning she would be starring in her own TV show.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that would be so cool!’ ” she recalls thinking when producer Dan Schneider told her one day over lunch that he wanted to take her out of the ensemble cast of the children’s variety show “All That” and put her in the spotlight.
The result, “Zoey 101,” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Nickelodeon. Spears stars as Zoey Brooks, a student at Pacific Coast Academy, formerly an exclusive all-boys boarding school.
Zoey, not to be intimidated by her swaggering, macho 13-year-old male counterparts, quickly begins to take charge – something Spears doubts she would be as eager to do in real life. “I’m a little more shy than Zoey, I’d say,” she admits.
The two are alike in some ways. Like Zoey, pink is Spears’ favorite color, and she loves wearing the same clothes as her character.
“All her clothes, I’m like, ‘Can I have ‘em?’ ” she says, laughing.
Spears has never been far from show business. By the time she was walking, big sister Britney had made her debut on “The New Mickey Mouse Club.” She was just 8 when Britney’s first album came out in 1999.
After going through what she calls her “tomboy stage,” she became interested in acting and began appearing in local plays in Louisiana. Her mother helped her land a commercial and a small role in her sister’s film “Crossroads.”
Then Nickelodeon came calling, asking her to audition for “All That,” the long-running variety show. Its alumni include Amanda Bynes and Nick Cannon, who went on to star in films and their own TV shows, as well as “Fat Albert” star Kenan Thompson.
As a gangly 11-year-old, Spears did an over-the-top impression of an 84-year-old bodyguard who pitches people out of windows and attacks them with leaf blowers, basing the character on her great-grandmother.
“Based on her audition, I would have added her to the cast of ‘All That’ even if she had not been a Spears,” says Schneider.
Britney was involved in putting “Zoey 101” together, writing its theme song, “Follow Me,” which Jamie Lynn sings.
She doesn’t know yet if Britney will make a guest appearance on the show, but adds it would be “really cool” if she did.
As for her own future, Spears is hoping “Zoey” does well enough to stay on the air for a few seasons. After that she’d like to look into making movies and attending college. What she’ll study is still up in the air.
“Oh, goodness, I don’t know,” she says, momentarily flustered. “I just want to go to college. When I get older, I’ll start thinking what I want to do.”
The birthday bunch
TV personality Hugh Downs is 84. Actress Florence Henderson is 71. TV host Pat O’Brien is 57. Magician Teller (Penn and Teller) is 57. Actor Ken Wahl (“Wiseguy”) is 48. Actress Meg Tilly is 45. Singer Rob Thomas (matchbox twenty) is 33. Actor Freddie Highmore (“Finding Neverland”) is 13.