The world knows all about Britney Spears and Madonna's kiss during the 2003 MTV Video Music Awardss, but people quickly forgot or didn't even know about this person sharing the stage alongside the two stars--Christina Aguilera.
The scandalous kiss between Spears and the Queen of Pop was caught on camera, however, before the cameras could show the kiss Madonna also shared with Aguilera, the screen promptly switched to Justin Timberlake.
"Christina got slighted a bit," said Alex Coletti, a producer of that year's VMAs. "It was never about how Madonna kissed Britney and Christina. It was always known as the 'Britney/Madonna kiss.' And I feel bad for that."
Due to the production team's decision to focus on Spears and Madonna's kiss, and even Timberlake's reaction; especially since they had been dating but had just broken up the year prior.
In fact, the decision to film Timberlake's reaction was premeditated by Coletti and the 2003 VMAs director Beth McCarthy-Miller.
"He probably was pissed that the camera guy was there, but if he's a pro, he knows it's going to be here, so it's like, 'I'm gonna give 'em something,'" Coletti continued. "And we knew where the gold was. You go where the shot is exciting."
Christina Aguilera Felt Left Out?
The entire world was so engrossed with Spears and her relationship with Timberlake that Aguilera did not have her moment with the "Like a Virgin" singer immortalized on live television.
The producers simply gave what the fans wanted, and what the audience expected: "[...] In the moment, she can follow anything and not be so rigidly scripted that she wouldn't take a chance on something. So, I think she knew to keep an eye on Justin."
Aguilera also addressed what happened years later in an interview with Andy Cohen. "I definitely saw the newspaper the next day, and it was like, 'Oh well, I guess I got left out of that.'"
However, she insisted that she did not mind that all the attention and headlines during that time were focused on Spears.
Infamous Britney Spears, Madonna, Christina Aguilera Kiss
According to reports, Coletti also acknowledges that whatever decision the production team could have made during that time would have still yielded the same results with Spears being the hot topic from the 2003 VMAs because of her persona and image.
"I do feel bad because the controversy was always going to be about Britney, just based on their images," he said. Britney was the sweet schoolgirl, and Christina had an edgier image. But I thought it was great to see them both up there together."
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