On her morning radio show, former cast member Christie Hayes delivered a shocking revelation about a very special guest star that the long-running programme almost landed.
The pop princess Britney Spears was supposed to make a cameo on Home and Away twenty years ago, according to Hayes, who was joking on Hobart’s 100.9.
“I remember being quite happy. Britney Spears was a fan of Home and Away when she was in the UK, according to Hayes, who played Kirsty Phillips from 2000 to 2005 and then again from 2008 to 2009. “They said she was a lover of watching Home and Away when she was in England, but it was never aired in America.
She indicated a desire to be on the programme. Britney Spears wants to come on Home and Away; does anyone object?, our producer Russel announced at a cast meeting.
It appears that someone did.
According to Hayes, Ray Meagher, who won a Gold Logie for playing the grumpy Alf year after year, believed that Spears’ appearance would “ruin the illusion of the event.” But in the end, he was won over.
Hayes claimed that Spears was to appear in a brief scene in which she would pass several characters, including Hayes, and they would all ask her, “Hey, what are you doing in Summer Bay?” to which she was to respond, “It’s just a nice town.”
In the credits, Spears’ persona would be identified as “Beautiful girl.”
Even while Hayes acknowledged that the entire scenario was absurd, she couldn’t contain her excitement over being included in it.
Spears, however, withdrew from the Home and Away “last minute because regrettably 9/11 happened,” claims Hayes.
Late in 2001, Spears visited Australia and arrived in Sydney the day after the terrorist attacks. Spears spent a lot of time in Australia as a result of the flight ban imposed over US airspace in the days that followed. She did, however, postpone her media appearances, including, it has now been revealed, that Home and Away role, and she would also postpone her tours of Europe and Latin America.
Spears has a long history of on-screen appearances. She began her career on the Mickey Mouse Club, which also included Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera among its former members.
Following her success in music, she made guest appearances as herself on shows like Glee, Kenan & Kel, Punk’d, The Simpsons, Jane the Virgin, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch (where she was friends with Melissa Joan Hart, the show’s lead). In cameo appearances on Will & Grace and How I Met Your Mother, she took on the roles of other characters.
Spears was supposed to appear in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, but things didn’t work out.
