For years, one of the juiciest pieces of Britney Spears trivia making the rounds online was this: the iconic "Oops!… I Did It Again" album cover was allegedly shot at Lenny Kravitz's house. A spicy little rumor that had just enough star power and early-2000s cool factor to seem plausible. Reddit loved it. Instagram swallowed it whole.
On the 25th anniversary of Britney's blockbuster sophomore album, the long-standing myth has officially been debunked, and the truth is still very Y2K fabulous.
So, Where Was It Shot?
The legendary cover was shot at Quixote Studios in West Hollywood, California. It features a baby-faced Brit in that bronze whipstitched crop top standing among a cascade of chandelier crystals.
"I can confirm the album cover was not shot at Lenny's house," Ruth Levy, executive producer to the shoot's photographer Mark Seliger, tells Page Six. While Seliger and Kravitz are tight, that's as far as the connection goes.
The real mastermind behind the look was production designer Walter Barnett, who built not one but two sets for the shoot, one for the album cover and another for the "Oops!... I Did It Again" single cover. In DMs to fan archive account BritneysVault, Barnett spilled that he drew inspiration from 1960s interiors, leafing through vintage books and magazines, because, fun fact, Google Images and Pinterest didn't exist yet.
A Look at the Set Design
Barnett upholstered a semi-cylindrical backdrop with gold button-tufted pleather and then hung strands of chandelier crystals from fine wire so they would cascade over Britney's shoulders like glamorized fairy dust.
Zoë Kravitz, Teenage Fangirl
Even though the photo wasn't taken at his house, Lenny Kravitz still had a cameo in the Britney lore. Back in 2000, the rocker brought his then-11-year-old daughter, Zoë Kravitz, to meet the pop phenom on the set in L.A.
"My dad surprised me," Zoë told Variety in 2020. "Britney Spears is still a big deal to me."
Beyond the sparkly crystals and belly-baring fashion, "Oops!… I Did It Again" was a certified record-shattering monster. It sold 1.32 million copies in its first week, making Britney the first female artist in U.S. history to hit that number.