With just two weeks to go before the release of her much-anticipated (and recently leaked) third album, My December, EW.com has learned that Kelly Clarkson fired her management team Monday night (June 11). A SonyBMG source confirms the split between Clarkson and The Firm's Jeff Kwatinetz, and hinted that internal bickering between SonyBMG and Clarkson about the songwriting and direction of My December likely played a role with their parting.''He exacerbated a thermonuclear situation,'' says one source close to the situation. ''Jeff did everything he could to control Kelly and her career suffered. He should have steered her in the right direction.''
The Firm issued a statement on June 12 saying, ''Kelly Clarkson is an enormously talented artist. We are pleased to have served as her managers during her well-deserved rise to stardom and are proud of the role we played in backing her creative choices. We believed in Kelly from the day we met her and believe in her now. We have only the best wishes and hopes for her in the future.''
