The *8* other superstars who auditioned for the role of Rachel McAdams in the movie "The Notebook" - and the runner-up was Britney Spears

It was Rachel McAdams who eventually won the role of Ally alongside Noah, played by Ryan Gosling, in the 2004 blockbuster film "The Notebook," but it could have been many other women, including Britney Spears, according to multiple media reports.

Now, more than 20 years later, Spears' audition tape has been released, and in the two-and-a-half-minute clip, she gets teary-eyed for the role as she confides to Noah, played by Gosling, that she is marrying Ron, played by James Marsden. 'I'm not staying,' Spears said in part of her monologue, according to E! News." I called and said, 'I'm not staying,' but no one answered the phone. Noah, I can't marry two people. I'm marrying Ron, so I'm leaving, okay?"

.

Michael Barry, the film's casting director, said of Spears, "Britney wasn't just good, she was phenomenal. It was a difficult decision. Britney blew us away. My jaw was on the floor. I was overwhelmed. I was absolutely overwhelmed. She brought her A-game that day."

[6 [The film was not released until 2004, but Spears auditioned for it in 2002. In her memoir, The Woman in Me (out today), Spears expresses relief that she did not have to go back in front of the camera immediately after Crossroads, and that she could instead focus on her music. The casting for [The Notebook] came down to me and Rachel McAdams. It would have been fun to reunite with Ryan Gosling, who co-starred in The Mickey Mouse Club, but I'm glad we didn't," she wrote. Had I done so, I would have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night instead of working on the album In the Zone."

Of playing Lucy Wagner in "Crossroads," Spears wrote, "I was a fictional character. Living a life that's half me and half a fictional character is messed up. After a while, you don't know what's real." [Claire Danes, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Kate Bosworth, Jamie King, Mandy Moore, and Jessica Biel (who would eventually marry Spears' ex, Justin Timberlake) were among the star-studded were contenders. (13]

Gosling later dated co-star McAdams and later told GQ magazine, "I mean, God bless 'The Notebook. 'Rachel and I's love story is like the people in that movie. Rachel and my love story is much more romantic than that."