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Sex appeal is to Britney Spears what special effects are to The Matrix. Just last week Madame Tussauds
unveiled a wax figure of the starit doesnt sing, but it straddles a pole and has inflatable breasts that heave to the music.
Since she debuted as a pigtailed 16-year-old in 1998, the former Mouseketeer has morphed from a schoolgirl heartthrob to a
lap-dance fantasy. And the music? Does it matter? Spears has sold more records in four years than Madonna has in the last
decade. Though each Britney CD has sold fewer copies than the last, her celebrity stature continues to climb. Shes appearing
bottomless on the cover of Esquire and shirtless in Las Vegas. Britney will always be bigger than the critics who hate her.
This latest round of overexposure (aimed at the postpubescent crowd this time) coincides with her
fourth album, In the Zone, though its hard to say if anyone will notice the great soundtrack behind the perpetual peep show.
The recordcreated by everyone from Moby to R. Kellyis actually pretty amazing. Its beats are crisp and club-savvy, its production
inspired. All thats missing is the singer: Spearss breathy voice and orgasmic groans are simply decoration.
OK, so Madonna cant sing, eitherand she might be Spearss greatest role model. I remember being in my living
room and watching her on TV. Id dance around in my short tops and sing and dream about being her. But Spears isnt quite Material
Girl material. The 21-year-old icon is in an awkward phasesomewhere between a puppeteered kid act and savvy pop seductress.
Its hard to tell who, if anyone, is under all the shifting images. In person, the hunt doesnt get much easier. Backstage in
her SNL dressing room, a chatty Spears checks her makeup frequently in the large mirror. She is super-amped after sucking
down a Starbucks Frappuccino, even bouncy in a pep-squad sort of way. Shed be annoying if she werent so sweet and hospitable.
But all the caffeine doesnt make her really talk. Britney avoids answering tough questions directly, bobbing and weaving like
a politician. Q: Do you feel you have more control of your career now than when you were a Svengali-ed teen act? A: People
talk about teen this or that, but in the end, its just pop music, which is popular music, and it can only get better. Q: What
effect do you think your steamy performances are having on kids? A: Its a visual thing. Thats why Im here right now, because
I dreamed of these moments. Kids need that. If they dont dream, they have what? Thats what makes you feel spiritual, connected
with God. But dont take it too literally. Just watch the performance, be drawn in. And if you dont like it, change the channel.
For better or worse, Spears got media training early on. When it pops up in otherwise casual conversation,
it sounds like a beauty contestants rehearsed monologue: I love children. My ultimate dream five years from now would be to
have kids, have a husband. The most unrehearsed moments are slightly sadrevealing a strangely cloistered kid who seems to
have spent way too much time performing and not enough time living. When Spears talks about the South Asian musical influences
on In the Zone, she says shes been into a lot of Indian spiritual religions. When asked if one of them is Hinduism, she says,
Whats that? Is it like kabbalah?
Spears entered her first talent show at the age of 6 and moved from Kentwood, La., to Orlando, Fla.,
when she became a Mouseketeer at 11. Along with such prefab creations as the Backstreet Boys and N Sync, she was signed to
Jive in 1996 and promoted ad nauseam by a grunge-weary MTV. The most titillating of the teen packa professed virgin who was
dating the cutest guy in N Syncshe outgrew the grade-school audience after her first album and lost them when the news broke
that she had finally, you know, done it . Justin said it on Barbara Walters, says Spears. The world knew after he frickin
told them all. What am I supposed to say, No, I didnt? Can you say Im a little bitter with men? Just a little.
Spearss affair and breakup with Justin Timberlake was a tabloid event of Bennifer proportions. It was really
hard, she says. There was a time when I was like, OK, Im over men. Theyre mean. For like six months, not a single thing happened.
Not like they werent drawn to me, but there wasnt a single real attraction. Im like, Whats happening? I know Im not a lesbian.
Now its reported that shes hooked up with a married backup dancer. Spears says shes not dating anyone. My personal life is
no ones business, she says. But I can understand the infatuation. I mean, st, Im a fan. Me with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.
Im like, Oh my God. They are so cute!
Not everyone thinks Britneys so cute. Kendel Ehrlich,
wife of Marylands governor, recently told an audience at a conference against domestic violence that she would shoot Spears
if she had a gun. Many a mom in the audience applauded. Why? Why are they mad at me? Spears says, claiming not to know about
the incident. Its hard to tell if shes actually this clueless or if shes pulled the emergency rip cord labeled denial. Why
are they not going at Christina [Aguilera]? Have they seen what she has on? I know Im acting like a 4-year-old right now,
Well, look at her! But Beyonce dresses provocatively. Why dont they say something about her? What is too sexy to them? My
family, we walked around the house naked, we really did. By the time I was 13, my dad was like, Uh, Britney, its time to start
covering yourself up. Im very free like that.
For Spears, freedom is sometimes just another word for nothing left to lose. At the SNL rehearsal,
she finishes a frenetic dance number and plops down on the stage, her legs wide open to a crew of at least 30 people, mostly
men. She appears oblivious to the effect shes having. But is she really always this uncalculating? She, or the people around
her, must be aware that her current push to be viewed as an adult is attracting a whole new kind of fan who can smirk at her
music while leering at her body. Take that Esquire cover shoot. I did feel kind of weird after those photos, says Spears,
sounding sheepish for the first time during the interview. I was in a moment. I had, like, eight Red Bulls and said, OK, lets
do it. I learned my lesson and you wont see me like that for a while. Im kinda over it myself. Not that its dirty or tacky,
but it is really revealing and I wouldnt want my kid, at 21, to be dressing like that.
And
she probably means it. She really is an all-American, Dorito-eating girlor would like to be. But then shed have to stop being
Britney.
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