Like many of the 950 and counting who have turned Britney Spears' . . . More Time feedback page into a veritable referendum on the singer's lasting significance, this fan has begun to suspect that something's amiss in Spears' career. Well, sure, that's part of it. At the moment, competition in the diva-lite field is particularly intense, with Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore and Jessica Simpson among the bodacious blond teens competing for Billboard dominance. But the bigger story is that, after one year of Britney in the limelight, certain sad truths about Spears' career have come to light, and the meaning of her cultural ubiquity has begun to shift.
Child prodigies become adults.
The clip finds her leaving her old boyfriend behind and taking a bus to somewhere . . . While a TV tabloid recently reported that an old bayou beau in Louisiana has mother Spears' approval, fantasizing fans want to believe Britney's dallying with that braided moppet from N'Sync or a member of the Backstreet Boys. A former film-school student at both Stanford and NYU, Dark is renowned for crafting the most decadent XXX on the market. Twisted and fevered . . . Every treat has a gooey center, but beware the few that slip past containing the occasional jagged piece of glass.