Britney Spears,Paris Hilton and the best of fashion week

After much build-up, at last the young diva made her big-screen acting debut - with a healthy dash of the more proven skill, singing - in "Crossroads" (2002). Directed by Tamra Davis, the critically panned flick focused on three childhood friends on a road trip of self-discovery. Neither the mawkish film nor Spears' candy-coated, “aw-shucks” performance were exactly Oscar material, but it did appeal to a certain audience of die-hard Spears fans - namely the preteen and teen female and occasional smitten male. A blight on an otherwise world-conquering 2002 - including opening her own New York restaurant NYLA (which became a spectacular failure) and continuing to tour around the globe -was Spears’ very public break-up with Timberlake, amid sordid rumors of infidelity on her part. On the defensive, Timberlake rather ungentlemanly confirmed to much feigned shock that he and Spears had, indeed, put an end to her much-discussed virginity (as well as latter outing her as the cheater in his future solo hit single and video, “Cry Me a River”). Amidst all the professional solo triumphs and personal set-backs, she found time for a brief cameo in the comedy hit, "Austin Powers: Goldmember" and to record songs for a variety of film soundtracks.

By 2003-04, the media saturation of Spears and her fellow teeny-bopper idols (including Aguilera, Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC) resulted in the beginnings of the inevitable backlash, with the singer making news more for her personal escapades than professional activities. In a move many saw as desperate for all parties involved, Spears made headlines when, during an appearance on the 2003 “MTV Music Video Awards,” she opened the show in a musical sequence opposite her idol Madonna and her reported rival Aguilera, in which she shared a lip-lock with the Material Girl. That was followed by the release of her fourth album, In the Zone, in which the singer further pushed provocative boundaries in an obvious attempt to establish herself as a grown-up artist and to capitalize on her always buzzed-about sexpot charms. The album received a critical drubbing in most quarters and did not entirely live up to commercial expectations. The disc still provided hit singles, including the ubiquitous dance floor favorite "Toxic" and its controversial, overtly sexy music video, which was briefly relegated to late-night-only airings on MTV. Oddly, during the promotional period for the album, Spears appeared in many increasingly provocative, skin-baring photographs, including a recreation of a 1960s-era Angie Dickinson shot with her bare bottom peaking out of a strategically stretched sweater for the cover of Esquire, yet she claimed in interviews she did not approve the shots, still trying to project - albeit, unconvincingly at this point - an innocent, girl-next-door persona.
The wild child beneath the surface was bubbling over into her public persona, with the mainstream and tabloid press endlessly chronicling every juicy aspect of her behavior - which allegedly included late night partying and hook-ups with celebrity lotharios Fred Durst and Colin Farrell. The dam seemingly broke loose in January of 2004, when the singer shocked fans with a surprise marriage to her childhood friend Jason Alexander in an apparently booze-fueled New Year's Eve wedding in Las Vegas - something she called "a joke that had gone too far." The marriage was annulled within 55 hours (with a lucrative pay-off to Alexander), but that did not stop Spears' shocking second rush to the altar later that same year - this time to seemingly gold-digging back-up dancer, Kevin Federline. This union was not without its controversy either, as at the start of their romance, Federline was an expectant father involved in a relationship with actress Shar Jackson - who had already bore him one child not long before. Their engagement was announced in June, with plans for a fall 2004 wedding. Somewhere between romances, Spears continued to self-promote with faux-revelatory documentary specials on MTV, ABC and E! networks, and she performed a surprisingly uninspired live version of her universally panned Onyx Hotel tour for the HBO special

Appearances on a myriad of specials and awards shows and a guest stint on the ABC sitcom "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" (ABC/WB, 1996-2003) helped keep her in the minds and hearts of the public in between record releases. When her follow-up effort, Oops!... I Did It Again dropped in 2000, her audience welcomed it with open wallets. Another round of multi-platinum sales were made, and the video for the lead-off title track won the performer more kudos, proving her dance talents with an eye-catching routine in a fetching red vinyl catsuit. When Spears appeared at that year’s “MTV Video Music Awards,” tearing off a man's tuxedo to reveal a flesh colored body suit, her sexy image was solidified. Indeed, it became central to her routinely controversial image, with fans and media debating over lurid topics such as whether or not the young star had received breast implants. Spears' sex appeal was tempered for her more family value-minded fans by her sweet and seemingly chaste relationship with longtime boyfriend (and former Mouseketeer) Justin Timberlake - by then, the lead singer of the hugely popular boy band *NSYNC, which shared the same musical management as Spears. Expressing herself, showing her versatility and growing up in the public eye while losing very few of her original preteen fans, the singer seemed poised to stand the test of time.
Though potential roles in the TV series "Dawson's Creek" (WB, 1998-2003) and the feature "Scary Movie" (2000) came to naught - reportedly due to her busy schedule - new projects with Spears' name attached sprung up frequently. Rumors of her co-starring with hot Latin singer Ricky Martin in a sequel to the 1987 hit musical, "Dirty Dancing," were not realized, but the singer/dancer made another major impression on TV viewers. Following a second erotically charged performance on the 2001 “MTV Music Video Awards,” during which she undulated in a barely-there harem outfit to her new song "I'm a Slave for U" while an albino python wrapped around her neck, viewers of both sexes were blown away yet again by her brazen “barely legal” performance. Britney-mania continued with her saucy performance in the HBO live concert, "Britney Spears: Live in Las Vegas" (2001) - a production that demonstrated her adult sex appeal as much as it did her propensity to lip-synch. Not satisfied with just conquering the music market, Spears tried her hand at publishing, co-authoring with her mother the autobiographical tome Britney Spears' Heart to Heart (2000) and the novel A Mother's Gift (2001) - the latter of which was turned into the ABC Family Channel telepic, "Brave New Girl" (2004), which Spears and her mother co-executive produced.

As a newly married woman in September of 2004, Spears increasingly found herself the subject of snarky bloggers and tabloid magazines. Much of it she brought on herself, as she was constantly photographed leaving gas station bathrooms barefoot and chowing down on Cheetos while cruising around town in a number of luxury vehicles. Worse yet, she often looking disheveled and messy coming in and out of seemingly every fast food restaurant in the greater Los Angeles area. And interestingly enough to the public - she seemed not to care what people thought of her or her new husband. This was most apparent when Spears and Federline sold home movies taken during their courtship to UPN, resulting in the May, 2005 premiere of their reality show, "Britney & Kevin: Chaotic" - complete with the questionable catchphrase: “Can you handle our truth?” By this time, it seemed the answer was no - and that no one cared to. Critics were less than kind, to say the least. In fact, the show made the couple an even bigger laughing stock than before, what with the constant stream of nonsensical baby-talk, mugging close-ups and uncomfortable pawing of one another. But Spears seemed happy - especially after giving birth to her first child, Sean Preston in September, 2005.