Bye, Bye, Bye

Image credit: Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake: Steve Granitz/wireimage.com

'CELEBRITY' JEOPARDY Timberlake and Spears join the group of celebs who couldn't make a relationship work

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She's not a girl, not yet a woman, but she is apparently a free agent. In London this week to promote her film ''Crossroads,'' Britney Spears all but spelled it out: She and Justin Timberlake have split. Their breakup had been rumored for weeks, but until now, it had been apparent only in ambiguous signals -- they no longer appeared in public together, she stopped wearing a diamond ''friendship'' ring he gave her last summer, they were spotted in nightclubs on opposite coasts dancing into the wee hours with others (he with a mystery brunette in Hollywood, she with model Marcus Schenkenberg in New York).

The couple themselves, however, had emphatically denied the breakup. Britney denied it in an MTV interview in early March, her mom dismissed the rumors on her daughter's website, and the couple's publicist said on March 20, ''They love each other very much and have not broken up.'' Five days later, however, at a London press conference, Britney said, ''I would not say I was in an intense relationship with anyone at the moment.'' Two days later, on March 27, she told an interviewer on British TV's ''Big Breakfast'' show, ''I'm single... right now.'' It's not clear what that ''right now'' means, but with 'N Sync on tour through April and Britney touring in May, it doesn't seem like they'd have time to see anyone else, much less each other, anytime soon.

Now that they've said ''Bye Bye Bye,'' what should Britney and Justin do next?