''She probably needs to get laid,'' Spears says, rolling her eyes, when asked about that trigger-happy governor's wife. ''These parents, they think I'm a role model for their kids, that their kids look at me as some sort of idol. But it's the parents' job to make sure their kids don't turn out that shallow. It's the parents who should be teaching their kids how to behave. That's not my responsibility. I'm not responsible for your kid.''
This provocative sound bite is served up during her first chat with EW, in a hotel in Manhattan on Oct. 21, a few days before Spears begins her publicity swing through Europe -- an interview that marks the start of our two-week, worldwide dash to keep up with her. At this point there is no sign of impending illness, but it's clear something isn't quite right. Fidgeting in her chair, doing her best to force a smile, she seems irritable, almost frosty, her normally cottony-soft drawl showing sharper edges. ''I don't want to talk about my private life at all,'' she coolly commands, evidently reversing her long-held previous policy of discussing absolutely anything with the press, no matter how inappropriately intimate (like chatting in W magazine last August about losing her virginity to Timberlake). ''I used to be a lot more open,'' she explains, warming slightly. ''But I didn't realize that people were going to judge and ridicule every little thing I said. So now I'm trying to keep more things to myself. It's something I'm working on.''
Despite all her fame, Spears seems at times to have acquired not a shred of media savvy. That lip-lock with Madonna on MTV, for instance? She claims she was shocked -- SHOCKED! -- by the attention it stirred up. Likewise the clamor over all those racy magazine covers (posing topless for Rolling Stone and bottomless for Esquire). ''People make such a big deal out of it,'' she says, sounding genuinely puzzled. ''I honestly don't get it. It's weird. To me, the human body is beautiful.''
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