Britney Spears Pregnancy Interview - Britney Spears on Kids and Being Pregnant

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Three months before the birth of her second child, Britney Spears is looking forward, not back. This doesn't mean, sadly, that she needn't look behind her. Before she arrived at Bazaar's New York cover shoot in late June, her driver had to circle the block several times to elude six paparazzi cars and bikes, one of which almost collided with her SUV, leaving Britney in tears. When she recently dyed her hair black, perhaps in an attempt to take the dogs off the scent, her publicists were flooded with calls asking, "But isn't that bad for the baby?" (Note: It's a vegetable dye.) At 24, Britney has lived more lives already than most of us ever will, and she has made the same mistakes we all do, except hers are magnified a thou- sandfold by an unforgiving lens. When she agreed to this session, though, Britney knew exactly what she was doing: getting her mojo back. "It made me want to cry a little bit, doing these photos," she admits. "I started feeling like myself again." And one doesn't need a degree in Obvious Pop Cultural Metaphors to understand that Britney's donning Viktor & Rolf 's cagelike mask comes with its own allusions: "I was a little held back at first," she says. "I didn't know if I wanted to go there, because...you know. But when I put it on, I thought, God, this is beautiful." And, after all, beauty is truth. "I think being pregnant is such an empowering feeling," she adds. "And for mothers out there in general, you don't feel the most beautiful all the time." This particular young mother arrived at the studio with 9- month-old Sean Preston clinging to her hip. "He is a beautiful baby," she says. "We're very close, and attached." (Britney's hus- band, Kevin Federline, trailed by his own set of paparazzi, visit- ed the set to see how the missus was doing.)

Britney is learning more about pregnancy the second time around. "The first time, you're new at everything, and you're para- noid," she confesses. "This one, I was like, I just gotta wing it. It was weird for me at first because of who I am; wherever you go they expect you to look a certain way." Her exasperation becomes evident: "I'm not supposed to be this huge pregnant superstar." But a superstar she is, with the unceasing attention that comes with it. And, while newly sanguine in recent weeks, Britney is still remarkably gun-shy, speaking in platitudes and compulsively using the words "a little" to temper her points. Yet, she is eager for this attention to return to her work, which one shouldn't forget, broke a boundary or two in its time. On this press-plagued trip to New York, in fact, Britney would go back to her hotel suite each night and pound out the day's feelings on a piano. "It felt so good because I haven't played 152 in a while. It's something I'm going to try to do a little more. It's very therapeutic. Get it out!" She is also excited about recording new music soon. "Just to experience the studio again and come up with things," she adds. She may even collaborate once more with Federline, in a some- what more lyrical project than last year's UPN reality show Cha- otic. "In the future, definitely. I'm so proud of Kevin. He's been working so hard on his own album since I got pregnant with Pres- ton. I'm so lucky. He's a doll; he's adorable." Britney is making time to listen to other albums, too. Nelly Furtado's latest, Loose, is currently number-one on her playlist. And she points out, with some pride, "Justin [Timberlake] worked on that." Is she still close with her onetime boyfriend of three years? "You know what? I haven't spoken to him in two years—it's crazy—him and Christina [Aguilera] and all the Mickey Mouse Club people." Of course, Britney has had to put a lot of things on hold due to motherhood. But not for much longer: She's planning to start a film-production company and, like the Britney of old who became infamous for doing 1000 sit-ups a day, plans to work out like a madwoman. "After this baby, I'm going to get really intense with it."

Until the birth, however, she is amusing herself with some DIY on Sean Preston's wardrobe. "Because I'm pregnant, I'm big, and I don't really want to get out that much. I go to his closet and just bleach everything." She enjoys playing with his look so much that she's designing a baby-clothing line inspired by him. "Preston's just like a rocker kid," she laughs. "Hopefully next year we'll have a fashion show, maybe at Disney World or something like that. We'll have them onstage, and they'll have mini guitars. Everyone needs a mini guitar." As for getting back onstage, she says, "I can't wait to do it again. But I really have to take my time and do it right and be safe." Then, starting to giggle, she suddenly becomes that provocative 17-year-old Catholic schoolgirl, that outer-space vixen in a clingy red PVC catsuit, that kohl-eyed temptress who carried a snake and kind of made out with Madonna. "Actually...not that safe. When you perform, you have to be dangerous.

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