SPEARS SPRINGS SURPRISE

That's the way to do it: while Madonna spends every waking moment removing her trousers and marching about in the interests of her new album, Britney Spears has got within two weeks of releasing a new-ish collection without anyone knowing a thing about it.

Sure, it's a remix album, and it has only one new track on it, but even so: for someone with such a profile to do this sort of thing without anybody spotting what she's up to is quite a coup. Of course, it was probably an idea dreamed up by a chap with a flipchart - "the marketing campaign will be the lack of a marketing campaign", and we're being suckered into seeing restraint where, in fact, it's all meticulous planning.

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