By David Peisner

For the AJC



Her most recent album, “Circus,” has sold reasonably well — more than 1.5 million copies in the United States since its late 2008 release — and is the sort of coherent, polished, professional effort that she seemed resolutely incapable of and totally uninterested in making during the very public, multiyear meltdown that preceded its recording and release.

The tour supporting the album has received generally positive reviews, although admittedly the expectations were so low that anything short of her fleeing the stage in tears could easily be spun as a triumph.

That said, in the past year she has not married or divorced anyone, shaved her head, been photographed in public without her underwear, entered or ditched rehab, attacked anyone’s car with an umbrella, begun a romantic relationship with a member of the paparazzi, or been removed from her house on a gurney. These are all undoubtedly positive signs for her emotional well-being. In fact, Spears’ behavior has been so dull lately that tabloids have been reduced to reporting that her young children were misbehaving backstage at the Teen Choice Awards. Young children misbehaving? It all sounds so shockingly normal.

Of course, normal is not something Spears has much concept of at this point in her life. As a child, she was on a path aimed squarely for celebrity before she was 10. After a prepubescent turn on “Star Search” and a role in a Broadway play, she spent her early adolescence as part of the “New Mickey Mouse Club” alongside future pop rival, Christina Aguilera, and future beau, Justin Timberlake.

Then came the music career complete with naughty schoolgirl outfits, coy pronouncements on the state of her virginity, a nationally televised lip-lock with Madonna and a cavalcade of sugary pop hits that led to more than 80 million albums sold worldwide.

It all began to unravel in early 2004, with her New Year’s weekend quickie marriage and annulment to childhood friend, Jason Alexander, in Las Vegas. That was followed in short succession by her marriage to professional backup dancer Kevin Federline, the birth of her two kids, her subsequent divorce from Federline and her near-total absorption in her own self-destructive behavior. At her lowest point during 2007 and early 2008, she seemed to have lost any remaining barrier between her public life and her private one. It was not so much that she became a prisoner of her own celebrity — though being hounded 24 hours a day by a gaggle of paparazzi no doubt felt like that — but that her celebrity became her entire being. She seemed to exist only to be photographed or videotaped.

Spears’ ostensible career moves during this period — a disappointing 2007 album, “Blackout,” a much-mocked performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, a train wreck of a prime-time interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer — felt both desperate and half-baked, as if they were mere distractions from the main event, the unraveling of America’s Sweetheart.

It’s particularly telling that during the worst of this period, she lost physical custody of her sons and didn’t have much contact with the rest of her family or old friends. They’d all been replaced by a swarm of hangers-on with dubious backgrounds and seemingly dubious intentions. One such character, a small-time Hollywood wheeler-dealer named Sam Lutfi who became her de facto manager, seemed to serve mostly as an inside source for paparazzi agencies and tabloid journalists looking for some dirt on Spears. When she began dating Adnan Ghalib, one of the photographers tasked with exploiting her fame, it was as if she’d finally killed off whatever remained of her former self and resigned herself to her fate as permanent property of the celebrity-industrial complex.

So when people talk about Spears’ “comeback,” it’s worth considering what she’s coming back to. Only the most heartless voyeurs and the media entities who service them would begrudge Spears the modicum of stability she seems to have achieved at the moment. But anyone who has been paying attention — not just to Spears’ career but to the machinations of celebrity itself — can’t help but wonder if this might be a temporary way station on the road to future uncertainty. Because whatever talent Spears may possess, her chances of sustaining a long, consistent, healthy career as a massively famous pop singer seem slim.

Madonna, whom Spears evidently looks up to and is frequently compared to, is the exception and not the rule when it comes to pop careers. And Spears has never displayed Madonna’s savvy, either creatively or in business. Even if Spears, now 27, is able to continue putting out decent albums in the vein of “Circus,” the fading stars of former A-listers such as Jennifer Lopez and the Spice Girls should serve as a suitable cautionary tale for Spears as to the costs of relinquishing her status as a reliable provider of celebrity psychodrama. Will Spears — after a lifetime of being focused on fame — be content to watch it gradually slip away? Can a person who has learned to see herself almost entirely through the eyes of the public learn to live with herself once the public stops looking?

Many years from now, Spears’ life may read like a parable about America in the age of celebrity. She grew up chasing fame’s flame, was ignited by it and has struggled to control the fire as it raged into an inferno. For the moment, she seems to have the blaze at bay, but as long as it burns, as long as she keeps making albums or touring or living any part of her life in public, as long as on some level she looks to fame to validate her, the media will continue to pour gasoline on that fire and one day it is likely to consume her completely.

Concert preview: Britney Spears

8 p.m. Sept. 4. $39.50-$575. Philips Arena, 1 Philips Drive, Atlanta. www.ticketmaster.com