LOL! IS IT US OR DOES BRITNEY SPEARS LOOK LIKE COOKIE MONSTER!

Goatskin coat with fox fur and marabou-feather trim, Valentino, price upon request, at Valentino Boutique nationwide. Studded leather pumps, Christian Louboutin, $995. A decade after her titillating debut in pigtails and a plaid Catholic school skirt, we find ourselves cheering on Britney Spears once again. There have been, of course, speed bumps in recent years—a divorce, feuds with family, a very public breakdown—but the past 12 months have witnessed a cautious yet emphatic comeback. With Circus, her triumphant 2008 album and subsequent world tour, Britney reasserted herself as a pop music ringleader, firmly in control of the spectacle. The album is the star’s fifth to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200—making her the youngest woman to accomplish that feat. And the nearly yearlong tour, with its elaborate $50 million extravaganza featuring DSquared2 costumes (nine outfit changes a night, including Britney as a trapeze artist, a magician’s assistant, and, somewhat perplexingly, a policewoman), was among the highest-grossing concert tours in the United States last year, rivaling those of U2 and Bruce Springsteen. With another greatest-hits record freshly arrived (and a new single, “3,” which raced up the Billboard chart), we see flashes of vintage Brit, the one we love—blond, happy, and back on top.