BRITNEY's back in a monumental way. She's releasing In The Zone November 18th, making mesmerizing music with MADONNA, putting on her own primetime special and getting into the groove with our own STEVEN COJOCARU!

Read on as the two chatted while the "fit Brit" taped her ABC special, "Britney Spears: In the Zone" (airing November 17)! And watch tonight's ET for much more!

STEVEN COJOCARU: We meet again! I don't know if you remember meeting me after the MTV Awards. You were in the zone, after the Madonna moment and all that. You were so pumped. You were exhilarated. It was nice to see that!

BRITNEY SPEARS: Oh, thank you! I think when you get off the stage, you're like "Aaahhh!" It's a cool feeling, and yes, I was in completely in the zone.

COJO: Okay, the TV special. Do you ever pinch yourself because your life is so mega-huge?

BRITNEY: It's kind of surreal, right? But this is a cool setting. I think this one is more like an intimate setting, which I've never really done before. I'm getting used to this whole club thing, so I like the fact that the fans are going to be sitting on couches and lounging around. And the beautiful chandelier, it's awesome!

COJO: Are you going to hang from the chandelier?

BRITNEY: Yeah, I'm going to hang down and fly over this way, and plop right here.

COJO: And the album, everybody's using the word, "trancey, vibey," but some people don't understand that. I get it, because I'm with you.

BRITNEY: You get it? Good, 'cause we get each other like that!

COJO: I feel you're ready. I'm feeling trancey and vibey. What do you think? Because you're the one who did the album, what would you listen to the album with? Like, would one be making love to your album, or would one be dancing? Will one be driving on the freeway with their hair blowing in the wind?!

BRITNEY: I think all of it, man. I think if you're one to work out, there's a song, "Brave New Girl," that is such a workout song. There's songs like "Everytime" if you want to have an emotional breakdown and cry!

COJO: Wait, I have a theory, I think you are Madonna's lost child, because you have so much in common.

BRITNEY: Maybe so.

COJO: You're both envelope-pushers. You both dance, you sing, you both run the world. You're larger than life. Do you want to make a confession? Are you Madonna, the lost child?

BRITNEY: That's a nice thought. I like to think of it that way ... there's something very energetically that I'm drawn to about her. I know that sounds really cheesy, but it is like I feel very, I don't feel very safe with that many completely worldly women, but there's something I'm very drawn to about her and she's a very magnetic lady. I like her a lot and she's very inspiring to be around as well.

COJO: Wouldn't it be tough for you, because of your world, for you to relate to other people? With Madonna, is that part of the connection that you have, because she knows, obviously, what you're going through?

BRITNEY: I think that helps.

COJO: The other thing people say, because people talk about you non-stop, the other thing is about the sexy image ...

BRITNEY: I've always had a sexy image. What's the big deal now? Ever since I did "Baby, One More Time," (it's like) "You used to be so innocent." Then, I was like, "When I was doing 'Baby, One More Time' you were complaining about that too!"

COJO: You can't please everybody.

BRITNEY: So just be yourself and whatever ... just enjoy the music, you know.

COJO: It's crazy, how do you live your life with people following you around? Do you feel a lot of pressure on these beautiful, silky, well-toned gorgeous shoulders, Britney Spears, your tasty shoulders! Do you feel a lot of pressure?

BRITNEY: I think the only pressure you feel is the stuff you allow yourself to feel, and I try to really just do what I do, enjoy the moments and not really pay attention too much, to the press. I think the press is a good thing for you sometimes, but the media, sometimes they can build you up and tear you down. You just do your thing, be yourself, and not really concern yourself with stuff like that, with the media and all.

COJO: They're not here right now. You're in the safest place right now, you're here with Uncle Cojo! It's all about fashion and makeup and highlights and nothing else matters in this world. I have another theory if you want to talk, if you're comfortable talking about this, that you are living your life in the public eye, but you are, I keep on repeating, you're 21! Do you feel you're rebelling, do you feel like the media gives you a hard time, because you're trying to live your life and have fun ... do people make too big of a deal of you just being a normal girl trying to live your life? It's your turn, Britney Spears.

BRITNEY: It's my turn. This is the thing, if we go out and have a drink or something like that then the news the next day is, "Oh my gosh, she went and had a drink, what are we going to have to do!?" It's like, what's the big deal? It's not like I'm coming out, stumbling out of the club ... I'm sorry, but it's just mesmerizing to me, the big deal that people make and it's kind of weird.

COJO: That's what I'm telling them, stop picking on you, you're just living, you're 21 and this is your time to live! BEYONCE, my other best friend, said that she's actually really shy and that when she's on stage she becomes this sexual seductress -- she calls her Sasha. Are there different sides of you?

BRITNEY: Maybe I should be Brittania!

COJO: Brittania, I like that!

BRITNEY: I definitely do that. When I get around people I don't know, I'm very introverted and, like, "Hi, it's nice to meet you." But when I get on stage I have the same thing going on.

COJO: So, it's a switch you flip on.

BRITNEY: Yeah, when you get on stage, it's like this different persona comes out, you're like, "I can take over the world!" It's cool.

COJO: One last question, with the videos and the steaminess, sexiness and all the controversy, have you ever felt you've gone too far? Have you ever, in retrospect, turned around and went, "Maybe what I wore or what I did ..." or do you have any regrets?

BRITNEY: No Regrets. No regrets, not yet!

Christina Aguilera has sunk a stiletto heel into pop rival Britney Spears.

First, the "Dirrty" singer swiped Spears' ex Britney was dropped as the manufacturer's muse after a very public squabble last year, leaving an opening for the next toe-tapping pitch person, like Aguilera.

"I agreed to be a part of Skechers international marketing team because I like its image--youthful but edgy," said Aguilera in statement. "They have attitude and are willing to try new ideas--refreshing."

Aguilera's inked an 18-month contract to hawk Skecher's footwear in print ads and in-store promos. The campaign kicks off in women's, teen and pop culture magazines in October, as she and Timberlake embark on the European leg of their Justified & Stripped world tour.

The 22-year-old singer will be featured alone and with high-profile male models in the footwear ads for everything from Skechers Sport to Skechers Active and Somethin' Else from Skechers.

Aguilera's previously come under criticism for her fashion sense--"Her barely there bimbo bombs wouldn't cover a gnat. Let's call her the worst undressed and leave it at that," quipped Mr. Blackwell last year--but a gig as the face of Versace's current campaign has upped her style quotient.

A legal battle, and not bad taste, led to the dissolution between Spears and Skechers.

In December 2002, Spears filed a $1.5 million federal suit against the shoemaker, claiming the L.A.-based company improperly slapped her famous mug on advertising for its line of regular roller skates, 4 Wheelers by Skechers, instead of Spears' signature skating line, Britney Spears 4 Wheelers, costing the performer her Christmas bonus.

In March, Skechers countersued for $10 million plus, accusing Britney of fraud and breach of contract. According to them the pop princess dragged her heels over manufacturing, design and advertising decisions, causing production delays that cost the footwear company plenty in lost sales.

The two sides reached an undisclosed settlement in May.

Don't tell Cooter about Britney Spears stepping into Daisy Duke's shorty shorts for a Dukes of Hazzard movie.

"It's a ludicrous idea," said Ben Jones, who played good ol' mechanic Cooter on the 1979-85 TV series, meaning no offense to the popster. "Nobody has ever worn Daisy Dukes as well as Daisy Duke."

Spears' name was floated as possible Daisy material in Thursday's Hollywood Reporter. The trade paper also noted Ashton Kutcher and Paul Walker were "expressing their interest" in playing Daisy's General Lee-driving kin, with trucker-hat fan Kutcher presumably eyeing the role of Luke (the dark-haired Duke) and Walker hot for Bo (the fair-haired Duke). The movie's said to be in the script-writing stage at Warner Bros.

Reached for comment Thursday at Jones' Sperryville, Virginia, club and museum, Cooter's Place, the self-described Dukes historian said the way he sees it, Daisy Duke was, and is, Catherine Bach, just as John Schneider's Bo Duke, Tom Wopat's Luke Duke and he's, well, Cooter.

"When people think of the Dukes of Hazzard they think of us," Jones, 61, said. "Why don't you get Bo Duke to play Bo Duke? Why don't you get Luke Duke to play Luke? Why don't you get Cooter to play Cooter?"

Jones is not the first to pose such questions. In 2001, David Soul, Hutch of TV's Starsky & Hutch, expressed similar sentiments when Ben Stiller became attached to star in a big-screen version of the 1970s cop show. Soul's lobbying efforts failed--mostly. Starsky & Hutch, the movie, is due to open next March, with Stiller as Starsky and Owen Wilson as Hutch. But Soul and original costar Paul Michael Glaser were invited back for cameos.

Jones, who, following his days under the General Lee's hood, went on to serve two terms in Congress, said he understands that movie producers crave young stars. He even has a suggestion on how to keep both Dukes loyalists and anxious studio execs happy: Let the Kutchers, Walkers and Spearses play the Duke family's next generation; let Wopat, Schneider and Bach cameo as their original Duke selves. And most of all, let Dukes be Dukes.

"If they try to do some sort of smart-ass thing, it won't work," Jones said.

The Dukes of Hazzard was a critically panned, but audience-embraced Top 10 hit through seven seasons on CBS. The show focused on the adventures of two good-looking cousins (Schneider and Wopat), their really fast car (a tricked-out 1969 Charger dubbed the General Lee), their even better-looking cousin (Bach), their wizened father figure (Denver Pyle as Uncle Jessie), and the corrupt Hazzard County kingpin (Sorrell Booke as Boss Hogg) who vowed, in vain, to "get them Duke boys!"

The series hit a road bump in 1982 when Wopat and Schneider held out for a bigger cut of Dukes tie-in merchandise. The powers-that-be played hardball with the actors, writing out Bo and Luke and introducing Coy (Byron Cherry) and Vance (Christopher Mayer).

The fake Dukes didn't take. One sub-standard ratings' season later, Wopat and Schneider returned. According to Jones, the experience should serve as a lesson to those would try to fill out Bo and Luke's jeans in a big-screen version.

"It was a disaster," Jones said of the Dukes' lost season. "They were nice guys, but it was a disaster. They were just blocks of wood."

Jones will recall happier Dukes days next weekend at the third annual Dukesfest, where upwards of 20,000 will converge at the Sperryville Cooter's Place to celebrate Hazzard County's finest. This year's event will mark the show's 25th anniversary. (Production on the series began in the fall of 1978.)

Original stars James Best (Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane), Sonny Shroyer (Deputy Enos Strate) and Rick Hurst (Deputy Cletus Hogg) are among those expected to appear, along with Jones.

In past years, fans have traveled from as far away as South America and Italy to pay homage to what Jones likens to a "permanent piece of Americana"--"a "B-movie Western with cars."

In the end, Jones said he wishes the makers of the Dukes movie well, and he wishes they'll stay true to the spirit of the show.

And one more thing...

by Lia Haberman
Britney Spears isn't one to hold a grudge.

The pop princess' request for a restraining order against one overly amorous fan, who allegedly stalked her and tried to bust into her Hollywood home, has been dropped, according to a Los Angeles court spokeswoman.

After a brief January court sit-down, the slave-4-Spears case, which has since been postponed twice, was scheduled for a hearing Friday at the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Now, Spears' attorneys are expected to file papers on Friday seeking to have the case dismissed. Details of the out-of-court settlement are not being disclosed.

Last month, attorneys for the 21-year old and Masahiko Shizawa, the Japanese native who sent the singer love notes inscribed "I'm chasing you," were in "serious discussions" to resolve the matter before the hearing.

Judicial Commissioner Scott M. Gordon put his foot down after the last postponement in February telling the attorneys that because of the high-profile nature of the case and its platinum plaintiff, there would be no continuance beyond April 18 if the two sides couldn't reach a deal. Accordingly, the attorneys were told to prepare for Friday's session as an evidentiary hearing.

Shizawa's attorney, Simon Robert Hiller, has maintained that his client has been mislabeled a freaky stalker, when in fact the intimate letters, photos and unsolicited visits were the actions of an "avid fan" and said the request for a restraining order was the result of a "cultural misunderstanding."

Since Spears filed the request last December, ordering the Japanese fan to stay at least 1,000 yards away from her, Shizawa's visa has expired and he's been forced to return to his hometown of Yokohama, Japan. Hiller, who called his client a "smart guy," said the computer programmer hopes to return to the U.S. once his legal woes are resolved.

The 41-year-old had allegedly been stalking Spears since September, tracking her from Los Angeles to Louisiana and sending her hundreds of love letters and photos.

Shizawa has also made "numerous attempts to contact" the pop chanteuse at her Los Angeles digs, even trying to bust into the popster's palace, her lawyer previously claimed. He's also "tracked her" to her divorced parents' Louisiana homes, as well as her other domiciles across the country.

By settling the case, Spears is freed up to focus on her other legal battles.

Last month, a celebrity endorsement deal with Skechers went sour when the shoemaker filed an $11.3 million countersuit against Spears for fraud and breach of contract in connection with a troubled line of signature skating merchandise.

The legal action was in response to Spears' own $1.5 million lawsuit filed in December claiming the company misappropriated her image to promote its regular roller skates, instead of her special line Britney 4 Wheelers. In turn, the L.A.-based company accused Spears of costing them big bucks when she held up production on the Britney blades.

Britney Spears might not be that innocent, but she swears she's no coke addict. And she is going to court to prove it.

The pop tartlet is fuming over a Star magazine story that says she has used cocaine and is reportedly planning to sue the supermarket tabloid.

"The only one who's guilty of doing cocaine has to be the source of this story," Spears' rep Nathalie K. Moar said in a statement released on Thursday. "It makes for good reading, but it's simply not true."

The story, which hit newsstands Friday, is indeed a page-turner. Star said a member of the Britney entourage dished about the singer's close encounter with the white stuff November 14 at the Crowbar Club in Miami. The loose-lipped groupie says he was jammed in the bathroom stall (in the VIP toilet section of the club, no less) with the popster, some guy with drugs in his pocket and a female friend when the incident went down.

"Once we were in, the guy cleans off the toilet top with a tissue and then takes out some cocaine," read the Star transcript. "Using his driver license, he chopped it into four lines. Britney just stood there and watched him, not saying a word. He took out a dollar bill, rolled it up and did the first line. He then handed the bill to Britney. She took the dollar and bent over the cocaine."

That same source also claims Spears did a spot check after said snorting and asked one of her gal pals to check her nose for white powder.

The singer's label, Jive Records, refused to comment. But a source close to Spears says she's examining her legal options. Reps for Star could not be reached for comment.

The drug rumors are just the latest salvo in recent media reports about Spears' walk on the wild side. Aside from the cocaine allegations, the 21-year-old publicity juggernaut has also been making headlines for her high-profile, post-Justin Timberlake love life. Most recently, she has been linked to Colin Farrell, showing up at the premiere for The Recruit holding hands and sucking face with the foul-mouthed Irish hottie. ("She's a sweet, sweet girl. There's nothing going on—we're just mates," he swore to Entertainment Tonight.)

Before that, she was the object of Fred Durst's affection. The Limp Bizkit lead singer posted online odes to Spears, professing his love and telling angry fans and media types to just leave her alone. (He has since claimed her life is too "out of control" for him to date her: "We're not enemies, man, I just don't want to talk to her," Durst recently told Access Hollywood. "I just chose not to talk to her anymore.")

Meanwhile, Britney is turning her focus to good old rock 'n roll. She's been nominated for two Grammys (news - web sites): Best Pop Vocal Album for Britney and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Overprotected." (Trophies will be handed out February 23 at Madison Square Garden with the televised portion airing live on CBS beginning at 8 p.m. ET. E!'s red carpet coverage begins at 6 p.m.)