The Prophet Blog can exclusively reveal that Britney Spears will be reuniting with producers Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco on her upcoming seventh album. The exact details of the collaboration aren’t known yet, but I hear that Luke is “excited” to be working with the pop princess again.

Luke & Benny both contributed to Britney’s last album Circus, writing and producing the title track, as well as the album cuts “Lace & Leather” and “Shattered Glass”. The pair have since gone on to craft chart topping hits for Katy Perry (“California Gurls”, “Teenage Dream”), Ke$ha (“TiK ToK” and “Your Love is My Drug”) and many others.

Britney is currently on vacation in Hawaii with her beau Jason Trawick, which is exactly what she did right before her Circus album era began. No release date for the album has been announced yet, but all signs are currently pointing towards the end of the year.

Britney Spears’ new Pop magazine photoshoot with famed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami already caused a small online stir due to it’s surprising and unique style, but now it’s set to make waves for a whole different reason, after popular gaming website Kotaku published an article today claiming that the shoot is actually a political protest around manga art that could possibly be labeled as child porn.

Britney’s two Pop covers depict the superstar dressed in a skimpy wedding gown in one and wearing a blue bathing suit in another, carrying a red backpack while striking an eerie, Lolita-esque pose. The same image is used on the cover of controversial manga “My Wife Is A Grade Schooler”, which was almost banned due to it’s depiction of underage characters engaging in sexual acts. Take a look at an excerpt from the Kotaku article, below:

Back when the Tokyo Municipal government was looking to ban the questionable depictions of underage characters in anime, manga and video games, My Wife Is A Grade Schooler, an out of print manga, was fingered as an example of a work that depicted young characters in an inappropriate manner.

When the manga was shown on television, yellow Post-its were used to cover the suggestive bits. However, the Post-its made the manga appear more suggestive than it actually is. The manga itself is considered a “gag manga” and even social criticism. It apparently isn’t as bad as it looks, and some said the way it was handled on TV was political scapegoating. The cover of “My Wife Is A Grade Schooler” (pictured) echoes the imagery used in the Spears’ photographs. Same red backpack, same blue bathing, wedding dress.

The references to “My Wife Is A Grade Schooler” are no mere coincidence either: Takashi and the author of the manga, Seiji Matsuyama, have been seen Tweeting each other about the relations between the shoot and the erotic Grade Schooler art. Matsuyama even referred to the Takashi shoot as, “Takashi Murakami x Britney Spears x My Wife Is A Grade Schooler collaboration”.

However, the most surprising part of the whole saga is that Britney herself may have been aware of what was going on. Not only do Pop Magazine directly refer to the shoot as “inspired by the manga artist Seiji Matsuyama”, but Britney herself even reveals in the accompanying interview that she was involved in the photoshoot and looked at certain manga chracters to get “a feel” for the vibe of the shoot.

“I loved working with Takashi…,” says Spears. “We looked at a lot of manga characters and artwork before we shot, so I could get a feel for what he was looking for. It was one of the most interesting shoots I’ve ever been on. He’s a genius!”

Certainly there would be none better than Britney Spears to make this type of artistic statement, considering that she began her career as an underage school girl channeling Nabokov’s Lolita.

The question that Kotaku are posing, is did Britney know how deep the connotations behind these photos ran? Was she trying to creative controversy, like she has so often done throughout her 12 year-career, or was she unknowingly used as the face of a political statement that was much more serious than she could have originally known?

In today’s fabulous edition of Britney Wauwwwwtch, we have some new candids of the Holy Spearit on the second day of her current Hawaiian holiday. If you remember correctly, The Queen went on a glamorous holiday before the beginning of the Circus album era, so her latest getaway could be a sign that she’s taking a little time out of her hectic schedule of drinking Starbucks and forgetting to fix her weave in order to get some much needed R&R before her upcoming promotional schedule kicks in.

A brief look at the latest set of Hawaii candids show Britney looking very much in love and happy, frolicking with her boyfriend of two years, Jason Trawick, and displaying genuine, positive emotion. This is opposed to the dead eyed, soulless robot that haunted us throughout 2009, a woman so empty and broken that she could only muster out a few scripted words at a time before being carted back to her cage and medicated by a team of military professionals.

Mona Lisa is so cute when she’s happy!

In other news, the livin’ legend (you can look, but don’t touch) Tweeted a new pic from her Pop magazine shoot. There’s also been a fabulous article written by Selected Scribblings about the meaning of the shoot, for those of you who didn’t understand Britney and Takashi’s artistic, daring, groundbreaking, shocking and edgy vision.

Here’s what appears to be the second official Pop magazine cover, featuring Britney Spears styled by artist Takashi Murakami.

Love, love, love!

First cover below in better quality. Full issue out on September 1.

We interrupt your regular blog postings for yet another edition of BRITNEY WHOAWWWWTCH!

It doesn’t hit stands until September 1, but Australian tabloid Grazia have been given a sneak peek of the upcoming issue of Pop magazine, featuring none other than Miss Britney Spears. And, if you were expecting something glossy and glamorous then think again, because by the look of this preview, Brit and famed artist Takashi Murakami have gone for something uber-trashtastic. The cover looks like some cheap porno magazine that you’d find hidden in your fathers garage, all frayed and faded because it’s been sitting there for ten years… and I love it! It’s such a stark contrast to the overly-sleek, high-gloss fashion that everybody else is doing right now, so I can only hope that her new album is as edgy as this look.

Anyway, enough of my ranting, and back to the Holy Spearit, who actually elaborated a little on the shoot in the excerpt that Grazia were given.

“I loved working with Takashi,” said Britney. “I especially liked how he took high-end fashion and incorporated it with Japanese Manga. We took a lot of characters and art before we shot, so I could get a feel of what he was looking for. I was in Japan on my last promo tour, and I loved it.”

And when I say that ‘Britney’ said that, I mean Larry Rudolph or Adam Leber said it, shoved Brit’s name on it, stuck it in a press release and then mailed it to Grazia.

You’ll be able to see the full Takashia/Britney Pop photoshoot in full and HQ when the magazine drops on September first. Can’t wait!

We now interrupt your regular scheduled programming to bring you the all important BRITNEY WATCH, providing you with all things Britney Spears-related, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

First off, it turns out that Britney’s recent photoshoot with famed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami was not for her album artwork, but for a spread in British fashion magazine Pop. It should be one of, if not THE, first ‘edgy’ high fashion shoot that she’s really done in years, as besides her album art, most of her other shoots have been in womens magazines like Glamour, OK and Cosmo. The issue drops on September first, and should be good promotion leading into Britney’s Glee episode on September 28, as well as her upcoming new single.

Meanwhile, Glee creator Ryan Murphy has heard some of Britney’s new album, and has described the material as “amazing” and a “great return to form”.

And last of all, songwriter Nicole Morier (“Heaven on Earth”, “Mmm Papi”, “Rock Me In”) has opened up about what it was like to work with Britney on her Blackout and Circus LPs. Everything surrounding Britney is always so top secret that it’s nice to finally get a little glimpse into how the Holy Spearit makes her magic.

“Britney and I had been writing together, and I would bring in some tracks and we’d step through them and write. I asked Greg [Kurstin] if he’d give me some tracks and that was one of them, and Britney and I wrote in some verses and a pre-chorus, and then I think the music he given us wasn’t really working for the chorus, so, I went back in with him and we reworked the chorus.”

“Well, I think it’s easy to keep it recognisably Britney because she is her, and she’s very real and true – she doesn’t really play with her persona, it’s always her. The cool thing about her is her tastes are very open. ‘Mmm Papi’ has got this sixties go-go feel to it, with handclaps and stuff, and so it doesn’t sound like a track that she would normally do, but she heard it and loved it immediately.

“She’ll bring herself into it and your job as a songwriter is to write something that you think can suit her but also take a little bit of a risk on the production, and maybe even the lyrics. The other thing that’s exciting with working with her is she’s able and willing to take those risks. Songs like ‘Piece Of Me’ are so different than what you normally hear on mainstream radio. She’s established enough that she can do whatever she wants.”

Wow, it’s great to see that some pop stars really do actually co-write their songs, and don’t just slap their name on the credits like some people… I hope we get some more of those “risky” songs on Brit’s next album.

The Britney Spears Glee tribute episode hasn’t even aired yet, but the experience of working with the living legend has been so positive that series creator Ryan Murphy is already planning to get her back for a second episode. On Saturday, at the Creative Arts Emmys in Los Angeles, Access Hollywood asked Murphy if it was likely that Spears would return to the show for a second time, which he said was likely.

“Probably, yeah… probably,” he said.

Hmm, sounds to me like Godney has worked her magic over the cast & crew, and now they can’t even last a day without a visit from the Holy Spearit. Welcome to my world, Glee!

Besides exploring the possibility of another Britney cameo, Murphy also revealed some details about the tight security on the set of the show due to Britney’s appearance, which he described as like, “having the President”. At one point, Murphy couldn’t even get on set while Brit was shooting her guest spot, and all the crew had to wear wristbands to get past security. However, the reason for the security lockdown was supposedly to keep the episode a surprise and to stop any secrets spilling out before the air date.

Poor, isolated Britney. She’s so lucky, she’s a star…

Catch the season premiere of Glee on September 21, and the Brit episode the following week on Sept. 28.

We all knew it was coming, and now the day has finally arrived: Lady GaGa has replaced Britney Spears as the most followed person on Twitter.

GaGa’s follow count has been on a rapid rise for a while now, but the sudden surge that took her to the top spot seemed to come after she sent out this Twitpic of herself in the recording studio. As of right now, GaGa’s followers stand at 5,678,787, while Britney is a few thousand behind on 5,672,214.

GaGa’s Twitter achievement is just another jewel in her crown as the new Queen of Social Media, after last month she became the most liked person on Facebook and the first living person on the site to have over 10 million fans, surpassing even President Obama.

Another social network that she’s dominating is the wildly popular music site Last.fm. She’s currently the leader of the pack when it comes to her pop competition, with a whopping 81 million ‘scrobbles’ (number of times a song has been played), trumping her contemporaries like Britney Spears (74 million); Madonna (60 million);  Avril Lavigne (50 million); Rihanna (43 million); Beyonce (38 million); Christina Aguilera (34 million); and Katy Perry (25 million).

You could probably say by now that Lady GaGa is the most popular person on the internet. Don’t you think?

Britney Spears is getting better and better at using Twitter every day. About an hour ago, the Hole Spearit just tweeted this amazing pic of herself, and Glee’s character Brittany, recreating the famous “Me Against the Music” video.

So amazing!

Update: Ooh lookey here, another one! Love.

Britney Spears is getting better and better at using her Twitter account each day. Just a few hours ago, the Princess of Pop figured out how to Twitpic, and sent out a snap of herself posing with her assistant on the set of Glee, where she is currently filming scenes for her upcoming tribute episode.

Cute, cute, cute.

In other news, the Brit’s manager Adam Leber today announced that the Holy Spearit won’t be attending the MTV Videophone Music Awards in September, because she’s too focused on recording her new album.

Good news and bad news people……The bad news is Brit wont be attending this years VMA’s. The good news is she wont be attending because she is heavily focused on finishing her new album which is incredible so far!

Keyword: “Finishing”. Finishing her new album, not working on it.

Great news all around. Not only is Britney filming Glee, but she’s wrapping up her new album, and she won’t have to lose IQ points by watching “Video Phone” win fifty million VMAs. Everybody wins!

Britney Spears shows no signs of slowing down when it comes to her new album, and has been spotted hitting the recording studio for the second time in one week. This time, the Queen B was over at Westlake Studios in Los Angele’s, rocking her Target wedges but noticeably missing her trademark Starbucks drink. [Pic Source]

As you can clearly tell by the pictures, the Holy Spearit is looking like majorly hot stuff.

So, Britney is getting hotter, and hitting the studio more. The album can’t be that far away then, can it?

While some fans have been a little concerned that Britney Spears might go the safe route on her upcoming seventh LP, dubstep producer Rusko has revealed that the pop princess enlisted his talents for her next album because she’s after something a little “weird” and “crazy”.

“So I worked with Britney, T.I. and Rihanna,” Rusko revealed during an interview at Lollapalooza. “I’m a musician you know, and I just wanted to do something with big chords, big melodies.”

Interviewer: When you work on a Britney track is there ever a temptation to sneak in something totally weird?

“Well the thing is, they could go to the regular people who make hit pop records if they wanted something straight, but the whole reason they came to me was because I make more weird music anyway, so I already have a license to be crazy with it. It’s Britney, she’s got money. If she didn’t want crazy she could ask someone who had a massive string of hit albums before, you know?” {source}

When you take a look back at Britney’s most recent albums, you can hear how she’s been stepping a little more outside the box as she’s grown older. Both “Freakshow” and “Get Naked” from her opus Blackout were pretty bizarre for the time, and later the wacky “Mmm Papi” and heavily filtered “Mannequin” from Circus continued her daring streak. I can’t wait to see how far she takes it this time.

In case you missed my last Britney post, the Queen B was recently snapped spending a day in the studio with her A&R rep Teresa Whites and manager Adam Leber. She was also snapped chatting with a man who appeared to be Darkchild, and was later seen leaving the studio carrying a case of CDs.

So exciting.