Britney’s ups and downs

2000: Spears releases her second album, ““Oops’…I Did It Again.”” The album sells more than 1 million units in the first week. At the MTV music awards that year, she makes headlines by donning a nude-colored, crystal-adorned outfit.

2001: Spears ups the spectacle ante at the MTV music awards by performing “I’’m a Slave 4 U” with an albino python. (PETA is predictably outraged.) She also releases her third album, “Britney”” which debuts at No. 1 but does not sell as well as her first two albums.   (Suzanne Plunkett / AP)

2003: After a year of lying low, Spears creates a sensation at the MTV music awards (yet again) by sharing the stage and an open-mouthed kiss with Madonna. Her fourth album, “In the Zone,” is released along with singles such as “Toxic.”  (Scott Gries / Getty Images)

2004: The first hint of an unruly Spears emerges when the star marries her childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander in a joke wedding in Las Vegas. The marriage is promptly annulled after less than three days. Later that year, her fourth world tour is canceled midway through when the singer injures her knee. The injury does not stop the singer, now 22 years old, from marrying Kevin Federline. At the time, Federline’s former girlfriend was pregnant with their second child.  (Eric Jamison / Associated Press)

Nov. 6, 2006: Britney files for divorce from Kevin Federline. Hopeful Spears fans claim this is Step 1 in the singer’s comeback.

December 2006: Now free of Federline, Britney is frequently photographed hitting the town with Paris Hilton, and gossip monger Perez Hilton insinuates the two superstars may be lovers. But the pop star can’t handle the heiress’ pace: She collapses on New Year’s Eve.   (Jason Szenes / EPA)

February 2007: After a month of manic partying — dancing on tables, getting dirty with pole dancers, allowing her lady parts to be photographed by the paparazzi and going in and out of rehab, Britney shocks the world by shaving her head at a salon in Tarzana because, she claimed at the time, her extensions were giving her a headache. The general public grows concerned for her welfare, and she finally enters, and stays, in rehab.

March 2007: Britney is released from rehab and her managers say she is fully recovered.  (AFP / Getty Images)

DOWN September 2007: The singer embarks on a series of bad decisions that includes agreeing to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards, not showing up for rehearsal, deciding to wear a sparkly bikini despite not being in (pop star) bikini shape and displaying lackluster dance moves -- all of which results in a media maelstrom of bad publicity.  (Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

DOWN October 2007: Spears loses custody of her children, which she had formerly split with Federline 50-50. She is later granted visitation rights, but only with a supervisor in tow.  (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

DOWN Nov.-Dec. 2007: Spears’ entourage continues to disassemble and she alienates everyone around her with bizarre behavior and the media frenzy that she seems to encourage by continually driving around the city. She is reportedly banned from the Four Seasons Hotel in consideration of other guests.  (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)