Britney on the Balcony (Update)

While a London online tabloid rehashes the same old "Did she really pose nude for Playboy?" story today that we've been keeping you up to date on for months now, readers have been filling our inbox this morning with evidently new* possibly year-old paparazzi photos of Britney which show some very evident nipple**. What is it about penthouse balconies that makes Brit–Brit susceptible to such wild behavior? We can only assume that something in her single-story Kentwood upbringing causes her to become giddy with excitement when not at street level.

*Update In our own Britney-related nippletastic giddiness, we posted these before finding out that they may have actually been taken back in December '03 (unless the date at GoBritney.com is a misprint). Then again, we don't remember seeing them before, and they seem to be making the blog rounds today as quickly as Britney's dignity continues to shrink. But maybe "This Is London" aren't the only ones rehashing old Britney news today after all?

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Click for larger versions:

(Also spotted @ Pink Is The New Blog and The Superficial - thanks David)

**Update A few readers who have apparently spent more time looking at these photos today than we have suggest that the nipple we think we saw is actually a thumb or finger, based on its glossiness ("She doesn't look oiled up enough for her nip to be catching the sun like that") and placement ("Her nipple would have to be somewhere near her armpit for that to be the case"). Not having firsthand knowledge of Britney's lubriciousness and/or nipple physiology, we can but offer a magnified view of the area in question and let you decide for yourself:

(OK, so maybe it is looking more like a fingernail to us now. But she's still, like, topless! And we have spent, like, totally too much time on this today already!)

Update (Final) Nothing to see here. Move along.

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Previously: Britney Spears: The Downward Spiral, Britney's Crotch Grab, Britney Spears: Still Not Naked Britney Naked: Enough Already