MAUREEN CALLAHAN: After THAT Vegas bang, was there more to Britney’s conservatory than we knew?

There are now two Britneys.

There’s the Britney Spears who stands for strength and liberation, the power behind the new Broadway hit musical ‘Once Upon a One More Time’.

Then there’s the sad and struggling Britney, the real Britney, who spent the night after the 4th of July following newly minted NBA star Victor Wembanyama through a Las Vegas hotel lobby and getting punched in the face.

The police investigation revealed that she hit herself, though Spears claims Wembanyama’s security guard was to blame.

Either way, it’s not exactly the post-curatorship Britney we’d all hoped would emerge.

Spears is 41. Wembanyama, the number one overall draft pick for the San Antonio Spurs, is 19.

Video of the blow shows Spears from behind, in a dated green top with her belly exposed, her hair extensions fraying, as she tries to get Wembanyama’s attention.

That’s how far she’s fallen. Once the biggest pop star in the world, Britney Spears, now reduced to chasing a much younger athlete who’s been famous for less than a month, has been swept away like a mosquito.

And the whole world has seen it.

Spears, who now posts alarming near-nude photos and strange dance clips to social media, has always been a fascinating example of American fame and its dark side.

She doesn’t remember anyone quite like Marilyn Monroe – the bombshell beauty, the sweet nature, a complicated mental illness she can’t seem to overcome.

Monroe was only 36 when she died. Perhaps Spears was more protected by her conservatory than we knew, more than all #FreeBritney advocates understood.

That said, this is not an argument for reinstating her conservatorship.

Spears is clearly unwell, but her children are older and no longer live with her. Married to her third husband, 29-year-old Sam Asghari, she appears to be a danger to no one but herself.

Let it be said: Britney is still a cultural phenomenon and a relevant artist.

Aside from the Broadway show, “Hold Me Closer,” her recent collaboration with Elton John, went to number one on iTunes in over forty countries, debuted at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was used in the opening sequence of the second season of ‘And Just Like That’.

Prior to the single’s release, Elton told Britain’s Guardian newspaper that he saw his younger self in Spears.

“Britney was heartbroken,” he said. “I was broken when I got sober. I was in a terrible place… Now I have the experience to be able to advise and help people, because I don’t want to see artists in a dark place. You would think that many artists have self-confidence, but they don’t. And that’s why we go on stage and get applause, and then we come off stage and we’re back to square one.’

Britney seems back to square one. Her recovery, her life, her career – none of it is likely to ever follow a linear path again.

She is a middle-aged woman who may or may not be on drugs, whose hypersexuality was encouraged and commercialized by a music industry that made billions off her, which in many ways never had a chance.

In January, members of her inner circle told Page Six that as much as Spears struggles, no one thinks she should ever come under anyone’s control again.

“No one outside of the very narrow conservatory circle knows what Britney’s medical status really is,” said a well-placed source. “If people knew Britney’s actual medical status, I think it would reveal that her mental issues are much more serious than people realize. Anyway… it’s not necessarily appropriate for her to be under guardianship. There are less hard ways to deal with it.’

Indeed. To hear and see her perform, to hear the testimony of an accomplished star like Elton, is to recognize that Spears has the ability to flourish.

At the height of her conservatory, she performed in her own residency in Las Vegas for four years, from 2013 to 2017. She performed 248 shows with an average running time of 90 minutes. It was a critical and commercial hit, raking in nearly $138 million.

Britney’s residency was one of the most successful in Vegas history, trailing only those of Celine Dion and, yes, Elton John.

“Everyone said they don’t think she can sing anymore,” Elton told The Guardian. “But I said she was brilliant when she started, so I think she can do it. And… I was so happy with what she did.”

Andrew Watt, who produced “Hold Me Closer,” agreed.

“She’s incredibly good at layering and doubling up on her voice, which is one of the hardest things to do,” said Watt. She knows so well when she’s made the right choice. She took full control.’

That’s the Britney Spears we’re all looking for, the one who has at least one place where she seems functional. The real world may be too much for her. It probably always will be.

This incident with Wembanyama – who, by the way, looks arrogant and full of himself for refusing to apologize, this guy who’s been famous in America for five minutes, who told the press he couldn’t believe it was the Britney Spears who had approached him – shouldn’t define Britney or make her the butt of an ongoing joke.

Britney actually deserves an apology. That blow may have been accidental, but it was a humiliation she didn’t deserve.

“This story is super embarrassing to share with the world,” Spears tweeted Thursday, “but it is [sic] already out there. However, I feel it is important to share this story and encourage those in the public eye to lead by example and treat all people with respect.”

Something tells me that once Wembanyama plays a few bad games, he will understand what it’s like to be publicly humiliated.

Meanwhile, in New York City, Britney’s story has a happier ending.

In “Once Upon a One More Time,” her first major project since graduating from conservatory in 2021, Britney’s songs tell the stories of famous fairytale princesses who decide to forge their own destinies after reading “The Feminine Mystique.”

“It’s just a giant celebration of Britney,” co-director and choreographer Mari Madrid told USA Today.

Every aspect of the show was submitted to Spears for approval, and she benefits financially from the production.

It’s also a reminder that Britney Spears is a survivor.

“We get to celebrate her freedom every night,” star Aisha Jackson told the outlet. “We lift her up, she lifts us up – it’s a great feeling.”

Maybe Victor Wembanyama should attend a performance.

And maybe one day Britney will get her fairytale ending.