Oops, she’s doing it again.

Watch this week for pop princess Britney Spears to return to the music scene in a big way with the release of her third album, the succinctly named “Britney.” (Her 1999 debut album was titled “Britney Spears,” raising the question: Will her next release be dubbed “Spears”?) The 19-year-old also launched her new U.S. tour last week in Ohio, and will come to town for shows Nov. 20 at the Arrowhead Pond and Nov. 21 at Staples Center.

Early reviews say the tour is an elaborate production with some unlikely sights: a ballerina Britney in a huge music box, a bungee-jumping Britney, Britney battling faceless dancers and, strangest of all, a bald Britney.

Fans who can’t get a ticket can catch HBO’s live broadcast of her Nov. 18 show in Las Vegas, or they can settle for her endless appearances on MTV, in magazines, on the Internet, etc. “She’s really transcended everything in pop right now,” says Tommi Lewis, editor in chief of Teen magazine, which has 1.9 million readers, almost all of them young and female. “She’s at that superstar strata where she can do no wrong, it seems. I’m surprised too; I wouldn’t have predicted it when she started.”

Lewis, also editorial director of Tiger Beat and Teen Beat, compares Spears to Madonna and says the young singer’s career should outlast those of other youth-pop stars.

If so, why is lesser light Mandy Moore on the cover of the new issue of Teen? Because there is one downside to being the most famous face of the music moment. “We’re taking a wait-and-see attitude with Britney,” Lewis says. “She might be at that saturation level. I mean, she’s everywhere.”

Will ‘Heist’ Be Mamet’s Breakout Film?

In the new David Mamet drama “Heist,” a gang of thieves attempts to steal millions in gold ingots from a Swiss cargo plane by setting off diversionary explosions near the parked jet.

The plot of the R-rated movie has nothing to do with foreign terrorism, but in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, when thousands died after hijacked jetliners crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, Hollywood studios decided to delay the release of any films that even hinted at terrorism, especially ones involving planes.

In the case of “Heist,” Warner Bros. yanked the film from its scheduled Oct. 19 debut and push it back to this Friday.

Written and directed by Mamet, the film stars Gene Hackman as a veteran con artist who figures it’s time to retire after his face is caught on a surveillance camera during a jewelry robbery. That’s when his fence (Danny DeVito), enters the picture, refusing to give up the gang’s cut on the jewelry job unless it pulls one more heist.

“Heist” marks Mamet’s ninth film as writer-director. With Hackman and DeVito in the lead roles, it could prove to be his best chance yet of creating a mainstream hit. Before this, most of his movies have been independent or art-house fare that did not do well at the box office. (Mamet wrote the screenplay for the 1987 hit “The Untouchables,” but it was directed by Brian De Palma.)

According to figures compiled by the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co., Mamet’s highest-grossing movie to date in North America was 1998’s “The Spanish Prisoner,” with $10.3 million in ticket sales. Other Mamet films include 1987’s “House of Games” (domestic gross not reported), 1988’s “Things Change” ($3.6 million), 1991’s “Homicide” ($3 million), 1994’s “Oleanna” ($120,165), 1999’s “The Winslow Boy” ($4 million) and last year’s “State and Main” ($6.9 million).

‘Agency’ Embraces the Headlines

After a period in which prime-time series largely ducked terrorist themes, CBS’ CIA drama “The Agency” has broken down and accepted its status as a series that may be somewhat uncomfortably linked to the headlines.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the new series--which looks at the inner workings of the CIA, with Gil Bellows and Paige Turco playing operatives--hastily pulled an episode that dealt with a terrorist bombing and excised a reference to Osama bin Laden. As time passed, however, CBS became bolder, promoting the show as featuring heroes that America needs “now more than ever” and rescheduling what was to have been the premiere episode for last Thursday, the opening night of the November rating sweeps.

This week, the show follows up with another prescient episode initiated before the terrorist attacks, as agents rush to halt a threatened anthrax attack on Washington, D.C.

CBS has ordered a full season of the series, although ratings continue to be mediocre. Last week’s installment drew 9.4 million viewers, less than half the audience that watched “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” in the preceding hour or NBC’s “ER” directly opposite it.

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Compiled by Times staff writers