BLEARY SPEARS AN 'OLDIE'

January 5, 2007 -- Maybe Britney should consider Sean Combs' old nickname: Puffy.

The once-sexy pop tart was photo graphed Wednesday night coming out of the Italian restaurant Dolce in West Hollywood, appearing bloated and haggard. As she walked out, the newly minted party animal repeated, "I love myself, I love myself."

Someone shouted, "You look beautiful," to which she responded, "I love you for saying that!"

But celeb watchers say the wild child's new habit of binge drinking and chain- smoking has added at least 20 years to her face.

L.A. psychologist Robert Butterworth, who has experience dealing with youth and alcoholism, said it's troubling how much the mother of two has let herself go.

He said he was in a Hollywood restaurant recently and saw Julie Newmar - the original Catwoman from the "Batman" TV show in the 1960s - and was shocked at how young and vibrant she looks.

"At 70, this woman looks better than Brit ney at 25!" he said.

What can she do to get back into the nubile shape of her glory days in the late '90s?

"Other than a brain operation, I think she's going to have to get a personal trainer and work as hard as Madonna does," said Butter worth.

After having dinner at Dolce, Britney headed over to hotspot Les Deux, where she reportedly partied until 2:30 a.m.

On New Year's Eve, she passed out at the Las Vegas nightclub Pure. Her reps say it was due to exhaustion - not booze.

But sources told The Post that it was hu miliation that brought Britney to her knees that night. One person who was there said Britney was taunted at the club by the crowd, who shouted, "Whore, whore, whore, whore!" at her.

Another source said just after Britney had counted down to the new year, one man started the "whore" chant. It was then picked up by several other people.

The star then allegedly fell to the ground in embarrassment and was surrounded by her security guards, who picked her up and took her out.

Kate Turner, a spokeswoman for Pure, denied those accounts.

Ironically, "people envy celebrities, but when they're on their way down they have no problem pushing them further," said Butterworth.

"I could understand [her collapsing] - the anxiety and the humiliation could kind of cause her to have a psychological meltdown," he said.

He says all is not lost for Britney. He thinks she's just trying figure things out.

"It's hard for a party girl to start again after she's been [living] in Malibu," said Butterworth, noting that her newfound freedom since splitting up with husband Kevin Federline in November may just be too much for her to handle. "You have to gear up for this Hollywood nightlife stuff. You have to really be in shape."

Britney was partying hard over the holidays with famous lushes Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.

Butterworth says Spears is at a critical moment when her career could take a nosedive and send her into a downward spiral of alcohol and bad albums. Or she could rise again.

"She's really at one of these points where she's reliving her adolescence, but it's difficult to relive your adolescence," Butterworth said. "She might be at a fork in the road, as they say, between partying too much and being at the tentacles of addiction."

A rep for Spears said she would not comment on the star's personal life.

Re: BLEARY SPEARS AN 'OLDIE'

It's always an extreme with Britney. She's puts on 5lbs and it's "omg she let herself go!" She takes one bad pic and it's "she looks 20 yrs older and is at the brink of a drug addiction!" Meanwhile, last week she was "looking great and making a comeback!"

Ridiculous.

Yes, that last pic of her she looked positively haggard. But if she were to stop partying for oh, say two days and get some rest, she'd be back to how she looked two weeks ago.

I don't usually defend Britney but sometimes it's annoying how melodramatic the media gets when it comes to her...