Though Madonna and Britney Spears don’t seem to be on BFF terms like they used to be back in the day when they would tongue each other on national television, Madonna is still clearly on Brit’s side. Even though she worked with Brit’s ex, Justin Timberlake (and my eye doctor is 100% sure that they’re hooking up) Madonna has finally commented on the media hype surrounding Britney. Last week she was widely quoted as saying, “Let’s go save her!” about Britney. At the time I thought she might have been saying it sarcastically, since every celeb seems to feel the need to jump on the “Let’s talk about how we’re going to rescue Britney” bandwagon. But it’s clear Madonna has genuine sympathy for Britney, even if the popwreck doesn’t sport her Kabbalah string on her wrist anymore. Madonna is doing a lot of press for the upcoming release of her new album “Hard Candy.” She’s on the cover of the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair, and talks about the media’s unfair treatment of Britney Spears in the story.

“When you think about the way people treat each other in Africa, about witchcraft and people inflicting cruelty and pain on each other, then come back here and, you know, people taking pictures of people when they’re in their homes, being taken to hospitals, or suffering, and selling them, getting energy from them, that’s a terrible infliction of cruelty. So who’s worse off?” she asked.

[From Us Magazine]

Boy was that one charmingly convoluted quote. I wasn’t under the impression that witchcraft was the biggest problem in Africa right now, but maybe I’m just hopelessly out of touch on the dark arts. In a weird way, it seems like Madonna is comparing the struggles faced by many Africans to those faced by Britney Spears. And I would never say that Britney’s got it easy right now… but that still seems like a bit of a leap to me. And if witchcraft really is a big problem in Africa… something tells me it’s worse than having paparazzi snapping your picture everywhere you go. I mean I’m sure that’s a pain to deal with and you couldn’t pay me enough to endure that… but I’d probably pick it over “cruelty and pain” and such. Or even over a really bad hex. You can probably figure a way to profit from the paparazzi, but I don’t think you’re going to find many advantages to someone putting a curse on you. Best case scenario, nothing happens. Worst case, you find yourself morphed into a cow from your waist on down. I would definitely rather be Britney Spears than a half-cow. And considering how confusing her quote was, I think that’s what Madonna was really getting at.

Here’s Madonna in the upcoming Vanity Fair.