As the real Britney Spears bottoms out, her pint-size doppelganger is going strong in Las Vegas

This article is from the February issue of Radar Magazine. For a risk-free issue, click here

SMALL WONDER Terra Jole, or "Mini Britney" (Photo: Brian Finke)

Click here for more photos of Terra Jole, aka Mini Britney, and her Las Vegas–based pint-size posse.

On a hot, dry night last summer, a crowd was waiting outside Piranha, a popular Las Vegas club that features an aquarium filled with flesh-eating fish. A midsize gay venue nestled in a nondescript strip mall known as the "Fruit Loop," the Piranha is not a typical destination for major talent, but the bar, it seemed, had scored a coup. An e-mail blast had gone out announcing a "Mini Britney Concert," to be held that evening. Sure, it seemed a little too good to be true. But then, Spears had recently become a Vegas regular, famously passing out while hosting a New Year's Eve party at Pure, and lately she'd been doing truncated sets around the country.

By the time the doors opened, Spears fans packed the 1,000-capacity venue (which has also hosted former teen idol Tiffany, and more recently, YouTube sensation Chris Crocker) to await the fallen diva. By the time the lights dimmed, the crowd had grown restless. Striding purposefully to the small circular stage in the center of the room, a tiny figure began belting out the opening lines of "Toxic," wearing the blue stewardess uniform from the video. A murmur swept through the crowd. Something was off. Not only did the petite blonde gyrating before them look and sound better than Britney had in months, but she was a bit too petite, just a smidge over four feet. Terra Jole, aka Mini Britney, was in the house.

If the appearance of Britney's pint-size facsimile was cause for disappointment, the letdown didn't last long. By the time Jole had stripped down to her replica of the red latex catsuit featured in the "Oops, I Did It Again" video, she had the boys in the palm of her tiny hand. Approaching one seated gentleman from behind, she gyrated her hips and rubbed his head lustily, crooning, "I played with your heart. Oooh baby, baby." By the time she got to the song's famous battle cry, the whole crowd was singing along: "I'm not that innocent!"

To be honest, Jole was that innocent. The men in the audience weren't the only ones who'd been misled that night; she herself had only learned of the audience's false impression a few minutes before she stepped on stage. "I thought, oh my God, they are gonna boo her off," recalls her costume designer, Hector Perez, who had accompanied her to the gig. "But as soon as she came out, the crowd just went wild."

After her Piranha show, Jole and her designer were riding high, making appearances all over town. "I had a flight at 7:00," says Perez. "I missed it."

By the time Jole had stripped down to her replica of the red latex catsuit featured in the "Oops, I Did It Again" video, she had the boys in the palm of her tiny hand Mini Britney came into being through a series of fortuitous circumstances. Having just finished a two-year stint in the role of Mini Paula Stanley in an undersized Kiss tribute band, Mini Kiss, Jole had put her showbiz dreams on a back burner. She was working as a dog groomer in San Antonio, her hometown, when she received a call from a "wealthy" computer programmer from Austin looking for entertainment for his Super Bowl party. She told him she was no longer involved with Mini Kiss, but that she might be interested in performing as Mini Madonna or Mini Britney Spears. He picked the latter.

Shortly thereafter, Raquel "Rocky" Giberstein, who managed her during her Mini Kiss days, mentioned Jole's new character to a friend in New York who, as it happened, was about to walk into a meeting at the Box, the city's hottest nightclub, which was drawing a star-studded crowd to its racy late-night burlesques.

An hour later, the Box booked Mini Britney for an immediate weeklong residency. Within days, she was in New York, practicing her set with a half-dozen backup dancers and a live band, as Perez hurriedly stitched a full wardrobe.

One night at the club, Mini Britney caught the eye of another troubled It girl. Jole had just finished her set and was walking by the upstairs VIP bar when a woman tapped her on the shoulder. "She said someone wanted to meet me," Jole recalls. She was whisked to one of the club's private VIP boxes, where the curtain was pulled back to reveal a giddy Lindsay Lohan. The actress had seen the real Spears in concert a few weeks before, she said, but was blown away by the pint-size version. The starlet also copped to a twinge of envy. "She wanted her own Mini Me," says Jole. "She was mad that Britney had one and she didn't."

Jole's one-week stint at the Box quickly expanded to two, and the ensuing press led to a series of Vegas bookings, including the gig at Piranha and two shows at Beacher's Madhouse at the Hard Rock Hotel. The club is run by infamous promoter and host Jeff Beacher, who had booked Mini Kiss numerous times.

At Beacher's, Mini Britney was one of several attractions, but her two-minute segments inevitably brought down the house. The announcer would scream, "Ladies and gennelmen, MINI BRITNEYYY!" and Jole would prance out in one of Perez's costumes, flanked by six average-size dancers. She'd only have time to sing a verse and chorus, though, before the announcer would interrupt, "Oh no! It's Kevin Federline!" A mini K-Fed, wearing a trucker hat, phat pants, and a bad-boy attitude, would emerge to a chorus of jeers, and Jole would douse him with a glass of water, wagging her finger, No, no, no. It was a fun, freaky spectacle.

She might have continued to work for Beacher, Jole says, if she hadn't stumbled upon a Craigslist ad posted by the nearby Harmon Theater. They were putting together a show called Little Legends made up solely of Little People performers. The contract was for two years, and paid well—something in the neighborhood of $800 a week for six shows, with an additional $1,500 monthly stipend. Jole says she called Beacher to see if he wanted to make her a counteroffer, but she never heard back. She took the deal.