As the fifth anniversary of Madonna and Britney Spears’ kiss at the MTV Video Music Awards nears, it seems fair that the subject of Spears would come up in the course of Madonna’s interview with Vanity Fair’s Rich Cohen.

However, if events played out exactly as they appear in the magazine’s April cover story, Madonna didn’t even give Cohen the chance to pose a pointed question on the subject matter of Spears.

“Yes, I know. I know exactly what you’re going to ...