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Christina Aguilera and her handlers were surprised to see Bobby Brown on the October cover of Vibe after the singer did an extensive interview and cover shoot for the mag.

Is Bobby Brown really hotter than Christina Aguilera? Vibe magazine apparently thinks so — and Aguilera’s peeps are peeved.

It was disappointing enough for Aguilera — who did a big interview and photo shoot for Vibe’s October cover to hype her chart-topping album “Back to Basics” — when there was a regime change at the music mag, and the new editors dumped the megawatt pop star in favor of Whitney Houston’s troubled hubby.

But I hear the Aguilera camp went ballistic — with her powerful manager, Irving Azoff, sending a saber-rattling letter alleging breach of contract — when Vibe wanted to use the sexy photos on its Web site, but not in the print version.

Vibe editor in chief Mimi Valdes originally scheduled the Aguilera cover and conducted the interview this summer, but she lost her job in July, when new owners took over. Valdes’ replacement, Danyel Smith, had a different idea.

“I can’t speak on the previous administration, and what they did promise or didn’t promise,” Smith told me. “But there was never an article to put anywhere. There was never a written piece.”

Smith — who was also Vibe’s editor in the late 1990s — declined to comment on the stern letter, but acknowledged: “We had considered putting the photos online and then decided against it.”

Aguilera’s PR rep, Cindy Guagenti, tried to minimize the conflict between her client and the mag.

“We are trying to salvage the relationship,” she told me. “When there’s a change at a magazine, you understand that there might be a new direction. But Christina is completely within the scope of the magazine — she is very relevant to Vibe’s readers, and we would still like them to honor their commitment. We want them to give us back our cover!”

Smith responded: “We are so pleased that an artist of Christina Aguilera’s stature would want to be on our cover, and we hope to work with her on something in the future.”