Puhleaze. Britney was selling her body since she did "Oops" if not before. She's been selling her teenaged cooter and she's done it knowingly.

She's a multimillionaire many times over, even now.

Other women have been able to retire and she could too.

And in fact, most of the coverage I see of her these days is of the sympathetic why are we letting her do this to herself.

In the meantime, I think you're disgusting for insisting on some sort of celebrity death watch dick fight. Once again, instead of concentrating on reasonable issues: celebrity, paparazi, youth, drug use, free sex, instead T, you need to whip out your penis and make sure everyone knows how it compares in size to a man's.

Heath Ledger is not the right comparison to make.

On many levels Michael Jackson is the right comparison to make. They both are former child pop stars whose lives have fallen apart under the spot light. Also, at this point they both have sold more magazines than CDs.

I think she's right.

Think about how many male stars' problems are kept hidden and swept under the rug until years later when they give a tell all interview or write a book. Or, most awfully, until something bad happens.

Compare that to Lindsey Lohan, Paris or Britney and it seems like not only is the press actively waiting for them to do something awful they're almost goading the behavior by their constant intrusions.

The whole spectacle is sick and ridiculous no matter how you cut it.

and expose to photographers a dewy absence of thong under miniskirt you can't claim to be seeking privacy and you won't get it either.

Heath Ledger, decidedly advantaged by following mostly boring hetero male dress expectations, did not have that problem.

What bothers me is that these celebrity burnouts are treated as "news". Only if your idea of news is ET! When CNN passes on the latest Britney crotch shot or pregnancy or whatever no marketable skills loser she's fucking this week story for an in depth investigation into the motivations for going into Iraq, then they can call themsleves a news channel again.

Are there any manly - or even vaguely masculine - male stars who provide what you would consider an adequate comparison?

But Heath Ledger is not the comparison to make. We don't know that much about his private life, but as shocking and sad as his death has been, the media seems intent on making it much worse with rumors and innuendo (if that's at all possible). With Britney, Anna Nicole, Lindsay Lohan, you don't really need any gossip or informed sources to secretly slip that they're completely unhinged.

That being said, I think the people following Britney and getting rich off of her public meltdown are horrid individuals. I actually didn't feel that sorry for her for some reason until HL died, and I'm trying to figure that out. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that when HL died, I couldn't believe it and followed a link which led me to TMZ, which led me to an article about HL dying, and then to a premorbid article about HL wearing a ridiculous purple hat and needing to get his style sense together. So much for the gender respect. (What we wouldn't give to see him parading about in his purple hat now.) And the girls get that kind of thing 10 times worse. Someday we may actually be missing Britney.

Didn't Britney date one of the paparazzo? I guess Heath didn't do something that stupid, but I don't know or care. Maybe the reason for increased scrutiny of these girls is women and men like to see celebrities fall, but men don't buy or watch this crap when it doesn't involve tits. The companies want the biggest possible audience.

How can you even think of comparing Britney Spears to Heath Ledger? The woman in this article is talking about people who are mentally unwell. Heath Ledger died of cardiac arrest, he has nothing to do with this issue! Britney suffers various mental disorders and that's what this is all about. If you want to make a point at all, compare her case to a similar one.

Come on. The article on Jezzable is retarded, and the summary on this site is worse than retarded.

This passes for analysis? Please. Feminist critique is week to begin with, trying to do stupid pop-culture analysis using Feminism reeks of a dull mind on crack. Oh the pretty connections.

How famous was Heath Ledger?(just for the record I loved his presence on camera). How many box office smashes had he been involved in? Here are a list of his films. He was an good (potentially great) actor who was only now begining to find a star vehicle. He had a great turn in Brokeback Mountain (2005) but other than had he made anything that drew anything but a niche audience towards him. Male actors generally don't find star status until they are a little bit older. And even then very few of them can enter the Tom Cruise world celebrity sweepstakes. His role as the joker could have been his ticket, but we'll never know.

For the record, here are a list of Heath Ledger films since 2000 (when he was 21). What had he done that would have warrented great public attention. And look he didn't work at all for 3 years in the middle there.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) (in production)

The Dark Knight (2008) (post-production) .... The Joker

I'm Not There. (2007) .... Robbie Clark (indie)

Candy (2006) .... Dan (lost)

Casanova (2005) .... Casanova (bomb)

Brokeback Mountain (2005) .... Ennis Del Mar(minor hit)

The Brothers Grimm (2005) .... Jacob Grimm (bomb)

Lords of Dogtown (2005) .... Skip (indie)

The Order (2003) .... Alex Bernier (don't know it)

Ned Kelly (2003) .... Ned Kelly (minor bomb)

The Four Feathers (2002) .... Harry Faversham (bomb)

Monster's Ball (2001) .... Sonny Grotowski (minor role)

A Knight's Tale (2001) .... Sir William Thatcher / Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein of Gelderland (great fun, but not a huge film)

The Patriot (2000) .... Gabriel Martin (supporting role)

Why do they chase after Britney?

Because she sells magazines.

Who buys these magazines?

Women.