Watching "The Daily Show" yesterday, I heard Jon Stewart say something about Britney Spears that I thought was sensitive and probably true. I wish I could quote it exactly, but it was something like, "The media are reporting how she's going more crazy from having the media follow her around documenting how she's going crazy."
That was the gist of it, anyway. Being constantly scrutinized and publicly criticized like that must be really, really hard for a 25-year-old. And yes, some of the stories I've read make her sound not just dumb but actually mentally unbalanced. But having all that negative attention must make her even MORE mentally unbalanced.
BTW, speaking of media following Britney around, I interviewed her 14 years ago for a newspaper story, when she was 11 and had just been cast on the Mickey Mouse Club show. She seemed of average intelligence and reasonably normal at the time.
Here's a quote from the story that seems particularly ironic now:
Britney hasn't let fame and fortune go to her head, her mother said.
"There's a lot of kids that this this would ruin, but I feel sure that this will make an even better person out of Britney," Lynn Spears said. "Britney could win the Academy Award in three different movies and she would still have a humble spirit."