Damaged

I'll be the first to admit that I've taken some pot shots at Britney Spears - she did hire dwarves for her then-husbands birthday, a little fact which deserved to be ridiculed. And I'll even cop to being more than a little amused at her immediate post K-Fed party antics. But after awhile, it stopped being funny and began to become very painful to watch. Today, I came across this:

And multiple sources confirm Spears’ exhibitionist streak: “She’ll strip down in front of staff, nannies, whomever,” says one. “She’ll ask, ‘Do I look sexy? Do I look pretty?’ She’s extremely insecure.”

This is not an "exhibitionist streak," and it's a helluva lot more than being extremely insecure.

The narrative around Britney's spectacular meltdown is becoming one of self-destruction, the typical "I guess she can't handle the fame" shrugging of the shoulders that accompanies such public flame outs. When I look at it, especially that aforementioned quote, I see the inevitable effects of being turned into a sexualized object before the age of 17. Will we see any record executive, any PR flack, any manager, or her parents take some responsibility for letting her be some codger's schoolgirl fantasy? Will anyone step up and admit that putting her in a position where leering old men in the seedier corners of the internets were counting the days until she was legal may have been damaging to her young psyche? Did anyone think twice about making a buck off of pimping out a pretty but not-too-bright hayseed from Louisiana?

I'm not holding my breath for any mea culpas, but let it be said, the entertainment industry eats its young.

Flotsam and Jetsam: Rich, Famous, & Dumb edition

I haven't done any digging through the celebrity compost pile in some time, not so much because there hasn't been weird stuff, but because I like to think that you and I have a much more sophisticated standard for what consitutes truly "weird stuff." Well, today's slop bucket delivered in spades.

• What is it with celebrities and little people? Now we have Lindsay Lohan hanging out with the world's premier little Britney impersonator?
• Speaking of Lindsay Lohan, who's already pretty fame-damaged at the tender age of twenty, I imagine being named Maxim's hottest woman is only going to accelerate her tendencies towards self-immolation. And to the dingbats at Maxim - really?
• Ever wonder what it would be like to have an on-line chat with Bruce Willis? No? There's a reason for that.
  
• And to top it all off, we have the Hoff:

  While he says that Hasselhoff can be charming and kind, [British journalist Piers] Morgan claims he’s also insecure about his status since his star has fallen from his glory days. “His ego is massive, there’s no other word for it,” according to Morgan. “Barely a day’s filming goes by when he doesn’t allude to 'Baywatch' and 'Knight Rider' being ‘the biggest TV shows ever’ or to the ‘nine million albums I’ve sold in Germany.”

  The Hoff can make a case for "Baywatch," but "Knight Rider?" C'mon!
  

What happens when you despise them both?

I know what the real issue of the day is that y'all want me to weigh in on. But I'm agnostic in the matter. Much like having to watch a USC-Notre Dame or Ohio State-Michigan college football game, where I have a passionate and intense dislike for both sides, the bizarro drama of Britney and K-Fed leaves me enthralled at the spectacle, but not really wanting to cheer for either moron.

I will offer this nugget: K-Fed should emphatically not get custody of those kids. Britney's done some stupid things with her one kid, but I can relate - it's easy to be publically embarrassed with a baby. It's apparently easier for Britney, but I digress. On the other hand, K-Fed is a complete and utter foob, an irresponsible cad, a boor, and (while I feel a little bad using the term) is the paradigmatic example of what is derisively referred to as "white trash." On top of that, he doesn't seem like to good a dad, what with the staying out late and not having a "real" job and all. End of story? Kids are prime candidates for future counseling.

So there's my commentary on that particular train wreck.