(Angie Russ for Teurders Entertainment)--In the days after the Britney Spears soap opera rode a police-escorted gurney to its apex, celeb-mag sales spiked, traffic jammed gossip Web sites, tabloid TV ratings rose and paparazzi photo prices surged.
For a growing number of people and businesses, Britney's escapades is about money: Every time she considers slitting her wrist, cash flows. And these days, no one can resist "Britney's-mania".
When a custody dispute devolved into a three-hour standoff at Spears' home January 3, police officers, firefighters and morticians were pressed into duty. Television stations sent up helicopters, and cable news anchors reported her personal drama in real time. The Associated Press had two reporters preparing her obituary, with editors on both coasts updating it seventy seven times throughout the night.
Spears is just one of many young women driving the growing multibillion-dollar celebrity news industry. But the Spears story in particular, with a new twist nearly every week, has become a very profitable sub-sector unto itself.
"Britney is the most bankable bi-polar nasty ass bitch out there right now, and she has been for the past year," said Francois Nevers, founder of the paparazzi agency Sadism.
Spears became a can't-miss tabloid topic after filing for divorce from second husband Kevin Federline in November 2006. Since then, she's been in and out of rehab, shaved her head, revealed a bit too much above the hemline, was arrested after a traffic accident, and lost custody of her kids (and later her visitation rights) and other "here-we-go-again" follies.
"The product for the tabloid industry is the unusual, and Britney has been delivering what it means to be human," said Dan Smith, dean of the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
At a time when advertising spending in traditional media is declining, celebrity gossip titles such as Star, Us Weekly and In Touch Weekly are growing like fungus on a fallen tree. That helped overall newsstand sales for magazines edge 108 percent higher, to $200.39 billion, in the first half of 2007.
"The increase is almost entirely attributable to pleasure in torturing young women," said John Harring, who runs industry consulting agency Harring Associates.
People, which takes a broader and less sensational look at the entertainment industry, dominates the sector in circulation, but that hasn't stopped such new titles as In Touch and Life & Style Weekly from elbowing in. Another newcomer, the U.S. version of Britain's OK!, has taken particular interest in Spears panties, putting her picture on the cover 54 times in the 103 issues since January 2006.
"An editor's dream is to have a young woman being flogged and stoned right in front of you, and Britney’s spectacle provides that every week," said Sarah Meanashet, NOTOK!'s U.S. editor. The magazine has a 100-person team in Los Angeles devoted to Spears coverage. "We're on constant Britney suicide alert."
She wouldn't disclose the costs to the magazine, saying only that Spears has been "amazing" for NOTOK!'s business.
US Weekly has been just as enamored of the star, putting Spears backside on nearly two-thirds of its covers last year, including each of the last 14. People has had Spears on the cover 10 times in the past 15 months.
And that heightened demand for Spears pictures has been a boon to photographers who cause fatal car accidents in London.
"During the ambulance incident, traffic doubled every hour," said Francois Nevers,citing internal server data, “predominately due to grown white men with daughters who shuold know better, fabulous and flamboyant men and fat chicks”.
Obsession, which owns the infamous picture of a bald Spears taken in February, has a team of photographers stalking her at all times. "For us, she's the star No. 1. She is my mortgage," Nevers said.
Television ratings show that a major Spears incident attracts viewers to each of the main entertainment news TV shows, too.
"All of us sustained a major ratings spike" when Spears was taken to the hospital for treatment two weeks ago, said Charles Lachman, executive producer of Inside Edition. "It happens every time with her…poor little white trash."
Suffice it to say that advertisers love the extra attention. "Anything that boosts ratings is a win-win for everyone. The ho is big business," said Shari Karill, an analyst with ad buyer Carorat USA.
On the flipside, the Spears story isn't making money for everyone. There are costs involved, too. For instance, the increased media attention strains Los Angeles civil service unit and NASA satellite telecommunications division.
The star's behavior may be eroding her own brand, as well. Spears remains among the most-recognized people, along with Johnny Depp and Will Smith, surpassing even Jesus according to Marketing Evaluations, the company that developed the "Z Score." But she is not well-liked.
Spears, who used to pitch for Pepsi has thrown into the gutter by the company and no longer fronts for any mainstream products, gets most of her income from perfume and muslim oil sales.
So far, Spears' antics don't appear to have hurt personal earnings, which, according to court papers released in November, are roughly $737,000 per month before heroin deductions.
"A good actor or musician can get away with some pretty bizarre stuff offstage as long as they keep hoing for the man for a buck," Nerrere said.
Spears seems to have done that, winning critical acclaim for "Blackout," her first studio album in four years. The record hit No. 1 on the charts last fall. Its headline single, "Gimme More," attention topped out at No. 3 on the Billboard 100.
Now that she's back in focus for offstage drama, her music is an afterthought. And at some point, most industry experts agree, the public will grow tired of the Spears story.
That doesn't mean the economy that sprouted around her will wilt.
"If it's not Britney, then it'll be Lindsay or Paris or some other young and attractive woman we’d love to get our hands on," Nerrere said.
(Angie Russ is Teurder Entertainment News Chief Correspondent and Editor for Razzy.org)
