Britney Spears is currently caught in my sympathy cross hairs and I wish she would just go away to retire somewhere nice with her money and her sons, though this is mainly for my own comfort rather than any altruistic consideration.
It used to be that celebrities had a nice, neat story arc that was inescapable, even with very great success. These took years: success, scandal, ignominy, obscurity. The glossy magazines and tabloid papers would build the famous up and then pick them slowly apart. Now this process takes months instead of years. Look at young Frankie Cocozza from The X Factor: a new record breaker, he managed it in weeks.