I think Britney's life has been too much for her and I also think the media should just leave her alone for once and allow her to heal herself. She's been doing this since she was a little girl., and for that I blame her parents. She was never allowed to just be a child. The enormity of what was take from her in that respect is mind boggling! I feel so sorry for her and I can only keep her in my prayers at night, hoping that someone out there will truly care enough about the sick person in need of help to actually help her without expecting anything from her. If we cared more about Diana maybe she might have had an easier life. The media should just know when to stop!

Noelene, Pietersburg, Limpopo, South Africa

I feel sorry for her Mom. Having to deal with this farce right now... and her other daughter, who is on track to be just as messed up.
Lynne is going to have to take care of a baby, who's father will probably make that scenario a farce as well. I bet the tabloids cant wait for that. Her mother has the toughest job ahead of her.

Jason, Calgary, Canada

Picture a few of the darkest and most embarrasing moments of YOUR life. Now imagine a camera and reporter at every turn. Picture your loved ones selling their loyalty just to cash in on your 'celebrity'. Picture a long list of lovers who only date you to raise their level of 'celebrity'. And worse, you have two children with one of them.

This is just a snippet of what Brit goes through on a DAILY basis. Media and friends all claim to be concerned with her 'mental well being', and want the best for her. Where do you draw the line?

If it were YOU who coincidentally forgot your panties three nights in a row would that behavior sound a 'mental health issue' alarm? Of course it wouldn't, because no one cares if you aren't wearing panies. In fact, I'm not wearing any right now... maybe I have a mental health issue, where are the reporters when you really need them?

There are far more important issues in this country. Leave Brit alone!!!

Scott, Columbus, Oh

This article ask us, the audience, if the media has lost it's way. Which in the case of Britney Spears it definetly has, she needs to be left alone for now or we will have her suicide on our hands!

Bryan Scruggs, Las Vegas, NV

If only we'd had someone like Mr. Campbell around when poor David Kelly was thrown the the wolves

john motor, ldn, ldn

If you received a fee for writing this article, does that not answer the question contained within the headline?

Steve Buckel, Braunau-am-Inn, Österreich

When we Google Britney we are sick. When Alastair Googles Britney he is doing research. Now where have we heard that before?

eric campbell, harrogate, uk

Praise the Lord Hermann from Oklahoma. She needs to find Jesus!

Andrew, Newcastle,

i think britany should just be left alone. I personally think that the press should be blamed. She's not calling for attention its the press thats looking for her......Britany should be treated like every normal human being and the press should leave her alone and let her live her life!!!!!

Abi, London, UK

You should Google 'Iraq' and 'civilian deaths' if you want to see something really sick.

Tony, Glasgow, Scotland

12'200'000'000 hits actually. (when entered - "britney spears" suicide)

Antony, Lugano,

Singer!!
God Help Us!

G Davies, Swansea, UK

"She's a great singer".

Sorry, Alastair, stopped reading there.

Abioye A Oyetunji, London, UK

I am sorry but why should we care about her? Why are we forced to read pointless articles about somebody as unimportant as her? She is not special - she hasn't done anything to deserve such attention or our compassion. It is time to grow up and stop writing about complete nobodies who do not deserve having ink wasted on them. There are real issues in the world right now, wheter a blonde yank nobody tops herself or not is not one of them.

Cris, London,

Many people do not have sympathy for this girl because she did desperately pursue fame and therefore she 'asked for it'. How many of us have done things that, with the benefit of hindsight we would not have chosen to do had we known the outcome? I wonder if, given the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge of the eventual outcome, Britney would have chosen the same path? I suspect not, but sadly, hindsight is 20-20 and as a 13 year old child she did not have this benefit. Perhaps one cannot judge her too harshly as surely we all do things we shouldn't do and come to regret at times in our lives. Let he who is without sin, etc...

Janice, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

She needs you Alistair. Honestly! Get in there, sort it out. Get rid of all the hangers on and organise the press. You would be perfect! :-) She needs a firm hand.

Sara McLoughlin, Grimsby, NE Lincs

AMEN, Ernest ! The media is a vicious monster that seeks to silence and destroy whatever opposes it's opinion and agenda. I feel so sorry for Britney Spears the press and media have no decency or respect for anyone,that is unless it serves them. The only justice to it all is that someday we shall all reap the seeds we have sown be it bitter or sweet. I pray that eventually Britney will find the peace and privacy she so rightly deserves.

Gary, Roanoke, USA/Virginia

she became ill only because of the society around her. I saw a piece of news from the USA - she couldn't even dine in a reastaurant - crazy people surronded her and started screaming - "Britney, get out of the neighbourhood". And it happened all the time. Look at those hundreds of papparazzi!!!! They touch her, they shout at her, provocating her to do something aggressive... What would I do if being treated like that? well, probably go mad as she did...
ANd by the way - don't please forget that she is still a very talented singer

Anastasia, Kazan, Russia

I think most people are sufficiently zavvi in this day and age to appreciate that the media interface representing a public personage is an artifice, a contrivance. It is substantially a function of the interests that promoted the personality in conjunction with current affairs. Since Britney Spears has to be an intelligent and robust girl, who does have family, one can reasonably presume that her obligations are presently proving more than usually awkward and she is more concerned with her security than her public image.

Henry Percy, London, UK

Alastair Campbell is right. In many respects the British press is out of control and, I would say, some papers abuse our historic right to free speech.

In particular I am amazed that it is legally OK to doorstep someone and in particular park a camera outside their home and record every movement.

We pay a very high price for Britain being a free country and I hate elements of the press foir abusing our tolerance for free speech and a free press.

Richard B, Plymouth,

I am nearly in tears writing this!
Is this what the human race has turned into?
Does a person's live have no meaning, no more significance apart from providing cheap disposable entertainment for the masses?
I wonder if we have started on the decline of mankind when the human life is treated as a worthless commodity by developed nations who avidly state they set an example for the rest of the world to follow?
The shame of it!
I can't say we are behaving like animals..
No animal would ever treat another animal in this way!
Suicide?
One feels suicidal..not wanting to be part of a 'civilised' society that perpetrates this kind of behaviour..
Where is the love, the humanity, the civility, the understanding, the empathy.
Where is humanity?

jimmy garber, london,

There is only so much pressure the human organism is capable of bearing up under: the constant glare of flashing bulbs, the substance abuse, trauma of the child custody battle... That said, it seems extremely Svengoli-ish and disturbing that the still very young Ms. Spears should fall into the hands of one of the papparazzi--her boyfriend! How lemming-like, surely. The obvious RX for her would be a long R & R respite in some posh detox facility on an island in the Carribean.

Come on Ms. Spears. Take your millions and get the heck out of the public eye for the next year. Let a butterfly emerge--far far away from the maddening crowd of parasites.

Elan Durham, Santa Monica, CA/US

Some people forget Britney is a person. Some people also forget Israel is a pro-Western democracy created with the full support of the UN. The media is a fair animal? Yeah right!!!

Ernest , Mlebourne, Australia

I agree with this article> If this woman is indeed mentally ill, the "experts" who are earning money analyzing her mental state should exercise their professional responsibility and to defend her right to privacy, as she is clearly not able to care for herself. The sight of the press filming every aspect of someone so sick being taken to hospital was disgusting.

Vivian, Vancouver, BC Canada

So why not leave her alone then? Yes, I agree; what you did is sick.

zeb mccardle, Newcastle,

OK, so lets take lessons in ethics and selflessness from a man who spun and manipulated the media and the British people into a criminal war. He casigates the media for its blinkered 'Britney sells' approach and for forgetting its basic humanity. Here is a man who forgot his basic humanity in his 'war sells' approach to winning favour with the US administration. The difference is that Alistair Campbell's wreckless fervour actually did lead to death and suffering - on a scale incomparable with that of that may face Britney and entourage.

Ben, Colchester,

A well written piece which I agree with entirely. I have no wish to ogle another human being's suffering via the media in the same way I don't hang around hospitals for my own amusement. Leave her alone to try to sort out her life and don't pick up the story until you have something positive about her to report.

Duncan, London,

Back when the Britney phenomenon took off, I was passing through the suburbs of Lima in Peru. A boy of about six or seven was singing "Inamorado di Britney Spears" - a pop hit about being in love with Britney. Some years down the line, the world media is reviling her and putting her down. Following her pregnancy they slagged her off, saying she hadn't lost her baby weight even though she had just given birth. They question her mothering skills and dodgy relationships. They refuse to act with a modicum of basic human decency and allow a child mother to lick her wounds in private and try to regain her lie and her dignity. Even if she courted fame - she does not deserve this.

Claire Bonello, Sliema, Malta

Mr Campbell writes well and I share his view. (By the way, I do wish others would simply take his analysis at face value ... haven't we learned to move on from 'AC spin merchant incarnate'?). It's a little sad, however, that on the same page as AC's perceptive assessment of newspapers gone mad there are 8 links to crash and burn Britney stories plus a photo. Even The Times, it seems, is not wholly immune.

Dougie Herd, Sydney, Australia

Bingo!!! A great write up....undoubtedly Britney is a great singer and a teraffic crowd puller. But her chequered career is dotted and raked with one controversy and another. It seems, Oops! I did it again....well justifies her life style with more Oops and Ahas! than accolades. If you dig back into her childhood and graph out her memoirs and childhood experience, she seems to be a classic case of ADD-Attention deficit disorder. It is a kind of personality disorder with high level of impulsivity, restless approach towards life and a craving to be a cynosure-centre of attraction. At times it projects a state of inner hollowness, coupled with loneliness and solitude.Such people live a fantasy world of their own, are at times highly creative in fine arts, music etc but often turn into social deviates.To stay in the limelight and be the darling girl of the fans and followers, they poke up, forge and do up such acts of weird and wacky nature.Britney should learn the art of zen meditation.

sandy, New Delhi, India

No judge should take her children whom she loves away from her permanently, Only till she is healing. And she needs a pastor more than a physician.
With other comments, yes, Alastair here shows some of the strengths behind the TB PMship.

Hermann Burchard, Stillwater , Oklahoma

I have never agreed with an article on Britney Spears more. The tabloids and gossip blogs seem to view her now as only something that will sell papers/magazines or increase sit hits; she is no longer considered a person, one who is clearly going through hell in full view of the world. Yet no one cares; she is a laughing stock, a joke, no longer thought of as a girl who perhaps peaked too early on, and now is paying the price for it. It is indeed a strange phenomenon that the culture that created her and gave her such success is now enjoying tearing her from that mantle. And sadly, it is not only Spears. The amount of magazines that are covering Heath Ledger's apparent drug use in the wake of his death, should be disgusting to any rational human being. The arguement that celebrities deserve their demise due to their status, is a twisted one indeed. One wouldn't wish what Britney is going through on their worst enemy. Yet because she is Britney, she somehow deserves it. So wrong.

Kiel, Manchester,

A surprising insight to an intelligent and considerate man, or, the spin doctor spinning himself. Only he knows...

Simon, London,

For once, I almost agree with Campbell.

I cannot agree with him that Spears is a great singer. Nothing even approaching that!

But she was an extraordinarily attractive person and personality.

Seeing recent images on TV and in newspapers suggest the poor woman is deeply disturbed and ill. She should be left alone to have the treatment she needs and which will hopefully restore some normality to her life.

And, perhaps more importantly, enable her children to be reunited with their mother. No-one seems to be much bothered about the effect of all this nonsense on the kids. All they can see is their poor mother being harassed.

Chris Palmer, Southampton, England

A good and really quite sensitive article. I little knew that under the veneer of a ruthless spin doctor there was a human being trying to escape! Well done.

Clothilde Simon, Harrogate, UK