As everyone knows by now, “Britain’s Got Talent” runner-up Susan Boyle succumbed to the pressure of the massive onslaught of worldwide attention she unexpectedly received. Some think she cracked under the stress of losing. Whatever happened – and it’s entirely Boyle’s own business – she’s starting to feel better, according to reports. And she’s the sort where I believe most people genuinely want to see her do well, even if they’re suffering from “Susan Boyle fatigue.” She seems like a genuinely good, kind person. Certainly someone who was not prepared for all the attention she got, nor understood just how it would affect her. Fame seems nice and fun and we tend to complain about celebrities that bitch about the downsides of it. But I wouldn’t want to be famous for anything – I honestly don’t think any of the superficial advantages make all the disadvantages worth it.

Susan’s friends are worried about her future. While they say she’s doing better, they believe that working on an album or doing anything too stressful involving “Britain’s Got Talent” will be too stressful for her, and might lead to another breakdown.

The good news: “Britain’s Got Talent” phenom Susan Boyle is said to be recovering well after her post-finale anxiety attack. The bad news: Once she’s back on her feet, agenda item 1-A is to launch Boyle’s music career, thrusting her back into the very spotlight that burned her in the first place.

“There are people close to Susan who are devastated by this news,” says a source close to “BGT.” “She was so far out of her comfort zone and she could barely keep it together — that’s a fact the whole world is aware of. This has disaster written all over it.”

The tentative plan for Boyle involves having “Talent” and “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell ensure that she records albums with potential to sell well in the United States, with the hopes that buyers will see her tale as one of redemption… “She doesn’t want to say no to recording,” says the source. “But everything else that comes with it? Concerts, television appearances? This is not what’s best for her. There has to be a way where she can sing and be financially secure, and not have to sacrifice her well-being.”

…Let’s hope that Susan Boyle takes her time in recovering. That would allow some time to lapse between “BGT” and her big debut, and time might be the only way to discover the elusive middle ground between fame and ruin.

[From MSNBC’s The Scoop]

There’s also reason to believe some YouTube posters might have intentionally affected the outcome of the show. Within minutes of Boyle’s performance, clips were posted on the site. But they instead listed the wrong number to call – making people wonder if the slim 4.7% margin between Boyle and winning dance group Diversity might be even slimmer – if it exists at all.

With a 4.7 percent difference in votes between ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ winners Diversity and their more famous runner-up Susan Boyle, the Daily Mail now suggests that something as simple as a wrong number on YouTube clips may have done in the presumed front-runner Boyle.

Immediately after Boyle’s performance in the ‘Talent’ finals Saturday night, unofficial video clips were uploaded to YouTube, apparently containing incorrect phone numbers that mislead hundreds of Boyle’s voting fans. The last two digits of Boyle’s voting number appearing in the clips had been changed from the correct ’08’ to either ’07’ or ’09’ – the numbers for dance group Diversity and singer Shaun Smith.

British broadcasters ITV were aware of the videos’ existence – though ostensibly not the incorrect numbers – but allowed the clips to stay up to increase advertising ratings. An ITV spokesperson said, “The voting lines for the finalists were clearly displayed and read out after each act had performed in the final, with further calls to action for all of the acts at four further points in the evening.”

“We are satisfied viewers had ample opportunity to know which voting numbers to call. We are not responsible for any phone numbers which may have been posted on unofficial websites.”

[From PopEater]

This is the same kind of scandal “American Idol” has dealt with a few times in terms of phone service issues. With big shows like these there’s invariably some sort of conspiracy theory – and sometimes they have some weight. This one especially does, because instead of blaming the telephone service providers (as has happened a few times with “American Idol”) which I find sort of hard to believe, we’re talking about lots of individuals with nothing better to do than try to mess up the show via YouTube.

And I can absolutely believe there are plenty of losers out there doing that. All we can do is hope they didn’t really have any significant impact. Surely they fooled some people, but as ITV said, they verbally gave the correct number every time. That doesn’t mean the YouTube posters didn’t have an effect, it just means ITV didn’t do anything wrong.

Hopefully Susan can give herself the time she needs to figure out what she wants from her life. Normally I’d say ride out your 15 minutes and make as much money as you can, because it won’t last forever. And she obviously doesn’t have a pop music voice. But in her case, that could do more harm than good, and nothing is worth losing your happiness. Maybe this’ll be that amazing story she tells people when she’s 80, and it’s meant to be an interesting, crazy part of her life that makes her love her regular existence even more.

Susan Boyle is shown on 5/12/09 and 5/11/09.Images thanks to Fame Pictures .