Apparently I’m not the only one feeling pretty fatalistic about Britney Spears’ future. I can’t claim to know much about journalism ethics, besides the obvious, but I was a little surprised to learn today that the Associate Press has admitted they’ve already written Britney Spears’ obituary – and they’ve been working on it for the past month. It’s hard to know if it’s that they’re so certain she will die, or if they just really like to plan ahead. But I can’t help but wonder how ethical it is to do that – though to be fair, it’s not like most people aren’t thinking about it. It seems like they’ll probably need it.

The Associated Press began preparing Britney Spears’ obituary within the past month, Usmagazine.com has learned.

“We are not wishing it, but if Britney passed away, it’s easily one of the biggest stories in a long time,” AP entertainment editor Jesse Washington tells Us.

“I think one would agree that Britney seems at risk right now,” Washington adds. “Of course, we would never wish any type of misfortune on anybody and hope that we would never have to use it until 50 years from now…but if something were to happen, we would have to be prepared.”

[From Us Magazine]

I’m pretty sure the AP thinks they’ll have to use it in the next 50 days, not the next 50 years. To say that Britney is going down Anna Nicole Smith’s path is an understatement. To be fair, Anna Nicole wasn’t hounded like Britney was, so we don’t know the excruciating minutiae of her every activity in the last months of her life. Maybe it was as weird as Britney’s. But we definitely know that Britney is behaving more and more bizarrely, and doing it around a lot of other people. And not only are those other people not trying to stop her, they seem to be encouraging her. Hangers on and yes-men is one of the keys in the downfall of Anna Nicole, and it will certainly be Britney’s too. She obviously courts the paparazzi… does she ever read what’s written about her? Does she realize everyone’s placing odds on when she’s going to die? I know this sounds awful, but I hope she starts to. She’s got all these yes men around her who obviously are catering to her every crazy whim and telling her what she wants to hear. I hope that she starts reading some of the reports from people who aren’t on her payroll, and who think she’s going to end up dead very soon. It’d be really terrible to see, but if she somehow realizes that the five people who have a lot to gain from her materially are saying something totally different from everyone else, maybe it’ll at least put that idea in her head, and over time she’ll reject the people that are using her. I saw that because it’d be nice, but now I’m trying to figure out if we should write her obit too, just so we have it on hand.

Picture note by Jaybird: Britney and Adnan Ghalib last night. Images thanks to Splash Photos.