You know you’re famous when stuff that happens to you makes headlines. You know you’re really famous when mundane stuff that happens to you makes headlines. And you know you’re really way too famous when mundane stuff happens TO YOUR SISTER and it makes headlines. Honestly, would the pregnant star of Zoey 101 getting engaged to her baby daddy be interesting at all if that star didn’t also happen to be the sister of Britney Spears?

I’ve never really understood why the dirt mags paid so much extra attention to Britney Spears. Sure, she’s a superstar, but are her trips to Quizno’s really newsworthy? But now that the paps are camped out in Kentwood waiting for Jamie Lynn to make a move, I think I’m starting to get it.

They really want people to suffer. I think a lot of these guys actually sit back and hope that things just fall apart for people. Why else would the media respond with such glee at the suggestion that “white trash” Britney’s little sis is even more “white trash” than Britney is?

This goes for mainstream media types too. They wait to pounce on the most salacious gossip about, say, the three remaining presidential candidates and turn tiny problems and mistakes into Times Square screen sized mega-scandals. Can we just treat these things for what they are with no hype?

Britney is working out some quarter life crisis problems, Jamie Lynn is pregnant and engaged, Barack Obama has an overzealous pal, Hilary exaggerated a story. Who among us hasn’t had to deal with all of these minor things? Maybe we haven’t dealt with them to the degree that these people are dealing, or maybe our situations are worse, but instead of laughing and cursing at people in the limelight for really being just like us, why don’t we take a deep breath and chill.

And I’m pointing this finger at myself most of all.