Perhaps she expected sympathy. Perhaps that’s what she deserved. But as Britney Spears lay strapped to a stretcher last Thursday night, some failed to see a desperate, ill woman and instead saw dollar signs.

It began the moment the pop singer broke a court order and refused to return her children to the custody of their father. As the emergency services arrived at her home, so did the paparazzi. With the promise of a monster payday, more and more rolled up until the street was thick with bodies and the sky filled with the sound of helicopters.

Four hours later, an ambulance, taking a distressed Spears to hospital for an assessment, could only manage a crawl for the crowds filling the road.

But if footage of the paparazzi shoving cameras at the ambulance window were confronting, they were not the only ones enthusiastically cashing in on the 26-year-old’s downfall.

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The famously acerbic gossip blogger Perez Hilton was so overjoyed that Spears’s hospital admission increased the number of visitors to his website, he breathlessly shared his good fortune with readers.

“You guys really care about Britney Spears - a lot! Friday was the busiest day we've ever had on Perez Hilton.com. Over the course of 24 hours, we had over 10 million page views. 10,089,428 to be exact. That's insane! Thanks, Britney.”

The message followed several days of uncontained excitement from Hilton, who posted doctored pictures of Spears sporting a straitjacket, a Hannibal Lecter mask, as well as one showing devil horns protruding from her head. He slated her as a “f***-up”, and posted video footage of Spears strapped to a stretcher under the headline “The money shot”, and a video montage he described as the “highlights of all the Britney Spears drama”.

Perhaps it would be naïve to expect more from the king of Hollywood gossip, but one might expect more from a psychologist. Dr Phil McGraw, Oprah Winfrey’s favourite shrink turned TV personality, visited Spears before she was released from LA’s Cedars-Sinai hospital. At first it seemed he was just a kindly psychologist, familiar with the rigours of fame, offering help. However shortly after the visit, Dr McGraw blabbed to Entertainment Tonight.

"My meeting with Britney and some of her family members this morning in her room at Cedars leaves me convinced more than ever that she is in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention.

“She was released moments before my arrival and was packing when I entered the room. We visited for about an hour before I walked with her to her car. I am very concerned for her."

He is now advertising a TV special about Spears. The website for his show, Dr Phil, reads: "Britney Spears Exclusive! Dr Phil gives his impressions of Britney after their in-hospital one-on-one.”

He's not the only one who still sees potential in a three-day-old story. Since being released from hospital on the weekend, Spears has been trailed by an enormous paparazzi pack.

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