Always bizarre Spears saga generates millions for publishing industry and food chain below

By Stacey Silberman

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 1/25/08 – Fallen pop star Britney Spears has been referred to as many things, but now she’s got a perversely redeeming moniker, as ‘Tabloid Golden Goose,’ which is what makes her so newsworthy, even to legitimate media.

Portfolio Magazine has gotten in on the Britney act, reporting on annual estimates in cash value that Spears contributes to the U.S. economy. And the numbers are staggering. The magazine claims that Spears generates upwards of $110 to $120 million dollars, even when not touring or promoting her popular music.

According to the report, Britney earns celebrity tabloids, magazines, newspapers and websites somewhere in the neighborhood of $75 million per year from her varied escapades. The paparazzi’ estimated share is only about $4 million per year, which is nothing compared to the profits of its bosses.

At Hollywood Today we have found Spears articles generate from 250,000 to 500,000 hits, which helps keep our numbers high enough to deliver far more significant news and worthwhile reading. And by policy, we do not even run the sensationalist gossip and rumor stories that really send the numbers soaring at the tabloid outlets.

Still, there is enough legit celebrity news generated by this 26-year-old to keep HT and other mainstream news outlets rolling on her increasingly surreal stories: custody battles, court dates, management shuffles, marriages, births, divorces; traffic mishaps, 5150 holds imposed by police; hospital stays and publicly witnessed mental breakdowns. Not to mention her business and recording affairs.

According to the same story Spears cover shots can raise sales figures of most publications an estimated 33 percent, according to the Associated Press.

Yet if it wasn’t Britney, there would be another It Girl or celebrity trainwreck that the public just enjoys following like a favorite soap opera.

Even ex-husband Kevin Federline, 29, is benefiting from his ex-wife’s allure. Fed-Ex reportedly gets as much as $30,000 to show his face in various night clubs and in the process, has come out of the marriage and again into fatherhood smelling like a rose next to Britney. Yet, she’s the golden goose laying all sorts of eventful little golden eggs for the public to eat up happily.

In a sense, her life is the world’s newest kind of entertainment, and it comes to the public at a relatively cheap price.

This aspect of her life has even reportedly garnered the attention of Federline’s attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan, who is supposedly deposing Spears’ companion and friend Sam Lufti to find out what role he plays between Britney and the tabloids, especially related to photo ops of the couple’s two toddler boys Sean Preston, 2 and Jayden James, 1.

But what remains a mystery here, for the public, Kaplan and other interested parties, is the question as to how much money Britney is making from all of this tabloid fodder?

So stay tuned for the latest in the life and times of Ms. Britney Spears, whether you read the National Enquirer or New York Times.