Britney’s battle is an enduring consequence of the cruelest celebrity gossip era

It is human nature to gossip, to peer behind the gossamer curtain of secrecy separating the rich and famous from the common and curious. In the early 2000s, that age-old impulse reached a toxic nadir. There, in the corners of an internet that still felt novel and lawless, a new breed of bloggers redefined celebrity gossip and set in motion a ruthless media machine that chewed up and spat out any fresh-faced, high-heeled celebrity in its path.