I'LL admit it publicly: I like Britney Spears.
It's not cool, I know, but I've always been partial to a catchy tune and a performer with good moves.
So it was with great sadness that I watched her spiral into Hollywood Hell in the past year. Her divorce! Her babies! Her body!
First, there was that awful Kevin Federline business. I couldn't believe she actually proposed to him. Then there was that disastrous reality show replete with upsetting bodily sounds. Add in all those pictures of her driving with her baby on her lap, almost dropping her other son, shaving her head in front of the paparazzi, going mental at photo shoots, falling out with her parents, taking up with a dodgy papp boyfriend, performing in a suspiciously stoned state, losing custody of her sons, et cetera, and I was quite ready to take her for psychiatric hospitalisation myself.
The entertainment media obviously went to town with all the drama. Her fans got sick of it all. Those who weren't fans to begin with vilified her. But it all made me admire her all the more - even before she recorded her new album, Circus. (Which, by the way, looks like it's going to rock when it's released next week - compared to the last album at the height of her psychodrama anyway.)
We all mess up. Goodness knows, I have. Maybe not quite on a global scale, but I've still had my let's-just-forget-I-did-that moments. So it was easy to feel her pain of such a public break-up, the subsequent can't-be-bothered behaviour and the self-destructive tendencies.
Much has been said about how, at 26, she's been a terrible role model for the generation that grew up with her - some say her life is as bizarre as Michael Jackson's. Still, I think her slow climb back to sanity has been something to learn from.
And I'm not the only one.
There was that famous Leave Britney Alone YouTube video, of course. But in many recent online articles, Rolling Stone for example, comments from readers have expressed sympathy with her meltdowns - quite a few declaring that they are mothers themselves.
Celebrity breakdowns don't always have happy endings and I'm watching this one with fingers crossed. Lots of people might think she's a waste of space and the media should just shut up about her already, but a Britney Bounce-Back will certainly be encouraging for the rest of us.
Let's just hope she doesn't, oops, do it again.