I’m not afraid to admit that I’m a People magazine subscriber. I like reading about famous stars because they have more of a ’social life’ than I do and I have to laugh sometimes when a star gets a DUI or checks into a mental ward for ’sleeping problems’ (i.e., Justin Chambers of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’). What I’m a little more hesitant about admitting is the fact that I stop to read the articles on the downfall of a well-known pop princess.

Britney Spears was committed to the University of California Los Angeles, the Steward and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital on Jan. 31. I was thrilled to find out that it wasn’t just me, and the L.A. court had found her recent behavior unwise and that she was a threat to her children. Don’t get me wrong, back in the day I used to like listening to Spears. Her first album had some good songs on it, and her second album had one or two. I know that some of you had listened to her too, due to the fact that she sold more than 70 million copies of her CDs throughout her singing career. What I find even more interesting than Britney being committed to a mental ward, is the fact that her estimated $100 million empire is in temporary control by her father, Jamie Spears.

Keep in mind that neither of them have gotten along for many years and she has been estranged from her mom as well. I think that her family’s dysfunctional relationships with each other has to do with her mental breakdown. And Britney isn’t the only one who is messed up in that family either. Don’t forget that younger sister, Jamie Lynn, was knocked up. Some child star families have done well raising their children in the lime light. For example, and don’t ask me how I know this, Miley Cyrus, aka Hannah Montana, is grounded every time she gets into trouble. Spears has been a child star since the Mickey Mouse days, and her parents have been raking in the dough since then, or at least until her 18th birthday. I can’t make an assumption and say that her parents didn’t have proper discipline techniques set in place, but how can someone be so unstable and be so distanced from her family if there were any?

So what am I getting at? Britney needs to take a step back from Hollywood and the entertainment scene. Following her release from the hospital sometime in early February, Dad has set up rules and regulations for his daughter, like eating regular meals, ditching the bad friends, spending quality time with her parents and exercising off the pain and humiliation we have had to suffer watching her over the last couple of years. Are these rules a little too late? Who knows. But Britney Spears will continue to have drama in her life whether we read about it or not.