Britney Spears is behaving normally these days, and the paparazzi and other foot soldiers of the tabloid armies built up to fight wars over info scraps about dysfunctional celebrities couldn't be less happy.

From the Toronto Star (picked up from the Los Angeles Times):

To the mortgage crisis and the energy crunch and the devalued dollar, add this: a recession in the Britney market.

The young woman who rose and fell (and fell and fell) in the paparazzi's strobe lights seems to have put bizarre public displays behind her, and the photographers who made hundreds and thousands of dollars – and in some cases, hundreds of thousands – capturing her missteps must look elsewhere for celebrities more predictably unpredictable.

"She's boring. She doesn't even have a boyfriend," said François Navarre, the co-owner of X17, the photo agency that set the standard for aggressive 24/7 coverage of Britney Spears.

Photographers who relied on Spears for hourly material for the gossip blogs are confronted by a lack of access and a lack of drama. She rarely goes out and when she does, she behaves herself. No umbrella attacks. No head shaving. No fake British accent. No panty-less car exits.

Agencies that dispatched  last year have downsized their Britney teams.

Spears' allure remains, as evidenced by two paparazzi arrested last week near her residence, but the coverage does not compare to the intense stakeouts that preceded her confinement in a psychiatric ward in January.

For historical context, check out this post from January.

For even more historical context, be advised once upon a time, a major Toronto newsroom reputedly had the following sign up for all to see: "Harold Ballard is the most newsworthy person in this city."

Like the reporters of the time needed reminding. :)