Shaving her head. Smashing a car with an umbrella. Talking with a fake British accent. Britney Spears may be troubled, but is she about to kick the bucket?

If you're in the business of breaking news these days, you may not be sure, but you'd better be prepared.

News that the Associated Press has prepared an obituary for the 26-year-old Spears has raised many questions about the business of reporting on death, especially as more and more young celebrities who lead increasingly risky lifestyles become the focus of attention.

Prepared obituaries, detailed biographies of a person's life often written or compiled months or years before their death, allow newspapers and other media outlets to tell the story of the deceased almost within minutes of their passing.

It's actually a little creepy. As a television news intern, I spent many slightly morbid hours fast-forwarding through video footage of famous people who are expected to soon leave this world.

But for the most part, prepared written or video obituaries are usually created for older notables -- former presidents, Nobel Prize winners or important leaders of other countries.

The popularity of Spears and other young celebrities, like 25-year-old Brad Renfro who died suddenly last week, might be changing that.

For one, young celebrities generate an incredible amount of public interest, often because of their bizarre behavior. It is also this bizarre and frequently dangerous behavior that make many question whether they'll meet untimely ends like other young stars, including James Dean, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

As the AP reports, the sudden passing of 39-year-old Anna Nicole Smith from a drug overdose last year (and the media frenzy it created) was a "'wake-up call' to be prepared to report immediately on any high-profile person with a public history of troubled behavior."

Some might think of it as prematurely condemning a young celebrity to her doom, but with the competition for breaking news being so fierce, you can't blame them for wanting to be prepared.

Thoughts?