Normally I leave blogging about pop tartlet Britney Spears to my colleagues in the features department over at the Beehive. (See here and here and everywhere else on that blog.)

We business reporters are stuck with more serious fare, but this story in the Los Angeles Times piqued my interest. Britney is responsible for a mini recession of sorts.

Apparently she's been behaving herself lately -- no head shaving, no misplaced panties, no nights on the town -- and that's had an effect on the paparazzi industry. Fewer photos are selling for big bucks and fewer stalkers photographers are needed to camp out at the troubled starlet's home.

Portfolio magazine took it a step further. They estimate that the "Britney Industrial Complex" as they call it -- all the record companies, perfume companies carrying a Britney line and media that benefit from her -- pumps at least $110 million into the economy each year.