9/11 came early this year to the tabloid Web world, as a young popular music singer named Britney Spears was shuffled off to a Los Angeles psych ward in the wee hours of the morning. A nation in crisis! The onslaught of tabloid e-mails, for those unfortunate enough to be on such lists against their will, began at 2:43 a.m.: "Report: Britney Attempted Suicide—KEEP REFRESHING PAGESIX.COM FOR UPDATES." Oh, no thanks!

The New York Observer's Doree Shafrir notes the mad chronology of posts over at TMZ: "17 posts in a little more than six hours"—each of them less sense-making than the last. But what's incredible about all the TMZ, Page Six, LA Times, and X17 blogging is how well-sourced (particularly the TMZ stuff) it all is. It's almost like the call is coming from inside the house! Oh, wait. It is.

TMZ, 6:36 a.m.:

Brit then told everyone to "shut up," saying "I'll do what I need to do."

After that, Britney demanded complete silence. She sat on the floor and began passing notes to Lutfi, Adnan, and others as they waited for the cops and emergency workers.

Breathtaking stuff.

Wait, this just in! You may be excited to know that TMZ has footage of Britney Spears' father not saying anything at UCLA Medical Center, which is where poor Britney is being treated for being a crazy person. Their terms:

Your use of this clip is permitted starting today Jan 31, 2008 through Feb 3, 2008. Any use thereafter must be cleared again with TMZ. It may not be used as file footage, unless permission is granted by TMZ.

In addition, the TMZ bug must remain onscreen and unobscured for the duration of the clip and verbal credit must be given to TMZ in the track or clip's introduction.

You may feed this out to affiliates, as well as use on your website, provided a link to TMZ.com is in the article.

Good to know. Wait, hold on! Us Weekly chimes in at 10:34 a.m.: "EXCLUSIVE: Britney Spears Hadn't Slept Since Saturday, 'There Was No Suicide Attempt.'" If sleep deprivation puts you in the nut hut, we're thinking they'll be a rush on psych ward beds for tabloid reporters shortly.