Love, Britney style. Romance finally arrives on reality TV, smells and all

　　Britney Spears and her husband, Kevin Federline, stop to walk their dog on the red carpet during The 2004 Billboard Music last December. Britney may have to stow her beloved in the cargo hold (and we don’t mean Bit Bit.)

　　American television audiences have been captivated by situations in which inhabitants of a tropical island resort to everything short of cannibalism to wipe out their competition and win big bucks.

　　They have been fascinated by tone-deaf shower singers who willingly expose themselves to humiliation and ridicule for a chance to get on the national stage. They have witnessed people living in close quarters who loathe each other, seen wannabe supermodels cry rivers over the actions of their mean-spirited sisters and cringed while cutthroat young executives undermine each other in order to please a boardroom bully with bad hair.

　　All that venom. All that anger. All that ruthlessness.

Other top stories