Other than his professional failures—taking big, sloppy risks and never learning from his mistakes—there were myriad personality "quirks" that just didn't bode well for a long network career in these depressed, skittish times.

First off, he was always saying dumb things. Like the time he called striking writers who refused to participate in the meaningless Golden Globes ugly nerds who were trying to ruin the cool kids' prom. Or when he basically admitted that he thinks he's the funnest guy he knows. Or hows about that time he called a bunch of his colleagues "D-Girls", the Hollywood equivalent of calling them ineffectual pussies. And who can forget when he declared himself "the perfect storm for making a television executive." (Very destructive storm being an unwittingly apt metaphor, Ben!) That he said whatever he wanted was brave! But it was also dumb.

There was also the youthfully irksome "rockstar" shtick. Silverman's partying has been called "voracious." Because, you know, he came to NBC from the relatively devil-may-care enclaves of producerdom. Those stuffy NBC suits just couldn't handle his wildin'! Wildin' like rescheduling morning meetings to the more hangover-friendly afternoon and hugging executives and signing emails, drunkenly probably, "Love U!" Or maybe they couldn't handle his gangsta freestyle? Likely, though, it was that Ben never showed up for work. He was too busy yachting and yukking it up (flirting?) with Ryan Seacrest.

Basically if you're curious about what it takes to rise from nothing, find fleeting fame and fortune, then collapse and vanish under the weight of your own expectations, just start here and keep on reading. It reads like pretty much any overly-cocky post-college narrative, only with a bunch more money involved.

He gave us so much to write about! And now, like dreams abruptly ended by alarm clocks, it's gone.

"She had two Jack [Daniels] and Cokes and an orange-flavored martini," Lola's manager, Sylvie Haines, tells Us Weekly, adding that "her whole visit was pretty low-key and she didn't seem drunk."

This is good news: Not only does Spears's newly demonstrated ability to enjoy three drinks without succumbing to a head-shaving fugue state reinforce her belief that her stint in Promises was unnecessary, but by the time she returned home, her blood-alcohol content was probably low enough to open the Breathalyzer-protected lock on her sons' nursery, allowing the dedicated mom to get in some quality time with the kids before heading off to bed.

• Britney Spears Drinking Again [Us Weekly]
• Previously: Role As Billboard Novelty Kook Not The Return To Radio Britney Spears Had Envisioned [Defamer]

• Future Forward NYE.07 [PureFuture.com]