I'll come right out and be honest: I love celebrity gossip. I know, brand new information, right? A gossip columnist liking gossip? But it's true. I love celebrity craziness. I love their completely unnecessary spending-for example, Will Smith chartered a private jet last week because the flight he was originally supposed to be on only had seats in coach-and their outrageous Twitter feuds, and I adore watching the fallout of breakdowns and breakups.

This week, The Observer ran an interesting story asking whether or not the media are fueling celebrity breakdowns, targeting Hollywood's latest basket case, Charlie Sheen. In the case of Charlie Sheen's dismissal from Two and a Half Men and the subsequent formation of his Twitter empire, writers Mark Borkowski and Oliver James want to know, just who is exploiting whom?

The two writers took opposing views on the issue. Borkowski claimed, "If anyone is fueling Charlie Sheen's breakdown, it is Charlie Sheen. Don't blame the media. The media does what the media does, be it reporting from a war zone or scavenging among the celebrity hotspots of the world."

In contrast, James wrote, "Sheen's case is an extreme example of how the media peddle a toxic materialistic ideology. The (nearly all right-wing) media in America, and in this country too, have been only too happy to sell papers or broadcasting space by reporting his disturbance. But these stories only sell because people in the UK and US have become addicted to the media's continuous recycling of materialist values.Sheen's disturbance has been exacerbated by the media. That he wants the coverage is one of his psychiatric symptoms. That we consume stories about him is a sign of just how sick our society has become."

Both writers bring up decent points. The media has latched onto Charlie's very public antics like the way I latch onto a soft, chewy cookie: with steadfast determination. Charlie Sheen is a public figure, and at the end of the day, he's making a good deal of money off all of this craziness. But on the other hand, the more the media milks him, the more Charlie is going to provide.

What do you think? As the fabulous header of celebrity gossip blog OhNoTheyDidn't says, "The celebrities are disposable; the gossip is priceless." But are we turning real people into disposable commodities, entertaining ourselves at the cost of people's [mental] health, or are the celebrities themselves digging their own graves?