Has anyone written your obituary?

Last week, NPR’s On The Media did a fairly strange piece on celebrity obituaries. Evidently, the AP has a stock of prepared celebrity obituaries, not only for older stars but also for those in the younger generation teetering dangerously on the edge of disaster. The story comes on the heels of the death of Heath Ledger, who was not among the AP’s candidates for a just-in-case obit.

Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse, though? Primo early-obit candidates.

BOB GARFIELD: At what point during the reality show that has become Britney Spears’ life did the AP say, okay, there is a chance that this show is going to end sooner rather than later – let’s get something on paper?

JESSE WASHINGTON: It was fairly recently. I can't pinpoint the exact moment. I think that everyone would agree that she’s in trouble and does not seem to be improving, so we decided to get ready if the worst-case scenario happened.

Garfield can be cheeky about it, but it’s disturbing. Are young celebrities dying in such great numbers to merit the AP running a young Hollywood death pool? Garfield points out that the gone-too-soon celebrity is no new phenomenon—Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and John Belushi all illustrate his point.

The only recent young celebrity deaths aside from Heath Ledger that I can think of off the top of my head are Brad Renfro and Anna Nicole Smith. While Anna Nicole may have been an AP contender, Renfro—who had long been flying under the radar—likely was not. The deaths of Renfro and Ledger seem to point out that these things aren’t really so predictable. You have to wonder just how helpful the AP's morbid practice really is.