As news broke Monday that Conrad Murray had been convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the role he played in the death of Michael Jackson, to whom, a jury concluded, he had given the drug that killed him, the thought occurred to me that Murray, very sadly, wasn't really one of a kind.
He was merely the latest in a long line of infamous celebrity enablers, lining their own pockets and raising their own profiles by preying on the weaknesses and insecurities of the rich and famous.
Here are a few other notorious examples:
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Let's face it, Kristin Cavallari practically wrote the book of love. And she definitely lived out every break-up victim's dream when she 
If you find yourself endlessly stalking your ex-boyfriend's Facebook page while listening to Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" on repeat, you might be suffering from post-traumatic break-up syndrome.
Audrina Patridge, one of the last of The Hills ladies to be sticking around on 
I never thought I'd say this, but I actually feel sorry for Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. The villains of The Hills turned into fame whores so fast that my head spun. One second Heidi is LC's BFF bouncing around parties in L.A., the next she's married to a puppeteer who encouraged her to have 10 plastic surgeries at the ripe age of 23. They were so unlikeable and, to me, not the least bit sympathetic. Until now.
It was a warm day in September 2004 when I first fell in love with a tanned 17-year-old from a little town called Laguna Beach. Her name was Lauren Conrad, LC if you're in her posse, and she had the blond highlights, the hot guy friends, and the richest parents any high school girl could ever ask for. I wasn't the only one that fell under LC's spell -- we all know she got her own show, The Hills, and is now a fashion designer and a best-selling New York Times ... "author." (We'll let the last one slide a bit, I mean, no one really thinks she's writing these books, right?)
The mother of all trashy, disaster-waiting-to-happen reality shows is currently being filmed. The lineup so far is almost too good to be true: Heidi Montag, the plastic surgery queen from The Hills (also known as the "eidi" in Speidi); Danielle Staub, the possessed "prostitution whore" from The Real Housewives of New Jersey; and Jake Pavelka, the controlling, creepy star of The Bachelor and Dancing With the Stars. (Cue the heavenly music.)