Like the Saturday Night Live skit of ‘Tom Brokaw’ taping a tireless litany of possible deaths, the Associated Press has been preparing Britney Spears’ obituary over the past month.

“We are not wishing it, but if Britney passed away, it’s easily one of the biggest stories in a long time,” the AP’s entertainment editor, Jesse Washington, told Us. He also said that it would be difficult for anyone to argue convincingly that Ms. Spears has not been skating on thin ice recently.

“Of course, we would never wish any type of misfortune on anybody and hope that we would never have to use it until 50 years from now…but if something were to happen, we would have to be prepared,” Mr. Washington added. Apparently this practice is not entirely unusual for the media outlet, which has a “pretty extensive obituary operation.”