oh, boo hoo people!

There is a distinct segment of the population that thinks it can get away with whatever it wants.

I’m not one of those people. For the most part, I follow the law. When I don’t, I’m fully aware of the consequences and I’m willing to pay for it if/when I’m caught.

In no way, shape or form does this make me better than anyone else. It just means I have enough fear, common sense and knowledge of right and wrong to live my life in a fairly safe way.

Which is why it’s hard for me to relate to people who practically beg for my pity — and I was bombarded with them Sunday.

I finally got the chance to read the Rolling Stone cover story on Britney Spears, who fascinates me like probably no one else, and then caught part of her carefully orchestrated, hardly revealing look into her person life — the MTV “documentary” For the Record — that reached a zenith when Brit broke down crying over how much of life now is controlled by people other than her.

And that’s when I turned the channel.

I can take Britney going bonkers and telling the paparazzi to eff off, or even lamenting the fact that her children have been taken away from her. What I can’t take is a girl so self-absorbed and in such a state of denial that she can’t even realize why the state of California deemed it necessary to strip of her children and put her deadbeat, mostly absent and borderline alcoholic father in charge of every aspect of her life.

Plus, part of the “backstage access” to Britney’s video shoot was her sleeping and her assistant trying to wake her up. I can only hope the team behind For the Record uses that clip as their submission for Emmy nominations in the “Who Gives a Crap” category.

It also doesn’t help that the RS interview was just as orchestrated as the documentary. The reporter, Jenny Eliscu, all but apologized for how one-sided it was thanks to the Spears camp vetoing just about every question of substance. In any other situation, with any other person, any other journalist or publication would have told Spears to sexy-dance her way out the door and laughed at the other publications who submitted to the demands. Rolling Stone, possibly feeling bad for skewering her earlier this year, accepted these terms and now opens itself up to my taunts. Stupid Rolling Stone. BRITNEY’S WEEKEND GRADE: D+

But wait, the Can’t Feel Sorry for Them Train is just getting warmed up!

I finally got a chance to rent the wonderfully understated The Visitor, the movie that could nab long-time background player Richard Jenkins a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

If he gets it, he deserves it. We all had the lazy college professor in school, the tenured slacker we were positive taught the same class year after year and could do it with his eyes closed if he wanted to. Jenkins must have had that guy too — he plays the part to perfection as the prof who finds out a couple is living in his NYC apartment he never goes to without his knowledge.

They predictably but happily become friends, and Jenkins takes up the cause when Tarek is lumped into a detention center for illegal immigrants. Now the agenda begins. Tarek has been living in the country for years, has a girlfriend and mother — also living in the country illegally — so how can we not feel bad for him? It’s also revealed later that the government had sent him notification often that he needed to apply for a green card.

Everyone against Tarek — cops, detention center employees, even his lawyer — is made out to be the bad guy, and Tarek is the innocent victim. In a way, he is, the initial victim of some kind of racial profiling at a subway stop. But when we learn more about his situation, he was playing with fire from the start, and needed to be aware of what could happen if/when he got caught.

At one point, his girlfriend even cries out, “I don’t know what to do!” To which my response is, “APPLY FOR A %#*@! GREEN CARD!” I know the government refuses to make it an easy process – a terrible injustice — and I’m not about to make believe I care one way or the other about the socio-economic impact of immigration in this country. I’m not even sure I agree with the law as it is now. But the law is the law. I follow it, and I expect other people to follow it. If they don’t, they need to be ready for the consequences that come with breaking the law.

This overriding factor — and writer/director Tom McCarthy’s clear vision to rail against the government’s treatment of immigration — clouded the movie for me, even though I enjoyed it, for the most part. GRADE: B-

Back tomorrow off my soapbox with tons of entertainment news and some big Sharp news.