Breaking! Neil Patrick Harris will probably never say the word "Britney" within range of a microphone again

How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris learned a very valuable lesson over the last few days: "LEAVE BRITN--" ... (I'm sorry, I just can't finish it).

No doubt you've seen the hysterical overreaction to some remarks he made to an Associated Press reporter. Late last week, the story exploded, with headlines like NEIL PATRICK HARRIS: SAY NO TO BRITNEY!, NEIL PATRICK HARRIS: KEEP BRITNEY OFF MY SHOW!, and NEIL PATRICK HARRIS: CASTING BRITNEY WAS A STUNT! Here are some of his remarks from the original story:

'We've done a good three and three-quarter seasons with guest stars that we feel like are exactly perfect for the characters that (were) written ... by the crack writing staff,'' Harris told a reporter visiting the set of the Monday night CBS sitcom. ''I worry that if they start 'Will and Gracing' us too much, that the show will suffer. And we're all really proud of the content of the show. I mean viewership is not our game. It's the network and the studio's game, you know. It's the promotion department's game. We wish we weren't opposite an awkward reality dancing competition. But we have no say about that. I just am a real fan of our content. I think we have a great show going and I hope it's not screwed up by the desire for 700,000 more viewers.'

Bloggers had a field day with the comments, and now Neil Patrick has issued a "clarification":

"It seems that yesterday a writer took some quotes of mine and speculated an opinion about their intent. I write to you to set the record straight. "As I have said all along, Britney did a great job on the show. She really did. In fact, we are all hoping that she returns rather soon to reprise her role as Abby. Look, that episode garnered our highest ratings of the season — I would never ignore or disrespect that fact. I am just very protective of our show, and its content. I have a high standard of quality, and hope to maintain it on every level. Television is big business, I understand that. I have great faith in our casting department, as well as [Twentieth Century Fox Television] and CBS, to find the appropriate person for every role on our show. I was remiss in speculating otherwise. My job description is to act, and I should really do just that. "Britney Spears fits into our make-believe world very well — if she chose to return I can only imagine that Carter [Bays], Craig [Thomas], and the rest of the writers would create a humdinger of a storyline for her. We should be so lucky.

Not to be outdone, the AP released their own revision, saying that "We're issuing a clarification to our story," "Harris did not say that he opposed a return engagement for Spears, and our lead said that he did."

So what can we learn from all this? Obviously, that Britney Spears, more than ever, is the Black Hole of pop culture, trapping things like reason and sense in her imploding vortex.