[plug] apt-get can't swallow dpkg status file

[ryan at is.as.geeky.as]

Hi Folks,

apt-get is complaining of the following:

E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status (1)
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

apt-cache is segfaulting.

I can read that file fine and it looks normal:

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       214591 Aug 19 13:08 status
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       214591 Aug 19 14:59 status-old

When i did the apt-get it seems to have copied the current one to
status-old, taking away all chances of recovering the old file?  Diff
shows no difference between them.

A quick google found references to it, one mentioning a bug report
generated from it but nothing to resolve the problem.

Anyone seen this and knows how I may fix it?

Ryan