development -- dpkg: parse error, in file `/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 22384 package `libstdc++5': `Depends' field, reference to `gcc-3.3-base': version contains `)'

[Miles Lane]

Attempting to dist-upgrade from 6.10 to feisty, I get this:

dpkg: parse error, in file `/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 22384
package `libstdc++5':
 `Depends' field, reference to `gcc-3.3-base': version contains `)'