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More weird Britney behavior
Britney Spears is no stranger to odd antics, but her behavior on January 7 was particularly bizarre. The “scantily clad” pop star showed up at a Beverly Hills elementary school, saying she was there to pick up someone else’s kids. (She lost custody of her own sons January 4 after being rushed to the hospital. She blew off a custody hearing yesterday.) The singer parked her car outside the school just before 3 p.m. and spent 10 minutes smoking cigarettes and talking to herself while she waited for classes to let out. “She was just rambling and confused,” says the witness, who approached Spears to ask if she was OK. “She said, ‘I’m here to pick up my kids.’ But then she changed her story and said, ‘They aren’t my kids; I have a new attorney, and I came to pick them up for her.’” Adds the witness, “All I could think was, Who in their right mind would let her pick up their kids?” As children began to leave for the day, the star, 26, caused a commotion — “It became the talk of the school. Some of the kids were freaked out,” says a school source. She was directed to a more secure entrance around back. But before getting into her car and driving off (without any children), she chatted up the female witness: “She said, ‘You’re so nice. You should give me your number. I don’t have very many friends.’”
Britney update
Britney Spears and adviser Sam Lutfi arrived at the offices of Kevin Federline’s attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, at approximately 10:45 a.m. When they left around 1 p.m., Spears looked very upset and walked quickly to her car before speeding off. As part of the deposition in her ongoing custody battle with ex-husband Federline, Spears had to respond to concerns about her ability to serve as a mother to her two sons. When Spears arrived, she parked her Mercedes directly out front of Kaplan’s office. She was wearing a short-sleeved off-the-shoulder light purple top, dark jeans, and tan boots. She was heard speaking in a British accent. TMZ has learned Britney Spears’ lawyers will go to court tomorrow and ask Commissioner Scott Gordon to allow Spears “monitored visitation in a therapeutic setting.” Spears’s family and professionals in her life have been planning a “creative way” to get Britney mental help.
Britney’s weekend
With pup London in hand, Britney Spears headed to the Millennium Dance Complex in North Hollywood on Sunday night to work on a new routine, owner Robert Baker said. “She is working on the choreography for her song ‘Hot as Ice,’” Baker said, “She rehearsed an amazing routine with a chair.” The intense dance session wrapped up a characteristically bizarre weekend, during which Spears invited two photographers back to her home for some late-night champagne. “She was very sweet,” said one of the photographers, adding that Spears pal Sam Lutfi claimed to have “filed a restraining order” against Adnan Ghalib. Ghalib, the paparazzo who has been by Spears’s near-constant companion in recent weeks, shot back, “I am only now becoming aware of what is being said. I hope to be back home in Los Angeles soon and to be in contact with Miss Spears.” (The L.A. police and sheriff’s departments both said no emergency protective order had been issued.) Spears, 26 – who also dropped by PetCo Sunday afternoon, picking up a birdcage and some dog food – spent nearly three hours working on her moves at Millennium. She emerged at 9:30 p.m. in a white top and Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses, chatting with paparazzi and requesting the presence of Filipe, one of the photographers who had been at her home earlier. “Britney was in an upbeat mood,” Baker said, adding that despite the impressive workout, the singer still seemed slightly scatterbrained. “I let her use my personal copy of Blackout. She forgot her own CD.”
Britney to host party; media prepare obit
Britney Spears will host a party, The Scandinavian Style Mansion, at a private residence in Beverly Hills on Feb. 16. Spears last hosted the event – at which Scandinavian brands are showcased – on Dec. 1. At that party, she was presented with a birthday cake and bumped into her one-time BFF Paris Hilton. “Britney has said ‘yes,’ to hosting it,” said Claus Hjelmbak, the Danish businessman who founded the event. “I am beyond excited because the experience she gave everyone in December was amazing. She absolutely made my event.” Hjelmbak, who was at Spears’s side when she and Sam Lutfi went on an early morning shopping spree Jan. 17 at Kitson in L.A., said of the outing: “I know people will say it’s weird she was shopping at 2 a.m., but [Kitson] said you guys can always come when you want. I just called the owner and said can we come over and they said ‘sure.’” Hjelmbak also has kind words for Lutfi, saying, “He’s the most down-to-earth, easy-going guy. He doesn’t have a bad bone in his body.” As for Adnan Ghalib, he said, “I don’t know him.” As for online reports claiming Spears has multiple personalities, Hjelmbak, who first met Britney in 2006, says, “I have only seen one person and that’s the Britney I first met and seen every time. She’s a very sweet person.”
The Associated Press began preparing Spears’ obituary within 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,” AP entertainment editor Jesse Washington says. “I think one would agree that Britney seems at risk right now,” Washington adds. “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.” Washington also says the AP has a “pretty extensive obituary operation,” and that staffers are “constantly adding people.”
Britney’s not crazy, says Alli Sims
Britney Spears‘ cousin and former assistant Alli Sims says the troubled pop star is “not crazy,” but she’s worried about the singer’s new beau, paparazzo Adnan Ghalib. Despite paid offers to dish on Spears, Sims has stayed out of the fray. She has never commented on the singer before and wants it known she was not paid to talk. She breaks her silence to Us Weekly in its latest issue. “I do not think Adnan is a good person,” Sims, 26, tells Us. “I think he only has bad intentions. He has given me a weird feeling and creeped me out. I wish he would just go away. When you go through your whole life just listening to what everybody tells you to do, you get to the point where you’re not used to having to pick out yourself what is really important,” she says of her relationship with Spears and her adviser Sam Lutfi. Sims is adamant that Spears was not on drugs before she was hospitalized on Jan. 3. “I do not think that is the issue at all,” she says. “I was with her for eight months pretty much every day and never witnessed anything like that – and I lived there.” (Sims was not with Spears during her meltdown, despite reports otherwise.) The aspiring singer says Spears “adores” her two children and is simply upset and sad by her custody situation. “I wish people would give her a break and lay off her,” she adds.
Britney’s visitation rights still suspended
Britney Spears still may not visit her children, a court commissioner ruled Monday, following a custody hearing the pop singer missed. Kevin Federline, who attended the session, maintains sole legal and physical custody of their two sons Preston, 2, and Jayden, 1, “indefinitely,” a court spokesman says. In a bizarre and chaotic scene outside the courthouse, Spears arrived for the afternoon session of the proceedings – but abruptly left the courthouse after paparazzi surrounded her. “I’m scared. I want to get in the car. I’m going in the car,” she said after stepping out of the car as photographers crowded around her. Spears, 26, then got back in the car. Police tried to coax her out, but she slammed her back against the seat and shouted, “No!” Spears’s car eventually drove off, and she didn’t make it to the afternoon session of the hearing. She had also missed the morning session, staying at home. The court hearing focused on Spears’s four-hour Jan. 3 standoff with police, firefighters and paramedics at her Studio City home. Events that evening resulted in Spears being hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and later being stripped of visitation rights. Five witnesses testified at the hearing, including two police officers, the court-appointed custody monitor and Federline’s bodyguard – who all were at Spears’s house during the standoff. Also testifying was a parenting coach who was not at the scene.
After arriving and then fleeing her custody hearing trial, the singer’s bizarre behavior continued as she made a quick stop at the Little Brown Church in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. According to witnesses, she lit a candle and said a prayer. Bill Thomas, assistant pastor, said, “Britney was only in here for a few minutes. Our church is open 24 hours a day, so I don’t know if she has ever been here before. She did not get married in here. We welcome anyone, including Britney, into our church at any time.” A note reading, “Dear God, please give Britney her kids back,” was sticking out of the prayer box. It is unclear who wrote it.
Britney a no-show at court
Kevin Federline arrived at Los Angeles Superior Court’s Stanley Mosk Building Monday morning for the latest round in his ongoing custody fight with ex-wife Britney Spears. Shortly after 9 a.m. (the hearing was scheduled to begin at 9:30), Federline appeared, wearing a blue pinstripe suit and looking confident and upbeat. As the hearing time passed, Spears, 26, remained at home. A source said she had “no plans” to attend the session. Another source said she had been “strongly advised” by her legal team to attend the hearing, adding that the singer was told that “her attendance is important.” The court gathering is expected to focus on Spears’s four-hour Jan. 3 standoff with police, firefighters and paramedics at her Studio City home. Events that evening resulted with Spears being hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Federline, 29, currently retains sole legal and physical custody of the couple’s two sons, Preston, 2, and Jayden, 1. Spears was stripped of all visitation rights following her hospitalization. Also at issue Monday is whether the court will extend its ban on Spears’s visitation. Federline’s lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, says it’s possible Spears might not see her children until April, when the ex-couple’s custody trial begins. (Federline has requested primary physical custody.) Over the weekend, Spears continued to be seen with paparazzo Adnan Ghalib, 35. Among their stops were a Mercedes dealership and a department store, where Spears reportedly shouted a profanity at a bystander who attempted to take her photo.
Britney heads south of the border
Britney Spears spent a brief Mexican holiday with her paparazzi friend, checking into a hotel in Rosarito Beach and buying a knockoff Gucci purse, according to a local press report. Spears wore her pink wig as she and photographer Adnan Ghalib arrived in a black SUV at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, just south of the Border, at about 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Ensenada, Mex., newspaper, Frontera. Ghalib’s own photo agency, Finalpixx, has been photographing the pair’s Mexican activities – one picture shows Ghalib hand-feeding whipped cream from a Starbucks cup to the pink-wigged Spears – and posting online updates. “Britney Spears and Adnan Ghalib are happily dating,” the agency says in a post. (The agency notes that Ghalib “is married but has been separated from his wife for over a year.”) The pair have been together for much of the last week. “After being released from the hospital Britney and Adnan spent the night and the following days together resting, eating, sleeping, shopping and talking about life and the love they have for their families,” Finalpixx says, adding that Ghalib, himself, has not spoken publicly because it would “not be of benefit to her for him to do so.” “Should he choose to speak about Britney,” Finalpixx continues, “he only has positive things to say about her and the time that they have spent together.” As for the other paparazzi chasing after them, “Despite such heavy scrutiny, the pair are enjoying a healthy, normal relationship,” Finalpixx says.
According to Us mag, when police arrived at Spears’s Beverly Hills home on Jan. 3 to investigate her custody dispute with Kevin Federline, they discovered that her youngest son, Jayden James, had at least one bite and several bruises on his body. According to a source, the LAPD report of the incident, which ended with Spears being transported to a nearby hospital for psychiatric evaluation, says that when officers arrived that evening Spears responded by yelling at them to get out of her house. Police outside the home peered through a window and saw Spears cradling Jayden in a bathroom and observed that he was not in any immediate danger. The source says that, though at first police threatened to break down the bathroom door, they soon learned that the door was in fact not locked and the officers were able to open the door and enter the bathroom. After observing the bite mark and bruises on the child, police were then told by Federline’s bodyguard, who had been at the home to pick up the kids, that the injuries were on Jayden before the child had even arrived at Spears’ home earlier in the day, and that his older brother, Sean Preston, had actually bit him. The source also tells Us that tests conducted on Spears at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center later that night found no evidence of drugs or alcohol in her system.
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