[ Open Letter to Britney Spears ]

Britney Spears - Judge orders random drug tests

Los Angeles Times - September 19, 2007 

A Los Angeles County Court Commission laid down the law to singer Britney Spears today, saying there was evidence that the pop star was "a habitual, frequent and continuous" user of drugs and alcohol and ordered mandatory, random biweekly drug tests.

The commissioner, ruling in a dispute between Spears and her former husband Kevin Federline over custody of their two children, also ruled that she must meet with a parenting coach.

Federline wanted to reconsider the pair's child custody agreement amid several high-profile incidents of erratic behavior by Spears.

Despite taking Spears to task, Commissioner Scott M. Gordon did not change the custody agreement, which gives each parent shared custody of the children.

The court proceeding comes about a year after Spears, 25, filed for divorce from Federline, 29, after two years of marriage.

The pair, who cited irreconcilable differences, have shared joint custody of the two boys since February.

That, however, was before inexplicable and bizarre public behavior that included shaving off her blond locks at a San Fernando Valley salon, attacking paparazzi with an umbrella, and parading in her underwear -- and without -- for all to see. Her recent performance at the MTV video music awards has been widely derided.

Despite a stint at the Promises Malibu rehabilitation center, Spears has continued to make the rounds of the Los Angeles celebrity nightclub circuit.

[ Open Letter to Britney Spears ]

Britney Spears - In real serious trouble this time 

Associated Press - Sept. 19, 2007

LOS ANGELES - The hits keep coming for Britney Spears, but not the kind that will put platinum records on her walls. A court commissioner in Spears' child custody dispute practically called the 25-year-old pop star an addict in ordering her to undergo random drug and alcohol testing. The question is, does the order come soon enough — and is it strong enough — to keep Spears from losing her two young sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline. 

It couldn't have come at a worse time for Spears, who is trying to recover from a series of image-crippling events that include a bizarre head-shaving in February and a ridiculed performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.

On Monday, Superior Court Commissioner Scott M. Gordon required both Spears and Federline to refrain from drinking or using drugs either in the presence of their children or within 12 hours before taking charge of them. He said there was evidence Spears engaged in "habitual, frequent and continuous use of controlled substances and alcohol."

He also ordered Spears, but not Federline, to undergo random drug and alcohol testing twice a week, according to court documents.

"If she were to violate the order, she would be really stupid," said Lynne Gold-Bikin, a family law attorney in Pennsylvania and former chair of the American Bar Association Family Law Section. "Reading between the lines, I think the judge is saying, 'I think you can stop it, pull yourself back.'"

A phone message left for Federline's attorney, Mark Kaplan, was not immediately returned Wednesday.

Absent from the order was a requirement that Spears undergo rehabilitation and substance abuse counseling, possibly indicating that her problem isn't severe enough to affect her parenting skills. Without that provision, however, experts say Spears may be bound to fail.

"People tend to backslide in those situations, and once you get into habits and patterns, it's tough to change," said University of Southern California sociologist Julie Albright. "The stakes have been set very high for a relapse."

The judge did say Spears must meet eight hours a week with a parenting coach, who will observe her with her children and report back to the court.

Both parents are prohibited from making derogatory remarks about each other in their children's presence, and from using corporal punishment to discipline them.

Each must complete the court's "Parenting Without Conflict" class. The educational program, set in a group format and comprised of six sessions, helps parents learn the benefits of cooperative parenting, conflict resolution and problem solving.

Spears married Federline in October 2004. She filed for divorce last November and it became official in July. The two have joint custody of their sons — Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1 — but Federline is seeking a greater share of custody.

It's been a rough week for Spears as she prepares for the release of a new album in November. She was dropped by her management company, parted ways with her attorney, and a former bodyguard was prepared to testify in the custody dispute about alleged drug use, nudity and safety issues he said he observed.

All of this has made Federline, 29, look — at least publicly — like the stable parent. It's an interesting change of public identities for Spears, the former Mousketeer, and Federline, the dancer and wannabe thuggish rapper.

Observers said Spears doesn't have much room to make any more mistakes, given that the court has now taken notice of her actions.

"She is visible, always under the microscope," Gold-Bikin said. "It's not a good time to screw around."

[ Open Letter to Britney Spears ]

Britney Spears in hospital after fight over children

January 5, 2008

A court has given sole physical and legal custody of Britney Spears' two sons to her ex-husband Kevin Federline and suspended the troubled pop star's visitation rights.

Commissioner Scott Gordon issued a ruling today the day after Spears was hauled away from her home by paramedics.

Police had to intervene when she refused to return the children to Federline after a court-monitored visit.

Gordon ordered another hearing to be held on January 14.

Federline had previously been awarded temporary custody of two-year-old Sean Preston and one-year-old Jayden James because Spears has defied court orders, resulting in limitations on her visitation.

"I'm not happy about any of these events,'' Federline's lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan said when he left a closed-door emergency hearing on Friday afternoon.

"There's no winners here.''

Kaplan said Federline was not in court for the hearing.

Kaplan had said he did not expect the ruling to be released until Monday, but it was issued shortly after the hearing concluded.

An intoxicated Britney Spears was earlier taken to hospital in the most dramatic turn of a downward spiral fuelled by substance abuse and a bitter custody battle for her two children.

The singer, whose public decline in the face of intense media attention has fascinated and appalled a global audience over the past year, was under the influence of an unknown substance when police were called to her Los Angeles home on Thursday night, yesterday afternoon Sydney time. The calls were made from outside the property.

Spears was later wheeled out of her home on a trolley. The entertainment website TMZ reported last night that she had been taken to hospital on a "medical hold" - in effect a mental evaluation.

Photographs of her arrival at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre showed the singer smiling. The website said she made a rude gesture at photographers as she was taken out of the ambulance.

There was conflicting information about what had happened to her children, Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1. Some reports said they had been handed over to her former husband, Kevin Federline, with whom she has been involved in a custody fight since their divorce last year. TMZ reported that Jayden had also been taken to hospital, for unknown reasons.

The drama began when Federline's bodyguards arrived at the house to take the children, reports said. After police were called, an officer said the incident involved a "family custodial dispute" and that police were trying to resolve the situation peacefully.

Earlier, the singer turned up for a deposition in the custody dispute. Federline, 29, has temporary custody of the children because Spears, who has limited visitation rights, has repeatedly defied court orders.

Paparazzi sprinted after the singer, who was clad in a hot pink dress and sunglasses, as she drove away. Security guards dashed across the driveway to keep photographers on the footpath.

Spears had called in sick for a court-ordered deposition on December 12 but was photographed that day driving with a friend. She also failed to show up for a session on Wednesday, after which her law firm filed a court motion asking to be relieved due to a "breakdown" in communication with its client.

AP, Reuters, LA Times

[ Open Letter to Britney Spears ]

Britney Spears flees her family

BY CORKY SIEMASZKO - DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER 

Thursday, January 10th 2008

Troubled pop tart Britney Spears skipped Los Angeles with her boyfriend on Wednesday night and flew here to avoid a planned intervention by her family later this week, sources close to her said.

Pals said she hopped a private jet in Van Nuys with paparazzo boyfriend Adnan Ghalib and took off for Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, where the couple landed last night. 

Where they went from there wasn't immediately known. 

Britney got spooked by published reports her family planned to have cops haul her out of her home and take her to a hospital for the second time in a week, if necessary, friends said. 

They also said she was upset that her parents rekindled the Dr. Phil incident by going on NBC's "Today" show. 

Speaking up for the first time since Britney got carted off to the psych ward for a three-day stay last week, the Spears family on Wednesday ripped the TV shrink for blabbing about the desperate call they made to him after Britney's meltdown. 

"What's wrong with Dr. Phil's statement is that he made a statement," family spokeswoman Lou Taylor said on the show. 

"The family, basically, extended an invitation of trust for him to come in as a resource to support them, not to go out and make public statements. He was not invited to make this part of a public display." 

Taylor, who is also a business manager for Spears' mother, Lynne, and pregnant 16-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, said the family had never planned to do a show about Britney's breakdown with Dr. Phil McGraw - as he claimed. 

Taylor added that McGraw's big mouth "compromised" Lynne and Jamie Lynn's relationship with Britney. Asked if McGraw had ever treated Britney, Taylor replied, "Not to my knowledge." 

Dr. Phil met with Spears at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday at the request of Lynne Spears, who knows McGraw's wife, Robin. Afterward, he told "Entertainment Tonight" that Spears "is in dire need of medical and psychological intervention." 

Spears was forcibly admitted to the hospital after she went bonkers when ex-hubby Kevin Federline's bodyguards came to pick up their two sons, Jayden James and Sean Preston.

[ Open Letter to Britney Spears ]