Monday, February 4, 2008
Britney Court Blow-By-Blow
Adnan Kicked Out of Britney's Hospital?
Court Continues Conservatorship Over Britney; Orders Singer To Have No Contact With Lutfi
Jamie Spears was made co-conservator, along with attorney Adam Wallett, last Friday by Commissioner Goetz and the decision was upheld despite a challenge by a lawyer Spears attempted to hire herself from inside the psych ward at UCLA’s Medical Center.
The temporary conservatorship was extended until a February 14 hearing as a result of Monday’s hearing.
During the hearing, Adam Streisand, from the firm Loeb & Loeb, said that Spears, whose stay in the psych ward at the UCLA Medical Center was extended over the weekend for an additional 14 days (beyond her initial 72-hour hold), had hired him.
Spears Insiders Speak Out Over Britney Latest
Many people are pulling for the Spears family, but none more so than the good citizens of Kentwood, Louisiana.
Today, in an exclusive interview, those closest to Britney’s mother, Lynne Spears, reveal what she has told them about her troubled daughter.
“She's portrayed as a bad mother, a mother that doesn't care, a mother interested in money,” friend Joy Moore told Access Hollywood producer Michael Lewittes. “She saw great talent in Britney and she had these huge, big dreams and I think she looks back now and she wonders, you know, 'Was all this worth it?'”
Seemingly, all those big dreams Lynne had for Britney are crashing down before her eyes.
In the midst of Britney’s very sad and tragic health crisis, Joy and another longtime friend of Lynne’s, Kelly Milton, are speaking out in her defense.
“The woman she deals with now is not the daughter that left here six or seven years ago,” Joy said. “Whether that's a mental thing, despair, depression, I don't know. And Lynne's not sure either, but she wants someone to find out and she wants someone to get her daughter back.”
Joy and Kelly have raised their own children around Britney.
They say Lynne feels hopeful after Britney’s second involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital that a breakthrough in finding an effective treatment is imminent.
“[Lynne] said, ‘She's not doing well,’ and she said, ‘I just don't know what's going to happen,’” Kelly recounted. “She just asked me to pray for her.”
Estranged from her daughter for months, one of the biggest struggles Lynne faced throughout this difficult journey is the sense of powerlessness which has come from not being able to get Britney into treatment sooner.
“They've tried interventions and they've tried to seek outside assistance from different facilities,” Joy explained. “Her hope has been for a long time that Britney would get the help that she needs and it's hard when your hands are tied and it's an adult and she doesn't want help. You know, I mean, Lynne's hands have been tied.”
But perhaps not anymore after Friday’s decision by the courts to grant temporary control of Britney’s assets to her father, Jamie Spears. He has filed a temporary restraining order against her ever-present friend, Sam Lutfi, and Britney’s paparazzi boy toy, Adnan Ghalib, could be next.
“The people she is involved with there, they each have their own little stake in it, you know,” Joy said. “I don't think any of them care what happens to Britney ultimately. I think it's, ‘What am I going to get out of this?’ And most of those people want to keep her from her mother because they feel like her mother might intervene and mess this little plan up. If Britney’s thinking clearly, I might not get my piece.”
Source: Access Hollywood
Attorney: Britney Spears Objects to Father's Control
Spear's 'Lacks Capacity' to Hire a Lawyer
Adnan At The Hospital!
Jamie Wants to S**t Can Brit's Divorce Lawyers
Conservators to Lutfi -- Open the Damn Door!
Mentally, Brit is Out to Lunch
Lawyer Says Brit Worth $40 Million
Brit's New Lawyer Asking Jamie To Step Down
Britney Court Update: Brit's Dad Has Arrived
Britney Court Update: Waiting for Lynne and Jamie to Arrive
Brit's New Lawyer -- A Real Yentl!
Britney Spears Denied Visitation Rights Again; Issue Tabled Until Later This Month
Spears' attorney Anne Kiley was joined by a court-appointed lawyer from Spears' conservatorship (Andrew Wallat) and two attorneys recently hired by her father Jamie Spears (senior counsel Jeryll S. Cohen and associate Viviane Lee Thoreen of the Los Angeles firm Luce Forward). Reporters were ejected from the courtroom during the closed half-hour hearing, but there was no discussion regarding the new attorneys taking over the case from Trope and Trope, Kiley's firm, according to Allan Parachini, the court's information director.
Wolf, a senior partner at New York law firm Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman, Greenberg, Formato & Einiger LLP, said that Spears needs to be stabilized, otherwise she runs the risk of losing her children indefinitely. "From all accounts, Britney is a danger to herself and others," Wolf said. "These next weeks are critical for Britney. If she does not respond positively to the treatment, her access to her children will be in serious jeopardy."
A hearing is scheduled for Monday afternoon regarding the singer's conservatorship, and whether her father Jamie Spears, along with Wallat, will continue to have decision-making powers in her affairs.
PAGE OUTRAGED AT SPEARS' MEDIA FRENZY
Brit's Custody Hearing Will Go On Without Her
Britney's Lawyers Fill Courthouse For Two Separate Hearings; Lutfi Rebuts LAPD Reports
Britney Spears is still being treated at the UCLA Medical Center, but her custody and estate problems continue to play out in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom today.
Access Hollywood has learned that Anne Kiley is at the courthouse representing Britney Spears in her ongoing custody case with ex-husband Kevin Federline.
In her separate estate case, Andrew Waller is also at the courthouse representing Britney. Jamie Spears, who was named the conservator over his daughter's estate, has Vivian Thoreen and Jeryll S. Cohen at the courthouse representing his conservatorship status.
In other Britney news, it has been reported that Sam Lutfi was questioned by the LAPD in connection to reported missing items from Britney's house.
Sam Lutfi tells Access exclusively that he, in fact, was never questioned by the LAPD.
Source: Access Hollywood
Britney Hearing #1: The Custody Battle
In the first of two court hearings today regarding Britney Spears, the judge has ruled that her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, will retain full custody of his two sons with the troubled pop star, two-year-old Sean Preston and one-year-old Jayden James.
Court spokesman Allan Parachini said that the judge, Commissioner Scott Gordon, "is aware that the situation is fluid and is acting accordingly with his judgment."
Andrew Wallet, who was appointed Britney's co-conservator along with her dad, Jamie, appeared on behalf of Britney, who remains in the psych unit at UCLA Medical Center.
When Parachini was asked about rumors that Britney will be showing up at court later today for a hearing regarding her care, said he couldn't imagine she would appear, but added, "in this case, who knows?"
Additionally, Britney's lawyers at Trope and Trope withdrew their petition to be removed as her counsel. The custody battle will be back in court on February 19.
Source: Page Six
Britney Custody Hearing Postponed
All the key players were there this morning for a scheduled hearing in the ongoing custody battle between Britney Spears and ex-husband Kevin Federline — everyone except Britney. So with the mother of Sean Preston, 2, and one-year-old Jayden James, now in the hospital for at least two weeks, the court decided this morning to postpone her request for supervised "therapeutic" visitations until Feb. 19. But that's only one half of Britney's legal battle for today.
This afternoon, Brit's father will be in court along with his lawyer Blair Burke, who represented Mel Gibson following his DUI arrest, to argue for an extension of the conservatorship for at least the remainder of Britney's hospitalization. It is being reported that Britney's lawyers in the custody battle, the law firm of Trope & Trope, will be on hand to argue that, given his distant relationship with Britney, Jamie be replaced by a different conservator.
Stay tuned to OK! as this story develops throughout the day.
Source: OK Magazine
No Changes So Far In Brit Case
The custody hearing is over, and the status quo prevails.
There was supposed to be a hearing today on the motion by Brit to get "visitation in a therapeutic setting." That motion was put off, because the therapeutic setting Britney's in right now is a psych ward.
There also has been no change in Britney's legal representation. As we first reported, the conservators are at war with Brit's divorce lawyers. We don't know what they argued in court this morning, but Trope and Trope is still repping Brit in the custody war.
This afternoon, it's Brit's divorce lawyers who are on the attack. They'll ask that the conservators -- notably Jamie Spears -- be 86'd.
Source: TMZ
EXCLUSIVE! Sam Lutfi Text Messages
Big Day In Court For Britney
With the court deciding to extend Britney Spears' hospitalization to 14 days, the singer will be unable to appear before a judge Monday morning to ask for reinstatement of some of her visitation privileges with her two boys, Sean Preston, 2, and one-year-old Jayden James. However, that's not going to prevent her legal team from heading to court today to deal with two separate matters.
First up is a hearing in her ongoing custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline. However, with Britney not able to plead her case in person, it's unlikely that any significant decisions will come out of this morning's hearing.
The more important court appearance comes later today when Brit's father, Jamie Spears, who was granted a temporary conservatorship over his daughter's financial and medical matters on Friday, will be in court along with his lawyer Blair Burke, who represented Mel Gibson following his DUI arrest, to argue for an extension of the conservatorship for at least the remainder of Britney's hospitalization. It is being reported that Britney's lawyers in the custody battle, the law firm of Trope & Trope, will be on hand to argue that, given his distant relationship with Britey, Jamie be replaced by a different conservator.
Stay tuned to OK! as this story develops throughout the day.
Source: OK Magazine
Full House In Court For Brit
In Court: Battle For Britney?
As Britney Spears remains on a 14-day forced hospitalization, attorneys for the singer may object in a Los Angeles courtroom Monday to her father's control of her affairs.
Spears, 26, has had strained relations with her dad for years. "I am praying for my father. We never had a good relationship," Britney said in a statement last year regarding a feud.
"There could be a clash of wills over which side claims to have her best interests at heart," says L.A. probate attorney Allan Cutrow, who's not involved in the case.
Her father, Jamie – who visited Britney at the hospital on Sunday afternoon – and a lawyer named Andrew Wallet, were given widespread power over Spears's finances after a court named them co-conservators of her estate on Friday.
Courts grant this control when a person is incapable of handling their own affairs.
Jamie, alone, was also named temporary conservator of her person – in charge of her basic care and needs. He does not, however, have authority over her psychiatric treatment.
By now, a court-appointed attorney may have advised Spears of her right to protest her dad's control. If she does, the court may replace her father with someone who's deemed impartial.
It's also unclear whether Spears's custody lawyers, of the firm Trope and Trope, have the right to object.
"Depending on the powers the court granted the co-conservators, they may have the power to fire Trope and Trope at any time," Cutrow says.
Also Monday is a scheduled hearing in Spears's ongoing custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline. She currently has no visitation rights of their sons, Preston, 2, and Jayden, 1.
The former couple are not required to attend either hearing.
"This could only be the beginning of a long, protracted battle over her care, and control of her wealth," Cutrow adds.
Source: People
Poll Closed!
Britney Spears Objects To Father's Control; Jamie Spears Due Back In Court
After winning temporary legal control of his daughter Friday, Britney Spears' father Jamie Spears will return to court today for another hearing on his daughter's affairs today.
The hearing could get more heated, as it is expected that Spears' attorney, Sorrell Trope of the firm Trope and Trope, will argue that Jamie should be removed as co-conservator because his daughter does not trust him.
But an insider tells Usmagazine.com that it may be an uphill battle for Trope "because what child does get along with their parents when they are locked in the psych ward?"
Adds the source, "It's going to be hard to convince the court that Britney can be taken seriously given the state that she's in."
At Friday's hearing, Jamie won temporary legal control over his daughter. He also has full control of her residence and can legally remove anyone who is staying there. A lawyer named Andrew Wallet was named co-conservator. A court creates a conservatorship when it concludes a person no longer can care for themselves or their personal and financial affairs.
Today's hearing comes on the heels of that the singer's stay at UCLA Medical Center has been extended by 14 days.
Source: US Weekly