Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Brit released from hospital
LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears was quietly released from a hospital Wednesday, in stark contrast to the way she came in.
On that day, she had an extensive escort of more than a dozen police officers in cars, on motorcycles and in helicopters, with paparazzi in tow. Her incognito getaway from UCLA Medical Center required no police, said Capt. Sharyn Buck, commander of the North Hollywood police station, which covers the area where Spears' home is located.
"There was no media, no paparazzi, and no need for public safety protection," Buck said.
It apparently didn't take long for the cameras to find her. By late afternoon, a live television feed from a helicopter showed what looked like Spears and at least one other person in a black, late-model Mercedes-Benz coupe as they drove around Los Angeles, trying to evade the paparazzi giving chase.
The troubled singer was hospitalized Jan. 31 and held for a 72-hour evaluation that was originally set to expire Sunday. Her stay was then extended for two weeks, a person close to the pop star told The Associated Press, which may explain why she was able to avoid attention on her way out.
Until Feb. 14, Spears remains under the conservatorship of her father, an arrangement created after a judge determines a person can no longer care for themselves or their personal affairs. James Spears was named her conservator Monday, and he and lawyer Andrew Wallet were made co-conservators of the estate.
As her conservator, Spears' father has been granted access to all of her medical records and authority to determine where Spears lives and who she sees.
Spears, who is in a child custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline, was also briefly hospitalized earlier in January after police were called to her home when she refused to return her sons to a Federline bodyguard after a visit. That trip to the hospital occurred amid a swarm of paparazzi.
Spears has since lost all visitation rights to her sons, one-year-old Jayden James and two-year-old Sean Preston.
On Tuesday, a court issued a restraining order against Sam Lutfi, who's been at Spears' side in recent months after the singer's mother declared that he held her daughter hostage in her own home, drugged her, took over her finances and controlled the paparazzi. Lutfi was ordered to stay away from Spears, her homes and her parents' and siblings' homes.
The singer has been in a spiral of increasingly bizarre behaviour since November 2006, when she filed for divorce from Federline.
On that day, she had an extensive escort of more than a dozen police officers in cars, on motorcycles and in helicopters, with paparazzi in tow. Her incognito getaway from UCLA Medical Center required no police, said Capt. Sharyn Buck, commander of the North Hollywood police station, which covers the area where Spears' home is located.
"There was no media, no paparazzi, and no need for public safety protection," Buck said.
It apparently didn't take long for the cameras to find her. By late afternoon, a live television feed from a helicopter showed what looked like Spears and at least one other person in a black, late-model Mercedes-Benz coupe as they drove around Los Angeles, trying to evade the paparazzi giving chase.
The troubled singer was hospitalized Jan. 31 and held for a 72-hour evaluation that was originally set to expire Sunday. Her stay was then extended for two weeks, a person close to the pop star told The Associated Press, which may explain why she was able to avoid attention on her way out.
Until Feb. 14, Spears remains under the conservatorship of her father, an arrangement created after a judge determines a person can no longer care for themselves or their personal affairs. James Spears was named her conservator Monday, and he and lawyer Andrew Wallet were made co-conservators of the estate.
As her conservator, Spears' father has been granted access to all of her medical records and authority to determine where Spears lives and who she sees.
Spears, who is in a child custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline, was also briefly hospitalized earlier in January after police were called to her home when she refused to return her sons to a Federline bodyguard after a visit. That trip to the hospital occurred amid a swarm of paparazzi.
Spears has since lost all visitation rights to her sons, one-year-old Jayden James and two-year-old Sean Preston.
On Tuesday, a court issued a restraining order against Sam Lutfi, who's been at Spears' side in recent months after the singer's mother declared that he held her daughter hostage in her own home, drugged her, took over her finances and controlled the paparazzi. Lutfi was ordered to stay away from Spears, her homes and her parents' and siblings' homes.
The singer has been in a spiral of increasingly bizarre behaviour since November 2006, when she filed for divorce from Federline.
Britney Spears ‘drugged by her overpowering manager’ Sam Lutfi
Sam Lutfi is accused of abusing the pop singer after moving into her house
A restraining order was issued against Britney Spears’ manager after he was accused of drugging her, parading her in front of the paparazzi and cutting her phone lines.
Osama Lutfi, 33, the pop star's sometime companion, guru and manager has been at Spears’s side throughout much of her well-documented public breakdown.
The singer was physically removed from her Los Angeles home last week and detained for psychiatric evaluation for the second time in a month after a series of hysterical episodes.
It emerged last night that Lynne Spears, the singer’s mother, told a Los Angeles court that Mr Lutfi “drugged Britney, he has cut Britney’s home phone lines and removed her cell phone chargers. He yells at her. He claims to control everything - Britney’s business manager, her attorneys and the security guards at the gate.”
After hearing her testimony, the Los Angeles Superior Court ordered Mr Lutfi, who is known as Sam, to cease all contact with the singer and her family. He must remain 250 yards away from the medical centre where Spears is being held, her home and the homes of her parents, siblings and children.
Today Mr Lufti gave an interview to Us magazine admitting he gave Spears medication, but he insisted it was to help her sleep. He described the pills as "magic" and said Spears agreed that they helped her.
He went on to claim Spears had been suffering from bipolar disorder for approximately five years.
"In the depressive episodes, it's all crying. But in the manic episode, there's very little crying or sympathy or compassion. She becomes another person. She becomes somebody that just doesn't care about anybody or anything," he said.
Spears's gradual demise has been closely followed by the world's media and by judges, who awarded custody of her two children to Kevin Federline, her ex-husband, last year.
Lynne Spears, who has had a strained relationship with her daughter, said that in October last year Mr Lutfi had “essentially moved into Britney’s home and has purported to take control of her life, home and finances”.
She described to the court a long chaotic night inside her daughter’s Beverley Hills home in the days before she was put on “mental health evaluation hold”.
Lynne Spears said there were a string of disagreements between her daughter and Mr Lutfi. “Sam had told Britney she was an unfit mother, a piece of trash and a whore, that she cares more about Adnan (Ghalib), her current boyfriend than she cares about her kids and that she does not deserve her kids,” she said.
To keep Britney quiet Mrs Spears claimed that her manager said he ground up drugs and put them in her food. “He told us that the doctor who is treating her now is trying to get her into a sleep-induced coma so that they could then give her drugs to heal her brain.”
Late that same evening, she said Britney decided she needed to go shopping for lipstick. Before they left the house, she said Mr Lutfi took Britney upstairs and gave her something “to make her more lighthearted, happy and fun.”
Throughout the evening Britney’s mother claims that paparazzi were present in the house and that they were being corralled by Mr Lutfi.
“The paparazzi reported to Sam and addressed him with great respect,” she said. “They treated him like a general.”
The graphic depiction of life inside Spears’ home will be amplified by a disturbing description of the Louisiana-born musician’s mental state in the next edition of an American music magazine.
Rolling Stone will publish an account of the singer verbally abusing a fan and breaking down in a shopping centre.
When her credit card failed to go through she is reported to have reacted furiously. “A wail emerges from the cubby — guttural, vile, the kind of base animalistic shriek only heard at a family member's deathbed. ‘F*** these bitches,’ screams Britney, each word ringing out between sobs. ‘These idiots can't do anything right!’” according to an excerpt from the forthcoming article.
Vanessa Grigoriadis wrote for Rolling Stone that after a crowd had gathered Spears was approached by a fan for a photograph: “’I don't want her talking to me!’ she screams. She whirls around and stares the girl deep in the eyes, her lips almost vibrating with anger. ‘I don't know who you think I am, bitch," she snarls, ‘but I'm not that person’”.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
