Pop star Britney Spears suffered a setback in her custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline. His attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, convinced a judge Tuesday (Dec. 18, 2007) to delay the next hearing by a month.
Britney’s lawyers were seeking to convince the judge to allow her the right to drive with her kids and also wanted more custody rights. The hearing was scheduled for January 23, but Kaplan argued that he needed time to review the deposition to see what Spears says under oath.
The deposition was demanded to determine whether Spears misused alcohol and substances in front of her young children, but she missed it for the fourth time on Dec. 12, calling in sick. It is now due to take place in the first week of January
Meantime, her sons, Sean Preston, 2 and Jayden James, 1, will primarily remain in Federline’s custody until the hearing, now scheduled for February 19. The boys will, however, split Christmas Day with their two parents.
Child welfare investigators were still looking into "multiple child abuse and neglect" allegations against Spears, according to court documents released Dec. 4.
The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services had asked Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Scott M. Gordon to unseal parts of the custody case file because of concerns about the safety and welfare of the two toddlers if they are left in the mother’s care.
Spears' attorneys had argued that, "such information greatly increases the chances that the actions of the media could threaten the safety of the children by, for example, causing a traffic accident."
Spears, who is trailed almost everywhere by a mob of celebrity photographers, is notorious for distracted driving.
Three people - two paparazzi and an L.A. sheriff's deputy - reportedly had their feet crushed in October and November by Spears' car tires as she drove through crowds. While no one accused her of malicious intent, she could still face misdemeanor moving violation charges.
A hit-and-run charge against Spears was dismissed Oct. 25 after she paid an undisclosed amount to the other car's driver in the fender-bender. But she still has to deal with one count of driving without a license, a court commissioner ruled. Spears was not required to attend the hearing. Her attorney entered a not guilty plea to the charge of driving without a license. A hearing was scheduled for Jan. 2.
In the Aug. 6 hit-and-run incident, paparazzi photographed Spears steering her car into another vehicle as she tried to park in a space in a lot in StudioCity. The video showed her walking away after assessing the damage to her own car.
The owner of the other car, Kim Robard-Rifkin, learned it was Spears who had hit her car through a video posted on the Internet and filed a police report three days later. Investigators later determined that Spears also did not have a license. Her attorney says Spears has since gotten her license and the charge should be reduced to a traffic infraction.
And in 2006, Spears was photographed driving with her son on her lap.
Spears lost custody of her children Oct. 1 after Gordon raised concerns about her use of drugs and alcohol. Gordon ordered Spears to undergo random drug and alcohol tests and meet weekly with a parenting coach who would report back to the court about her parenting skills.
Gordon later granted some visitation rights to Spears, but reversed that on Oct. 17 after finding she had failed to comply with some conditions for shared custody. He withdrew the visitation ban a few days later, but only in the presence of a court-approved monitor.
Gordon also ordered both parents to complete the court's "Parenting Without Conflict" class. Indeed, they attended their first of six sessions on Oct. 24 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Spears and Federline reportedly discussed how a divorce can affect children, and received instructions on what they should be doing to be good divorced parents.
Spears failed to regain custody of her children Oct. 30, following a damning review of her parenting skills. She was , however, granted two supervised visits per week with her kids if she has regular drug and alcohol tests, childproofs her home, buckles the kids in car seats and continues meeting with a court-appointed parenting coach.
In that ruling, Gordon also noted that Spears had failed to keep appointments with a court-appointed parenting coach, Lisa Hacker, on three occasions before finally holding a series of sessions. Gordon added that while Hacker felt Spears "loves her children and the children are bonded" to her, she had expressed "several observations that are of concern."
"It seems that her (Spears) choices are dependent more upon what she wants to do at any given time rather than what would be more enjoyable for the children," Hacker stated in the Oct. 19 report. She added that the Spears household: "Ranged from chaotic to almost somber with no communication at all."
During all three visits, Hacker said Spears "rarely engaged with the children in either conversation or play" and had displayed a "lack of general attention at times." Hacker closed her report by stating bluntly: "The problem is that unless Ms Spears realizes the consequences of her behavior and the impact that it has (on) her children, nothing is going to be successful."
Gordon's nine-page ruling said Spears could have overnight visits with her kids. She would get two visits a week from noon to 7 p.m. and one from noon to 10 a.m. the next morning. All the visits will be monitored. Spears and Federline must also meet to agree a holiday schedule. A further child custody evaluation is underway but lawyers say it will not be complete until January. A further hearing is scheduled for April.
The ruling followed a tense three-hour hearing Oct. 26 attended by both Spears and Federline. During a break, Spears reportedly began cursing, Access Hollywood reported.
"Eat it! Lick it! Snort it! F*** it!" she was overheard repeating when a reporter tried to ask her a question. Spears also seemed distraught when she eventually left the courthouse for the day.
In addition to her legal challenges, Spears was also suffering from pinkeye, a common infection when you have little kids. Spears made the revelation coming out of the Los Angeles courthouse Oct. 15 where she was booked on charges in the Aug. 6 crash. She was wearing large designer sunglasses at night to hide her infection, which she said hurts "really bad." She also said police at the booking were “nice.”
And if that wasn’t enough, her management company, the Firm, dropped Spears Sept. 17, eight days after her widely panned performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. By the way, UsMagazine.com later reported some of the backup dancers at the MTV performance were not paid for their work.
Spears' new album Blackout came out October 30 to broadly favorable reviews. Spears plans to tour again, but she told reporters Oct. 15 she’s been “kinda busy” to attend dancing auditions. She said she’d look at a tape of the dancers later.
Spears was born December 2, 1981, in KentwoodLouisiana. The daughter of Lynne, an elementary school teacher, and Jamie, a construction contractor, Spears auditioned for the Disney Channel’s Mickey Mouse Club at the age of 8. Producers for the show decided she was too young, but one was impressed enough to help her find an agent in New York.
Accompanied by her mother and younger sister, Spears lived in Manhattan for the next several summers, studying at the Professional Performing Arts School. In 1991, she landed a part as a demonic child in Ruthless, an off-Broadway production based on the 1956 horror film, The Bad Seed.
At age 11, Spears auditioned again, this time successfully, for the Mickey Mouse Club. For the 1993 and 1994 seasons, she lived in Orlando, Florida, where the show is filmed, in a dorm with the rest of the cast—including two future members of the group ‘N Sync and Keri Russell, future star of the WB’s Felicity.
After her run on the MMC, Spears attended high school at home in Louisiana for a year, before heading back to New York at age 15 to audition for executives at Jive Records. She signed a development deal with Jive and over the next two years recorded her debut album with producers Eric Foster White, who had worked with Whitney Houston (one of Spears’ professed influences, with Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Mariah Carey), and Max Martin, who worked with fellow pop stars the Backstreet Boys.
The album, Baby One More Time, was completed by early 1998 but wasn’t released until January 1999. During the interim, Spears set out on a promotional tour to shopping malls throughout America, prompting inevitable comparisons with ‘80s teen pop stars such as Tiffany and Debbie Gibson.
Her first single, also titled “Baby One More Time,” was released in October 1998; its success got Spears a gig opening for ‘N Sync, by then a popular teen band. When Spears’ album was released on January 12, 1999, it went straight to the top of the Billboard charts, becoming the first album of the year to debut at No. 1. The single, spurred along by a racy video featuring Spears dressed as a bare-midriffed Catholic schoolgirl, also shot up to No. 1. By September, Baby One More Time had sold over 6 million copies. Spears’ first eagerly-awaited solo tour opened in June 1999.
Some controversy surrounded a Rolling Stone cover story in March 1999, picturing the 17-year-old Spears in a seductive, Lolita-esque pose. Spears has vigorously denied the widespread rumor that she has breast implants, as well as the rumor that she is actually in her 20s.
Before the Grammy Awards, held in February 2000, Spears had emerged as one of the leading contenders for Best New Artist. She eventually lost the award, to fellow ex-Mickey Mouse Clubber and teen pop sensation Christina Aguilera.
Spears' second album, Oops!...I Did It Again, hit stores in May of 2000. With 1.3 million copies sold in its first week in stores, the album became the top-selling debut by a solo female artist ever. It earned Spears two more Grammy nominations, for Best Vocal Pop Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for the single "Oops!...I Did It Again").
Spears released her third album, Britney, in November 2001, which featured the breakout single, “I’m A Slave 4 U.” With her next album, In the Zone (2003), she tried to sound more adult while at the same time playing up an even sexier image. She collaborated with Madonna on the popular track “Me Against the Music” and scored a top ten hit with “Toxic.”
In recent years, Spears has become more famous for her personal life than her music. She dated fellow Mickey Mouse Club alum Justin Timberlake of the blockbuster boy band 'N Sync for a number of years. Their much-talked-about breakup was followed by an annulled impromptu marriage to childhood pal Jason Allen Alexander in 2003. Spears married dancer Kevin Federline in a much-publicized wedding in September 2004. Their first child, a son, was born on September 14, 2005. Their second son was born on September 12, 2006. Spears filed for divorce in November 2006.
After her separation from Federline, Spears received even more media attention for her hard-partying ways. In 2007, she made several attempts at rehabilitation before completing a program at a Malibu, California-based treatment facility.
Spears' former bodyguard said he saw her doing drugs shortly after she got out of rehab on March 20, 2007. Tony Baretto revealed in an interview on Sept. 24, 2007 that Spears had done drugs twice at a nightclub, but also didn’t say what kind of drugs she did. Baretto was fired two months after that alleged incident.
Beware of a silent dog and still water - В тихом омуте черти водятся
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