Britney, Britney, Where Art Thou, Britney?

A lot has happened since last we jawed about our favorite wackjob celebrity, the one, the only, Britney Spears.

While we experienced a rash of storms which left so many dead that they are still searching for the bodies, Brit-Brit's parents were busy swearing out declarations and restraining orders against one Osama "Sam" Lutfi. Among the allegations, Lynne Spears said she saw Lutfi drug the former pop princess, and "insert himself" in her, um, life. She claimed Lutfi admitted to her that he crushed-up pills and put them in Britney's food.

Britney's mom claims Britney met Lutfi in or about October 2007, and the manager immediately moved himself into Brit-Brit's home and "took control of her life, home, and finances." She further claims he cut her phonelines, hid her cellphone chargers, disabled her cars, and "controls everything" - including her business manager and attorneys - even the security guards at the gate.

While a judge signed the temporary restraining order Friday, Lutfi has not received it because he refuses to answer his door and has been ducking the press and public since then... kinda.

Lutfi apparently contacted Britney Spears over the weekend, then fired back through the press. But Lutfi has a long history - including at least three other restraining orders filed against him in the past 3-4 years, not to mention several lawsuits - which hints at controlling behavior. In fact, Lutfi's history is so long, his story so shady, that we will examine it further in a separate post.

In the midst of all this, Britney remained in the hospital, undergoing psychiatric treatment. Her father visited her over the weekend and claimed Britney asked him to "take [her] hand" so they could leave. The picture he painted of her was one of a disturbed, delusional child who was either in denial as to what was happening or truly did not comprehend it.

Suddenly and without warning on Wednesday night, Britney Spears was released from the UCLA Medical Center. She was immediately spotted with an "unidentified" man, later identified as none other than Adnan Ghalib. The two were followed by press, including a chopper streaming live coverage, as they made their way to the Beverly Hills Hotel. They stayed inside for about two hours, then were spotted at her "new" attorney's office (Adam Streisand). They managed to avoid press so well that one report stated, "even the paparazzi were impressed." Her new attorney was effectively dismissed from the courtroom Monday when the judge agreed that Britney was not mentally fit enough to hire her own attorney.

The conservatorship is still in place, but no one knows where Britney is right now. Her father was reported to have said that he planned to remind her of the court order, which should have kept her (or anyone else, aside from her father or the third-party attorney, Wallet) from being able to check out of the hospital early. Britney's parents released a joint statement in which they said, "We ask only that the court's orders be enforced so that a tragedy may be averted."

What is going with that? How did Britney manage to check herself out? She can't do that without a hearing. I am pretty sure that, at this point, both she and Ghalib are in direct violation of court orders, are they not? In fact, one insider said exactly that, noting that the joint statement "was public notice to everybody in America."

This is wild, y'all!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008