Brit's breakdown
Singer loses custody, visitation rights while locked up in hospital
'Britney is having a total mental and emotional breakdown,'' a close associate of Britney Spears told this column Friday as the troubled singer faced at least several days as a ''special needs'' patient at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Ex-husband Kevin Federline's lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan told the press, "There are no winners here," after a 40-minute closed-door session on the former couple's child custody.
(AP/KCBS-TV)
Court commissioner Scott Gordon gave sole physical and legal custody of their two sons to Federline and suspended Spears' visitation rights. The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 14.
As the once-idolized pop star's life continued skyrocketing downward, several other new facts came to light on Friday.
• • Reports indicated the singer's son -- Jayden James Federline, 1 -- had a bruise when taken to the hospital with his mother Thursday night, but a Spears staffer told the Sun-Times that bruise was ''either from a fall he took in Britney's backyard earlier in the week, or possibly when he fell against a dresser" in Spears' bedroom Thursday. That would have been during Jayden's tantrum as his mother barricaded herself in the bedroom, refusing to turn over her sons to her ex-husband's bodyguard.
"He started screaming ... and continued crying for just about the whole time she was in there. She did nothing to calm him down," the source said.
After being examined by doctors at Cedars-Sinai, Jayden was released to Federline's custody.
• • A Sun-Times source quotes Lynne Spears as berating Britney and telling friends and family members, ''She's going to lose those kids -- and she should.'' But the entertainer's mother and former manager expressed far different emotions to ''Access Hollywood."
According to the show's Web site, Lynne Spears was in tears over her daughter being rushed to the hospital -- ''extremely distraught, crying on the phone'' -- when contacted by ''Access Hollywood'' producers.
''Just say prayers,'' she said.
Federline, Britney's father Jamie Spears, her frequent companion Sam Lutfi and her pregnant 16-year-old sister Jamie Lynn Spears all rushed to the hospital.
As of Friday, Britney was on a 72-hour lockdown there. According to a hospital source, ''special needs'' refers to patients requiring round-the-clock observation either for a drug overdose or for being considered a suicide risk.
According to a Spears insider -- who was with her at home Thursday night -- the singer and actress was distraught from the deposition by Federline's attorney Thursday, even though she showed up 90 minutes late and only was grilled for 14.
She reportedly returned to her Studio City home and proceeded to begin drinking, taking prescription medication and calling several friends on her cell phone. Though the source was unclear about exactly what drugs Spears took Thursday night, she reported the entertainer had been taking OxyContin, a highly addictive narcotic that's also called hillbilly heroin, earlier in the week.
After returning from Federline's attorney's offices Thursday, ''she didn't pay any attention to the boys,'' said the source. For that reason Spears' staff members and several friends in the house were surprised she became so aggressive when Federline's bodyguard showed up.
''As soon as Kevin's guy got to the house she started screaming, then ran to her bedroom and locked and bolted the door.''
After a standoff of more than two hours, both the court-appointed child monitor and Federline's bodyguard phoned police. Los Angeles Police officers called to the scene determined Spears was ''under the influence of something,'' said LAPD spokesman Jason Lee -- leading them to summon the paramedics who transported Spears and her son to the hospital for observation.
Given her behavior over the past year, it's clear Spears needs help. There were the failed attempts at rehab, the now-infamous shaved-head incident, her embarrassing performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in September and her meltdown afterward -- all indications of unstable behavior.
