11 posts tagged “britney spears”

LOS ANGELES - A temporary restraining order against Britney Spears' friend Sam Lutfi was extended Wednesday after an attorney told a judge all parties had agreed on the matter.Lutfi was not at the hearing, during which an attorney for Spears' father gave Superior Court Judge Aviva K. Bobb a document with Lutfi's signature.Attorney Vivian Thoreen said James Spears, Lutfi and Andrew Wallet, an attorney who is co-conservator of Britney Spears' estate, agreed to continue the hearing on the restraining order to July 31.The restraining order was requested by Britney Spears' mother, Lynne, when the singer was hospitalized on a psychiatric hold. The order, which was to expire Wednesday, directs Lutfi to stay at least 250 yards away from the pop star and her homes.Earlier, Superior Court Commissioner Reva Goetz transferred the matter to Bobb's court because Lutfi objected to having a commissioner hear it instead of a judge. Bobb is the supervisory judge for probate matters. Goetz will continue to handle the conservatorship of Britney Spears and her estate.In a statement, Lutfi spokesman Michael Sands said: "Sam and the family are communicating and cooperating trying to do what's best for Britney."Source: AP

The 26-year-old pop singer, whose career has been buried under an avalanche of personal and health problems, rear-ended a car in stop-and-go traffic after she failed to stop her Mercedes in time, said CHP Officer Patrick Kimball.The rear-ended car, driven by a man identified as "J. Flint," in turn pushed forward into another car, the CHP collision report said. The driver of the third car observed no damage, and drove off, the CHP incident report said.Web site TMZ said on Sunday that CHP officers on the scene performed a sobriety test on Spears, which she passed.Spears is invariably trailed by a large posse of paparazzi while running her daily chores. Photographers were instantly on the scene.Source: Reuters

LOS ANGELES - Clint Brewer is striking a pose.The paparazzo has just parked a black BMW sedan in the middle of Otsego Street in North Hollywood. He hops out to get a quick photo when Britney Spears enters her favorite dance studio.Then two police cruisers pull up. As a stern-looking LAPD officer writes a $50 parking ticket, the blonde British photographer's colleagues and competitors are playfully snapping away. At him."Over the shoulder!" JFX Direct shooter Ulises Rios calls out. Brewer obliges with a red carpet-style turn. He smiles and pulls a hood up coyly to his face.The photographers that trail Spears day and night are no longer faceless pack animals; they share in a growing edge of her spotlight. Police and deputies are keeping an eye on them, making arrests in recent weeks when paparazzi block sidewalks or disrupt traffic. An LA city councilman is proposing a "personal safety zone" to keep them away from targets.Newcomer Hollywood.tv is making waves with a splashy Lamborghini-driving founder and brand-building business plan. One of the most well-known agencies, X17, faces questions about its aggressive tactics.Then there is the curious case of Adnan Ghalib, who works for Brewer's agency Finalpixx. After chasing Spears with the rest of the Brit Pack, he switched to the other side of the lens and dated her for months.(Their current relationship status is unclear. "Everyone thought at first that it was a setup, but he really cares about her," JFX co-founder Arnold Cousart said of Ghalib, a competitor and friend.)Plenty of people have been riding "the Britney wave," in the words of Hollywood.tv founder Sheeraz Hasan. ("It's been a big blessing," he said.) Despite her appearance on "How I Met Your Mother" and release of a new music video, her most-viewed online videos remain shaky street footage that often features as much of the swarming photographers as it does of Spears.___I'M A-CRAVE FOR YOUThere's still good money in it. One agency leader said two of his ...

LOS ANGELES - An executive producer for "How I Met Your Mother" says he's open to having Britney Spears return for another cameo. "We always said, 'You know, if her character pops, we'll bring her back,'" Carter Bays told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I thought she was great. I was very proud of that episode."Spears, 26, garnered good reviews for her guest starring role as a goofy receptionist in the March 24 episode of the cult CBS sitcom. The show ended with Spears' character flirting with womanizer Barney (Neil Patrick Harris).On the following episode, which aired Monday, the show introduced a "mystery woman" who's been sabotaging Barney's usually successful attempts to pick up ladies.Asked if Spears might turn out to be the saboteur, Bays said: "Could be. There's no reason why not." He also suggested actress Sarah Chalke, who guest starred alongside Spears.Bays said it was surreal to see Spears on the set."It was totally weird. ... I think we have a very, like, kind of Midwestern homey vibe here on the show, and it was strange to suddenly have helicopters circling," he said.So will she or won't she come back?"I don't know," he said. "I don't know the answer to that."Source: AP

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oops! ... She may be doing it again. Britney Spears is in talks to reprise her highly rated and critically praised guest-starring role on the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother," TV Guide magazine's Web site reported on Wednesday.TVGuide.com cited multiple sources as saying producers are seeking her return for at least one more episode as a dermatology office assistant named Abby, who falls for the show's lead character, Ted, played by Josh Radnor.The report quoted one insider as saying, "It all depends on her availability."CBS and the studio that produces the show, 20th Century Fox Television, declined comment on the report.Spears' appearance on "Mother" last month drew 10.6 million viewers -- up from its season-to-date average of 7.8 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.Her performance also elicited mostly positive reviews, providing the singer with a rare bit of upbeat publicity amid a torrent of marital, health and legal woes in recent years. And she said in a statement issued weeks ago while shooting her scenes that she was "having a blast."It was her first prime-time acting role since she made a guest spot in March 2006 playing a Christian conservative talk show host on "Will & Grace."Spears, 26, rose to fame as a child star on the Disney channel and scored numerous hit songs as a teenager, including, "Oops ... I Did It Again."In 2002, she was named the world's top celebrity by Forbes magazine after earning $39.2 million in a single year.But in late 2006, Spears split from her second husband, Kevin Federline. Since then she has been in and out of rehab, lost custody of her two young sons to Federline, and was hospitalized twice in January for psychiatric evaluation.Her highly publicized comeback performance on the MTV Video Music Awards in September last year was widely panned as a flop. Her new album, "Blackout," debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 last November, but quickly slid down the chart.Source: Reuters

LOS ANGELES - It seems almost everybody wants a piece of Britney Spears, and at least six pieces are officially for sale.Spears' wardrobe from her guest-starring stint on CBS' "How I Met Your Mother" will be sold at an online auction to benefit the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental organization.The weeklong auction begins Monday night, just after the episode featuring the pop star is set to air. Spears plays a flirty receptionist who falls for show's main character.A half-dozen Spears-worn items will be available, including a navy print Juicy Couture dress, a yellow Nannette Lepore dress and a cream Nannette Lepore cardigan with blue flower details.CBS and 20th Century Fox Television, which produces the show, are sponsoring the auction.Source: AP

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Folksy French-Israeli singer Yael Naim found commercial success after her song "New Soul" played in Apple's MacBook Air laptop ads, pushing the song to No. 7 on U.S. music chart Billboard's Hot 100.She already had gained fame for what some saw as a comic choice to cover pop singer Britney Spear's "Toxic," singing a soulful, poignant version of the commercial hit while playing piano.But Naim, 29, whose self-titled new album was just released in the United States two months earlier than originally planned following the success of the Apple ad, says she's not worried about being seen as too commercial."It opened a great window for us, for a lot of people to have a chance to hear about our music," she told Reuters in New York. "We had a lot of propositions ... but we thought Apple and Macintosh have some connection because today we work with computers to do our music."The singer-songwriter, who was born in Paris but spent a large part of her childhood in Israel, recorded her new album in her Paris apartment with her music partner, percussionist David Donatien."We did not have a label," she said. "We did not have a lot of money so we did it just with a computer."NAME HALVEDShe became disillusioned with the "big studio" experience after her first album "In a Man's Womb" was released in 2001 through EMI, which insisted she keep her name to just Yael."It was like they took half of my energy," she said.Both "Toxic" and "New Soul" appear on her new, second album, which was recorded in English, Hebrew and French and has received warm reviews. Rolling Stone magazine noted: "The way Naim purrs any word with a hard 'ch' will make your loins tingle."Naim, who spent two years in the Israel Air Force Orchestra, said she was surprised audiences in France had embraced the mixed-language album."I did not think anyone would want to listen to ballads in Hebrew," she said. "It is not considered a very sexy language."She also didn't expect the success of her version...

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears' friend Sam Lutfi has agreed to stay away from her for at least another month, delaying a hearing that could have made a restraining order against him permanent, The Associated Press learned Sunday.Lutfi and conservators for Spears' estate agreed to have the restraining order extended for 30 days, said a person close to the pop star who spoke on condition of anonymity because the extension had not yet been formally approved.A judge was expected to approve it Monday.Lutfi did not immediately return a phone message Sunday seeking comment. Phone messages and e-mails to lawyers for Spears and her estate co-conservators, which include her father, also were not immediately returned.A Superior Court commissioner last month ordered Lutfi to stay 250 yards from Spears and her home.Spears' mother, Lynne, requested the order based on allegations that Lufti — Spears' frequent companion and sometime manager — had held the singer hostage in her own home, drugged her and taken over her finances.Spears' father, James, was named one of two co-conservators of her estate after the singer was hospitalized twice in January. The conservatorship has been extended until July 31.Conservatorships are granted for people deemed unable to take care of themselves or their affairs.Before her hospitalization, Spears had shown increasingly erratic behavior. She shaved her head, was seen in public without underwear, ran over a celebrity photographer's foot and attacked a vehicle with an umbrella.Spears has since had very limited contact with her toddler sons who are under the sole physical and legal custody of her ex-husband, Kevin Federline.Source: AP

NEW YORK - Britney Spears is relishing her new role on "How I Met Your Mother." Spears has been taping her much-hyped cameo on the CBS sitcom for the March 24 episode, in which she portrays a receptionist in a dermatologist's office named Abby who crushes on Ted (Josh Radnor)."Working at `How I Met Your Mother' has been so terrific," Spears said in a statement Thursday. "Everyone, including the cast, the crew and the producers, has been wonderful and Abby is such a fun girl to play. I'm having a blast!"CBS spokesman Kelli Raftery said Spears attended a table reading with the cast on Monday, did a "run-through" on Tuesday and filmed scenes Wednesday. Raftery confirmed reports that Spears' divorced parents — James and Lynne — dropped by the "Mother" set on Wednesday.Spears was scheduled to shoot scenes Thursday.Radnor told People.com that "on the first day of the shoot, Britney knew her lines better than I knew mine. She's been great to work with."Spears has previous TV sitcom experience playing a character on a 2006 episode of "Will and Grace." She was also the host and musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" in 2000."How I Met Your Mother," returning Monday with all-new episodes following the writers strike, co-stars Radnor, Jason Segal, Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders and Neil Patrick Harris as twentysomethings living in New York City.Spears has been under the conservatorship of her father, James, following bizarre behavior and two hospitalizations. She is also locked in a custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline over the former couple's sons, Jayden James, 1, and Sean Preston, 2.Source: AP

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pop star Britney Spears releases a music video on Wednesday that features the troubled singer as an animated superhero in a futuristic world.The music video will premiere on Wednesday on dedicated Web site (www.BlackoutBall.com) at 6:30 p.m. EDT and accompanies her latest single "Break The Ice" -- the third from her 2007 album "Blackout."The release of the video, along with an upcoming acting role on U.S. television comedy "How I Met Your Mother," marks something of a comeback for Spears, 26, whose career has been sidelined by psychiatric problems and months of bitter child custody battles.Spears' Jive record company said the video was made in South Korea in Japanese anime style. Spears last year released two singles from the "Blackout" album which has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide but whose commercial success pales in comparison to the singer's heyday six years ago.In the past year, Spears has been in rehab, lost custody of her sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline and been hospitalized twice for psychiatric evaluation.Management of her personal and business affairs have now been handed over by court order to her father.Television executives said on Monday that Spears had been cast in an episode of "How I Met Your Mother." The episode is expected to air on March 24 and according to insiders Spears will play a receptionist in a doctor's office.Spears got her first role in a prime-time U.S. television series in March 2006 when she played a Christian conservative talk show host in a guest appearance on "Will & Grace."Source: Reuters