Last night, Britney’s new psychiatrist went to her home and felt she was a danger to herself and others — partly because of her reckless driving and partly because of her “downhill behavior” (Britney hasn’t slept since Saturday). As a result, the shrink launched a plan (days in the making) to have Britney committed to UCLA Medical Center by calling the cops.

Sources tell us the cops knew it was coming. In fact, the plan was for cops and paramedics to take Britney away the night before, but it was scrubbed. Last night, it all went down according to plan. Cops even used code to minimize craziness in transporting Britney to the hospital. Over the police radio, she was referred to as “The Package.”

Law enforcement sources say a L.A. County Superior Court judge has just signed a “5150,” meaning Britney Spears is on a three-day psychiatric hold at the UCLA Medical Center.

We’re told there is a “good possibility” that it will be extended to 14 days. We’ve also learned there have been several parallel attempts to get Britney on a 5150. Her lawyers, Anne Kiley and Tara Scott, secured a new psychiatrist late last week — he’s the one who triggered the 5150 last night.

At the same time, we’re told Britney’s mother, father and brother have been “working closely with the LAPD for weeks” to get her back in for psychiatric care. There is now a dogfight between Britney’s family and Sam Lutfi over who will make medical decisions, however, that fight is now put on hold because the judge now makes the call.

Once the psychiatric hold ends, something has to give.

WOW!!!

Another drama-filled day for Britney.

It was only hours after Britney’s camp announced that she was getting psychological treatment that she had a huge fight with her “manager” and had a public meltdown.

The trouble began Monday evening, when Spears and her “manager” Sam Lutfi went for a short drive around Beverly Hills. When they returned to her Summit home at around 6 p.m., the visibly distraught singer – who appeared to be arguing with Lutfi – jumped out of the white Mercedes near the guard gate.

Spears, clutching her Yorkie puppy London, wandered around with tears in her eyes and, at one point, sat down on the curb. “She looked completely lost,” says an on-scene source. Throughout it all, the gathered paparazzi snapped away.

Wearing brown high heels, cutoff shorts and a plaid fedora, Spears then seemed to downplay the incident, saying, “I’m fine. I’m . . . having a nice time with my dog.” (She later hopped into a car with another photographer, Filipe Teixeira, who gave her a lift to Ralph’s supermarket in Studio City, before bringing her home. He and another photographer pal were then invited inside, where they spent the remainder of the night.)

Thirty minutes later, the scene became even more surreal when Spears’s paparazzi pal Adnan Ghalib – who’d been noticeably absent in recent days – showed up at the house. But the photographer was turned away at the gate.

Adnan proceeded to show his fellow photographers a series of text messages. In the missives, allegedly from Lutfi, the sender calls Ghalib a “manic trigger” for Spears and adds ominously that any further contact between the two “will kill her.”

Police cars pulled up to the house soon afterward, responding to a call from security at Spears’s gated community. “Spears drove through the gates and paparazzi followed her car on foot,” said LAPD Officer Mike Lopez. “By the time officers arrived, the paparazzi were off the property, but officers handed out citations for those who were illegally parked.”

But Britney’s night was far from over. Her father Jamie and mother Lynne – who recently flew into L.A. from Kentwood, La., where she’d been holed up with Spears’s pregnant sister, 16-year-old Jamie Lynn – arrived at the estate around 9 p.m. (Earlier in the day, Lynne had spent time visiting Britney’s kids – Preston, 2, and Jayden, 1 – at Kevin Federline’s house in Tarzana.)

The family reunion didn’t last long, however – as Spears, clutching a bag, bolted from the mansion, says a source. She hopped into a car with Ghalib and the two sped off. (more…)

Barbara Walters announced on The View earlier today that she received a call from Britney Spears’ “manager” Sam Lutfi.  Lutfi told Babbs that Britney is getting psychiatric treatment and her “mental issues are treatable”.

“She has been to a psychiatrist,” Walters, 78, said, recounting Lutfi’s explanation over the phone. “She, I assume, is starting some kind of treatment.”

Walters also reported that Spears was having trouble sleeping and was suffering from “mood swings,” but that she was back in touch with her mother, Lynne Spears.  (Lynne Spears was spotted at LAX this morning, arriving in Los Angeles.)

When those at the table challenged the veracity of Lutfi’s report, Walters’s response was, “I don’t know if anybody is telling the truth or not telling the truth.” But she noted, “He has been with her constantly. He seems to be enormously supportive.”

Chiming in with her analysis was Whoopi Goldberg, who said, “I think this girl has worked and worked and worked – and she is burnt out.”

“Britney Never Had A Chance” according to The Sun.

Britney’s Uncle, Willie, is speaking to The Sun out about her troubled past.  Her uncle finally decided to speak about the popstar after watching her lose her children, Sean Preston 2-years-old, and Jayden James, 1-year-old.

Here are some highlights from the article.

- He says Brit, 26, started DRINKING when she was a 13-year-old Mickey Mouse Club presenter and dabbled with DRUGS from the age of 14.

- Terrified she will mimic her tragic grandmother Emma Jean, who committed suicide aged 31.  

- After her turbulent early years, Willie says she went “buck-wild” on turning 18, snorting cocaine on her birthday, adding: “She has tried just about everything - cocaine, crystal meth, ecstasy.”

- He says: “I’m not just a family friend or someone who claims to know them. I was there every day, working with them. I have seen all the terrible things happen.”

- He believes her drug-taking started at 14 with marijuana but adds: “It got worse when she got famous and she found out that people would do what she wanted them to. She wanted to drink, party and go where she wanted to go. She is a ruthless little thing, make no mistake. Nobody controls her. She bosses everyone around her.”

- Willie says his brother JAMIE - Britney’s dad - must take a large chunk of responsibility for her boozy lifestyle.

- “Just about everyone in the Spears family is a drunk and Britney’s dad Jamie was one of the worst. He would drink from daylight to night. Britney saw him drunk all the time.”

- Willie is a recovering drug addict and has been clean for more than four years. But sensationally he admits taking drugs with Britney in the past.

- He says: “I know she did cocaine on her 18th birthday - I was there. We were at a party in an apartment and I spotted her doing a line just before I did one. We smoked pot together too.”

- “The drug use went up overnight when she moved to LA to pursue her career. The drugs and the alcohol helped her cope with the pressure - helped her to escape from reality. We thought maybe getting married and having kids would help her settle down but it was quite the opposite.”

- He says: “Britney is in an unstable state of mind now and there is nothing anyone can do about it. She is not listening to anybody. She has fired all the people around her who cared because she simply doesn’t want people to tell her to stop doing the things she is doing.”

- “If people think she has reached the bottom, they are very wrong. Suicide is the bottom line for Britney.”

In a previous post we may have given Britney too much credit for attending her deposition on Monday. At least she showed up this time. After a meltdown and brief forced hospitalization, Spears lost visitation rights with sons Preston, 2, and Jayden, 1. Ex-husband Federline, 29, has sole legal and physical custody.

Kevin Federline’s lawyer, Mark Kaplan, tells People, “We are going over things that are very, very gut-wrenching,” Kaplan said Monday night, speaking outside of Katsuya restaurant in Brentwood. He declined to discuss specifics of the questioning, but said, “Just to revisit them even in your own mind would not be pleasurable.”

“It’s not something anyone would enjoy,” he says.

Spear has a spotty record with past deposition dates in the custody case, missing numerous appointments and sitting for only 14 minutes on Jan. 3. Kaplan is expected to be grilling Spears, 26, about past drug and alcohol use, her failure to comply with court orders and any other subject relating to her fitness as a parent.

After a meltdown and brief forced hospitalization, Spears lost visitation rights with sons Preston, 2, and Jayden, 1. Ex-husband Federline, 29, has sole legal and physical custody.

Even Monday’s session was in doubt.

“She was about 50 minutes late,” he says. “After an hour I would have been over it. I was prepared to terminate had she not showed at that time.”

Spears was spotted biting her fingernails when (more…)

Spears’ attorneys have requested an emergency hearing to ask for “monitored visitation in a therapeutic setting.”

Britney Spears’ lawyers will make a request tomorrow for Britney to have “monitored visitation in a therapeutic setting.” Britney’s family and friends apparently are successfully encouraging Britney to get mental health help for bipolar disorder in a “creative way.” That is, if Britney actually has bipolar disorder.  Britney has previously refused the judge’s requests to undergo a 730 mental evaluation. If the judge agrees to Britney’s current plan, it could prove troublesome for Kevin’s lawyers.

Evaluating bipolar disorder is a long process.  If it’s done pursuant to a 730 evaluation, the results are submitted to the court.  If the judge were to accept the alternative form of treatment, a doctor-patient privilege could prevent certain information from making its way to the court (unless the privilege is waived).

Here’s the likely scenario based on what we’re hearing: K-Fed (and probably the court) will not want Brit to bypass the 730 evaluation process. That could make it unlikely for Brit’s lawyers to win a bid to regain visitation in a therapeutic setting.

We’re pretty sure that she is as nutty, as before but maybe Britney has moments of lucidity every now and then.

Britney Spears showed up to her deposition–something she had been avoiding before. Maybe she showed up because she didn’t have to go to the courthouse, as they were closed for MLK Day and instead she just had to go to K-Fed’s lawyer’s, Mark Vincent Kaplan’s office.

Spears spent more than two hours at the office. She arrived at 10:40 a.m. wearing a really tight shirt, no bra and jeans (see above picture). She brought her shady friend, Sam Lutfi with her. Both had serious expression on their faces. At 1:20 p.m. Spears left Kaplan’s office. (more…)