Britney Spears Extends Restraining Order Against Former Manager, Ex-Boyfriend

Britney Spears' restraining order against former manager Sam Lutfi and ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib has been extended, a judge ruled yesterday, February 25th. Also named on the restraining order is lawyer Jon Eardley, whom Britney allegedly contacted to fight father Jamie Spears's conservatorship. Britney Spears was not at the hearings as she was rehearsing for her upcoming Circus tour.

According to MTV, the court heard from both Jamie Spears and Britney's hairdresser, both of whom testified that the trio attempted to undermine the court-imposed conservatorship. Jamie Spears told the court that Lutfi and Ghalib tried to smuggle a prepaid cell phone to Britney, which was a violation of court order. Hairdresser Roberta Romero, who intercepted and turned over the supposed cell phone, then began receiving text messages herself from Lutfi. "So please just relay to [Britney] the truth so she can free herself," one Lutfi text message read, while another said, "I'm very close to getting her free now... her family sent her to the hospital."

It was Britney who asked Romero to cease communicating with Lutfi, the hairdresser said in court. However, the nature of text messages caused Spears to increase security. The new restraining orders last until March 23rd in the case of Lutfi and Ghalib, while Eardley's is until April 1st.

In other Spears legal news, Ghalib finally turned himself in after allegedly hitting a process server with his car. The process server was trying to hand Ghalib the restraining order. Ghalib pleaded not guilty to one count of assault with a deadly weapon, battery and hit-and-run and was booked and released without posting bail.

Related Stories:

• Britney Spears Files New Restraining Orders Against Sam Lutfi, Adnan Ghalib
• Britney Spears: The Rolling Stone Covers and Cover Stories
• Cover Story: Britney Returns
• Behind the Britney Story: A Conversation With Writer Jenny Eliscu

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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