With visitation rights for her children on the line, Britney Spears showed up at the Los Angeles Country courthouse yesterday. The only problem, though, is that she didn’t actually step inside the building. After finally appearing several hours late, Britney, with henchman Sam Lutfi and her married paparazzi manfriend Adnan Ghalib, circled the parking lot a few times in a black Escalade, giving the sea of paparazzi ample time to swell up. “Move back, I’m scared,” Britney pleaded to the cameramen, who have amazing walking-backwards abilities, and then ducked back into her SUV and hightailed it back to the 101 Freeway. And that was Spears’ day at court. Next stop: the Little Brown Church.

The Little Brown Church is a 24-7 place of worship in the San Fernando Valley that boasts that “its doors are always open.” Once Spears showed up, however, the doors were promptly locked, forcing the paparazzi to shoot video through the windows. (more…)

After all her worried family members descended from Louisiana to L.A., pleading with Britney Spears to get help, the troubled pop star did what any sensible person would do: She ducked out of sight and flew to New York City. In a move that seemed to confirm message board speculation that she is in fact the Big Apple-attacking Cloverfield monster, Spears and her paparazzi friend Adnan Ghalib flew from Van Nuys airport to Teterboro airport in New Jersey at

Stop the presses! Updated reports are insisting that Britney DID NOT fly to New York and instead drove down to Mexico. Brit and Adnan were caught on film by Mexican paparazzi south of the border earlier this morning. The escape to Mexico was the end result of an elaborate ruse orchestrated by Britney and her “people” in which they convinced everyone that they were coming to New York. No word on what her Mexican agenda is, but it’s doubtful she’s meeting with the president to encourage aid to Africa.

[Photo: Getty]

• Britney Spears ended her M.I.A. status following Saturday’s hospital release when she returned to her Beverly Hills home yesterday. Us Weekly reports the trip featured at least one bizarre Britney moment: after her car got a flat tire on L.A.’s Sunset Boulevard last night, Spears abandoned the vehicle, leaving cops to impound it while she got a lift home from a member of the paparazzi.
• Just after announcing they will begin selling DRM-free MP3s, Sony BMG has revealed plans to sell digital album cards. Similar to the iTunes cards currently on sale at Starbucks, the Sony BMG versions be available for $12.99 at Best Buy, Target, Fred’s, Trans World, and Winn-Dixie by the end of January. Launch titles include John Mayer’s Continuum and Bruce Springsteen’s Magic.
• Canadian punk singer Bif Naked revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. “I plan on taking it one day at a time and to tackle this with a positive attitude,” she said during a radio interview over the wekend. Despite the diagnosis, she plans to continue to work on her sixth solo album.
• MTV Videos will now be available on five online sites thanks to new agreements between MTV Networks Group and Dailymotion, GoFish, iMeem, MeeVee and Veoh Networks. The announcement was made yesterday at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
• To commemorate what would have been the King’s seventy-third birthday, a marker will be placed on the Mississippi Blues Trail at Elvis Presley’s hometown of Tupelo, MS later today. A ceremony will honor Elvis’ contribution to Mississippi and America’s blues heritage.

[Photo: WENN]

• Coldplay seem poised to follow in the footsteps of Paul McCartney and Radiohead by being the latest major act to leave EMI, according to reports. A source close to the band says Chris Martin and co. feel they “don’t necessarily need a label” and want to “see what happens” before re-signing with the company that helped jumpstart their career.

• Contrary to an earlier announcement, TV psychiatrist Dr. Phil McGraw announced today that he will not dedicate an episode of his syndicated show Dr. Phil to Britney Spears latest turmoil, saying that the “Spears situation is too intense now.” McGraw also promised that the details regarding his weekend visit to Spears’ hospital room will remain confidential.

• When they’re not fine-tuning their synchronized treadmill routines, OK Go! are practicing philanthropy. The band and New Orleans funk group Bonerama will release a five-song EP called You’re Not Alone exclusively on iTunes on February 5th. The EP will benefit New Orleans musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

• As if French President Nicolas Sarkozy marrying a French pop star named Carla Bruni wasn’t cool enough, there is now evidence that Sarkozy’s son Pierre is a budding hip-hop producer, having already produced tracks for Mississippi rapper David Banner under the name DJ Mosey.

• It’s been a bad couple of weeks for hip-hoppers in central Texas. Already having lost Pimp C, the city of Houston was hit with a double-dose of tragedy, as two local rappers died in separate incidents late last week. Eric “O.G. Style” Woods passed away at thirty-seven after suffering an aneurysm, while Arcani Crosswords (née Michael Francis) died at thirty-two from an accidental gunshot wound.

• Britney Spears was released from the hospital on Saturday in the company of Dr. Phil when Friday’s orders for a seventy-two-hour lockdown were overturned after the troubled pop star was no longer deemed a danger to herself. After spending time with Spears, the therapist released a statement stating he believes “she is in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention.” Spears’ visitation rights with sons Sean Preston and Jayden James have been suspended until a January 14th hearing.
• Following in fellow American Idol winner Ruben Studdard’s footsteps, Taylor Hicks has reportedly been dropped from label J Records. Hicks, who beat out chart successes Chris Daughtry and Katharine McPhee on season 5 of Idol, “is going to record his next album on his own,” a label rep told EW.
• Oasis‘ Liam Gallagher is rumored to be fronting a one-night-only supergroup at a charity gig in England next month. Gallagher will share singing duties with former Stone Roses vocalist Ian Brown and be backed by Freebass, the bass trio of the Smiths’ Andy Rourke, New Order’s Peter Hook and Primal Scream’s Mani.
• In an unlikely pairing, Slash showed up at the finale of Bill Gates’ Consumer Electronics Show keynote address to offer a performance of Guns N’ Roses‘ “Welcome to the Jungle.” The live rendition started in the wake of a Guitar Hero III battle between Gates and another Microsoft employee. Check it out here.
• Michael Jackson is reportedly expected to announce a month-long residency at London’s O2 Arena, the site of last month’s Led Zeppelin reunion. This follows last month’s speculation that the Prince of Pop would embark on a three-month tour in 2008, which marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Thriller.

Britney Spears’ need for a fifth lawyer was hastened late last night when the pop star reportedly refused to relinquish her children back to her ex-husband Kevin Federline. The proverbial shitshow started a little after 7 PM PST when, according to Usmagazine.com, Spears wouldn’t allow Federline’s bodyguard to return Sean Preston and Jayden James to K-Fed, who has temporary custody of the former couple’s two kids. After an hour and a half, the bodyguard finally called the police to help him deal with the reportedly “intoxicated” Spears.

While details are still sketchy, it’s clear that at around 11 PM, fire trucks and ambulances descended on the scene, burst into the Spears’ household and emerged minutes later with Spears strapped to a gurney. (Watch video of Spears being removed by paramedics after the jump.) In what may be the most telling insight into Spears’ mental state, pictures of Britney inside the ambulance capture the singer both smiling maniacally and crying hysterically. (more…)

Britney Spears‘ runaway legal train has lost another conductor, as lawyer Sorrell Trope is leaving her child custody case because of “a breakdown in communication.” Trope’s departure Wednesday came after yet another missed deposition by Spears, the second one she’s skipped in the last month and her fifth missed deposition overall. Trope has been practicing divorce law for over fifty years. We’re assuming by the thousand-word list of achievements on the Personal History page of his Web site, he’s a pretty accomplished guy. And yet the mystery that is Britney is a puzzle even he cannot solve. Trope’s absence leaves a void in Spears’ defense team, as the singer will scurry to replace her lead council for the fourth time in the past four months, putting her on a Phil Spector-like pace to plow through every L.A. lawyer by trial’s end. It’s hard to imagine Britney actually sitting down and picking another lawyer, given her packed schedule of Starbucks runs, tanning beds, convenience store stops and drag races with the paparazzi. In fact, it’s hard to imagine Spears just sitting still for a prolonged period of time. While Brit attempts to fit testifying into her busy schedule, one person who will be deposed this month, and who will probably show up, is former bodyguard Anthony Barretto, who claims he has firsthand knowlege that Britney has “mental problems” and almost overdosed on drugs.

UPDATE: Britney actually attended today’s scheduled deposition, only to get sent home fifteen minutes later as the deposition was postponed to a later date. According to Kevin Federline’s counsel, Brit was “cooperative.”
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[Photo: Getty]

• Scott Weiland has been charged with driving under the influence of drugs, and prosecutors allege he also refused to take a chemical test required by law. When news broke of Weiland’s November arrest last week, his rep said the Velvet Revolver singer voluntarily took a Breathalyzer test that would clear him of charges. The Los Angeles City Attorney felt differently, and now Weiland faces up to a maximum of a year in jail (with a minimum of eight days due to a prior conviction and failure to take a drug test), a $1,000 fine and the possibility his car will be impounded for up to thirty days. He will be arraigned later today.
• Britney Spears failed to show for a scheduled deposition in her custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline yesterday. Spears’ friend told E!, “When [Spears] saw the media frenzy outside her house, her anxiety skyrocketed,” and both her doctors and attorneys felt it best for her to stay home.
• Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin recently blogged to let fans know he’s recovering from a back injury that caused the band to cancel dates on their recent tour, and is back at work with the Pumpkins. “We are back in the studio recording some songs for a possible release worldwide,” he wrote. “Look for these around the first of the year.”
• Activists plan to protest R. Kelly’s Los Angeles concert tomorrow night over the singer’s ongoing child-pornography charges, the Los Angeles Times reports. Kelly’s manager indicated this is the first protest on the tour (which is one month into its two-month run), and activist Jasmyne Cannick acknowledges it’s been rough gaining support for her cause. “It’s a challenge to get the black community to even discuss it,” she says. “They’e acting like he doesn’t have fourteen counts of child pornography against him, [and] we’re all acting like we don’t have daughters and nieces and little sisters.”
• Snoop Dogg will host his third annual Snoop Youth Football League Benefit on Saturday at the Los Angeles House of Blues, with all proceeds benefiting the three-year-old football league Snoop created to give inner-city kids the chance to get involved in organized sports.

[Photo: Getty]

• Fan site Drowned Madonna slipped a source into the star’s record-company listening party earlier this week and reports that Madge plans to call her next album Give It to Me after one of its thirteen tracks. In a conference room decorated like a candy shop in honor of the song Madonna recorded with Pharrell, she previewed ten tracks and said she had completed recording just a few days prior. The album includes Kanye West on “The Beat Goes On” and a reinvention of an unreleased older song, “The Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You.” According to Madonna, the album is scheduled to come out the last week of April 2008.
• Bauhaus will formally retire after releasing Going Away White next March, their first studio record since 1983. “We were getting along really well, but there was an incident that occurred,” drummer Kevin Haskins said. Haskins says the band will not tour for White, but “it’s something we’re very proud of.”
• The child custody battle between Britney Spears and Kevin Federline has taken another turn for the ugly. Court documents released yesterday show child welfare investigators are now exploring “multiple child abuse and neglect” allegations with regard to care for toddlers Sean Preston and Jayden James.
• Bruce Springsteen fans have submitted their memories and photos for inclusion in a new book, For You, by Lawrence Kirsch. The stories chronicle Springsteen’s career from its conception, and incorporate images from all eras — including shots of Springsteen with the E Street Band, Bono, Neil Young and more. Only 2,000 copies are being printed.
• Bonnaroo organizers are squashing rumors that Led Zeppelin and Metallica will play next year’s fest: “The rumors that are out there about the Bonnaroo 2008 headliners are innaccurate … We’ll be announcing the confirmed lineup toward the end of January/beginning of February.”

[Photo: Getty]

• Akon has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and second-degree harassment five months after throwing a fifteen-year-old boy from the stage during an upstate New York concert. Things turned ugly at the June show after Akon asked security to find a fan who threw something at him onstage. When Akon responded by tossing the teen into the crowd, the victim landed on a girl in the audience who later said she suffered a concussion. Akon is due in court Monday for arraignment.

• With her VMAs debacle behind her, will Britney Spears try a second MTV comeback? Various fan sites claim she’ll premiere her recently shot video for “Piece of Me” before the end of the year in a “BIG event,” which may be a live appearance on MTV (the network just launched a contest for fans to make their own version of the video).

• Lil’ Kim says she made a mixtape, Ms. G.O.A.T. (a.k.a. Greatest of All Time, due in a few weeks), to give back to her fans. “It’s been a year and a half since I been home from jail; I felt I owed them something.” Tracks include a remix of Britney’s “Gimme More” (substituting “It’s Lil’ Kim, ho” for “It’s Britney, bitch”) and a freestyle targeted at Remy Ma over 50 Cent’s “I Get Money.” Kim says a proper album should be out next year — after she’s free from Atlantic records and in charge of her own music.

• Axl Rose showed off his inner fireman when the Malibu blazes struck his home over the weekend. “He helped a lot,” his assistant told reporters. “He was with the hose everywhere.” Damage to Rose’s home was contained on the roof, so presumably those Chinese Democracy masters are still safe … somewhere.

• The culprits behind the fake Radiohead site radioheadlp7.com seem to be trying their hand at a second hoax by writing a new post claiming they’re Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher. “The rumors you have heard are true,” “Liam” writes, “I am responsible for this site … We’re having a time recording the new album.”

[Photo: Getty]

We had semi-high hopes for the video for Britney Spears’ “Piece of Me.” Given its reputation as the standout track on Blackout, its placement as the background music during the confrontation between Lauren and Spencer’s sister on The Hills and its anti-paparazzi theme, we thought for sure this was the song to propel Spears back to the top of the TRL charts — or at least help Blackout go gold (and draw attention away from Brit’s wig-shoplifting tendencies). With a call time of 8 AM, the “Piece of Me” video was set to shoot at L.A. nightclub Social Hollywood. The premise was simple but appropriate: Spears and four faux-Spears parade around while the paparazzi stalk them. Sort of like real life, except five Spears in real life would make the universe collapse.

The fake Spears were dressed and ready to roll, the fake paparazzi had their cameras loaded. Only one problem: Britney was a no-show. Not for a couple hours; a dozen hours. (more…)

• Britney Spears is scheduled to shoot her new video for “Piece of Me,” the second single off Blackout, at L.A. lounge Social Hollywood today. US Weekly reports Wayne Isham — who was behind Spears’ canyon-filled video for “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” — is directing. The reported concept mimics Spears’ real life travails as she and her dancers sneak into the club in matching disguises only to have the paparazzi pounce once she reveals herself.

• Organizers of the U.K.’s Isle of Wight Festival have announced the Police will headline the three-day event on June 15th, 2008 (the Rolling Stones did the honors this year). The Police are expected to continue their reunion tour with an international run in 2008, but this is their only scheduled U.K. festival appearance.

• Carson Daly is expected to resume taping Last Call this week, making him the first late-night host to restart production since the writers strike began. The Tonight Show’s Jay Leno has discussed using guest hosts to resume live shows. The nearly month-long stint of repeats has affected show staff as well as guests like Amy Winehouse, who lost bookings.

• Nas‘ controversially titled new album will now be released next February, instead of next month. The MC told MTV News the record’s first single is expected to drop in January, and that supposedly leaked track “What It Is” is not part of the album’s tracklisting.

• Foxy Brown (a.k.a. Inga Marchand) has been released from solitary confinement after forty days — thirty-six days less than her sentence — for good behavior. Marchand was originally assigned to solitary lock-up after committing a trio of in-prison violations.

• American Idol won big at last night’s American Music Awards as season-five finalist Chris Daughtry and season-four winner Carrie Underwood picked up three statues each. Fans voted for all of the night’s winners, who also included Justin Timberlake (pop/rock male artist, soul/R&B album), Fergie (pop/rock female artist) and Rihanna (soul/R&B female artist).
• Kanye West started a European tour following his mother’s death last week with an emotional stop in Paris this weekend. During “Hey Mama,” which was written for Dr. Donda West, Kanye was comforted by members of his band after breaking down in tears. Donda was also remembered by friends, family and colleagues who gathered at Chicago State University on Friday.
• After offering the disclaimer, “With so much coverage of my worthless non-guitar playing pursuits, I think I owe you all a bit of what I actually DO for a living,” John Mayer posted a new track, “Say,” on his blog this weekend. The track will appear in the upcoming film The Bucket List, starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.
• Britney Spears‘ “Gimme More” video has been banned by a Parisan tribunal due to an unauthorized shot of Louis Vuitton material. Louis Vuitton was also awarded 80,000 euros in their lawsuit, which placed blame on Sony BMG, Zomba and MTV online for the use.
• Jimmy Page has admitted Led Zeppelin secretly rehearsed before announcing their upcoming reunion show. “We wanted to see how well we’d be playing together and once we played it was without doubt we wanted to do it,” he told the BBC.
• Jackson Browne has publicly offered his support for Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, telling The Associated press, “I think it’s a really critical time in our country and our world, and I think that working people need a champion, and I think that John Edwards is that person.”

• Kanye West released a statement last night about his mother’s death saying, “Kanye West, his family and friends would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support and kind words that have come in from across the country since the death of his mother, Dr. Donda West … In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Dr. West’s name to the Kanye West Foundation/Loop Dreams Teacher Training Institute.” Donda died Saturday of what is believed to be complications from plastic surgery, although the surgeon who claims he operated on Donda says he did nothing wrong. An autopsy is scheduled for later this week.

• Britney Spears partnered with photo agency X17 to auction off an autographed copy of Blackout on eBay. Proceeds will go to UNICEF, and Spears told X17, “This seemed like the perfect opportunity to give the fans a chance to bid on something to help children everywhere.” Sean Preston and Jayden James are currently looking to relocate to “everywhere.”

• T.I. is making the most of his time under house arrest by writing a new album he’s calling Paper Trail. The Atlanta MC reportedly began work two and a half weeks ago, after his engineer was granted permission to visit T.I.’s home, and the album is slated for a 2008 release.

• Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington has confirmed he will return to Dead by Sunrise, the side project he put on hold while working on LP’s Minutes to Midnight. Bennington told the Pulse of Radio he will do some work during the holidays, but the Sunrise album won’t be completed until next spring.

• Boy George (a.k.a. George O’Dowd) has been formally charged with false imprisonment related to an April incident in which O’Dowd allegedly chained a main to a wall of his London home. O’Dowd was released on bail and is due back in court November 22nd.

• Britney Spears may have gotten schooled on the U.S. charts by the Eagles, but she has secured the number-one spot in Europe, Canada and Ireland and even set a new record for digital sales in the States. Spears has officially sold more digital albums in her first week of release than any other female artist, and Blackout is still at the top of the iTunes chart [UPDATE: She was just dethroned by Angels & Airwaves]. At least that’s something to keep her spirits up when Kevin Federline hauls her back to court.

• Nominees for November 29th’s first J.A.M. awards, where Jam Master Jay’s foundation will honor artists with “outstanding efforts in promoting social justice, arts and music,” have been revealed and include Nelly, Kanye West and Wyclef Jean.

• Festivals 2008 Update: Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park is hoping to curate a “multi-day, multi-stage outdoor concert festival for Summer 2008″ and is working with the producers of Austin City Limits to achieve that goal. The Stagecoach Country Music Festival will take place May 3-4th and feature the Judds’ first performance since 2000 in addition to Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw and Big & Rich. That weekend will also host emo extravaganza the Bamboozle, which will announce its first acts this afternoon at 5 PM. Next year’s Coachella will take place April 25th-27th with artist announcements expected next year, Billboard reports.

• Fans are calling the Sex Pistols‘ first reunion show in London last night “dire” and “shoddy” (and the band reportedly started their set thirty minutes late). The gigs are the band’s first in four years, excluding a small warm-up performance at an L.A. club last month.

• The Smoking Gun has unearthed another iconic rock star mugshot, this one of a vampire-esque David Bowie following his 1976 arrest for felony pot possession in upstate New York.