8timeslessdense

Thu Feb 22, 12:21 PM EST
John Rogers

By John Rogers

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The in-and-out-of-rehab saga that has been dogging Britney Spears is moving to a new venue: family law court.

Spears' estranged husband, Kevin Federline, and his lawyer were scheduled to appear Thursday at an emergency hearing in family law court, Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini said. It was not known what issue the 28-year-old aspiring rapper planned to raise, though the former couple are in a custody dispute over their two children.

"Our best information is he will be here, she won't," Parachini said. "But anything is possible."

Parachini said court Commissioner Scott Gordon was in the midst of a trial and might not convene a hearing or make a ruling on any motion that lawyers might file for Federline.

"He's not going to stop a trial for an entire day for anybody," Parachini said.

Reporters began staking out the family law courtroom an hour before the hearing was set to begin. Cameras crews jockeyed for position outside the building.

Federline sought spousal support and sole custody of Jayden James, five months, and Sean Preston, 17 months, after Spears moved to end their two-year marriage in November, but a temporary order issued Feb. 1 granted joint custody through this month.

His attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, did not return a call seeking comment.

The hearing comes amid increasingly bizarre behaviour by Spears, which culminated with her reportedly checking into and out of two rehab centres in a week and shaving her head bald on Friday.

Manager Larry Rudolph issued a brief statement Tuesday confirming the 25-year-old pop star had entered rehab. On Wednesday, he referred inquiries to Gina Orr, the publicist at Jive Records, Spears' label, who did not respond to e-mail and phone messages.

Spears left the Promises Malibu Treatment Center on Wednesday, according to "The Insider" TV news magazine, less than a day after arriving. The centre specializes in treating drug and alcohol abuse.

Last week, she reportedly sought treatment at a centre in the Caribbean but also checked out after a day.

The next day, she arrived at a San Fernando Valley hair salon, grabbed an electric razor and shaved her head bald. Afterward, she visited a tattoo parlour, where she had a pair of red-and-pink lips inked onto her wrist. Then she went out clubbing with friends before apparently checking into Promises.

In public again Wednesday, Spears attempted to keep a low profile, but the celebrity Web site TMZ.com posted video of her wearing a wig and leaving what it said was a lawyer's office.

Whether her recent behaviour will damage her recording career is hard to say, said Vibe magazine music editor Jon Caramanica.

Spears, whose 1999 debut album "... Baby One More Time," sold more than 13 million copies, hasn't released a new album since 2003. Before her troubles began she had promised one this year, and Caramanica suggested that might be a good outlet to address what she's going through.

"I think the best thing she could do is make an album that engages with this subject matter in some way," he said. "Not only to have a good album but to have an album that's a declaration of emotional health.

-AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch contributed to this report. 

As always, the kids are caught in the middle of all this insanity. How can anyone expect them to grow up emotionally healthy surrounded by all this insanity. Then they have to cope with the media dogging them and their families. Mom is probably having some kind of breakdown and who knows if she'll be equipped to be any kind of nuturing parent for quite some time.

When is society going to realize the ability to get pregnant has nothing to do with the ability to parent. Anybody can have a kid. If you're rich, you can flaunt your crazy behaviour and get to keep them too. Maybe Brittney and Michael should get together.

Thirteen Canadian soldiers suffered minor injuries early Sunday when their LAV III fighting vehicles smashed into one another.

The accident happened when a convoy of recently arrived combat troops was moving between bases, said Maj. Dale MacEachern, a spokesman for the Canadian Forces.

"I can't discuss the nature of (individual) injuries to the soldiers for reasons of privacy, but I can say they were all minor injuries," he said.

"All of these soldiers are expected to go back to work."

All of the injured were treated at the nearby medical clinic at the Canadian-run provincial reconstruction base, but six of them were transferred by air to the NATO hospital at Kandahar Airfield for further observation.

"It's just to be safe to make sure our soldiers are OK," said MacEachern.

Details of how the collision happened were not released and military police were investigating. The LAV IIIs sustained minor damage.

The fact that all of the soldiers involved are new to the theatre - troops from the 2nd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment and reserve units from around Atlantic Canada arrived in the country this month - is being considered as a factor because each new rotation has encountered a series of vehicle accidents at the beginning.

"Our soldiers receive excellent training before they're deployed to theatre, but I don't think anything can quite fully prepare anyone for the nature of the roads here in Kandahar," said MacEachern. 

Every bloody war the most recent to arrive have the greatest risk of death or injury. Everybody knows that. So why does it sound like they are so unprepared to deal with that fact and make the new arrivals safer.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pop star Britney Spears sported a newly shaved head when she dropped by a Los Angeles tattoo parlor and quickly drew a crowd.

The Friday evening visit to the "Body and Soul" tattoo shop in the Sherman Oaks district of Los Angeles came on the same day as People magazine and other entertainment media reported that Spears, 25, had recently entered a rehabilitation center in Antigua and checked out a day later.

Spears representatives could not be reached for comment on the rehabilitation reports, but the Access Hollywood entertainment news outlet cited a spokesperson denying them and saying she was not in rehab.

Los Angeles television station KABC showed video of Spears entering the parlor with a small tattoo visible on the back of her neck and her head completely shaved.

Tattoo artist Max Gott told the station Spears got a "dainty" new tattoo. "She got some cute little lips on her wrist -- red lips, a little pink," he said.

Outside, police controlled a large crowd of onlookers and cleared the way for her to leave.

Spears reached pop stardom with hits such as "Oops!... I Did it Again," and developed a reputation for a reckless spontaneity, including her two-day marriage to a childhood friend.

A mother of two young sons, Spears has acknowledged that her image had taken a beating in recent months. She has become a regular fixture on the circuit of big-city U.S. nightclubs since her split in November from husband and former backup dancer Kevin Federline.

Spears was repeatedly photographed in December climbing out of automobiles without wearing underpants while in the company of celebrity Paris Hilton.

Spears and Hilton recently made the cover of Newsweek magazine with a story headlined "The Girls Gone Wild Effect" and a poll of readers who said celebrities like them were having too much influence on young girls.

In January, Spears posted a message on her Web site acknowledging the negative publicity while writing, "I look forward to coming back this year bigger and better than ever and to reaching out to my fans on a more personal level."

Her Web site, www.britneyspears.com, was down on Friday, apparently being revamped.

When did all this crap become news? Why is our culture so fascinated with the personal lives of celebritites? Think about all those mothers who took their daughters to Spears concerts. What the hell were they thinking? This is someone you want your kid to emulate!!!

As well, if she wasn't a celebrity, would anyone give a damn? Or would we be calling the Children's Aid? What makes these morons so special?

Workers at the Meriden Humane Society are marvelling at a short-haired cat that has adopted a six-day-old Rottweiler puppy rejected by its mother.

The tiny pup, named Charlie by Humane Society volunteers, now nurses alongside a jumble of black and grey kittens recently born to Satin, who was taken to the shelter by an owner unable to care for her.

Charlie's mother was found by the side of the road in Meriden a couple of months ago. She gave birth to two puppies, but one was stillborn. And, as sometimes happens with a stillborn in the litter, the mother refused to accept Charlie.

Volunteers bottle-fed him every two hours, but the effort was exhausting for them and insufficient for the puppy, volunteer Chris Chorney said.

Research indicated that a suitable substitute could be Satin, who had given birth to four kittens that have quickly warmed to Charlie.

"The kittens scrum up with him and the kittens treat him like one of their own," Chorney said. "There's a certain social benefit of small animals being with each other."

Such relationships are not all that unusual in certain circumstances, said Deirdre Chiaramonte, a veterinarian at the Animal Medical Center, a specialty teaching hospital in New York.

The cozy arrangement between Charlie, Satin and the kittens will likely changes as the pup grows. Full-grown male Rottweilers commonly weigh 45 kilograms.

Volunteers are hoping that dog owners will volunteer their puppies to be Charlie's playmates.

"Dogs need to be with a litter of puppies, to learn to play with other dogs," Chorney said. "He has to learn to be a well-socialized dog." 

So, why can't people be as accepting as that? It would be interesting to watch the relationship if they were raised together. No dog would dare chase any of those cats!

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - A judge tried to broker an agreement Friday among the three people fighting over Anna Nicole Smith's remains on how and when to embalm the former Playboy Playmate's body.

Even if they settle that, as expected, lengthy legal fights loomed over where she will be buried and who will get custody of her infant daughter....

Don't you wonder how many people would still be fighting over this baby if she wasn't heir to a fortune?

TORONTO (CBC) - The families of murdered teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy are having difficulty coming to grips with the news that convicted killer Karla Homolka has had a baby, their lawyer said Tuesday.

Tim Danson said earlier rumours that Homolka gave birth to a baby boy last week in Montreal seem to have been confirmed in a newspaper report published Tuesday.


Gyslaine Desrosiers, the head of the Quebec Order of Nurses, told the Globe and Mail that Homolka delivered a boy last Monday at Montreal's St. Mary's Hospital.


Danson said the French and Mahaffy families were distressed to hear the news.


"The real disturbing irony is that she's having children while their own children cannot," he said.


Homolka was released from a Montreal area prison in July 2005 after serving a 12-year manslaughter term for the deaths of the teenage girls.


Homolka's former husband Paul Bernardo is serving a life sentence for murder, and has been declared a dangerous offender.


"The thought is fundamentally repugnant to them because they know that this is the person who participated in the kidnapping and murder of their children," said Danson. "The thought that she's even free, let alone having children, is something they're having trouble coming to grips with."


Danson said although Homolka has completed her prison sentence, the families believe medical evidence suggests Homolka is a dangerous psychopath who thinks only of herself.


Any decision Homolka makes revolves around herself and her own best interests, Danson said. "She would not have thought at all about the ... future of her child."


Homolka was released from prison under a number of restrictions, including having no contact with people under the age of 16 and regularly reporting to police. She successfully appealed to have those conditions lifted and is believed to be living in the Montreal area.

IF SHE IS NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE CONTACT WITH ANYONE UNDER SIXTEEN, HOW CAN SHE HAVE CONTACT WITH HER CHILD? HOW CAN THEY ALLOW HER TO KEEP IT?

DO YOU THINK SHE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO KEEP IT?