One night last fall when Britney was out with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, a fan gave Britney a teddy bear and claimed it was for one of her boys. The bear had a transmitter hidden inside inside it and was sending everything back to the guy, who was saving all of Britney’s private moments within earshot of the bear. He then tried to blackmail her, and told her he would sell the tapes he had of her fights with K-Fed and talks with Paris unless she paid him off:

It’s hush-hush and very confidential, but the latest weird twise in the Britney Spears saga is a bizarre blackmail caper… It began when Britney – out partying with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan one night during her infamous weeks-long booze binge – was approached by a male “fan” who handed her a stuffed teddy bear “for your baby boy,” then faded. Woozy Pop Tart took teddy home – unaware that a tiny transmitter hidden in its innards was apparently beaming eavesdropped conversations back to the “fan.”

Britney first learned of the wacko scam when the guy contacted her, threatening to sell tapes of alleged scream-fests with Keven Federline, intimate conversations with pals, etc., to the highest bidder – unless she coughs up buck$$$!

After the creep’s call, disbelieving Britney called in her security guys – and they actually found a transmitter tucked in Tell-All Teddy’s tummy. Britney’s informed her lawyers, who are on the case.

[From The National Enquirer print edition, Mike Walker’s column, May 7, 2007]

That’s actually a pretty clever idea to bug a celebrity and it sounds like a plot out of a movie, not that we’re advocating it by any means. Given that Britney was hanging out with Paris and up to no good at the time, the bear may have witnessed quite a few shaningans. It’s unlikely that they’re worth much, though, I mean we all saw at least four separate incidents of her flashing her baby-maker so recordings of some crap she talked with Paris aren’t going to be worth much. Maybe they were lovers as was rumored, though, and those tapes would cause a sensation for about 4-5 business days before we moved on to something else.

Many of you, including Jessie, have called for a moratorium on Britney stories and I agree that scrutinizing her every move gets boring quickly. This was a story that involved a potentially embarassing incident for the fallen pop star, and was too good to pass up. Britney, Paris and Lindsay are low-hanging fruit in the gossip world and while it’s easy to ignore their antics when there’s a major scandal and lots of other gossip, it’s equally easy to bitch about them as filler. They’re a hard habit to break.

Header image is of Britney, Paris and Lohan back in the day, which means a few months ago.