Britney Spears was seen arriving by private plane to McComb, Mississippi on Friday. She was with about 12 people, according to photo agency Fame, including her assistant, her two boys, and her mother and father. She was later spotted on Sunday in Los Angeles riding in a golf cart with her sons and an unidentified guy. I think it’s her agent Jason Trawick, with whom she’s been linked in the past. Britney and her entourage arrived in New Orleans today.

Britney is set to start her whirlwind three month tour tomorrow with her first show in New Orleans. These past few days may be the last time she had a chance to truly rest without the stress of an upcoming performance looming. The Daily Mail has more:

It’s been a long time coming, but Britney Spears is finally kicking off her comeback tour.

Five years after she was forced to cancel her Onyx Hotel Tour after injuring her knee on a video shoot, the singer is hoping her Circus world tour will resurrect her career.

Ahead of Tuesday’s opening night in New Orleans, Britney and her two sons jetted into McComb, Mississippi, the town where her sister Jamie Lynn lives with her boyfriend Casey Aldrige and 15 miles away from her hometown of Kentwood.

Homecoming: Britney Spears jets into Mississippi and enjoys a few days at home with her family before the tour starts on Tuesday night

Looking fit and happy in a red T-shirt and black skirt, the Toxic singer, 27, arrived with a 12-strong entourage including her older brother Bryan.

Waiting at the airport to greet her was her mother Lynne and father Jamie, who gave her a kiss on her forehead as she arrived.

Although ex-husband Kevin Federline has primary custody of the couple’s sons Sean Preston and Jayden James, he has negotiated a deal with Britney to allow the boys to join her on tour.

Aspiring rapper K-Fed, 30, will also be along for the ride and is being paid $5,000 a week to accompany his children.

[From The Daily Mail]

I hope that everything works out for Britney and that this tour is a success for her. Plenty of people, including Britney’s former music manager, have questioned whether she’s ready for a comeback at this stage. Many have mentioned her family’s never-ending need for cash as a motivation for Britney to launch a tour so soon after her very public breakdown and tentative recovery. Maybe Britney will prove everyone wrong with solid performances across the board. It will be a triumph for her to pull this off and we’re rooting for her.

Most photos credit: Fame Pictures. One photo of Britney’s bodyguard with her boys was taken in New Orleans and is credit: Breeden, Symons, PacificCoastNews.com

Britney Spears’ family stepped in last year to get the singer’s life back on track. This refocusing did not center entirely on getting her into a better mental place – it was also about getting her back on the top of the charts and regaining her position as the Queen of Pop, possibly at the expense of her mental health. As soon as she showed signs of getting better, her camp began planning a Britney comeback tour, which they have aptly titled “Circus.” Leaving no room for error, they have gone all out on the production of the show, complete with a stage made of three rings; acrobats and contortionists; magic tricks involving Britney being sawed in half, disappearing, and reappearing; and of course, the music itself. In all, it sounds like it’s shaping up to be a mind-blowing concert.

“Right away, she got into the boxes and into the magic contraptions to learn the stuff, and she’s so excited about this tour and all the elements that are in it,” illusionist-comedian Ed Alonzo, “the Misfit of Magic” (and former Saved by the Bell diner owner) who will be doing a number with Spears on her Circus tour, tells E! News.

The pop star will serve as Alonzo’s assistant in the bit.

“We’re going to be doing the classics of magic but a little high-tech,” he said. “We’ll be doing a little dissection, transposition, a vanish, an appearance—and if I do a trick, she doesn’t just hold the props, she’s actually getting inside the big boxes or I am slicing her up.”

Sounds a bit risky, which is perhaps why Team Spears decided to leave the tricks to a professional.

I “made [the tricks] really easy for her…but there are some complicated things that she is doing that you would think a contortionist would have to do, or a trained magician’s assistant,” Alonzo said. “But because…she’s a dancer, it really makes sense to put her in the magic, and it works and she’s really, really good at it.”

“Some of it’s pretty scary, but she gets right in there with no reservations,” he added.

Alonzo wouldn’t divulge which Spears tunes would be accompanying his mini magic show, but—news flash—he did assure us that the overall show will feature “the best music of Britney that people have loved over the years and, of course, brand-new favorites from the new album.”

And, like us, Alonzo has only seen Spears in warm-up clothes and sneakers during rehearsals, although she has been testing out different pairs of heels here and there.

The three-ring circus-inspired set is “exactly what you would see in a big giant Vegas production show, but it’s going to be on the road,” he said, and anywhere from 75 to 100 crew members and performers are usually around at any given time.

“It’s going to be an amazing concert for people to watch,” he said. “It’s like watching a big Cirque du Soleil high-tech circus, but with a really focused star in the middle of all of this.”

[from E!]

Talk about a big production. When you’re thinking about building a comeback for a pop star like this, you have to go big or go home, and Poppa Spears clearly took this to heart. The last thing they wanted was a dud. There’s a lot of pride and a lot of money hanging in the balance here.

In the documentary Britney did with MTV, “For the Record,” I remember her saying that working keeps her sane. She’s only really happy when she’s recording an album or working on a concert. And while it’s good that she knows what makes her content, you have to wonder if the happiness she feels when working is really just a front. As long as she keeps busy, she doesn’t have to deal with her real deep-seated issues. Even though the woman is 27 years old, her father is legally in charge of her finances and her bodily person, and people from her past are still trying to get back into her life.

Happily, she will be around her boys during the tour. None of us really know what kind of a mother she is in private, but they’re her children, and it’s good that she will have a “home” to come back to after her concerts. Hopefully being around her family will help get her life, not just her career, back on track.

Photos are of Britney performing on 12/2/08. Credit: PRPhotos

Yesterday, we told you how the entire Spears clan is making a very nice living off of their eldest daughter Britney. Probably the only family member who is actually earning his paycheck is daddy Jamie Spears, who stepped in as his daughter’s conservator and got rid of the insidious Sam Lutfi just when it appeared that he was poised to take over Britney’s life and cause her serious harm. Jamie appeared at a court hearing yesterday in Los Angeles with testimony that Lutfi had violated the terms of a restraining order filed against him last year. Papa Spears believes that either Lutfi or skeezy photograher/ex-boytoy Adnan Ghalib slipped Britney a pre-paid cell phone on which both men were contacting her.

There’s a hearing underway in the Britney Spears restraining order case against Sam Lutfi and Adnan Ghalib.

Daddy Jamie Spears is on the stand right now, explaining that Britney somehow got her hands on a pre-paid cell phone which caused him fits because they have been strictly monitoring the phones she’s able to use.

The nanny heard Britney talking to Sam and Adnan on the pre-paid phone in the wee hours of the morning one day. It appears Jamie believes Sam and Adnan got her the phone in an attempt to poison her against Jamie and torpedo the conservatorship.

If Sam did have any contact with Britney, he would have violated a court order to stay the hell away from her.

Jamie is trying to make the temporary restraining order against the dynamic duo permanent.

[From TMZ]

If Britney is still actively in contact with either one of these douches, you really have to wonder how stable she actually is. Both Sam and Adnan are shady guys who were clearly looking to exploit Britney for their own benefit. As much as I question Britney’s family in this whole endeavor, they are a lot less harmful than either one of those guys. If Britney’s parents had not intervened when they did, I believe Britney would probably be dead right now. Hopefully the judge in this case will be sensible and extend the order permanently.

Britney Spears is shown on 10/11/08. Credit: Fame

On January 30, the Spears camp requested a restraining order against Adnan Ghalib, who was reportedly calling and harassing Britney, although her former self-proclaimed manager Sam Lutfi was a more persistent problem. A few days later, Ghalib hit back with a lawsuit claiming defamation and libel. Now he has gone and further tarnished his name by trying to run over a man trying to serve him legal documents.

Britney Spears’s ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib allegedly tried to run over a man on Monday who was trying to serve Ghalib with court papers in Los Angeles, police say.

The process server “ended up on the hood of the car, then fell off when [Ghalib] drove away, and ended up with scratches and bruises,” Lt. Brian Whitten tells PEOPLE.

A report was taken for assault with a deadly weapon, but Ghalib, 36, is not a wanted man.

“He’s not liable for arrest,” Whitten said. “We first need to get his side of the story.”

[from People]

Unfortunately, the officer quoted in the article says that Ghalib does not have a warrant out for his arrest – they want “his side of the story” first. His side of the story? That someone was trying to give him court papers he didn’t want. Simple as that. This guy sounds about as stable as Britney was a year ago, and I wouldn’t trust a word out of his mouth. I just hope the Spears camp is able to get him out of Britney’s life for good.

Adnan is shown out on 3/11/08. Credit: WENN

Showing that there isn’t a move Britney can make with her kids if it’s not billable by at least five figures, Kevin Federline’s lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan has refuted claims that a deal is in place to have Britney’s two sons accompany her on tour. This is in contrast to an official statement on Britney’s blog that her sons were coming with her, along with an earlier story that Britney, K-Fed and her dad had worked out an amicable visitation agreement – until the lawyers realized they got cut out of the deal:

Despite Britney Spears’ blog proclaiming earlier this week that Sean Preston and Jayden James will be joining her for the duration of her Circus tour, Kevin Federline’s camp insists no deal is done.

“We are working toward that,” K-Fed attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan exclusively tells E! News.

“There can be an agreement reached in probably the next day, but there is not an agreement that is signed yet.”

Kaplan says they are hammering out the last details, but the basic agreement will allow Spears to see her two sons on “pretty much the same schedule that she has now,” which is around three days a week. For the sake of the tour, Federline will travel with the kids to tour areas.

“Kevin is working to make them accessible by going on various central locations in various areas of the country, and he is doing that because he wants her to be able to have the maximum positive environment around her to assure that the tour will be successful,” says Kaplan

Sean and Jayden will likely not be seeing any of mom’s Circus shows nor will they be hanging out backstage.

“I don’t think the kids will be at venues. They will be available in her life when she is done with the rigors of performing,” says Kaplan.

As for reports that Spears was threatening to cancel the tour if an agreement for the kids to come wasn’t reached, Kaplan says that did not influence Federline’s decision to allow the kids on tour.

“That would be her decision, but it is not something that would compel Kevin to decide what is best for his kids,” Kaplan says.

[From E! Online]

What an arrogant asshole this guy is! He is just trying to make sure he can still bill Britney for tens of thousands. It sounds like he deliberately quashed the deal once he got wind that it was worked out without him. K-Fed and Britney need to cut these lawyers loose and start working together to figure out custody arrangements with their kids. Yes Britney is rich, but she doesn’t need lawyers leeching off her like this and deliberately making things more complicated than they need to be.

Meanwhile there’s a story in The Sun that Britney is suffering from panic attacks that bring into question her ability to perform in front of large crowds during her grueling three month tour. Let’s hope for her sake that it’s not true.

Mark Vincent Kaplan is shown leaving Madeo restaurant below on 2/4/09. He’s also shown outside Mr. Chows on 7/5/08. Credit: WENN

Yesterday we heard that Britney Spears was threatening to cancel her much anticipated Circus tour if her two sons, Sean Preston, 3, and Jayden James, 2, couldn’t come along with her. Britney had worked out a tentative agreement with ex husband Kevin Federline, who has primary custody, to bring the boys along with him and travel with her in exchange for increased child support. Britney’s father agreed on the arrangement and everything was thought to be settled – except for the fact that Federline’s lawyers didn’t agree with the temporary custody agreement. It seemed to us like they were just upset that they got cut out of the deal. If Britney and Kevin are working together without using their high powered legal teams as intermediaries, the lawyers can’t charge their exorbitant fees.

It seems like either the lawyers have backed down or Kevin stood up to them, because now there’s word that Britney’s boys will come with her and the tour will go on as scheduled. There’s a ton of money at stake and it was in everyone’s best interest to make sure the public knew that Britney’s tour was not in jeopardy. Britney’s people have issued an announcement through her official website that the boys will be with her:

Britney is so excited to kick off her tour. She has been enjoying every moment of rehearsals and is looking forward to performing in front of a live audience again. Both Sean Preston and Jayden James will, in fact, be joining Britney throughout the duration of her tour. The Circus kicks off in New Orleans on March 3rd.

[From BritneySpears.com via OK!]

There’s been a lot of speculation that Britney is not ready for the tour, with even her former music manager publicly expressing doubt that she will be able to endure the grueling schedule. The tour includes 44 performances in 33 cities over 14 weeks. That’s an immense commitment for even the most prepared performer, and it seems like Britney just got back on track a few months ago. Whether she’ll be able to pull through with it or not we’ll have to see, but at least she’ll be able to see her sons while she’s touring.

Britney Spears is shown performing on 12/2/08. Credit: WENN

Britney and Neil Patrick Harris of How I Met Your Mother

Britney Spears seems to be getting her act together. She hasn’t been driving aimlessly wearing a pink wig, her body looks great, and a papparazo would be glad to get a picture of her with a Frappacino in hand. She’s even going on a world tour starting on March 3rd which will cover 33 cities in 14 weeks. She has expressed her concerns over going on tour before, and now we may know why – she wants to spend more time with her boys. According to TMZ, Britney has threatened to pull out of the tour if she won’t be able to see her boys during that time. Her children would stay in three different cities over those 14 weeks, and Britney would travel from her concert venues to where her children are staying each night so that she can spend quality time with them during the day.

Here’s what we know. For weeks, Britney, K-Fed and Jamie Spears have been privately hashing out a plan to let the kids travel with Brit while she goes on tour. The plan is to have homes in three bases — New Jersey, New Orleans and Los Angeles. Sean Preston and Jayden James would stay in one of these three bases and mom would commute back and forth while doing concerts in each region.

And here’s a fun fact. We’ve learned Britney will pay Kevin in excess of $4,000 a week for each week she’s on tour. The way the deal goes… Brit would get K-Fed his own pad in each of the three bases and he wouldn’t even have to show up to get the money! Why, you ask, would she pay him? You figure it out….

So here’s the rub: Britney, K-Fed and Jamie worked out the arrangement without the help of any of the lawyers. We’re told a week ago K-Fed’s lawyers became aware of the plan and were furious, thinking Jamie went behind their backs. Sources tell us K-Fed’s lawyers have said they object to the plan but won’t specifically say why. And Kevin apparently doesn’t have the cojones to stand up to his lawyers.

Britney WILL cancel the tour if she can’t take her kids… we know that for a fact.

By the way, Britney now has close to 50/50 custody and the trio has also worked out a long-term agreement, which would extend the arrangement. That, too, could be compromised.

[from TMZ]

The plan doesn’t seem too crazy to me. It might seem like the kids are being uprooted every few weeks, but the important thing is for them to be with family, and by this point they have to be used to traveling a lot. It’s not the stable house that is key – it’s the stable family. And it seems like Britney is becoming able to give them that. She is certainly looking to exercise her rights now that she’s better. She recognizes that she’s the money-maker, and there are a lot of people who are depending on her to follow through on her tour. If they don’t give her what she wants, they would be out of a lot of cash.

Wonder if K-Fed’s new girlfriend will follow Britney, too.

Note by Celebitchy: If K-Fed, Britney and Jamie all agree to it – what’s the problem? Oh I know, the lawyers didn’t get to charge Britney hundreds of dollars an hour for figuring it out. Britney does get charged even by Kevin’s lawyers. They should buy a clue and realize if they sabotage this custody plan Britney will have a lot less money to pay their astronomical fees.

Britney Spears and Neil Patrick Harris are shown in the header in an image courtesy of BritneySpears.com

Britney Spears is said to be heartbroken over learning that her ex husband’s new girlfriend has been spending time with her sons Sean Preston, 3, and Jayden James, 2. Photos came out last week on TMZ that showed volleyball player Victoria Prince holding Jayden after having dinner with Kevin and his sons. This week’s Life & Style has details and pictures a weekend trip that Prince took with K-Fed and all four of his children with Britney and Shar Jackson. Federline’s new girlfriend is seen holding the boys on several occasions and is even comforting Jayden by offering him a pacifier.

While Kevin and Victoria’s relationship has been tough on Britney, nothing prepared her for the latest and most painful stab in the heart: finding out that Victoria has also been getting close to [her] sons…

Kevin’s new girlfriend recently spent an entire weekend boding with Brit’s boys.

On Jan. 16, Kevin and Victoria loaded Sean and Jayden into the backseat of Kevin’s car. Also on board” Kori, 6, and Kaleb, 4, Kevin’s children with his ex-girlfriend Shar Jackson. Together, they drove 225 miles from LA to Clovis, CA, where Kevin’s parents live. From there, the group – along with several members of Kevin’s family – headed 40 miles north to the snowy town of Shaver Lake, CA…

Victoria, 26, seemed so at ease caring for Britney’s kids, it looked as if she were their mother…

While Kevin proudly videotaped them, Victoria and the kids played in the snow and went sledding…

It was the kind of moment Britney, 27, would have loved to share with her boys, and she was heartbroken she missed it. Making things worse: She’s aware there’s another woman in the picture who does get to share in these types of memories.

“Britney knows all about Victoria,” says a family friend. “But it’s what she doesn’t know that tears her apart. She’s not sure if this woman is changing their diapers or singing to them at night or what. She just knows there’s someone else doing these things for the boys.”

[From Life & Style, print edition, February 9, 2009 via Fame Pictures]

At least Prince likes kids. If I was in Britney’s shoes it would make me cringe to see another woman with my son like that. It’s some kind of weird primal response that I can’t explain. If Prince was just a babysitter I would think she was awesome with the kids, but add the fact that she’s with them because she’s sleeping with your ex and you would rather she hand the boys off to someone else. It would hurt my feelings too, and chances are high that the tabloids have no insider information and are just assuming Britney is upset.

In his People interview this December, Federline said he wasn’t dating anyone and that “I don’t really feel like bringing that around the kids.” He was rumored to be partying with hookers during weekends away in Vegas at the time. Maybe he anticipated the fallout that would happen if he got a new girlfriend and she was seen with his sons.

It’s nice that he’s found a woman who really adores his kids and you can’t blame her for picking them up and mothering them. Many women would want to do the same thing in that situation. You can’t blame Britney either if she really is hurt by it. She only gets so much time with her boys and she doesn’t want another woman muscling in. We haven’t seen many photos of Shar with the boys, but maybe she just keeps a low profile. It’s not like those type of pictures are in demand either, because the tabloids can’t blow it up into a big rivalry that isn’t there.

Photo credit: Fame

Former couple Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake had an awkward chance run-in at a small restaurant that left them actively ignoring each other for a tense half an hour. Timberlake was eating with his live-in girlfriend, Jessica Biel, when Britney came in at 10pm:

Britney Spears ran into ex Justin Timberlake at Yatai Asian Tapas Bar in West Hollywood Monday night, an eyewitness reveals to Usmagazine.com.

Timberlake was in the middle of a late-night dinner with current girlfriend Jessica Biel when Spears walked through the door with her mom Lynne around 10 p.m.

While “Jessica looked gorgeous,” Spears “didn’t look the best, but she probably thought no one would see her, as this restaurant isn’t usually a hot spot,” the onlooker tells Us.

The witness describes the restaurant as “so small…like the size of a living room,” and the situation as “uncomfortable.

“Jessica and Justin looked to be slumping down in their seats to avoid [Spears]. She left 30 minutes later,” another source tells Us. “Shortly afterward, Justin and Jessica got in their car and left.”

[From US Magazine]

What’s an Asian tapas Bar? Tapas bars are necessarily Spanish, and an Asian tapas bar would be like dim sum or sushi or something. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

It’s surprising that Britney and Justin didn’t even acknowledge each other. At least Britney didn’t turn around and walk out and both parties kind of dealt with it for a while. I guess all those rumors of a duet or some kid of musical collaboration between Britney and Justin weren’t true. They both performed separate numbers with Madonna at Dodgers Stadium on November 6, so you would think they were at least on speaking terms. Maybe they avoided each other backstage.

Have you had any incredibly awkward run-ins with exes?

Justin Timberlake is shown with a beard on 10/18/08. Britney is shown on 12/4/08. Credit: WENN

Britney and Jamie at the airport in LA on 11/24/08. Credit: Fame

The National Enquirer has an article this week about how Britney’s dad is being so controlling he’s pushing key people out of her life, including some of her dancers and her long term choreographers. Jamie set the requirement that all dancers be drug tested, and he also demanded that they not drink around Britney, spend any free time with her or even talk to her, if the Enquirer is accurate. Jamie is said to have been so demanding during auditions for dancers that Britney’s choreographers ended up quitting.

The most interesting part of this story is the tidbit that Britney’s choreographers told her dad she wasn’t ready to perform yet – but he insisted that she was and is said to be the driving force behind her arguably premature comeback:

Jamie Spears’ strict control over daughter Britney’s upcoming “Circusy ” tour drove her concert director and dance choreographer to quit.

That’s the real reason behind the recent exit of tour director Wade Robson and lead choreographer Andre Fuentes, sources told The Enquirer. Both men have worked with Britney since the beginning of her career, but they’d had enough of Jamie’s rules, curfews, drug tests and controlling nature, say insiders…

Jamie blamed Wade, who has worked with Britney since 1999, and Andre, who started with Britney in 1998, for the singer’s lackluster live performances – even though both men told Jamie she wasn’t ready to take the stage.

“Jamie didn’t want to hear it,” said the source. “Instead, he said they were coddling Britney and were letting her get away with too much.”

The final straw for Wade and Andre came during auditions for new dancers when they returned from Japan.

“Jamie sat in on the auditions and was trying to call the shots,” said the source.

Wade and Andre quit the next day. Jamie hired choreographer Jamie King, fresh off Madonna’s hugely successful “Stick & Sweet” Tour, to take over.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, January 12, 2008]

There’s little doubt that Jamie has really turned Britney’s life around, although it makes you wonder what his motivations were. Britney has said that she wants to work and enjoys working, but she’s also expressed frustration with the restraints she’s under. If this report is true, maybe Jamie’s reasons for getting his daughter back on track had more to do with turning her into a money maker again than ensuring that she’s happy and healthy. Maybe it’s not not that clear cut and once she was able to work it just became the main priority for everyone.

Sure Britney has benefitted from the changes, but it sounds like more of the same for her – she’s being pushed into things just like when she was as a teen star. Britney is an adult now and she’s doing what she knows, which involves lip syncing, dancing and obeying orders. It’s hard to speculate what’s best for Britney or what course she should take, though, when she was doing so poorly before.