Star Magazine has a huge article on Dr. Phil McGraw and the less than ethical way he’s conducted himself during his career. There are allegations of sexual abuse from a patient and a former employee who said that she was sexually fondled by Dr. when she working as a 19 year-old intern in his biofeedback lab in 1984. She said he “he’d reach into my blouse and touch by breasts. He liked to rub my legs. He loved to rub my pelvic bone.” Dr. Phil calls the allegations false and said “it was fully investigated and dismissed,” but that’s not true because Star notes that the Texas State Board issued a reprimand to Dr. Phil in 1999, a year after the complaint was filed, for an “inappropriate dual relationship” with a patient and that his practice was put on probation for 12 months. He left the practice less than a year later and moved to Dallas.

And back in the 1970s Dr. Phil ditched another business when his questionable financial handling came to light. He had a heath spa in Topeka, Kansas that he abruptly closed after he was investigated by the Attorney General’s office for fraud. He still owes tens of thousands to area banks and has never paid a penny:

In September 1973, barely two years after opening the Grecian Health Spa in Topeka, McGraw suddenly shut it down and fled to Wichita Falls, Texas, where his father, psychologist Joseph McGraw, had a private practice.

Why the sudden flight? Possible because McGraw had become the object of an intense fraud investigation by the Attorney General’s office in Topeka!

“McGraw had been pulling off a textbook example of a membership scam,” says Emery Goad, who worked on the case as lead investigator with the Attorney General’s office after it had received numerous complaints against the spa.

“He was signing up hundreds of customers to long, expensive contracts, then turning around and selling the contracts to a financial institution for a percentage of the total value up front in cash.

“He then simply shut down the spa at some point after collecting that money and left town. It was a total rip-off because the customers would still be liable for the contract payments, only now to the financial institution…”

Court papers also reveal that between September 1973 and June 1974, McGraw was sued by three different Topeka banks for $41,000 they claimed he owed.

The three banks managed to have summons served on him in Texas – but McGraw never put in a court appearance in Topeka for any of the three lawsuits and did not pay back a penny.

“It was probably by design that he went back to Texas,” says Goad. “At that time, Texas was one of only two states in the Union where you couldn’t collect on out-of-state judgments.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, February 4, 2008]

Dr. Phil is 57 and was just 23 in 1973 when he got nabbed for running that health club scam, and he may have been in over his head. 23 seems old enough to know better, though. There are all sorts of stories that Dr. Phil, who only half-apologized for the Britney debacle, is about to get the boot from his show by Oprah Winfrey, who runs the Harpo production company responsible for inflicting us with his down-home brand of trite advice. Now that more news has come out about what a stand up guy he is, we can only hope that Oprah puts her well-heeled foot down on his big ‘ol head.

Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw are shown on 6/15/07 at the Daytime Emmy Awards, thanks to PRPhotos.

Dr. Phil and the powerful mogul who made his career, Oprah, haven’t been the best of friends recently. Oprah was reportedly mighty pissed when Dr. Phil was successfully sued for his sham diet products and is said to have snubbed him by failing to attend his son Jay’s wedding in 2006. The Britney Scandal is the last straw for Oprah, the National Enquirer declares, and she’s set to give him the boot any day now. Oprah runs the production company that puts out Dr. Phil’s show and she calls all the shots. She thinks Dr. Phil exploited Britney and she’s steamed that instead of apologizing for his obvious blunder that violated ethics he continued to milk the ineffective intervention to get publicity for his tabloid-esque show:

“Phil has been warned by Oprah about many past mistakes. This was coming for a long time,” revealed a show source.

“They’ve waged a bitter feud for several years, but as head of Harpo, which produces his show, she can tell him to jump – and how high…

But the Britney scandal is much, much worse,” said the source.

Oprah will formally deliver Dr. Phil’s pink slip in a face-to-face meeting, sources say.

Some colleagues even question whether Dr. Phil violated professional patient confidentiality standards when he announced to the world: “My meeting with Britney leaves me convinced more than ever that she is in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention.”

The TV therapist decided to go public for a second time – but not to apologize for violating confidentiality. He simply announced he was scrapping plans for a Britney-themed show.

“Oprah was livid,” said the close source. “He should have thrown himself on his sword and said he should have never spoken to the media in the first place. But instead he used the spotlight to tout his struggling show.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, January 28, 2007]

Dr. Phil signed a $75 million five-year contract in 2005 worth $15 million a year so he stands to lose a lot if Oprah cans his ass. There’s news today that he finally made a half-assed statement on his show about how he didn’t help Britney, but he never said that he did anything unethical by talking about her to the press. He just said that he regrets talking about it, and he could regret because it may cost him his show:

“Was it helpful to the situation? Regrettably, no,” McGraw, 57, said Thursday during a taping of the Dr. Phil Show, reports USA Today. (The show is slated to air Monday.) “I definitely think if I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn’t make any statement at all. Period.”

[From People.com]

People notes that Dr. Phil says he would do it again and that he visited Britney as a “friend… of the family” because he’s not even licensed to practice psychology in California. A psychologist in California has lodged a complaint with the California Board of Psychology saying that Dr. Phil was practicing without a license by visiting Britney in the hospital. Dr. Phil’s Texas license expired in 2006 and has not been renewed. He’s also said to be having trouble booking celebrity guests because no one wants to be associated with him now. If Oprah doesn’t get rid of him for mishandling the Britney case maybe his ratings will tank enough to make it necessary anyway.

Dr. Drew Pinsky, my favorite of all television/radio doctors, is going on the attack, and his target is Dr. Phil McGraw. Dr. Phil famously tried to use Britney Spears’ emotional breakdown last week as a vehicle to boost his own show’s ratings. The Spears family requested that he meet privately with Britney. And while Dr. Phil did technically do that, he then issued multiple press releases about it, blabbed to Entertainment Tonight about Brit’s condition, and then said he was going to have the Spears parents on his show. He eventually had to retract that, and the Spears had to issue a statement explaining that they wanted Dr. Phil’s private – not public – help. By most accounts, Dr. Phil just yammered at Britney for fifteen minutes (not the hour long conversation he originally reported) while she packed her belongs to leave the hospital.

Dr. Drew (who is a board-certified MD, an addiction-medicine specialist in full time practice, teaches at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, has been the host of radio’s Loveline since he was a med student in 1983, and is currently the host of VH1’s Celebrity Rehab) has called Dr. Phil out for his unprofessional behavior.

Celebrity doctors Drew Pinsky and Phil McGraw are sparring over the treatment of troubled superstar Britney Spears. Pinsky, who recently treated American Idol singer Jessica Sierra, has attacked the advice McGraw gave Spears when he visited her in hospital following her recent stand-off with police – and challenged the TV talk show host’s right to call himself a doctor.

The addiction specialist claims by getting involved, McGraw has made the situation worse. He says, “It’s never good for an addict when there are multiple sources getting involved. You have to have a unified front. Addicts love a split. It helps them maintain the chaos.

“He’s not a physician. I’m an MD. I went to medical school. He’s a psychologist and I don’t think he has a license in California.”

[From PR-Insider]

Britney clearly needs a specialist, not a general TV-grade psychologist who’s out for their own benefit. And it seems pretty likely that she needs someone with a medical degree, as it seems possible that she has some sort of physical problem going on, whether it’s chemical or biological. Hopefully the biggest disservice Dr. Phil did was to his own career and not to Britney or her family. There’s been a lot of speculation that his actions may have caused an irreparable rift between the Spears.

Dr. Drew made some additional points about Dr. Phil’s lack of professional responsibility.

“My concern was, I don’t know that Dr. Phil has a license in California,” Drew told Access Hollywood. “He’s not on staff at Cedars. Is he interfering with the care of another doctor’s patient? I don’t know.”

As for rumors that Britney’s family plans on having her involuntarily committed, Dr. Drew said that is unlikely to happen. “When a patient doesn’t want help, there’s sort of a fallacy that we can somehow intervene and make them get better,” he said. “It doesn’t work like that, it has to come from within them.”

Dr. Drew said in order to help a person out, sometimes a family has to cut the person off. “So what we try to do is get the family actually to actively disengage with the patient. It is their dance with the patient that allows their disease to go on,” he explained.

[From Access Hollywood]

I really feel like Dr. Phil needs some sort of professional sanctioning. Apparently it is a rule amongst those in the mental health field that one professional doesn’t treat another’s patient without consulting with them first. Otherwise the patient could get a lot of conflicting information, advice, and treatment. I used to find Dr. Phil’s show somewhat entertaining, but frankly his brand of superficial advice just isn’t appropriate in anything other than an hour-long TV format.

The predictable backlash against Dr. Phil’s Britney Spears television special has begun. Ever since news broke that the good doctor finagled his way into her hospital room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center psych ward, people have been throwing a fit. And it seems pretty deserved. Though Dr. Phil originally said he stayed and talked with Britney for over an hour, then walked her to her car, it quickly became clear from many hospital sources that that was not the case. Dr. Phil was only there for fifteen minutes, and was a very unwelcome visitor, as far as Brit was concerned. Many sources are saying they didn’t so much have a talk as much as Dr. Phil just lectured at her in that way he has. It’s also pretty doubtful that he “escorted” her to her car, but more likely followed her out, yammering at her. Most commenters on our website and others seem to think Dr. Phil shouldn’t be associated with Spears, and that his motivations are more publicity-based than out of true concern for her. Many people have also pointed out that it’s inappropriate for a TV doctor to have gained admittance to the psych ward unless he was one of the patient’s doctors, which he isn’t. It seems like he traded on his name to get in there, and frankly I can’t blame Britney for being pissed.

Dr. Phil McGraw has canceled plans to dedicate a show to Britney Spears, calling the situation “too intense,” he announced on his Web site Monday.

“As was widely reported this weekend, at the request of concerned family members, I visited Britney Spears in the hospital. The details of that visit will, of course, remain private,” he said in a message online. We had planned to tape a Dr. Phil Now show today, focusing not on the tabloid side of Britney’s latest problems, but instead on the very serious issues surrounding this case. Clearly, it is not just Britney’s family struggling to find a way to protect adult children who cannot be ordered or compelled to seek help. Because the Spears situation is too intense at this time, and out of consideration to the family, I have made the decision not to move forward with the taping at this particular time. Britney and her family are in our prayers, and we ask that they be in yours.”

Earlier on Monday, McGraw appeared on CBS’s The Early Show and said that Spears’s family was “very frustrated” that the pop star wasn’t held for a longer period of time at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where she was admitted last week.

[From People]

I’m embarrassed to say I used to really like Dr. Phil. Pop psychology can be dangerous, but normally I’d glean a few pearls of wisdom from his show. If nothing else it was decent entertainment that (until recently) didn’t make me feel quite as guilty as watching Jerry Springer or something. But in the last year or two his show has gotten incredibly cheesy and commercial, and every time I see that damned “Dr. Phil House” I want to light the thing on fire. I think he could have actually done some good with his popularity if he’d have kept himself – and the show’s content – in check. Truly, associating yourself so personally with Britney Spears is career suicide. If he absolutely had to talk about it, he should have 1) stayed away from Britney, as his presence could only seem self-serving and 2) do a show about mental breakdowns/bi-polar/postpartum depression or whatever it is he thinks she’s suffering from, and talk about her a bit as an example, but not actively include her family. If I were Britney Spears and my family went on Dr. Phil’s show to talk about me, I would feel incredibly betrayed, and make sure they never had the chance to be around me again. If they want to influence her positively and get her help, they need to do so privately.

I NEVER thought I’d say this, but I do feel some compassion for her, for the first time. Her thought patterns are clearly not healthy, rational, or logical. It seems pretty obvious to me that what was once self-centered, immature behavior resulting from a lack of intellect has deteriorated into severe mental illness. I really do think she’s in danger of killer herself, either on purpose or accidentally. When things spiral out of control like this, sometimes people feel there’s no other way out. She’s in pretty deep, and I hope she has some resources and people around her that will remind her that she can still turn things around if she’s truly and permanently committed to it.

A photo of Britney and Adnan from December
Britney on vacation with photographer
Britney Spears is with photographer and new boyfriend Adnan Ghalib in Palm Desert, California, where she drinking champagne for breakfast and he’s presumably getting plenty of exclusive shots of the world’s most-watched fallen celebrity. There was a story this weekend that Ghalib approached British papers with intimate photos of Britney that weren’t that revealing and wanted an astonishing $5 million for his story and the photos. The snaps were said to just show Britney on the couch with Ghalib with her hand on his knee, and he should have aimed lower or had more compromising photos. We’ve all seen Britney’s kitty on multiple occasions so it’s not like photos of her relaxing in one of the many hotels she frequents are going to bring much on the open market. There are also a ton of stories floating around about her many exploits, told by the guys who were along for the ride, so one more is not going to shock anyone.

Dr. Phil overstated his visit with Britney, violated hospital policy
Britney managed to sneak away from Cedars-Sinai hospital, where she was placed on a medical hold and released earlier than the standard 72 hour wait time, without being photographed. Dr. Phil claims to have counseled her for a full hour before she left, and will surely bring in huge ratings for having her folks on his show on Tuesday. He of course wanted to have Britney on too, but she wasn’t having any of that. TMZ has a story that contradicts Dr. Phil’s statement in which they say that Dr. Phil showed up after Britney was released, tried to talk to her for 15 minutes, and was summarily dismissed. They also say the TV psychologist didn’t walk her to her car as he claims, either. Given that it’s Britney and she won’t listen to anyone, it seems like TMZ has the right story.

Criticism of Dr. Phil for entering Britney’s room without patient permission
There’s also a story that Dr. Phil’s visit violated hospital policy in that he entered a patient’s room without it being cleared with her. TMZ consulted medical experts who say this is highly unprofessional and that Cedars-Sinai must have been starstruck by Dr. Phil, because his unannounced visit violated the patient’s rights and would typically not be allowed.

For his part Dr. Phil says that the family requested that he be involved and that he spoke to Britney’s mother, father, and her older brother before going to the hospital. Britney’s family was worried that she wasn’t going to be held longer, according to Dr. Phil.

Rumors and false stories in the case
It seems like this outrageous story is opening the floodgates for papers to make even more incredible claims about the situation in order to move copies. News of The World ran a story that would be laughable if the subject hadn’t already defied all belief. They claimed that Britney had a gun the night of the police standoff, that she offered Federline $100 million to hand over custody of the children to her, and that she took over 100 pills that night. It was also K-Fed who called the cops, not the court-appointed monitor, according to their account.

The LAPD has denied that there were any firearms involved, and I think we can safely assume that the majority of that story was fabricated.

PageSix reported that Spears’ “cousin” and assistant, Alli Sims, used a hammer to break down the bathroom door where Britney was holed up with her youngest child, Jayden James. This contradicts earlier reports that had all the staff leaving at least an hour before Britney was escorted out. Indeed, Sims denies that she broke down the door and says that she wasn’t even threre.

Was Britney’s drug test really negative and was she on something or just off the deep end?
Many of you have said that there’s no way Britney’s toxicology tests could have come back as soon as the report in Life & Style that all her drug tests were clean. Some commentors mention a rumor that Spears’ camp is leaking these false stories to the press in order to clear her name.

Courteney Love has speculated that Spears is taking too much Adderall, an ADHD prescription medication that has speed-like properties and can cause erratic behavior at high doses. Another report has her on Clenbuterol, a dangerous horse steroid that is being abused as a quick-fix diet drug.

Whatever happened to Britney, she’s dominating the news again. Surely she’s mentally ill, but she seems aware enough to realize that her episode has managed to take the focus off her young sister’s pregnancy. Many are pointing that out, while others are saying it’s just not fair to hold a mentally disturbed person to the same standards as the rest of us who just watch in disbelief.

I have a confession to make: I like Dr. Phil. I know 99% of his show is trash, but I enjoy it, and it makes me feel a little less guilty than if I were to indulge in, say, Jerry Springer. I can pretend I’m learning something useful, and then spout off phrases like, “You teach people how to treat you,” and various phrases involving cats, fertilizer, and brick walls. Obviously the guy’s a bit of a hack, but normally he can justify what he says in such a way that I’ll be nodding along with him in a few seconds flat. This is not one of those times. Apparently Dr. Phil is good friends with Lynne Spears, and has gone on the record, telling People that she’s a good mom, despite the fact that she’s about to be a grandmother for the third time… and her daughters are 26 and 16. Right on.

Ever the optimist concerning the Spears family, Dr. Phil McGraw commends matriarch Lynne Spears – despite the current controversy regarding her 16-year old daughter’s pregnancy. “We know the Spears family, particularly the parents,” he tells PEOPLE at Adrienne Maloof and Dr. 90210 Phil Nassif’s holiday party in Beverly Hills on Saturday. “An asset that Britney and Jamie Lynn both have is a great and dedicated mother.”

McGraw admits that his friend is “troubled right now” but is “really looking for the positives in this.” As her daughters live under the glare of public scrutiny and criticism, Lynne has “her feet squarely and solidly on the ground,” he says.

“They’re a very strong, close-knit family,” says Dr. Phil’s wife Robin, “They’re relying on each other.” And with her book recently put on hold, Lynne is also drawing strength from her faith. “I talked to Lynne yesterday and she said they’re turning to prayer, asked that I pray for them. That’s how they’re going to get through it.”

[From People]

I get so annoyed with people who don’t behave as if they’re religious, but then suddenly start referring to scripture right and left when they’re in trouble. Or when they win a Grammy. It just comes off as hackneyed and trite, and certainly doesn’t make me say, “Oh, well I guess I was wrong, Lynne Spears IS a good mother!” Frankly I think Jamie Lynn getting pregnant at sixteen doesn’t speak nearly as badly as to Lynne’s parenting as does Britney’s psychosis. But while Lynne’s getting a lot of negative attention lately, it’s important to remember that the girls have two parents, and their father is just as culpable. Jamie Spears has kept a pretty low profile, but he’s struggled with alcohol addiction. Probably an excellent reason that he should try being a little more involved with his daughters – maybe to help Britney with her own addiction issues. I think Dr. Phil should move the whole Spears clan into the Dr. Phil house (you have to say that with the bravado with which he says it) with the 88 cameras, lock them in, and do some intensive therapy. For a year. You know an on-camera teenage birth would make for great ratings. And Britney and Jaime Lynn fighting over who gets to/has to breast feed the baby would make for a great Dr. Phil intervention.