A paparazzo who was following Jamie Lynn Spears and her boyfriend, Casey Aldridge, while they were riding a 4-wheel ATV, claims that Aldridge flashed a gun at him and told him to get lost. TMZ has video of the confrontation and has highlighted an object in the ATV in the video, saying it’s a gun.

Jamie Lynn Spears is packin’ baby, but her man is packin’ too, and he’s pointing his piece at a photog! Casey Aldridge was pissed at a pap who allegedly shot this video on private property — Jamie says it was private, the pap says it wasn’t. Anywho, watch closely as Casey takes the gun from his lap and kinda points it in the direction of the pap, telling him to get the hell on a public road. Yessir!

[From TMZ]

I looked at the video several times and couldn’t see this gun they are pointing at in big red letters, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. The thing that struck me most about this video is that Jamie Lynn’s boyfriend is a bona fide hillbilly: Riding around in a 4-wheeler with a dog and a cooler in the back- and that accent is straight out of “Deliverance.” If Jamie-Lynn marries this kid, she can forget about her acting career– instead, I see NASCAR Sundays, Coors Light party balls, and domestic disturbance calls to the trailer park in her future. Jesus H. Christ, the Spears girls have abominable taste in men, don’t they?

Jamie Lynn and Casey are shown out on her 17th birthday on 4/4/08, thanks to Splash News.

Britney surrounded by paparazzi earlier this year. It looks like that’s Silva to the right of her.
Photographer Alison Silva is suing paparazzi photo agency X17 after he was beaten unconscious by their photographers outside Britney Spears’ house. On March 5, Silva says he was parked a block away from Britney’s house when three photographers working for X17 ganged up on him, beating and kicking him while he lay on the ground. He had to go to the hospital for treatment for a broken nose and head trauma.

Alison Silva told MTV News that on March 5, he had parked one block away from Spears’ home when three X17 photographers — whom he identified as Thomas Madiana, Carlos Madiana and Max Rinadelle — allegedly approached him and said, “You should not be here. Only X17 gets these shots.” Silva claims that one of the photographers punched him and knocked him to the ground, then the three kicked him to the point where he passed out. When he came to, he claims they were kicking him in the face. “I didn’t know what was going on,” he said.

Three witnesses called 911, and Silva was taken by ambulance to the emergency room with a police escort, according to the police report. One of the witnesses told police officers that he heard one of the attackers say, “Let’s go f— him up, there are 10 of us here,” saw one of the attackers go get a metal tube from his car for that purpose, and heard another attacker say, “Don’t kill him! Don’t kill him!”, according to the report…

“They kicked and punched me almost to death,” Silva said. “I was beat up for doing my job. Most people think, ‘Oh, he’s just a paparazzo, he’s nothing.’ But this is not nothing. This is a big business, and if it weren’t for people like me, those pictures wouldn’t be in the magazines you enjoy.”

Silva asks for unspecified general and punitive damages in his suit, in which he accuses X17 of battery; assault; false imprisonment; intentional infliction of emotional distress; negligent infliction of emotional distress; negligence; and negligent training, supervision and retention of unfit employees.

[From MTV News via Gawker]

Gawker points out that it’s not like X17 owners denied that the beating occurred. Owner Brandy Navarre is quoted as saying the suit won’t hold up because the photographers are freelancers, not employees, and that “They give me their pictures but whatever they do on their own is their own business.”

In February there was a story that photo agencies were hiring gang members to muscle out competition and get access to shots of Britney, and given this latest accusation that story doesn’t seem so far off.

Photographers may be getting desperate for another reason. Britney isn’t driving around aimlessly all day or getting in mishaps now that she’s under her father’s care and that’s bad for the paparazzi’s business. Yahoo’s OMG! quotes X17 photographer Felipe, as saying that “After [Britney’s dad] took over the conservatorship, it got really, really slow for us.” Owner Brandy Navarre is quoted as telling Access Hollywood that “The subject of the photo is just not as interesting as it once was, so the prices do go down.” She also says they have only three photographers down from ten on Britney now, and that “We’re moving on to other celebrities like Brad and Angelina and Jamie Lynn Spears.”

The quotes from X17’s owner remind me of the end of the Britney Spears South Park episode, in which the townspeople hone in on their next target to ritualistically sacrifice. At least Britney really hasn’t been photographed to death, and has managed to rebuild some semblance of a normal life.

Britney had a relatively quiet Easter. She spent the holiday at her old home in Malibu with her mom and dad, and they were seen walking along the beach. Just stay boring, Britney.

Remember last week, when Paris Hilton was seen around town with a guy dressed like a shaman? That story turned out to be fake, but that wasn’t the whole story. Paris and her fake guru were part of a new reality prank show on E! Network called “Pop Fiction.” The show is executive produced by Ashton Kutcher and the premise is this: what if celebrities who are hounded by the paparazzi decided to ‘fight back’ by faking stories of their own? The goal of show, according to producers, is the shake up the paparazzi and celebrity gossip mags, to make them think twice about printing news. It’s like a vigilante version of “Punk’d.”

The half-hour show featured two segments. The first was Paris and her fake guru. Paris, in an interview, says that she decided to participate in the show after a fake item ran about her starting a charity to help save drunken elephants in India. That rumor was actually picked up by the AP News, and they were later forced to print a retraction. The show pointed out that within hours, news of Paris and her guru was all over the Internet and the subject of blogs around the globe.

“Next time you read the tabloids, ask yourself if it’s real or if it’s pop fiction,” she warned.

In the second segment, pop singer Avril Lavigne led on the paparazzi by sporting a fake baby bump while shopping on Robertson Blvd. in L.A. She predicted that she wouldn’t be able to walk one block without being submerged by paparazzi. “Robertson is where you go when you want attention,” she said. (Are you listening, Britney?) She then waded through paparazzi with her husband and some friends to shop at Baby Kitson and Lisa Kline Kids, trendy boutiques featuring kids’ clothes. She was quick to call her mother and warn her that she might see pictures or read about Avril’s pregnancy, and that it wasn’t true. Twenty minutes later, the show says, there were photos of Avril all over the Internet confirming her “pregnancy.”

Life & Style Magazine reports that Avril Lavigne went out of her way to hide a suspicious belly bump while eating at the Beverly Grand restaurant in Los Angeles on March 13th. “She insisted on putting on her jacket before she got out of the car,” an eyewitness revealed. “When she did get out, it was like, ‘Whoa,’ she looks so pregnant!’” The 21-year-old singer is currently engaged to Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley, 25.

[From Popdirt.com]

As a member of the so-called “gossip rag” militia, I have mixed feelings about this show. Here at Celebitchy, we really want to get the information right. We are probably one of the few gossip blogs that will correct our facts if we get them wrong, and we often have a “take this story with a grain of salt” attitude. But we’re well aware that Celebitchy is in the minority on this philosophy. These kinds of pranks are going to make it more difficult to get our facts in line, but I certainly understand the concept behind them. The paparazzi and many gossip outlets definitely overstep their boundaries these days and continuously cross the line into obscene amounts of privacy invasion. The actor who played Paris’ guru hit the nail on the head when, after the pair are swarmed by cameras, he says, “I would probably be the guy who punches a paparazzi.”

I wonder if Ashton Kutcher will continue to get high-profile celebs involved in the pranks on the show. I also wonder if anyone is actually going to watch this show: it’s on at 10:30 on Sunday night. On E! Network. Not exactly a ringer in the ratings department, if you ask me.

Note by Celebitchy: We covered that Avril Lavigne story, but it wasn’t a very original concept. A married pop star sports a little bump and goes shopping at baby stores at the largest paparazzi-target shopping area in the world. Of course people are going to say she’s pregnant. They need to step it up a little if they want to create decent shows. The Paris Hilton guru story was pretty interesting. JayBird covered that Avril shopping for baby clothes story and was quite subdued about it, she said “I would say the traditional ‘Congrats to the happy couple,’ but with someone like Avril Lavigne, she’s probably apt to punch me in the eye for it.”

No one really gives a shit about Avril except to say she shouldn’t reproduce.

Though I am now a very happy writer, I have a degree in criminal justice. And though writing and the law don’t exactly go hand in hand, sometimes the two intersect in a blissful moment I like to call “JayBird’s nirvana.” Though I tend to use my real name when talking to myself, because talking to myself under my pseudonym would be absolutely unstable. Today William Bratton, L.A.P.D. Police chief, responded to the propositioned paparazzi law proposed by Councilman Dennis Zine. Zine wants to protect our beloved celebrities from the aggressive paparazzi. And while he has a point, Chief Bratton’s response was absolutely priceless.

What we need is Britney Spears to stay home instead of traipsing all over town. That would solve the problem. We don’t need additional laws…. I’ve got laws coming out my ears to deal with this issue.

What you have is several young women in this town and several young men basically making fools of themselves and tying up not only my resources but the resources of the media that would do better covering legitimate stories instead of a bunch of airheads running around out there….

Quite clearly some of these characters so favored by the paparazzi are clearly in need of services. Not police services, but psychiatric services.

[From the Huffington Post]

That’s one of the many things I love about those in law enforcement: they have a way of cutting through the bullshit and just saying it. I realize he didn’t technically say Britney Spears needs psychiatric services, as that would be a bit irresponsible. But the implication was pretty clear – and he’s totally right. Britney courts the paparazzi. That in and of itself might be a sign of instability and a sign she needs help. It’s obviously hard to speak for all celebs and what they go through with photographers. But the people that are most hogging police services are the ones who most court the attention. She needs to stay home and stop spending hours and hours each day driving around aimlessly, causing traffic jams and running red lights. And maybe listen to that suggestion about some psychiatric help too.

Note: Celebitchy and I were working on this story at the same time. Here is her take on it - it’s a little more analytical, thoughtful, and compassionate, because that’s how she rolls.

---

The LAPD police chief blames the celebrity “victims” for the paparazzi problems in his city. Chief William Bratton said there is no need for a proposed law that would create a zone of personal space around people of interest to the media, and blames the celebrities themselves for courting the attention. He said that if Britney just stayed home instead of “traipsing all over town” she wouldn’t have these problems, and that the celebrities that were most followed were “basically making fools of themselves.” He added that many of “these characters… are clearly in need of [psychiatric services]”

Britney went out without underwear twice this week, so the police chief does have a somewhat valid argument. He says that celebrities are “traipsing around” though, when many of them are just trying to do things that we all do like shopping or going out to dinner, but in the Hollywood fishbowl where everything is captured for our greedy consumption. I think the issue is not that the celebrities should be made prisoners in their own homes, something that Britney has complained about after her father took control of her affairs, but that there are so many damn paparazzi where they live who are following them around.

Maybe this guy should just tell the celebrities to move and take their tax money with them. In his mind it’s probably just a handful of people causing all the problems anyway and he could be right. It’s all Britney/Lohan/Paris/Brangelina in the photos and the gossip rags.

A decent solution might be that the paparazzi are just allowed to stay outside certain nightclubs and restaurants, with the permission of the owners and management. They can also come to other locations if a celebrity or their rep calls and invites them. The paparazzi wouldn’t be allowed to follow and stalk celebrities, or to stake out their homes, gyms, or grocery stores. That way, if people want to get their picture taken they can show up at the Ivy for lunch or call the paparazzi and tell them where they are.

You can sort of point fingers at Paris, Britney, and Lohan for the photographers that swarm them, but it’s gotten so out of hand that it sounds too simplistic to say they’re the cause of all the paparazzi problems in that city. You certainly can’t blame them for the media focus on celebrities. Some of them love the attention but it’s not like they have much control over it, unless they take off their panties and flash us like Britney does.

Britney Spears is shown shopping at the Forever 21 store at the Beverly Center. That explains a lot of her clothing choices. Images thanks to WENN.

The paparazzi have been getting a bad rap for the last few weeks. Just recently a Splash News pap quit as he couldn’t stand the hounding of Britney and said it was dangerous, and Mary-Louise Parker complained on behalf of the Jolie-Pitts. I personally would be perfectly happy to never see another crotch shot, and think maybe the paparazzi should be confined to the Ivy and a few choice nightclubs around Los Angeles. Then when Katie Holmes has a new film to promote, or Mischa Barton wants to remind us all she still exists, they can just cruise through the area and be photographed. Like animals in a zoo.

However, it seems that for the residents of St John’s Wood, new neighbor Kate Moss and her paparazzi entourage have had some benefits.

Residents of St John’s Wood are thanking the supermodel’s star quality for heightened security in their area, located in the borough of Camden, as swarms of paparazzi and bodyguards, combined with a beefed-up police presence, help reassure residents following a spate of horrific crimes.

Insisting that Moss’s fame is helping to ward-off would-be criminals, locals are keen to come to the fashion icon’s defence. “There’s no question that the police presence is both bigger and more visible now that Kate’s a local,” said Alan Lydon, 55.

“People who have lived here for a long time are very conscious that we suddenly have a few uninvited guests. When she first moved it in proved a bit of a nuisance, because you could hardly walk down the streets without bumping into photographers. Now, though, we’re delighted they’re here. There are a lot of dimly lit, narrow streets around here, and it used to be very lonely and quiet by night.

“But now we’ve got clusters of paparazzi everywhere, and quite apart from the noise they make, all the flashing lights keep our streets well lit. Especially on the edges of small estates, that’s very welcome”.

The Independent

Well, I wasn’t aware that St John’s Wood was such a hot bed of crime and scum, but I’m glad the residents are benefiting from it. Think of all the downsides of having Kate live nearby. Instead of having to look at her picture in a magazine to feel fat, you can just look across the street. You’d have her undesirable mates coming around – Kelly Osbourne, anyone?

The best benefit of it all would be checking out what Kate is wearing. Even when she’s hanging upside down out of a window she looks great, and she seems to start trends. Think the vest, think gumboots, think Kate. High waisted pants I could forget about though, thanks for that one Kate. All the rest of us just look like we’re pregnant in them.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Kate Moss is shown at Heathrow airport on 2/7/08, thanks to WENN.

Some members of the paparazzi are actually giving up the Britney Spears beat. No, it’s not because they’ve finally realized what a loser she is or their eyesight has been damaged from looking at her dirty, grubby face. Apparently the paps are actually afraid for their lives. Though they don’t seem like a queasy bunch, some of the “less” scrupulous photo agencies have supposedly been giving cameras to members of rival gangs and telling them to follow Brit. The ensuing danger is just too much for the otherwise tough photogs.

More paparazzi are dropping out of the pack following Britney Spears because of the risk — to them. The legion of lensmen has been infiltrated by L.A. gang members — Crips and Bloods, according to some photo-agency heads. They claim rival agencies are arming the thugs with cameras and sending them out to do battle with the dozens of paps who rubberneck around Hollywood’s favorite train wreck.

Veteran snapper Nick Stern, who quit the Splash agency this month, said: “I’ve heard stories of fights, of car tires being slashed, cars being blocked in.” All of the agency heads we interviewed said they do not hire street toughs.

“Britney Spears attracts huge numbers of photographers, and whoever muscles their way to the front gets the best picture. They’re not AP photographers wearing flak jackets, but that’s not to say they’re thugs, either,” said Chris Doherty, owner of the INF agency, which got the first photo of Spears after she was sprung from the UCLA Med Center psych unit Wednesday. “We got it because we didn’t follow the gang mentality.”

[From Rush & Malloy]

At first I thought he meant mob mentality, because that would make sense in the context of paparazzi. But gang mentality is a whole different thing, and it seems like the evidence could go either way. While all the big photo agency heads say they don’t hire gang members, several say things like what X17 owner Frank Navarre said: “They may dress like gang members with large pants and tattoos, but to say they’re gang members right now, well, real gang members are not into Britney Spears.” I think if you pay them enough they do. It’s like he’s saying, “Just because they dress like gang members and act like gang members doesn’t mean they’re gang members.” I guess it doesn’t matter quite so much what label you put on it - if people are acting like gang members, and gang members are known to generally behave in a dangerous manner - that’s a problem.

Other paparazzi say they’ve given up the Britney beat because it’s just too dangerous - but not necessarily because of gangs. They say Britney’s own erratic behavior is dangerous for them. For example, she goes through a lot of yellow lights - which means they go through reds. She speeds, they speed. She’s obviously not doing it to get away from them, considering how she courts the attention. She’s just trying to up the drama - even when her kids are in the car. Britney’s got a lot going against her right now - gang members snapping her photograph still aren’t her biggest problem. It’s interesting to see that the paparazzi was never too concerned when her life was in danger - but when their own safety is on the line, suddenly there’s a big problem that needs to be addressed.

Photos are examples of just a small amount of the photographers that follow Britney around.

In recent history paparazzi have become very aggressive, surrounding and stalking celebrities and becoming involved in dangerous high speed car chases. A paparazzi chase is said to have been a factor in the accident that killed Lady Diana and Dodi. Technology allows the images that the paparazzi capture to move much faster than before. Eva Longoria went swimming with a dog biscuit tucked into her suit, got a photo taken of her doing it, and when she went back to her towel, she found a message on her cell asking why she was wearing a dog biscuit. The pictures had moved that fast.

Not to mention the psychological impact of those Britney upskirt pictures – I like my gossip with my morning coffee, and I was truly not prepared for Britney’s crotch, that early in the morning.

So Dennis P. Zine, LA councilor, is going to help.

Last week, spurred by the aggressive paparazzi coverage of Spears, City Councilman Dennis Zine announced that he plans to push for an ordinance that would create a minimum “personal safety zone” around individuals targeted by the media.

Saying he didn’t “want a repeat of what happened to Princess Diana with a celebrity in Los Angeles,” Zine said he plans to introduce a motion that calls for the city attorney and LAPD to draft new restrictions on paparazzi, including an ordinance that would create a zone of clear space in order to protect public safety on streets, sidewalks and at access points to emergency care facilities and private businesses and homes.

Police Chief William J. Bratton, however, said existing laws are sufficient for his officers to deal with the paparazzi

Fox

It is of course against the law to break the speed limit, trespass on private property and take pictures up someone’s skirt without their consent. In some countries paps actually need the permission of their subject to release the photos, but this doesn’t matter as they just sell the pictures to overseas agents.

I don’t think new laws need to be created, but maybe better enforcement of the ones already established. I see that this would protect all people in the media, and I hope this includes people who have been the victim of a tragedy. Families of murder victims, for example, are often approached by media to make a statement, sometimes before they have even been informed of the death by police. Hopefully the law will apply to them as they have no representative or security to act as a buffer between them and the media.

Of course, I’m to sure where Britney and her house party invites, gas pump assisting and sexual relationships with paparazzi fit in with all this. Maybe she’ll have to go back to dating pop stars and attending a-list parties. Oh, those were the days!

Picture note by Celebitchy: Britney Spears is shown on 1/29/08 after she drove around for an hour, got lost, then got out and asked the paparazzi to help her get home. I guess she never thought to purchase a GPS with one of her new high-end cars. It’s not like she’ll ever need one if she’s followed by so many other people. Thanks to WENN for this image.

Photo from May, 2007 of paparazzi shooting Britney pulled over on the side of a busy road to change Sean Preston’s diaper
The mood is definitely somber this Friday after the untimely death of Heath Ledger last week and the mental health hospitalization of Britney early Wednesday morning. I know I’m feeling guilty about our incessant focus on celebrities’ lives, and there has been more of philosophical debate in the wake of all these stories about whether we should work to give them peace and privacy when they’re facing all-too-human difficulties. Many people say that the trade off for fame and fortune is the freedom and anonymity that most of us take for granted. There is also the argument that celebrities like Britney court the paparazzi and strive for any kind of publicity so they have to suffer the consequences that go along with that. Britney is having a severe mental health crisis, something they used to call a “nervous breakdown” when I was younger, and whether she wants to have her photograph taken or not doesn’t seem relevant now that she’s not making sound decisions. The issue is that she’s going crazy and we’re all watching her and indirectly paying people to help us.

A photographer for Splash News has quit over the media circus that surrounds Britney. He says that it’s dangerous to Britney and to other people and that he’s no longer going to be a part of it:

Nick Stern has resigned from Splash, a Los Angeles-based, British-owned celebrity picture agency, in protest at the “aggressive” tactics employed in pursuing Spears, and predicted tragedy.

“Directly or indirectly, Britney is going to come to some horrific end, or a member of the public will,” he said. “It’s not what’s being done, it’s the way it’s being done. As she continues to deteriorate psychologically, I just can’t see a positive way out.”

The biggest threat, Stern said, came from the high-speed convoy of photographers’ cars and motorcycles that follow Spears’ every move through Los Angeles. The pursuit reached a new frenzy in the early hours of yesterday when the paparazzi tailed an ambulance and police escort taking the 26-year-old singer to hospital for the second time this month.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the trail of emergency vehicles that took Spears to the UCLA Medical Centre stretched longer than a football field. In an operation conducted with military precision, police and medical crews spoke secretively of “delivering the package”, in a failed attempt to throw photographers off the scent.

“The paps are completely out of control,” said Stern, 43. “It’s not unusual to have 20 or 30 cars pursuing her at any one time. It’s become acceptable to drive at 80mph down the wrong side of the street into oncoming traffic. I was horrified at what goes on. It’s so aggressive, there are fights and crashes and slashed tyres. I felt I needed to say something.”

[From The Guardian via We Smirch]

Before Britney had her first hospitalization, Perez Hilton answered a question on The View over whether he felt guilty for tearing celebrities down by saying “If Britney committed suicide tomorrow and died, she would be the only one to blame I think.” He wasn’t even asked about Britney and it’s like he was salivating over her possible death. Maybe he was nervous and had some answers prepared ahead of time and it didn’t come out like he wanted it to, but to me he was saying he refused to take any responsibility for the way he was tearing her down.

We talk a lot of smack here too, and I ripped on Heath Ledger about a year and half ago for what I perceived as an inability to play nice with the paparazzi. About a month later, I tried to cover the other side of the story and said I may have misjudged the situation, but maybe the damage was done already. I’m not saying Heath or anyone close to him would bother reading our crap, but maybe the rude way we covered it influenced other people to think he was a whiner too when that wasn’t the case. I often said he was fug and ugly, and that was mean. His death looks like an accident, but if you look at how a few celebrities are affected by the bullshit you can sling without thinking you can feel incredibly guilty.

Now Britney has really lost it, and good for someone to refuse to be a part of that circus. This is dominating the news, there’s almost nothing else going on today, and I feel like we can’t just ignore it. People want to talk about it, and we’ll do our best to cover it tactfully. Please be considerate in the comments and don’t just yell at us to ignore it. I’m thinking about it, and thoughtful comments will be more effective.

One more thing - DListed had this video of Britney getting scared while she was driving earlier this week. She gets out of her car in traffic and talks to the paparazzi in her British accent, asking to turn around. It’s amazing how many photographers swarm around her constantly, but what really struck me, and I mentioned this yesterday, is how many of them are British. It’s like she completely identifies with them and is trying to fit in by speaking in their accent. She’s even dating one of them.

Sheryl Crow has a new interview with Newsweek in which she talks about her own celebrity status as well as our obsession with the rich and famous. She says that she wasn’t a paparazzi target until she hit the lowest point in her life, having broken up with Lance Armstrong and learning she had breast cancer shortly afterwards. When asked about how she feels about what Britney is going through, she says we all need to step back and stop distracting ourselves from this celebrity nonsense because it’s taking away from more meaningful things in life:

As a mom, can you even imagine what Britney is going through?
The only way for paparazzi to stop chasing people around is to not buy the magazines. I would strongly encourage anyone who’s interested in that kind of stuff to not watch because every moment you spend rejoicing or distracting yourself with that is a moment that you can’t get back in your life. It’s fast food and it’s not good for us.

You’ve been a tabloid target yourself.
I was never top-shelf celebrity. I was never chased by paparazzi until my lowest point—when my public relationship [with Lance Armstrong] fell apart and I was diagnosed with breast cancer. What’s that say?

[From Newsweek via ONTD]

She makes a good point about how too much of a celebrity diet is harmful and how we should just try not to watch. The way she phrases it reminds me of the way that traffic stalls around a car crash. I’m one of those people who tries to drive at a steady pace and will myself not to waste everyone’s time behind me looking, but the temptation is hard to resist. This is the woman who also told everyone to use one square of toilet paper in order to save the environment, though she seems to have said it half-jokingly. She is right that too much gossip about other people doesn’t add much to our lives, although I feel guilty contributing to that.

Crow’s adopted son Wyatt is nine months old and she also talked to Newsweek about how active he is and how he adds a purpose to her life. She said he is trying to walk and that he crawls fast and pulls himself up. She said that having a child helps her feel a sense of urgency for how things need to change in the world and that “until you have a kid and you’re really emotionally invested in what kind of planet you’re leaving for your kid, you don’t realize the sense of urgency that you’ll feel.”

Sheryl Crow has a new CD out next week called Detours. Rolling Stone gives it a three and a half star review and says that each song is unique, but “What holds [them] together is Crow’s unwavering emotional commitment.” The LA Times calls it “a bold album that puts Crow’s convictions - and her chops as a singer and songwriter - front and center.”

You can send in taped questions for Sheryl Crow for an interview with RollingStone.com next week. They’re taking submissions through YouTube.

Here are some non-paparazzi photos of Crow at The Annual Black Ball Concert for ‘Keep A Child Alive’ on 10/25/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

Celebrity attorney Paul Barresi, who has visited our site and commented here, told Page Six that he spoke with a paparazzo who verified that Britney Spears does call the paparazzi to let them know her every move, as has been rumored. She probably doesn’t call the entire hoard to follow her and just contacts a select few, but they multiply like flies with big ‘ol bug eyes and swarm around her. It’s how Britney gets her kicks, Baressi claims, so when she starts flipping out from all the attention it’s not like the paps are entirely to blame:

Britney Spears is in cahoots with the paparazzi to make sure her every move is chronicled on camera, a top snapper says. Lensman Alison Silva tells celebrity private eye Paul Barresi: “Britney is in on it. [She] calls the paparazzi before she goes out. We know 15 minutes before she leaves the house. It’s all staged.” Silva adds that when four photographers were arrested last week for chasing the increasingly demented pop tart, “one of [them who] works for my company told me that Britney sent him a text message and said she was sorry. She tried to talk the cops into not arresting them . . . Money, fame, the excitement. It’s part of her life.” Barresi told Page Six that after reviewing footage of Spears with Adnan Ghalib, “[he] appeared to purposely position Britney in full view of fellow paparazzi to help them get the shot . . . It appeared that Britney is in on the sham.” Barresi says if anti-paparazzi laws are ever enacted, celebs in cahoots with them should be just as liable. Spears’ rep could not be reached.

[From Page Six]

Britney spent two hours at a deposition yesterday at K-Fed’s lawyers office and wasn’t dressed completely inappropriately, although she did leave early and forgot to wear a bra. She seems to be easily influenced and has ditched her paparazzo married boyfriend for her old friend Sam Lufti, who at least looks like he’s convincing her to show up to court and fight to see her children again. Britney is likely to have stopped hanging out with hangabout Adnan Ghalib after he went incommunicado over the weekend and refused to speak to her. She was seen looking cozy with another photographer in what struck me as blatant attempt to make Adnan jealous. Lufti also seems to have pressured her not to take Adnan back.

OK! Magazine reports that Britney ditched the deposition after 2 hours looking furious but has at least 4 hours more to go. They say that her remaining testimony will be split up over several sessions because “she simply can’t sit still.” Now do you think that attorney would make that provision for any other mother who held her child hostage and has repeatedly flouted court orders and refused to show up to custody hearings?

Britney is shown yesterday leaving her deposition, thanks to Splash News.