Like many parents, I like to joke that I want to book myself into a psychiatric hospital and get a break from my kids – and it seems that I’m not alone. Grey’s Anatomy star and father of five Justin Chambers (he plays Alex, for those of you who don’t watch it) has booked himself into UCLA psych ward this week for treatment of a sleep disorder.

Chambers, who plays Dr. Alex Karev on the ABC drama, checked into the facility on Tuesday, before promptly checking himself out the following day.

Chambers, 37, who is married with five children aged under 10, went in voluntarily, according to his publicist.

“[He is] exhausted and suffers from a sleeping disorder,” the rep said.

Celebrity Truth

Justin was only in for a short, unspecified amount of time earlier in the week, and missed the drama that must have been last nights admission (oh, you all know who I’m talking about!)

If reports in the New Zealand Herald are to be believed, than it was not necessarily the best place to get some sleep. They say that the hospital has all patients on 24 hour supervision, and that patients can be “quite agitated and screams being heard all hours of the night.”

That seems like a pretty scary place to be. The only psych ward I have ever visited was quiet and pleasant, with patients playing ping pong and watching the Today show. Although I think that people who need to be restrained are usually in a medical ward until they are calm in some hospital systems. Possibly it depends on where a bed is available.

I hope Justin had some good rest, and is ready to tackle the demands of a large family again.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Justin Chambers is shown at the Enchanted World Premiere on 11/17/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

It looks like the long, painful, over-saturated saga of Britney Spears might finally be coming to a head. It’s been about as entertaining as watching someone pull the wings off a fly. But, now that Britney has been held longer than 20 hours on 5150 lockdown, reputable healthcare professionals are finally able to assess her condition. It’s worse than we all suspected:

Sources at UCLA Medical Center tell TMZ Britney Spears has been classified as “G.D.” - Greatly Disabled. That is a huge and dangerous deal. That means the patient is unable to take care of basic needs, such as the acquisition of food, clothing or shelter. Being G.D. is one of the criteria for involuntary commitment.

Several health care professionals tell us Britney has fallen into a “manic state” due to her bipolar disorder. We’re also told, she arrived at the hospital this morning at around 2:15 AM but wasn’t admitted until 4:15 AM, because she was causing such a scene in the hospital.

We first reported that Britney accused her mother of sleeping with her boyfriend. Now we have more. We’re told Britney screamed, “the only reason she’s admitting me is because she wants to be alone with her boyfriend! She wants to sleep with my boyfriend!!” Britney never said exactly who she was talking about.

When Brit calmed down, she talked about her kids, how much she misses them and how it’s unfair that she doesn’t have them.

[From TMZ]

Earlier, it was revealed that Britney’s drug of choice is Adderall, the prescription medication used to treat ADD, and she has been using laxatives.

Lynne Spears, who has been estranged from her eldest daughter for most of the past year, said she was “devastated” by how badly Britney’s condition had deteriorated. Hopefully, the severity of Britney’s condition will give Lynne the strength to do the right thing and get Britney some help. Unless she commits her, Britney could voluntarily leave the hospital– and this time, she might not survive.

Days before Britney Spears’ “carefully orchestrated intervention,” her mother Lynne Spears “flew out” to L.A. Sunday and was shocked to see how badly the singer’s mental condition had deteriorated, a source close to the singer tells Usmagazine.com.

“Lynne was devastated,” a source tells Us. “She hadn’t seen her in a while and to see her deteriorated to this level – what mother wouldn’t be affected by that? It’s awful.”

Over the weekend, pal Sam Lutfi phoned The View’s Barbara Walters, saying that the the singer and her estranged mom were back on speaking terms.

Though the two appeared terse at a Beverly Hills Mercedes-Benz dealership Tuesday morning, Walters quoted Lutfi as saying, “her mother has been very supportive of whatever it is that Britney is trying to do.”

Last night the singer was taken to UCLA Medical Center in a “carefully orchestrated intervention,” the source says. (Lynne arrived with Spears’ latest beau, paparazzo Adnan Ghalib.)

The singer “had been up since Saturday without any sleep,” the source tells Us.

[From Us Weekly]

I truly hope that this is the end of the crazy and the beginning of the healing process for Britney. I’ve said some pretty harsh things about her on this very blog, but right now, I feel really sorry for her. I still believe that a lot of her problems were self-inflicted; and whether she is bipolar or not remains to be seen. She could also be a prescription drug abuser, and she is still a very spoiled young woman who has been out of touch with reality for quite some time. But she is a person– and she is going through hell right now. In front of the whole world.

There are also rumors that her family will be taking Britney back home to Louisiana to finish her recovery. That may be the best thing for her right now. It would be great if we didn’t have to report on the next crazy Britney episode here, and it would be even better if Sean Preston and Jayden James had a healthy, supportive mother in their lives.

Pictures are older ones of Britney, which means last week.

Not a high selling cover
Nicole Richie may have sent Christina Aguilera a note of encouragement as she labored two doors down at Cedars Sinai’s maternity ward, but that doesn’t mean Christina is about to let her baby, Max Bratman, share billing with little Harlow Madden. Talks between Christina and celeb-friendly glossy OK! Magazine fell through when they wouldn’t meet her high payment demands or promise her a full cover with Max. OK! was reluctant to off her the entire cover because her issues just don’t sell that well. Even her pregnant naked Marie Claire cover wasn’t that popular. There was also no way she was about to share the cover with Nicole Richie and her newborn, so she backed out of the deal:

Don’t expect to see a photo of Christina Aguilera’s baby on the cover of any magazines this week. Sources say that after months of negotiating, a deal between Aguilera and OK! magazine came to a halt because the magazine couldn’t guarantee a full-cover photo of Aguilera and baby boy, Max.

It might seem surprising that OK! wasn’t game to play by Aguilera’s rules, considering the mag ran Aguilera’s wedding photos, but a magazine insider points out that the singer performs well on stage, but not so much on newsstands. “The OK! wedding cover didn’t sell as well as they hoped, and even her recent Marie Claire cover underperformed, all things considered,” the source said.

An industry source added, “Christina has an inflated sense of her own value and seems to expect an extortionate amount of money for these baby pictures. I’m not sure OK! or much of the industry thinks is a dollar figure that’s worth it. … She hasn’t proven to be a real seller.”

Although a friend of Aguilera’s says another reason that the deal didn’t work is that the baby isn’t really “ready for prime time,” there might have been another sticking point.

According to a person familiar with Aguilera’s contract, the terms include a promise that a magazine that buys the Aguilera baby photos may not run photos of Nicole Richie’s new baby. “Christina can’t stand Nicole,” said a source who knows Aguilera. “Nothing would make her more upset than to see those two babies on the same cover, even if it wasn’t at the same time.”

[From MSNBC]

Marie Clare UK reports that both Christina and Nicole will receive over $1 million each for their first baby pictures. Nicole Richie is said to have received $1 million for an upcoming spread in People with baby Harlow. Christina Aguilera has yet settle on a magazine for Max’s debut, however. The article claims that a bidding war is going on between People and OK! Magazine, with the price currently set at $1.5 million. If talks broke down with OK! as this other story claims, that means that all that’s left is People and that Aguilera has a choice of either appearing in the same issue as Nicole and Harlow or waiting to show Max until a later issue. That’s got to piss her off. There’s always In Touch or Life & Style.

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.

Jessica Alba has a new horror film out called The Eye in which she plays a blind violinist who receives an eye transplant that gives her creepy otherworldly visions. It’s a remake of a film from Hong Kong called Jian Gui. Alba has being doing press for the film and talking about her pregnancy. She’s been widely quoted as saying that she loves her pregnancy boobs, but sounds like she’s having some identity issues with her formerly-slim body growing to accommodate a baby. She said in an earlier interview that she’s sensibly trying not to gain too much weight too fast, but that pregnancy was like a “shock to the system.” When asked by iF Magazine if she felt sexier she said “Well right now I just feel like… like a pregnant lady.”

Like the recent interview with Sheryl Crow that we just mentioned, Jessica Alba also talks about the scourge of paparazzi who follow her ariybd and said that she finds it baffling because she doesn’t do anything all that interesting. She says she’s going to raise her baby in LA because her family is there, but that she wishes the US was like England and had laws to protect children’s faces from being published:

iF: Are you concerned by the paparazzi and having a baby?

ALBA: The thing is, I think it’s in England where you can’t show the kids faces and that is right because they’re not in the public eye and I think if they could do that here it would be wonderful. When I started acting it wasn’t this bad. It’s bizarre and it seems like anybody can buy a camera and call themselves a paparazzi and stalk people for a living. It’s really strange. I’m not doing any interesting or salacious. I’m going to the gym because it’s good for me and the baby and going to the grocery store because we need food in the house and it’s really not that interesting. I’m not trying to be out there in that way.

iF: It looks dangerous

ALBA: Yeah, they cut me off. I’ve had to call the police a few times when I’ve been scared. They go in front of the lights and cut me off so they can stay with me but what if they’re running a red light when someone doesn’t see them? They just don’t care. It’s too bad.

iF: Do you ever think about moving away from LA?

ALBA: I have but my family is here. All my family is here and I think it’s more important that the kid grows up with family around and not be isolated from the world because of idiots.

[From iF Magazine]

Alba doesn’t strike me as the brightest bulb in the bunch, but she seems relatively low-key and she handles herself well. The paparazzi are increasingly crossing the line with celebrities and maybe Britney’s hospitalization will help bring about the impetus for new legislation that protects people from harassment by photographers. I like to see the photos of the celebrities’ kids, they’re cute, but whether we get to see them or not should be at their parents’ discretion and it is a good idea to consider laws in the US to protect children.

Alba half admitted on David Letterman this week that she knows the sex of her baby, but wouldn’t reveal it. She said “I might know, but I’m not saying anything.” She is thought to be having a boy based on purchases she recently made at Petit Tresor.

The Eye is out in the US today, and it looks really scary. Here’s the trailer:

Here are photos from the premiere, thanks to PRPhotos.

FreakingNews.com has news-related Photoshop contests with some interesting celebrity mashups. There’s a really disturbing contest on now called “Mouth eyes” in which mouths are substituted for celebrities’ eyes with scary results. (Here’s the link for that: warning.) The people at FreakingNews gave us permission to post these entries in their “Money Celebrities” Gallery. I really liked the effect on these and took a stab at a couple myself - which are at the end. The names of the celebrities are listed under each in white, and it’s generally obvious who everyone is with a couple of exceptions, but if you can get the answers by highlighting the page. Freaking News notes that this was inspired by “a new craze in England” in which people take pictures of their heads with a folded bill in the foreground.

Sam Lutfi, one of Britney’s entourage - who now calls himself her manager - has taken nothing but crap from the press for his role in Britney’s life. He was generally thought to be nothing but a negative influence and a user. But it seems that since Britney’s boyfriend Adnan Ghalib came into her life, Sam’s been treated with a lot more respect by the powers that be. And by that, I mean bloggers. It’s not that anything has necessarily changed with Sam, but more that Adnan seems one hundred times worse. And as much as people thought Sam was using Britney, he’s stuck around for a while, and through a lot of embarrassing stuff when others have left her. He’s also strenuously objected to Adnan’s role in Britney’s life - even having him barred from Britney’s neighborhood. Clearly Sam must have a lot of clout if he’s able to keep Adnan outside the locked gates, even when Britney wants him let in. He could very well be some sort of Svengali, but right now he doesn’t seem nearly as evil as he used to.

No one else may understand why he has given Britney Spears his undivided attention, but manager Sam Lutfi hasn’t given it a second thought.

When it comes to being by Spears’ side during this obvious time of need, Lutfi exclusively told E! News’ Ryan Seacrest he feels “like I have a moral obligation.”

“You meet her and she cries, and she begs [you] not to turn on her.” He would do the same for any of his three sisters, Lutfi said.

[From E! News]

Sam claims that he has never sold pictures of Britney to the media or been paid by them in any way. He also claims that Britney has never paid him. I highly doubt that - he probably incurs some fees as her “manager” and is paid directly from whatever company Britney is paid by. If nothing else, she probably pays for his expenses. Surely he has some financial gain in this, but it appears that he’s serious about getting Britney some help - perhaps more so than her family.

Sam has been photographed with Britney and her mother this last week, and on Monday he told Barbara Walters that the two were repairing their relationship. This obviously led people to think that Sam was on decent terms with the rest of the Spears clan, but apparently that’s not the case. Sam told Ryan Seacrest that Britney’s family was against her hospitalization. E! News reports that it was Sam who coordinated with Britney’s psychiatrist and lawyers to have her admitted on the 5150 hold.

And while Spears’ parents continue to cast doubt on him and object to his intervention in their daughter’s life, they’re the ones who are “incapable of telling the truth and incapable of sympathizing,” being more concerned about money and their image than they are about Spears’ condition, Lutfi said.

“[I have] no more respect for the family,” he said, adding that he’s through trying to keep the peace.

Sources close to the situation previously told E! News that mother Lynne Spears was initially against Lutfi’s plan to have Spears hospitalized. It was reportedly Lutfi who arranged with Spears’ psychiatrist and her lawyers to have the 26-year-old transported early Thursday morning to UCLA Medical Center, where she underwent a psychological evaluation later in the day.

[From E! News]

Though the Spears now say they’re glad Britney’s in the hospital, I’m guessing a big part of that is their public image. They’re aware that everyone else thinks she’s crazy and should be in a straightjacket, so to be against hospitalization makes it sound like they’re against her treatment. Thus the change in tune. Considering how long Britney’s been deteriorating, I can’t help but think her family’s been making excuses for her. Sure they can’t force her into treatment - but Sam Lutfi managed to get her into the hospital, which was more than Britney’s parents have been able to do. If she finally works her way out of the mess she’s in, he might end up being seen as the person who finally did something.

Picture Note by JayBird: Here’s Britney Spears visiting Longs Drugstore with her mother Lynne Spears, Sam Lutfi and Chad Hardcastle at 1.30 in the morning on January 29th. Images thanks to WENN. Header image of Britney Spears seen here leaving century city mall with Sam in tow on January 30th. Images thanks to Splash.

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.

Star Jones just can’t seem to hold a job anymore. TMZ is reporting that truTV, formerly known as Court TV, has ceased production on Star Jones’ new talk show. The show, simply titled “Star Jones,” has the tagline, “If it’s on your mind, it gets the Star treatment.” The tabloid site posted a copy of a press release announcing a “mutual” parting of ways, signed by truTV’s General Manager, Marc Juris:

Due to the rebranding and programming refocus of the network, truTV and Star Jones Reynolds have mutually agreed to cease production of the Star Jones show. The final episode of the program is scheduled to appear on Friday, Feb. 1. The Star Jones program, which has aired at 3 p.m. (ET) weekdays, will be replaced by Arrest & Trial.

Star will continue as a contributing legal expert on our weekday IN SESSION trial coverage. We appreciate the work she has contributed over the last few months and look forward to the next phase of our relationship.

[From TMZ]

I didn’t bother to watch the show, and I guess I’m not alone. The most attention the show received was after the death of Heath Ledger, when Jones spoke out about the excessive media coverage. Even that wasn’t’ enough to get people to actually watch the show. Her last original episode aired on Thursday, and dealt with the issue of registered sex offenders.

Court TV became truTV on January 1. The network became a phenomenon during the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1995, and made a name for itself by covering the court trials of celebrities and other high profile cases, such as the Menendez brothers. However, the network is changing its image, moving away from airing court proceedings, and offering more reality show-type programming.

Star was part of the original lineup of co-hosts on ABC’s estrogen-fueled talk show, “The View.” She left the show after a feud with Barbara Walters, who was reportedly upset with Star’s incessant talk about her impending nuptials to Al Reynolds. Walters also allegedly had a problem with the way Jones pimped out her wedding in order to get free merchandise, including tuxes, dresses, shoes, and even airline tickets. Star announced that she was leaving the show on the air, without discussing it with her co-hosts. Later, both Walters and Jones said the decision was mutual, but the shocked look on Walters’ face on air suggested otherwise.

So far, Star has had nothing to say about the latest job loss. But if there’s one thing we know about her, it’s that she can’t keep her mouth shut for long.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Star Jones is shown at the 10th Annual Angel Ball on 10/29/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

There are few things that I consider to be less sexy than Victoria Beckham. She looks like a fencepost that someone’s tied two unsightly balloons onto in an effort to alert people to a birthday party inside the house. Looking at her makes me want cake and pin the tail on the donkey. She does not make me want to rip my clothes off and do dirty things. But for whatever disgusting reason, David Beckham apparently disagrees with me. He’s just gotten a “seductive” tattoo of a naked Victoria on his left arm. I hope he plans to have sex with his shirt on.

Football star David Beckham has a new tattoo, and this one is unlike all the others - it’s a naked picture of his wife Victoria. The soccer star’s seven-inch artwork on his left arm features the Spice Girl lying on her back surrounded by stars and baring her breasts with her knees raised up seductively. The etching was based on David’s favourite photograph of Victoria from a Bridget Bardot-inspired shoot she did for Pop magazine four years ago.

A source said: “David is thrilled with the results. He thinks of Victoria as his angel, which is why he decided on the stars. Victoria is very flattered with this beautiful tribute.” David, 32, showed off his latest tattoo - which is designed around a previous inking of Victoria’s name in Hindi - when he stripped off to kick a ball around on a Brazilian beach to launch his latest soccer academy earlier this week.

[From Stuff]

In other - and I’m sure unrelated - news, David Beckham has announced that he will be abstaining from sex until his vision completely fades away. Which will happen much quicker now that he has a naked Posh inked onto his arm. Despite my strenuous objections, David clearly knows what he’s doing - this is his 11th tattoo. He’s also got the names of all three of his kids on various locales. I can’t help but wonder how he’s going to explain the naked image of their mother to them. The most important part of learning about the birds and the bees when growing up is the ability to reassure yourself that your parents don’t know about it, and certainly have never done it. That’s going to be a lot more challenging - and oddly confusing - when the boys see their mom’s boobs on their dad’s arm.