Just a little over one month ago, Britney Spears voluntarily checked herself into rehab. This followed her March DUI arrest, which many hoped would be a wake-up call for Britney. Britney’s reps made all the right noises and she was shuffled off to rehab. Two months after her arrest, Britney agreed to a plea deal on the DUI – she pled guilty to a lesser charge and she was given 12 months probation & one day in jail (time served, since she spent the night in jail after her arrest). She got a small fine and she has to complete a DUI program. Britney’s plea deal seemed to mark the end of her rehab stay, unfortunately. Britney has been back in LA, and this week, she made a terrible scene at Blue Dog Tavern.
Britney Spears enjoyed a night out with friends at a Los Angeles area restaurant … but TMZ has learned things got erratic fast — with barking, yelling and even a knife involved. Here’s the deal … sources tell us the Princess of Pop grabbed a corner table with a man and a woman at Blue Dog Tavern in Sherman Oaks Wednesday night … and quickly started causing a scene.
We’re told Britney was raising her voice, screaming, and even barking at times … with witnesses describing the vibe as chaotic and “kind of sad” … though she still looked cute.
At one point, a restaurant patron tells us Britney walked by their table holding a knife, sparking fear she might accidently stab someone. The witness says they believe Britney may have simply forgotten to put it down at her table.
We’re also told the singer lit a cigarette inside near the door … prompting staff to intervene and ask her companion to have her put it out.
As for food, we’re told Britney ordered a burger and fries but barely ate, mostly picking at the fries. Plenty of food was left behind, along with what appeared to be orange juice. We’re told Britney and the man she was with were feeding each other and she told him, “I love you” … though it’s unclear whether she meant it or was just being playful.
The aftermath wasn’t pretty either … one guest said the area under her table looked “like a toddler had been there.”
Despite all the commotion, we’re told most diners didn’t even realize it was Britney until after she left — at which point it became the talk of the restaurant, with people saying it was something that would “only happen in L.A.”
Our sources say Britney was taken home by her security.
I hope she’s okay. But I have to say, she’s always acted like this. I remember stories during her conservatorship about Britney going into shops and trying on clothes and then acting erratic in the dressing rooms. Britney’s love of knives is also well-documented, and Britney has often played with knives on her Instagram. Why am I fact-checking or vibe-checking this story? Because Britney’s rep disputes the story:
In a statement shared with PEOPLE on Thursday, May 14, Spears’ rep said that reports about her outing on Wednesday, May 13 were “completely blown out of proportion.”
“Britney was enjoying a quiet dinner with her assistant and bodyguard,” the rep continues. “She was simply telling the story about how her dog was barking at the neighbors. At no point did she put anyone in danger with a knife. She was cutting her hamburger in half. This constant attack on everything that she does and this is exactly what happened 20 years ago when the media tried to depict Britney as a bad person. This is ridiculous and it needs to stop now.”
Yeah, her spox isn’t helping matters. I 100% believe Britney was stalking around a restaurant with a knife in her hand. I totally believe she was barking like a dog loudly and disruptively. I totally believe that other diners were probably freaking out. In fact, a few of them even tweeted about it.
She just left and everyone in the restaurant turned and started talking about it. An INSANE dining experience. One diner feared for her life. This is not a joke… https://t.co/uGuk5Q7HOF
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) May 14, 2026
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red, Britney’s Instagram.
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It has always sounded like she has mental illness, and that any substance use is a coping mechanism. I think a highly reputable psychiatric treatment center would have been more appropriate than rehab.
I’ve always gotten the impression that she tried therapy but rejected it.
I don’t think that’s surprising considering how the medical community betrayed her trust by keeping her in that exploitative conservatorship. She very obviously needs some kind of support, but the fact of her money made it too lucrative for everybody to use her. She shouldn’t have been performing in Vegas. She should’ve been living a quite life with consistent therapy and medication. Now she’s ill and self-medicating…because the people she should’ve been able to trust to take care of her didn’t, unfortunately. It’s just tragic all around to me.
She’s been abusing hard drugs for many years, started as a teen. Judges have said she’s a “habitual, frequent and continuous” user of drugs and alcohol. It’s disappointing that she only was in the recent rehab for 2 weeks.
I have to wonder how her mental health can be addressed without her being sober first.
Addressing mental health is part of getting sober. Many people use drugs and alcohol to self medicate.
They are related. But how hard is it for someone who isn’t sober to take the medications they need to treat their mental illness? How much do drugs interfere with brain chemistry, that also impacts mental health?
I feel the worst for her that I don’t know that she’s experienced legitimate psychiatric care. All of her most intensive care experiences have had her dad pulling the strings on what cares was administered (he pushed heavily for lithium), and all with a goal of her being compliant, not healthy.
If paranoia is any part of her problems, it would be hard to impossible to convince her any form of residential care is anything other than “they” are trying to control her again. And for 12 (? I don’t remember how long the conservatorship was) she would’ve been right.
she’s been 5150’d multiple times by her father, so I’m guessing her resistance to any kind of confinement for mental health treatment is sky-high. Agree that alcohol and drugs are her coping mechanisms, not the underlying problems.
poor thing. she’s been so damaged by other people it’s really hard to know how much of this is her and how much of it is the life she had imposed upon her.
Poor Britney.
I feel awful for the other diners. Some sound legit shaken up, but no one will care about that because it’s Britney smh
I think people do care because it’s Britney…but they also make excuses for her because it’s Britney. Too many people will hook her up with whatever she wants, so it’s hard to protect her or have consequences.
We had a similar experience last year. It was a restaurant in Malibu and no one noticed when she and three friends walked in. Then as soon as she sat down she started doing this kind of shrieking vocalizing and kept it up through the whole meal. It was so sad and after she left you could tell people were worried for her.
That is very sad. I had an uncle who had untreated mental illness the last 50 years of his life. It’s so unsettling to be around. And, regardless of actual risk of violence, it feels unsafe.
She has been having issues for decades now, and after all she went through she should seek professional help, unfortunately I can’t blame her if she doesn’t trust anyone.
One part of me is rooting for her,unfortunately I don’t think it will end well.
I’ve legitimately been impressed that she’s spent decades in this state.
Maybe because her choices are less hardcore, but she could have easily had the same fate as Amy Winehouse or even Michael Jackson and nobody would have been shocked. The Charlie Sheens of the world have a unique level of self-calibration, but the out of control ones (especially without solid family support) almost always ramp it up until they run out of runway eventually.
I have read her autobiography.
She has been exploited all of her life: her greedy family didn’t protect her, only saw the money coming, and they staged an intervention only when they couldn’t control her anymore, and her struggle (postpartum depression in public + mental struggles can you imagine ?)
They put her back on track only to lock her down and get the money.
She didn’t have autonomy, she didn’t have a proper care, only people who wanted to cash from her and no one had her best interest. I don’t blame her for not trusting anyone, or not trusting the sytem: the system and her family let her down.
Unfortuntely she is lucid enough to seek help.
The problem that was Slash is for Britney is that there are two realities there. Her conservatorship needed to end because it wasn’t in her best interest. It was just her family forcing her to work and earn money. That does not mean that she does not and did not have mental health issues that require treatment.
Britney very clearly could stand for long-term comprehensive treatment for her mental health and her coping mechanisms using substances, but because of the previous experiences fans, Britney, and her team are going to look at those options differently.
I sincerely hope that she doesn’t harm herself or someone else before they realize that her previous bad experience does not mean that she does not still require help, and at this point oversight.
ITA. She needs comprehensive in-patient treatment and oversight. It’s been said that one or both of her sons live with her now, and I don’t know how safe that is at this point. I know they are adults, but she is dangerous. Sam Ashgari told very little about his time with her, but he did say that she was often violent with him and attacked him in his sleep multiple times, like punching him and threatening him with knives. I’m rooting for her and it’s tragic, but I could not sleep a minute under the same roof.
I think Sam is the last decent person who was with her.
Now everyone is a yes man that stays only for the money.
Sam did seem like a nice kid. I totally forgot about him, which means he’s not throwing himself in front of cameras and talking.
Britney is not well.
I don’t know if another conservatorship is the right move, but being totally free to do whatever she wants is not helping matters.
It freaks me out how easily people talk about stripping the rights of “mentally ill” women because first off, we all know that gets immediately applied to all women. The right wing declares us “mentally ill” for not wanting to birth their children, wanting our own bank accounts, or whatever else they come up with.
Second, it’s important for mentally ill people to retain their full human and civil rights because the moment you take that away, mentally ill people start being physically, s****lly, and financially ab***d.
This is NEVER a conversation we ever have about men.
We should talk about a conservatorship for Britney only AFTER even ONE rich, famous ADULT MALE star is put into a conservatorship, especially those with a history of violence such as Shia LeBeouf, Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Chris Brown, or those who are well known for mental illness such as Kanye West, Justin Bieber.
It NEVER seriously enters the conversation with any of these men so there’s only one reason why it’s different for Britney.
LOLO, you are 100% correct! Thank you!
I agree with you.
It’s scary. What Hollywood did and does to people. Especially to children and to women.
Learning about what was done to so many boys/ girls/ women in the 80’s/90’s and early 00-10’s is horrifying. It hits especially hard because they are our peers, or people we watched grow up. They were being abused right in front of us and yet we didn’t see it.
We are watching the real life consequences of the abuse and trauma they endured playing out in all aspects of their life in real time. And we feel guilty and we want to help. But we also want them to be free. And for so many- both famous and non famous alike – getting an adult the help that they need but don’t want is so hard and morally and ethically complex.
Britney would benefit from an amazing mental health team and cutting edge trauma therapy. But – no one can blame her for not trusting psych practitioners and pharmaceuticals because of the way they were used to violate and manipulate and abuse her.
So where does that leave her? She’s isolated and suffering and unable to trust anyone who may want to help her. Because she keeps being used and manipulated.
So many of us want the best for her. We want healing, happiness, peace and health. And we can all see that that’s not happening.
There is a deep sorrowful acknowledgment that maybe this is the best her life is going to get. And a hopeful rejection of that and hoping that SOMETHING can somehow be done, with her full autonomous participation. Somehow. In some way.
No one wants to admit that people can be hurt or broken in ways that can’t be fixed. Or maybe can’t be fixed with time alone. It’s terrifying.
I think there’s some sexism there but I also think with the men you mentioned—we just cancelled all of them. A lot of the conservatorship talk arises out of genuine worry for Britney, because people do feel protective of her. Most of us don’t GAF about Gibson, Kanye LaBoeuf etc.
Not arguing for/against a conservatorship, just saying I don’t think it’s quite as malicious as you describe.
I’m assuming you don’t realize this, but that’s EXACTLY the same talking point of the new right wing: “women need to be stripped of their rights to keep them safe because we love and value them so much and need to protect them.”
There are plenty of mentally ill, “beloved” adult male celebs, who don’t get cancelled but have behaved very erratically and or made violent threats, and nobody ever brings up a conservatorship for them.
WHO said that she should be stripped of her rights? I only see people in the replies expressing genuine concern. BTW there are other options besides a conservatorship like an intervention, rehab, medication, therapy etc.
Sorry but I don’t agree that it’s preferable for someone who’s in a vulnerable state like Britney to be left alone and isolated without any support or structure. That’s exactly how bad things happen–either to herself or someone else.
The rep’s excuse that she was telling a story about her dog reminds me of when Britney got online after the head shaving/umbrella car bashing incident and she said she was just practicing an audition for a movie role.
It’s sad to see what it happening to her. We can agree that she needs help. She’s a danger to herself and others. We really can’t compare her to others as someone else have unless Kanye, Justin, Chris, and the other have been caught driving under the influence, found to be self medicating, and swinging around knives in public. Obliviously, they all have a degree of mental illness but Britney is swinging knives around on video and in public places showing some type of mental distress and people are in fear that she might harm them. Yikes. The music industry cares about money not a person’s mental health. Reading Brandy’s memoir opens your eyes to how young artist spend so much energy trying to appease everyone to the point that they have a mental breakdown. When your brain remains in the same environment and you employ the people who keep you in that state, how can your mind recover? Britney’s situation is sad.
Kanye never made violent threats such as threatening to go “de*** con 3 on Jewish people” or threatening Pete Davidson? Violent Mel Gibson never got a DUI?
Let’s not forget Justin’s recent DUI in the Hamptons. Oh, sorry, I was thinking Timberlake instead of Bieber.
Britney was born into the absolute worst family — selfish, abusive, and stupid with addiction thrown in. She’s an incredibly talented performer and has such good instincts for performances and songs (her best album was the one she was most in control of and her most iconic videos and performances all had her input). But she’s never had anyone in her life who hasn’t betrayed her, including family. Just one family member who loved her unconditionally instead of treating her like a human ATM could have made a huge difference. She has to want recovery for herself at this point, but she has to feel she deserves it. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to get to that point with the life she’s had. I read an interview with Drew Barrymore, who’s life has a lot of parallels to Britney’s, and it was incredibly sad to read how much she still struggles with her mental health after all these years. I will always root for Britney, I want her to prove everyone wrong and live a beautiful life. But she has to want it, feel she deserves it, and find a way to trust some medical professionals despite how so many were used against her.
That “though she still looked cute” throwaway line from TMZ was gross.
Yup it’s TMZ
I have a friend who worked in high fashion / celeb photography 2 decades ago. It’s not a big secret that Britney was diagnosed with serious mental illness (think: the biggest one) and her father kept her working, anyway. It was so bad that on photo shoots, sometimes other women were banned because of her outrageous jealousy issues that would spark bigger episodes. It makes me sick that no one took her out of the spotlight when she was a kid and got her the help she needed.
I’m a lawyer in the disability sector in Australia.
From the media reports as her diagnoses have not been formally made public, she’s a person living with a significant psychosocial disability. Reportedly, she was diagnosed with bipolar and dissociative personality disorders from years back.
From what I’ve read of Britney, she’s unable to manage her own everyday affairs (finances, bills, etc.) and appears to have serious challenges with self-care as well.
If it appears she’s at risk to herself and/or others, public/private guardianship (equivalent of conservatorship) would be an issue. I have seen people with better functional capacity than Britney under private guardianship. Other don’t have any informal supports who want to do the hard work of playing that role so public guardianship is another option. She’s lucky she has a family that cared enough (I understand they did profit from her wealth more or less though the dad was constantly answerable to a court-appointed lawyer and the judge as her conservator) to play that role. A lot of people living with psychosocial disabilities have no one but a public guardian.
If you were to ask me, the conservatorship was/is the lesser of two evils. I think she’s at risk to herself (and was a risk to her sons when they were still in her care).
I’m a psychiatrist and I agree. She’s a danger to herself and to others. Her original conservatorship was exploitive, but she does need to be conserved. Dual diagnosis patients are the toughest to treat.
Free Brittney, right? Who is STILL enabling her drug abuse? Why don’t they put her in a good rehabilitation center? Why is no one really helping? Why is she still an issue? Is it better to ‘take’ her money while she’s drugged out? I wish her money dried up. I really do, cause this I really out of this world. NO ONE IS TAKIN CONTROL AND REALLY HELPING HER
Celebrity, so little to no punishment, ‘a small fine’. And the bad behaviour just continues.