FELICIA CULOTTA: Spears's former assistant – a bridesmaid at her wedding – was the first to publicly sound an alarm in a Feb. 13 letter to the fan Web site thatotherblog.com. "I am crushed/saddened/heart sick by the way her life is unfolding," Culotta (above, with Spears in '06) wrote. "I cannot save her from herself." Photo by: BEN ROSE / WIREIMAGE
Britney's Road In & Out of Rehab| Britney Spears
Music producer and songwriter Sean Garrett, who recently worked with Spears on five "crazy, exciting" tracks from the album she is expected to release later this year, also saw rehab as a good step. "She's getting her life together, getting it where it needs to be," he said, adding that during their time in the studio she was not only "really focused" but also a loving mom. "She brought her kids to the studio and would spend quality time with them between recording, playing with them and stuff. She loves her kids." As he sees it, "She just needs time to herself. She's not crazy; she's young, she's rich, and she does what she wants to do."

That proved all too true: A day after entering Promises, a residential rehab facility in Malibu, Spears checked out of the treatment center. "It was against their advice," a source tells PEOPLE. "If she comes back for treatment, Promises will have to assess the situation. Sometimes people come back, but it doesn't look good."

After checking out, Spears arrived at the Bel-Air Hotel on Wednesday. When asked by PEOPLE how she was doing, she replied, "Great. I'm great." Federline, however, may not agree. The estranged spouse and his attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, were due to appear at a downtown Los Angeles courthouse Thursday for an emergency hearing in family law court, Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini told the Associated Press. It was not known what issue Federline planned to raise, but Spears was not expected to appear.

Many had hoped that what Spears wanted to do after her November split from Federline was get her hectic life on track. When she appeared on Late Show with David Letterman on Nov. 6, "People were rooting for her," says a source. "They were saying, 'She's getting her act together.' All was forgiven." Even, says the source, when later that month she started partying hard with the likes of Paris Hilton: "It seemed like she was just blowing off steam."

And wherever she went, there was a crowd. One L.A. resident will never forget happening upon the star on Dec. 17, when, after hitting an L.A. Lakers game with friends, Spears and her pals were trying to get into the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel – only to be overtaken at the door by "a swarm of about 15 paparazzi who were screaming and really aggressive," says the source, who happened to be walking in at the same time. "Some actually jumped off the second story, where they'd been hiding. They knocked a girl down." In an attempt to help, the source whisked Spears into a closet and asked what he could do for her. When, at her request, he went out to the front desk to enquire about the Marilyn Monroe suite, she began singing "Silent Night." He returned to tell her there were no rooms available and asked what else he could do, and "she replied, 'I just want Chicken McNuggets. I want to go to McDonalds,' " he says. "She was making sense, but she was so monotone. It was like she had no idea what was going on or how to help herself."