05:33 PM EDT 06/19/2009
Britney Spears
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Britney Heads to Big Easy for High-Stakes Comeback
Originally posted 02/28/2009 12:00PM
The elaborate costumes are packed. The 16 semis filled with magic props and big-top sets are on the road.
When Britney Spears takes the stage at the New Orleans Arena on March 3 – the opening night of her Circus tour – the stakes will never be higher.
After more than two years of personal drama, the tour will either make or break the professional comeback she began last fall.
According to sources, Spears, 27, who left Friday for Louisiana, has been hard at work preparing for the show, which will feature her signature sexy dance moves, a stage filled with three circus rings, and magic tricks.
"She's pretty determined," a friend tells PEOPLE. "She missed singing and performing and the freedom of that. It gives her an escape and it's what she loves to do, so she's definitely thankful to be doing that again."
Permalink | Filed Under: Music News, Britney Spears
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Britney Spears Heads East to Get Ready for Tour
Originally posted 02/27/2009 07:05PM
Britney Spears is on the road again.
The singer flew from Los Angeles to McComb, Miss. on Friday in anticipation of kicking off her Circus tour on Tuesday, March 3 in New Orleans.
Spears, 27, arrived in at the airport – about 15 miles from her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana – looking fit and pretty in a red top and black skirt. She was accompanied by an entourage of about a dozen people, including her two sons Preston, 3, and Jayden, 2, and her brother.
The singer was met by her parents Lynne and Jamie Spears, who greeted Britney with a kiss on her forehead.
Permalink | Filed Under: Music NewsBritney Spears
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Britney Spears's Hairstylist Testifies Against Sam Lutfi
Originally posted 02/25/2009 04:40PM
Britney Spears's hairstylist testified in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday that the singer's ex-manager, Sam Lutfi, harassed her with calls and text messages over a period of three weeks last December.
"Someone kept calling me from a private number ... he said his name was Sam," Roberta Romero stated Wednesday. "He wanted information about Britney. He said he was on her side. I told him, 'Leave me alone, stop calling me.' "
Lutfi allegedly sent Romero a series of 11 texts within a four day period, saying things like, "Please relay the truth to her. I did not do this to her," apparently referring to Jamie Spears's indefinite control over the singer's life. Lutfi also allegedly texted Romero: "I've done everything I can to free her from this. Very close to getting her free now." On another occasion he allegedly wrote: "I went to court to free her." Romero says she repeatedly told Lutfi to leave her alone via text.
Permalink | Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Britney Spears
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Britney's Ex Surrenders to Face Assault Charges
Originally posted 02/25/2009 02:30PM
A day after an arrest warrant was issued, Adnan Ghalib, the photographer ex-boyfriend of Britney Spears, found himself on the other end of the paparazzi lens.
Tracked by his media colleagues, Ghalib, 36, surrendered Wednesday to face felony charges for allegedly trying to run over a process server. He pleaded innocent in a Van Nuys Superior Court and was released on $110,000 bail.
He also went to the police station for formal booking on the warrant, and visited a bail bondsman.
On Tuesday, prosecutors charged Ghalib with assault with a deadly weapon, hit-and-run and battery, all worth up to seven years in prison if convicted. The charges include special allegations: use of a deadly weapon - a car - and great bodily injury.
Permalink | Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Britney Spears
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Illusionist Spills Britney's Circus Tour Secrets
Originally posted 02/25/2009 09:55AM
As Britney Spears gears up to kick off her Circus tour March 3 in New Orleans, PEOPLE enlisted the tour's resident illusionist, Ed Alonzo, for a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the tricks – musical and otherwise – the star, 27, has in store for fans.
So is this comeback for the serially-troubled Spears? "I don't know if I would call it a comeback," says Alonzo, a lead illusionist on MyNetworkTV's Masters of Illusion. "It's more of a continuation of the greatness she always had."
Britney Plays a Magician's Assistant
During one song (Alonzo won't say which one), Britney becomes part of his magic act. "She's incorporated into major illusions. She'll do dissection, where she's sawed in half, and transposition, where she's in one place and ends up in another place. She's doing all the classic elements of magic."
Permalink | Filed Under: Music NewsBritney Spears
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Britney's Ex Accused of Assault with a Deadly Mercedes
Originally posted 02/24/2009 06:55PM
An arrest warrant has been issued for Britney Spears's paparazzo ex-boyfriend to face felony charges of trying to avoid a process server – with the help of some German engineering.
According to L.A. prosecutors, the victim was serving a temporary restraining order, obtained by Spears's father, at Adnan Ghalib's apartment complex in Encino on Feb. 11 when Ghalib got into his Mercedes and drove it toward the victim.
To avoid being penned against a trash truck, the victim jumped on the hood and hung on as the car served, eventually falling off and breaking his wrist, among other injuries, the District Attorney alleges. Ghalib allegedly drove away without stopping.
Ghalib was slapped Tuesday with three felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon, hit-and-run and battery, all worth up to seven years in prison if convicted. The charges include special allegations: use of a deadly weapon – a car – and great bodily injury. Prosecutors are asking bail be set at $110,000.
Permalink | Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Britney Spears
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Britney's Dad Calls Ex-Manager a 'Predator'
Originally posted 02/23/2009 07:45PM
Under her father's care and control, Britney Spears now lives a protected life, her access even to telephones strictly restricted.
So when the 27-year-old pop star managed to get a prepaid cell phone recently, her security team confiscated it from her purse while she was at a dance practice. Confronted, she revealed the phone was given to her by someone during a hotel stay.
And that person, she disclosed, got it from two men whom her father wants to keep permanently in the singer's troubled past: ex-manager Sam Lutfi and former boyfriend, paparazzo Adnan Ghalib.
Jamie Spears described the cellular phone incident in testimony Monday in a Los Angeles court as he sought to maintain a restraining order against Lutfi, whom Jamie has claimed harassed Britney and has sought to undermine Jamie's legal control over her life.
Permalink | Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Britney Spears
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Britney's Ex-Manager Fights Back Against Restraining Order
Originally posted 02/23/2009 03:15PM
A manager and confidante to Britney Spears when her life was at the peak of turmoil, Sam Lutfi insists that in these calmer days he's no threat to her safety.
Fighting back against a restraining order, Lutfi 34, not only denies he's been harassing Spears, but claims that it's been Spears reaching out to him – not the other way around, sending him text messages even though court orders forbid her from doing so.
"I don't think anyone would want to have on public record allegations of behavior that weren't committed," Lutfi's lawyer Bryan Freedman tells PEOPLE. "A restraining order to is protect someone against stalkers and people who want to commit violence, and that description doesn't fit my client."
In court documents filed Friday, Lutfi does admit that he's passed messages on to her through her hairdresser and others, including her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Ghalib, 36. But Lutfi argues that the messages weren't harmful in any way.
Permalink | Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Britney Spears
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SNEAK PEEK: In the Bedroom on Britney's Video Shoot
Originally posted 02/17/2009 03:10PM
Here's how you know you're on the set of Britney Spears's new music video for "If You Seek Amy:" Gorgeous hair and makeup? Check. Sexy costume? Check. Hot bedroom scene? Check!
PEOPLE.com has your first look behind the scenes at the shoot Spears called "super sexy and really fun" on her Twitter feed last week.
Spears's dancers Willie, Jay and Luke gave BritneySpears.com a sneak peek at the boudoir choreography, but we'll have to wait for the premiere to see Spears out of the director's chair.
– Kristin Boehm
Permalink | Filed Under: Music NewsBritney Spears
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Britney's Ex Under Investigation for Assault with a Deadly Weapon
Originally posted 02/12/2009 04:55PM
Britney Spears's ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib allegedly tried to run over a man on Monday who was trying to serve Ghalib with court papers in Los Angeles, police say.
The process server "ended up on the hood of the car, then fell off when [Ghalib] drove away, and ended up with scratches and bruises," Lt. Brian Whitten tells PEOPLE.
A report was taken for assault with a deadly weapon, but Ghalib, 36, is not a wanted man.
"He's not liable for arrest," Whitten said. "We first need to get his side of the story."
Permalink | Filed Under: , Trials & Lawsuits, Britney Spears
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