Britney in hospital for 2 weeks, on detox & more drama

The tug o’ war over Britney Spears blew up Friday as mother Lynne Spears and manager Sam Lutfi sounded off over their respective roles in the pop star’s treatment, and who has her best interests at heart.

First up was Lutfi, who exclusively told E! News’ Ryan Seacrest, “I have a moral obligation” to help the beleagured songbird.

“You meet her and she cries, and she begs you not to turn on her,” Lutfi said in an emotional phone call to Seacrest at roughly 8:15 p.m. Thursday. “I have three sisters—I would do the same for them. You would do the same for any of your sisters.”

By becoming a near-permanent fixture in Spears’ entourage in recent months, Lutfi has subjected himself to no end of scrutiny, not least of which with regard to what he’s getting out of his involvement with the tarnished pop princess.

Despite tabloid reports to the contrary, Lutfi said she has never paid him, he has never sold any photos of her and he has “never accepted money from the media…not a dollar.” He added that a “major magazine” once sent him a basket of food but that he sent it back.

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,” Lutfi said. “They’re more concerned about money and their own image than Britney’s condition.”

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

That set off Lynne Spears, who spoke to Seacrest to set the record straight on her role as a mother and her concern for a daughter in trouble.

Lynne, speaking as a worried mother, told Seacrest her only concern is for her daughter’s well-being and she just wants Britney to get better. Lynne said she is doing everything she can and sees her role as mom to a child who clearly needs help.

To that end, Lynne and husband Jamie Spears are headed to court to be named co-conservators, in charge of making decisions for their daughter. They also want an independent third party appointed, which would no doubt marginalize Lufti’s role.

Lynne went on to say that she hopes people will question the reports they’re hearing from the media and consider the source. She’s afraid that everything going on is diverting attention from the real issue—Britney’s health.

Finally, she wanted to make it clear that Britney’s money has nothing to do with any of this.

Sources close to the situation previously told E! News that Lynne Spears was initially against Lutfi’s plan to have Spears hospitalized. It was reportedly Lutfi who arranged with Spears’ psychiatrist, Dr. Deborah Nadel, and the singer’s 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.

Britney was admitted and placed on a 5150 hold, meaning the “Toxic” singer is a possible danger to herself or others.

The Spears family at first barred Lutfi from the hospital waiting room, but he was eventually allowed to enter about 45 minutes later. Everyone was forced to clear out Thursday morning while Nadel evaluated Spears and the entertainer caught her first shut-eye of the week.

Arriving separately, Lynne Spears and longtime family friend Alli Sims returned to the neuropsychiatric wing about 3:30 p.m., while Lutfi arrived around a half hour later.

At Britney’s request, Lufti brought along a cheeseburger and fries from In-N-Out Burger.

The three visitors were all allowed to spend time with Britney but had to wait outside while Nadel and other staffers met with the star until 7 p.m. Spears, however, spent the night alone in her room.

Britney Spears’s 72-hour psychiatric hold at the UCLA Medical Center has expired as of Sunday morning – but the singer is still hospitalized.

Legal analysts say either her psychiatrist requested an additional 14-day hold, or Spears is staying voluntarily on a day-to-day basis.

What is life like for Spears at the Stewart & Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA? According to the patient’s bill of rights at the hospital, she is allowed to wear her own clothes and keep her own personal possessions, including toiletries. She may also see visitors every day and make and receive phone calls – but not on her personal cell phone. There are pay phones on the floor.

There are two wings at the hospital, separated by a kitchen/dining room. Patients sometimes mix, especially for smoke breaks out on the deck, which is gated and surrounded by a metal fence.

The average patient sees his or her attending doctor every day. Since UCLA is a teaching hospital, the attending doctors are often accompanied by students. Staffers check on patients at least once an hour, even during the night.

‘It’s a Terrible Situation’

The Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital is known as one of the top facilities of its kind; still, “It is a terrible situation,” says a source close to the Spears family. “Britney is in a padded room. Her family is so worried about her.”

Terry K. Wasserman, a veteran L.A. attorney specializing in mental health cases (who’s not involved in the Spears matter), explains that if a patient becomes combative, he or she “could be placed in a ‘quiet room,’ some of which are padded.”

Wasserman adds: “Another possibility is being confined to a bed by leather restraints. In extreme, life-threatening situations – when the patient is a threat to oneself or medical staff – a psychiatrist can inject a person with psychiatric medication.”

In addition, Wasserman says, “a doctor can force a patient to take prescribed medication. If he or she resists taking the meds, the psychiatrist can obtain authorization to forcefully medicate the person – but only after a hearing on the matter takes place.”

Source: People Magazine

This is all really sad :( I hope she stays for as long as she needs to, and comes out at the end stronger than ever.

The Los Angeles Police Department were called to the Beverly Hills home of Britney Spears Friday after her parents discovered valuable possessions belonging to the singer were missing, a source close to the singer tells Usmagazine.com.

After Spears’ father Jamie won legal control over his daughter at an emergency hearing Friday, he and ex-wife Lynne returned to the house “shocked” to find valuable items of their daughter’s “had been stolen,” the source says.

They called police and filed a report.

Spears’ parents believe that items were taken after their daughter was taken to the UCLA Medical Center early Thursday morning.

Los Angeles Police officer Alex Martinez confirmed to Us that police had responded to a call at Spears’ house, but did not know what had transpired.

“The report is being processed through our system,” he said. “We do not have access to it.”

At Friday’s hearing, Jamie won temporary legal control over his daughter. He also has full control of her residence and can legally remove anyone who is staying there until the next hearing, on Monday.

A 21-day civil harassment restraining order was also granted against Sam Lutfi, who has been accusing Jamie and Lynne of poor parenting.

Britney Spears expressed “strong desire” against her father’s temporary control over her affairs – including her $40 million fortune, a lawyer said in court Monday.

Her father’s conservatorship “would only cause further distress, agitation and estrangement,” said estate attorney Adam Streisand, who asserted he was hired by Spears over the weekend.

In addition, Streisand argued that co-temporary conservator Andrew Wallet “simply doesn’t have the knowledge” to manage Spears’s vast estate (which he valued at $40 million), he said at a hearing.

Streisand, who’s reportedly related to the singer of the same name, instead suggested that Northern Trust Bank be named as the temporary guardian of her wealth.

Jamie Spears, wearing a navy suit, was present in the courtroom, looked solemn, but did not speak.

His lawyers began with an opening statement asserting that Jamie Spears has no interest in taking her wealth, but rather watching over it until his daughter recovers, with the eventual hope she’s reunited with her children.

Wallet vehemently argued that the court be shown proof that Spears was of sound mind to hire such an attorney.

A public defender for Spears was also present, and testified that he met with the singer at the hospital Sunday for about 10 minutes.

He added that in his opinion, the pop star “does not understand the nature of these proceedings” or their impact on her future. He added, “I think she lacks capacity” to hire a private lawyer.

It was also revealed by Spears’s attorneys that despite a restraining order issued Friday, the singer’s pal Sam Lutfi had “spoken to Ms. Spears by telephone.”

The father’s lawyers expressed difficulty at subpoenaing Lutfi with the order, saying he would not answer the door when a person came to serve him recently.

The court was then closed to the public, and no rulings of whether to replace her father as temporary conservator have been reached thus far.

Britney Spears’ pal Sam Lutfi says the singer’s mental problems stem from her parents, Lynne and Jamie.

“Oh boy, her family is crazy!” Lutfi told Usmagazine.com in a telephone interview Thursday, the same day the singer was taken to UCLA Medical Center. On Friday, Spears’ parents hit L.A. Superior Court to seek to control their daughter’s medical treatments.

“It’s funny because that’s what the doctors say when they meet the family,” he added. “They always come back and say, ‘You know, [her problems] are inherited, right?’

“It’s just so sad. It’s shared equally from both of her parents.”

He told Us the singer doesn’t “trust anything that her family says? Not a g—-n thing.”

He said they have tried to stage multiple interventions and that Thursday’s move was “at least their fourth” attempt.

When the singer heard Lynne had arrived Sunday night, Lutfi said Britney asked him, ‘Is my mom really here?’ I said, ‘Yeah, she’s here.’ And she’s like, ‘Oh great, you know they’re up to something.’

“They show up to the house like hillbillies, texting me,” Lutfi continued. “I find out that they’re outside, and they go, ‘You better let me in the gate, you ass.’ So I go, to Britney, ‘Your parents are here, let them come in and yell at you and scream at you. If anything else goes on, I’ll throw you in my car and take you out of here.’ She said, ‘OK, fine, baby.’

“I let them in. Instead of going to see how Britney is, they come bouncing through the doors. They scream at me, ‘Why the f—k are you talking to Barbara Walters?’ I swear to God that’s all they were saying.

“The dad pushed me in the chest and said, ‘Get the f—k out of here.’

“The dad gave up and then the mom tried to talk to her, but Lynne was like, ‘I gotta get my beauty sleep, I gotta get my nails done, I gotta do my hair.’ It was just so sick. We made the mom stay.”

Lutfi said the singer suffers from “mixed state bipolar” and has had it for “roughly five years.” (A person suffering from “mixed state bipolar” experiences symptoms of mania and depression at the same time.)

He said he has told the singer, “‘Britney, do you see why people think you are crazy? Look at your mother and look at your father.’”

Sources tell PageSix.com that Britney Spears is currently going through a detox process at the UCLA Medical Center. Doctors will stabilize her and evaluate her condition before she can be administered new medication to treat her suspected bipolar condition.

Detoxification is necessary for doctors to rid the patient’s system of other drugs so that they can be properly diagnosed and prescribed a course of treatment.

“It’s often helpful to clear the decks under medical supervision and get back to the drawing board and decide, ‘What have we been dealing with here?’” Dr. Keith Ablow, who has not treated the pop star, tells PageSix.com.

Detox is especially helpful in cases where the patient may have been misdiagnosed and administered medication that might have exacerbated or altered the person’s symptoms.

“You have lots of people who have manic symptoms of bipolar disorder wrongly diagnosed with attention deficit disorder,” says Dr. Ablow. “But if you put those people on stimulant medication, you can make them worse by driving them into the highest highs of their disorder.”

Britney was checked into the hospital late last night and placed on 72-hour psychiatric hold, or what is known as a 5150. So what can the singer expect over the coming days? During detoxification, the patient is slowly tapered off the medicine, with dosages being reduced over time. Doctors also sometimes use other medicines to temporarily blunt the symptoms of any withdrawal that might occur.

Dr. Ablow says it’s also helpful to have patients checked into the hospital for several days so doctors can monitor the effect of the medications over time and figure out whether more medications need to be added and in what dosage.

“Only a minority of patients achieve effective results from one mood stabilizer if they’re suffering from bipolar disorder. Many need two or three,” says Dr. Ablow, who added that mood stabilizers only work in a particular concentration in the blood that varies from person to person.

“And that takes time to figure out,” he says.