AS WIDELY predicted, Britney Spears, who was forcibly re-moved to hospital on Thursday (Jan 31) and placed under psychiatric observation for three days, has been classified as “status-GD” (gravely disabled) by healthcare professionals. She will spend an additional 14 days at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles (LA).

 

James Spears, her father, takes necessary decisions on her behalf, as status-GD patients cannot take care of themselves. She is confined to a padded room to avert possibility of her hurting herself. According to Terry Wasserman, the LA attorney who specialises in mental health cases, the forced hospitalisation could get ugly if she becomes combative and the star could be tethered “to a bed by leather restraints.”

 

This is the second hospitalisation for the 26-year-old pop star in the month. The music sensation has been on a downward spiral ever since her break-up and divorce with Kevin Federline (K-Fed). Police stormed her house on January 3, after she refused to hand over their two sons to Kevin’s bodyguard at the end of a scheduled visitation. A court battle ensued, in which she lost custody of the two kids, two-year-old Sean and one-year-old Jayden.

 

As she was being re-moved to the hospital by her parents under court direction, Spears raged and screamed at her mother, Lynn Spears: “The only reason she’s admitting me is because she wants to sleep with my boyfriend!” It is not known if she meant the Birmingham photographer Adnan Ghalib, whom she was lately dating, or estranged husband K-Fed.

 

James and Lynn Spears want their daughter to take a year off away from the music industry, move back to Louisiana and concentrate on getting her life back together. They visited their grandchildren at K-Fed’s place, trying to find a settlement to the vexed issue of visitation rights. James will also act as co-conservator, along with the lawyer Andrew Wallete, of the singer’s estate as she has been held incapable of making balanced decisions for herself or her children. The father has got a restraining order placed on Sam Lutfi, her pal and “right hand man.”

 

Lutfi, however, maintains that the singer’s mental problems stem from her mom and dad. There have also been accusations that K-fed married the pop princess only to knock her up with kids, which will guarantee him a 21-year-paycheck.

 

Britney banked $ 8 million during July 2006-June 2007 period, according to Business magazine, Forbes. Her ‘Piece of Me’ is raking in quite a few Euros and revenue is pouring in from her older material as well. The new album ‘Breakdown’ is becoming a hit across the world and her ‘Blackout’ is expected to do well too. Apart from these, she gets a share of the perfume brand ‘Curious’, which had a sale of over $ 55m during 2006.

 

But, come to think of it…what use is all the money for a girl who loses custody of her kids, loses control of her own senses and ends up in psych ward, shouting profanities at her mother? Don’t blame her plight on pursuit of money, though; it is not that she is the only pop star getting to see that size of income. Madonna tops the list of top-earning females in music with an income of $ 72 million, followed by Barbra Streisand at $ 60 million.

 

Let us hope that the detoxification of ‘toxic singer’ will be successful and she gets back to the stage within months, if not within a fortnight – at least for the sake of Jayden and Sean.