Jamie Spears’ lawyer says his conservatorship suspension is ‘a loss for Britney’
Britney Spears’ father has criticised his suspension as controller of the star’s $60m estate – with his lawyer saying the result is “a loss” for his daughter and that the court “was wrong” to replace him rather than terminating the controversial conservatorship.
At a milestone court hearing in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Judge Brenda Penny ruled that Jamie Spears should be removed as conservator and replaced by accountant John Zabel on a temporary basis, before setting a date to consider ending the legal agreement entirely in November.
It came after Mr Spears, who had controlled the estate for 13 years, filed a legal petition earlier in September to end the conservatorship, amid mounting pressure following claims of abuse made by his daughter at court hearings in June and July.
Spears demanded the end of the ‘abusive’ arrangement at a previous hearing in June. Pic: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
However, Spears‘ recently appointed lawyer Mathew Rosengart argued for her father to be removed first before the agreement is wound up for good.
On Thursday, Mr Spears’ lawyer Vivian Thoreen, from the Holland & Knight law firm, released a statement on the judge’s decision, saying her client “loves his daughter unconditionally” and has “tried to do what is in her best interests, whether as a conservator or her father”, since the legal arrangement began in 2008.
Spears “voluntarily entered into the conservatorship”, she said, and the agreement helped the star “revive her career and re-establish a relationship with her children”.
Ms Thoreen accused members of the public, the media, and Mr Rosengart of “false, speculative, and unsubstantiated attacks” on Mr Spears and said the outcome of the latest court hearing was “disappointing, and frankly, a loss for Britney”.
She added: “Respectfully, the court was wrong to suspend Mr Spears, put a stranger in his place to manage Britney’s estate, and extend the very conservatorship that Britney begged the court to terminate earlier this summer.
“Again, it was Mr Spears who took the initiative to file the petition to terminate the conservatorship when neither Britney’s former court-appointed counsel nor her new privately-retained attorney would do so. It was Mr Spears who asked the court at yesterday’s hearing to immediately terminate the conservatorship while Britney’s own attorney argued against it.”
The star’s attorney Mathew Rosengart says Mr Spears needed to be removed from the legal agreement before it could be wound up completely
Despite his suspension, Mr Spears “will continue to look out for the best interests of his daughter and work in good faith towards a positive resolution of all matters”, Ms Thoreen concluded.
In court on Wednesday, Mr Rosengart had argued forcefully for Mr Spears’ removal, demanding an end to the star’s “Kafka-esque nightmare”.
He told the hearing that the estate was being run into the ground and reiterated a vow made by the singer not to perform again while her father is in control.
#FreeBritney supporters were once again outside court for the latest hearing
“Sometimes judges are asked to make very hard decisions,” he said. “This is not such a decision. This is not such a case. This is a very easy decision.”
He also alleged that Mr Spears now wants the conservatorship terminated to avoid having his files closely examined. “What he is afraid of is the revelation of his corruption,” Mr Rosengart said.
While it is essential the conservatorship is terminated, it needs to be done in an “orderly fashion”, the lawyer told the court.
Spears’ conservatorship began in 2008 after she suffered a reported mental breakdown. The arrangement came back under the spotlight in November 2020, when Spears said she would not perform live again while her father was in control.
It made headlines again following the release of the New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears, which explored her treatment at the hands of the paparazzi and the terms of the legal agreement.
In June, Spears delivered bombshell testimony in open court for the first time, demanding the end of the “abusive” arrangement. During a shocking 23-minute speech, she claimed she was being forced to use a contraceptive device to prevent her having more children and that she was unable to get married.
The following month Spears returned to court and called for her father to be prosecuted for conservator abuse.
Entertainment
‘People want you to stay in your lane’: Reese Witherspoon on her ‘deeply personal’ decision to write a novel
It is “pretty surreal”, Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon admits, finding herself at the top of The New York Times bestsellers list.
When I meet the actress alongside her co-writer, best-selling author Harlan Coben, overnight the pair have learned that their thriller is now at number one.
He jokes: “I was texting her last night and saying you’ll now have to call yourself number one bestselling novelist, forget about Oscar winner!”
Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben told Katie Spencer about their novel Gone Before Goodbye
As one of the most successful authors in the world, Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground.
Not content with running a hugely successful production company responsible for a string of hits, as well as one of the most successful book clubs in the world, she explains she felt compelled to give writing a try.
“People want you to stay in your lane… as a creative person I think it’s impossible to just choose one kind of life.
“Creativity is infinite and who I was as a creative person when I was 20 is very different from the person I am now at 49.”
Gone Before Goodbye, a thriller about a talented surgeon who finds herself caught up in a deadly conspiracy, is the result of Witherspoon daring to put her head above the parapet.
Witherspoon says she felt compelled to give writing a try
Coben admits he was “a little wary” at first.
“I don’t co-write novels but when she made the pitch and started talking about it, I was like ‘dang that’s good, we can do something with that’.”
While countless celebrities work with ghostwriters, Coben says: “I said to her from day one ‘it’s only going to be you and me in here… no third person in here, I don’t do that’. So every word you [read] comes from Reese and me.”
Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground
Witherspoon explains: “He was like ‘if we’re going to do this, it’s going to have to be at a really high level because people going to expect a lot, so our bar was really high.”
“I said to her, in the beginning, novels are like a sausage,” Coben laughs. “You might like the final taste, but you don’t want to see how it was made and Reese got to see the full sausage getting made here.”
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When it came to writing, Coben says they “fell into a rhythm right away”, working together in three-hour stints, “back and forth with a yellow legal pad – what about this? What about that?”
Coben says they ‘fell into a rhythm right away’
Witherspoon says it “feels really deeply personal” to have their work now in print.
“Usually, as an actor, I walk into other people’s worlds and it’s already set up… but this was creating the whole world with Harlan and just from beginning to end feels very personal.”
While the story seems an obvious fit for being adapted to the screen, perhaps with a certain blonde actress in the leading role, Coben says that was never their intention.
“The biggest, biggest mistake novelists make when you write a book is to say ‘this would make a really great movie’. A book is a book, a movie is a movie, and we both focused on wanting this to be just a great reading experience.”
Given that their collaboration is already selling in big numbers, will the pair team up again to write a second?
Witherspoon says: “Let’s just see what people think of this one first.”
Kim Kardashian has revealed that she has been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm.
- Footage from the latest season of The Kardashians shows the reality TV star going for an imaging scan.
The 45-year-old appears to suggest her small aneurysm may have stemmed from stress.
Brain aneurysms are relatively common, with data suggesting they affect about one in every 50 people.
In many cases, patients may be unaware that they have one – as they tend to cause few symptoms when unruptured.
Brain aneurysms are common but often go undiagnosed. iStock file pic
Should an unruptured aneurysm grow to a larger size, it can cause headaches, balance problems and speech issues.
Those that burst are extremely dangerous and can prove fatal in some circumstances.
While aneurysms can emerge throughout the body, they are most typically found in the aorta, which carries blood out of the heart.
Research suggests brain aneurysms are most common in adults between the ages of 30 and 60 – with women disproportionately affected.
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Associate professor of neurology Dr Laura Stein told Sky’s US partner NBC News: ” The most well-described risk factors include a predisposition [family history of aneurysm], high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and inflammation.”
She went on to explain that most fatal ruptured aneurysms are in the brain, killing about one in three patients.
“When it’s a blood vessel that’s in the head and it bleeds, there’s a much higher risk of having a very bad problem just because the brain is enclosed in a fixed space,” Dr Stein added.
Low-risk aneurysms are monitored by doctors for growth or abnormalities, and there are a series of potential treatment options for those considered dangerous.
Elsewhere in The Kardashians clip, Kim admitted that her ex-husband Kanye West will be in her life “no matter what” because of the four kids they share together.
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