Confidante put drugs in Britney's food, singer's mom testifies

Judge Britney Spears poses at the season two premiere of the television series ''The X Factor'' at Grauman's Chinese theatre in Hollywood, California September 11, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

LOS ANGELES | Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:56pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The one-time confidante of Britney Spears said he crushed up drugs in the pop singer's food to help her sleep and disabled her phone lines during the height of her meltdown five years ago, Spears' mother testified on Friday.

Lynne Spears told the Los Angeles jury in a civil trial that Sam Lutfi, Britney's self-styled manager at the time, described his actions to her in a January 2008 exchange at her daughter's Los Angeles home.

"Those were his exact words," Lynne Spears said on her first day on the witness stand. "I was very worried and I didn't know what to do so I tried to get her away from there."

Lutfi is suing Lynne Spears for defaming him in her 2008 book "Through the Storm," in which she related some of Lutfi's actions in 2007 when he became the singer's closest friend, and moved into her house.

Lynne Spears admitted under cross examination that she did not call police despite her concerns about her daughter.

She also acknowledged she had been estranged from her daughter for months in 2007, and that Lutfi told her he wanted to help reunite them.

Lynne Spears' book also claims Lutfi tried to cut the singer off from her family, and portrays him as a figure who controlled her every move.

Lutfi, who met Spears in a nightclub in 2007 and has said he tried to wean her off drugs, testified tearfully earlier this week he received death threats after the book was published.

The week-long trial has lifted the lid on the much-publicized meltdown by Spears in 2007 and early 2008, in which she went through a divorce, lost custody of her two kids, shaved her head and wielded an umbrella at paparazzi.

Lutfi is also suing Spears for a portion of her earnings at that time, claiming the "Toxic" singer hired him as her manager.

Lutfi further alleges Britney's father, Jamie Spears, punched him in the chest in 2008, during a period when the singer was twice held in a psychiatric ward in a Los Angeles hospital.

Jamie Spears was later named conservator of his daughter's personal and business affairs, and the family took out restraining orders against Lutfi.

Spears, now 30, has since made a comeback with world tours hit albums and a new job as a judge on TV talent show "The X-Factor". She is not expected to attend the trial.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; editing by Todd Eastham)

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Coheed and Cambria Singer's 'Amory Wars' on Movie Path

by Marc Schneider, New York  |   July 14, 2012 8:00 EDT

Coheed and Cambria lead singer Claudio Sanchez has partnered with Mark Wahlberg and Leverage, the production company behind "Entourage" and "Boardwalk Empire," to develop and produce a live-action feature film based on his sci-fi comic book series "The Amory Wars."

Sanchez, who publishes the "Amory" series through his Evil Ink Comics along with Boom! Studios, announced the movie plans during San Diego Comic-Con. Leverage (helmed by Stephen Levinson) produced Wahlberg's latest film, "Contraband."

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Further details about the big-screen project have not been released.

Based in Heaven's Fence, a fantasy universe run by a tyrannical dictator named Wilhelm Ryan, "The Amory Wars" was inspired by Sanchez's mythical concepts surrounding the albums of Coheed and Cambria, a post-hardcore band from New York.

Sanchez recently collaborated with comic book writer Peter David ("The Incredible Hulk," "Star Trek") to write the novel "Year of the Black Rainbow," also the name of the band's most recent album, which debuted at No. 5 on Billboard 200 in April 2010.

The band will embark on a North American tour with Iron Maiden on July 24 in preparation of the release of their sixth studio album this fall.

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Singer's donation to wild-horse group criticized (AP)

RENO, Nev. – Sheryl Crow, hailed as a champion of wild horses that roam the range in the West, has been criticized by a national animal rights group that is calling her a hypocrite for performing at a Wyoming rodeo.

The "All I Wanna Do" singer planned to donate a portion of the proceeds from her July 22 concert at the Cheyenne Frontier Days to a wild-horse protection group that's suing the government to try to halt a big mustang roundup in Nevada. Crow is the opening act for Kid Rock on a summer tour that includes the Wyoming gig.

But Showing Animals Respect and Kindness claimed that wild horses are abused at that event in a special race just for them.

"How can an organization dedicated to helping wild horses take blood money that was based, in part, on abusing wild horses? We believe what Ms. Crow is doing is nothing but PR spin," said Stuart Chaifetz, a spokesman for the Illinois-based group.

The group, also known as SHARK, called on the Cloud Foundation to reject the donation.

Ginger Kathrens, executive director of the Colorado-based group, said she and other activists consider Crow a true champion of wild horses. Crow has adopted a wild horse and contributed time and money to the cause of keeping them on public lands, she said.

SHARK's criticism is unjustified because rodeos are prohibited under the 1971 federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act from using mustangs removed from the range by the government, Kathrens added.

"I think it's important for people to know the wild horse act prohibits the activity they're concerned about," Kathrens told The Associated Press. "They are not using wild horses off our ranges in that race."

A spokesman for Crow agent John Marx at the William Morris Agency in Beverly Hills, Calif., referred inquiries to Crow's publicist, who did not respond to an email. In a statement issued on her website last week, Crow said she was aware of "the contrasting and very passionate opinions that people have about this event and rodeos in general."

She said she was making the donation "in recognition of these differences and out of my love for wild horses."

Chaifetz said Crow only decided to make the donation after its protests over her involvement at the rodeo.

He said SHARK helped coordinate a June 24 protest at a Crow book-signing in Salt Lake City at which activists showed up with a banner reading, "Sheryl Crow: Betrayer of Horses."

The Cloud Foundation is trying to win an emergency injunction to block the federal Bureau of Land Management's roundup of 1,700 mustangs scheduled to begin this weekend along the Nevada-Utah line.

A hearing on the request is scheduled Thursday in U.S. District Court in Reno.

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