Britney Spears was released early from UCLA Medical Center's psych ward because a court representative found "no just cause" for the hold, a source tells PEOPLE.

The doctor overseeing Spears's care had wanted her to stay, (as did her parents), but the decision was overridden by the court representative, the source said.

The source said that the doctor who was vetoed was not Spears's psychiatrist Dr. Deborah Nadel, but another attending doctor at UCLA. Once Nadel issued the singer's 72-hour hold at UCLA, Nadel was not involved in Spears's hospitalization, the source said.

The decision followed regular procedure for any patient on a 14-day hold.

The procedure calls for a hearing at the hospital to find out whether the hold is justified. The rep for the court, called a "hearing referee" – who is usually a lawyer – interviews the patient and doctor to determine if there's "just cause" for detainment.

"This is when law and medicine collide," says attorney Terry K. Wasserman, who's not involved in the Spears matter, "when a lawyer can override a doctor's opinion."
[source]

Spider-Man's Mary Jane made the decision to follow in the footsteps of Cirque patients such as Lindsay Lohan and Richie Sambora — after a week of wild parties at last month's Sundance Film Festival. Fellow actress Eva Mendes is also in the mountaintop facility right now. Mary-Kate Olsen was treated at Cirque for food issues.

"She desperately needed help," a source in Utah tells Star. "She seemed to be intoxicated when she checked in because she was acting really erratic. She was extremely emotional, constantly breaking down in tears.

"She not in a good place right now, but thankfully, she's getting the help she needs."

Kirsten, 25, has long had a reputation for partying, with bloggers giving her the unfortunate nickname of Kirsten Drunkst.
[source]

Paris Hilton found herself somewhere she never thought she’d be: Harvard.

“Harvard is hot!” the 26-year-old celebrity heiress said Wednesday as she picked up the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine’s “Woman of the Year” award in front of the Lampoon castle.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine standing here, standing on the steps of the Harvard Lampoon. It’s really exciting and I’ve had such a great time,” said Hilton, who stars as an attractive best friend to an ugly duckling in the film “The Hottie & the Nottie,” which opens Friday.

Hilton, who arrived an hour late for the festivities, told the crowd of about 100 people who greeted her that her “Simple Life” co-star Nicole Ritchie was with her, then added: “Just kidding.”

The Lampoon award is a spoof of the annual honors given by Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals. The nation’s oldest undergraduate drama troupe planned to present its “Woman of the Year” award to Charlize Theron on Thursday. “Man of the Year” Christopher Walken will be honored Feb. 15.
[source]

Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz have taped a steamy lesbian sex scene for their latest flick.

The Hollywood stars share a red-hot scene in a red-lit photography dark room in Woody Allen’s ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’, according to U.S reports.

“It is also extremely erotic. People will be blown away and even shocked,” an insider told the New York Post.

“Penelope and Scarlett go at it in a red-tinted photography dark room, and it will leave the audience gasping.”

The stars later have a threesome with co-star Javier Bardem, who plays Cruz’s husband.
[source]

AT NOON LAST MONDAY, striking writers picketing at CBS's Genesee Gate saw a truck from Yellow Transportation Inc. stop short of the entrance. The Teamster driver then approached the WGA strikers.

Driver: "I thought you guys had an agreement."

Picketers: "Not yet."

Driver: "Well, then, they're not getting their delivery today."

That driver was not alone in thinking the writers' strike was all but over. After all, even Peter Chernin, News Corp.'s number two and the point man for the moguls in the negotiations, was telling Hollywood pals at Super Bowl XLII that "The strike is over."

Leading up to this week, I'd been reporting exclusively on DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com that day after day of back-channel discussions had resulted in progress. Then came Friday, February 1, which proved a "very productive day," I was told — so good that one of my sources dared to say he was now "very optimistic" about a settlement. Because of the media blackout, no one was giving details, but I've managed to ferret out some of what went right that Friday, after so much between the WGA and the Hollywood CEOs had gone wrong.

In recent weeks, a ridiculously large number of Hollywood power players — from major feature-film writers and TV show runners, to agents and managers and lawyers, to executives and moguls — had been on the phone urging media such as I to pressure the Writers Guild to take the same deal that the Directors Guild accepted last month as is and call off the strike before the Oscars. I heard smart arguments, and I heard nonsensical arguments (like that of the bigtime agent who described the TV show runners as "the plantation owners" and the TV writers who worked for them as "the cotton pickers, who should just damn well be grateful they have health and pension and get back to work already").

But who was putting equal pressure on the moguls? Certainly not Variety, or the Los Angeles Times, or The New York Times. I found it outrageous that every mainstream media outlet influential in show biz from the outset took the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers' shill position that the DGA deal was a "great" deal because it had been negotiated by "grown-ups" and the WGA "brats" better take it or else. Truth is, it's been the moguls who have acted childish and churlish the whole time. Worse, the CEOs had disengaged from the process, with occasional exceptions, and hadn't met together even once. (Unlike in the 1988 writers strike, when there was truly a sense of urgency and the moguls regularly huddled in Bel Air living rooms.) The way I saw it, a better use of what little time remained before the Academy Awards on February 24 would be to pressure the moguls to use the DGA deal as a good start.

Judging from the thousands of e-mails I received, opinions within the WGA were running 3-to-1 that the DGA deal, after its sketchy details were announced, looked both promisingly incremental and fundamentally excremental. Incremental because it did address issues that the Hollywood CEOs long withheld from their faux negotiations with the WGA, like an electronic sell-through formula. And shitty because the deal's ad-supported streaming payout was still insulting.

Worse, the moguls seemed to fashion the DGA deal in such a way as to undermine and eventually eradicate the old residual system from the new streaming formulas. The majority of the DGA members get no direct residual payments, but the big guns of the DGA all get profit participation on their projects. That leaves only 20 percent of that guild's membership for whom residual payments are a lifeline. So the DGA deal could play well for the CEOs in the press and put pressure on the WGA leadership to take it or look unreasonable by comparison. But it's a false argument — when it comes to Hollywood deals, one size does not fit all.

So chief negotiator John Bowman and entertainment lawyer Alan Wertheimer led the WGA's effort to adapt the DGA deal to writers' needs. First, Bowman met with Peter Chernin, Warner Bros. chief Barry Meyer and CBS boss Les Moonves to break the ice back on January 7 at a meeting where, supposedly, the CEOs said they were sorry for acting like assholes during phases 1 and 2 of the negotiations. From that confab, the WGA-mogul talks were reborn. Then Wertheimer, who has long repped some of the major motion-picture and TV scribes, broke down what was being offered and presented the ramifications the way any lawyer does in a negotiation. "He was kind of a hero," an insider told me.


AS THE INFORMAL TALKS STARTED, I kept worrying that the moguls would make good on their threats to not reward the WGA for striking (giving them better terms than the directors and thereby making the helmers look weak). Strangely, the Hollywood CEOs were startled by the distrust they found among the WGA leadership. Not only had weeks and months of dealing with Nick Counter, and believing AMPTP promises to put New Media terms on the table, poisoned the overall atmosphere; in addition, the moguls had promised but then refused to revisit the weak formulas for home video or DVD negotiated years ago. So why should the WGA believe their pledge to revisit those for New Media in three years?

First, it took a lot of lobbying to convince the WGA leaders there would be no "significant" money in streaming for the next several years. (One source claimed that the WGA's numbers were "quadruple" more-realistic assessments.) Meanwhile, Chernin and Disney CEO Bob Iger focused on addressing the WGA's New Media needs without confusing them with the DGA's. A source close to the negotiations told me, "To their credit, Bob and Peter said to the WGA, 'Tell us what really concerns you.' And that's when things really started moving on questions about jurisdiction on the Internet and the third-year formula for streaming."

At the same time, leaders of several dissident factions within the WGA (some made up of very powerful TV show runners and feature-film writers) approached the guild toppers with an ultimatum: They would no longer promise to keep silent if a deal wasn't done right away. An insider told me, "The guys on the WGA side knew if they didn't come out with a deal [that] weekend, Monday was going to be a bad day. They'd been personally told by these different pockets of writers that they would no longer be supportive and measured. They planned on going public. They planned to blow the guild up."

Meanwhile, 75 militant show runners sent a letter to Patric Verrone, Dave Young and Bowman — the WGA leadership involved in the breakthrough session with Chernin and Iger — that Friday demanding that they obtain better terms than the DGA deal. "Our guys had plenty of ammo going in there to tell the other side that a bum deal would never get ratified by the majority of show runners or their staffs," an insider told me.

So this is where things stand right now: Verrone, Young and Bowman will be explaining and recommending the deal to the membership at a general meeting Saturday at the Shrine Auditorium. The guild's negotiating committee and board have already been briefed. Then those two panels will vote. That can't happen until the deal is drafted. But if someone gets tricky with the language or terms, "There's still a possibility that this thing could get fucked," a source explains.

Once both the WGA negotiating committee and the WGA board approve the deal, then the guild leaders will call off the strike immediately. I'm told that was an integral part of the agreement because the moguls didn't want to wait for the membership at large to weigh in on the deal. Among those pressing for this was Bob Iger, who for obvious reasons wants the picket lines to come down so Hollywood can feel free to attend ABC's Academy Awards. (Many still fear this year's Oscars will wind up bitch-slapped like NBC's Golden Globes. So Vanity Fair magazine, Hollywood hostess Dani Janssen and superagent Ed Limato have all canceled their private Oscar parties.) Right now, if the WGA board accepts the deal, I'm told that the Back 9 of most scripted TV series could be saved, along with a no-frills pilot season with fewer scripted series ordered than ever before. Some of the force-majeured deals could be reinstated. (I've learned that three times as many pacts would have been canceled if the agents and lawyers hadn't lobbied the networks and studios.) Feature films that were halted or thought lost could get going immediately.

But what happens to all this back-to-work progress if the WGA membership votes down the deal? A bigger mess than even now, like what happened during the 1960 strike when the membership voted not once but twice to reject deals negotiated by guild leaders. The right thing to do is to let the membership vote before the strike is called off. That gives the WGA leadership time to lower members' expectations about what could and couldn't be accomplished. Only the WGA members can decide how much more pain they are willing to endure with no guarantee that whatever is negotiated months from now (alongside SAG) is going to be any better than what has been negotiated now. The one thing this strike has done is to give writers a powerful voice that Hollywood has heard loud and clear. Don't silence the scribes at this crucial juncture.
[source]

Jacko Coughs Up $$$ in Taxes on Neverland

Michael Jackson, who may or may not wave at the Grammy audience on Sunday night, paid some taxes last week.

According to records in Santa Barbara County, Jackson finally satisfied a state tax lien on his all-but-abandoned Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos, Calif. The total, according to the assessor’s office, came to just over $600,000, including penalties and fees.

The payment doesn’t cover the $23 million for which Jackson is still in default on loans he’s taken against Neverland. Fortress Investments is now two weeks past its foreclosure deadline, which means it could start proceedings against Jackson at any time.

Jackson, sources say, may have arranged for a time extension through his former (and maybe current) pal, Ron Burkle.

Meanwhile, a Jacko appearance at the Grammys this Sunday remains a question mark. The former King of Pop simply is not prepared to perform in any way, but he may be acknowledged in some form for the 25th anniversary of "Thriller."

If he comes to the show, odds are Jackson will stop afterward at the private celebration for Motown founder Berry Gordy, who’s being honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences as an "industry icon."
[source]

Hot on the heels of Paula Abdul's lip-synch-tastic Super Bowl performance, her American Idol costar Randy Jackson has confirmed that he will have a hand in producing her forthcoming full-length album. "We've been talking about it," Jackson told EW.com during a taping of his latest side-project, MTV's America's Best Dance Crew, which premieres Thursday night. "We gotta keep things rolling, you know?" No release date or label has been announced yet, but last week Paula Abdul's official website posted a message saying to expect an album in Summer 2008.
[source]

A troubled blonde from rural Texas becomes a superstar and finds herself at the mercy of cads and leeches and rapacious relatives feeding off her fame and fortune.

That was the made-for-tabloids tale of Anna Nicole Smith, the statuesque siren who died at age 39 under mysterious circumstances in a Florida hotel room a year ago tomorrow.

Now many Hollywood watchers fear Britney Spears — another small-town girl remade into an icon — might be following the same tragic script as her life spirals out of control.

Spears, 26, was released Wednesday from the mental ward at UCLA Medical Center after undergoing a week of treatment.

"Vulnerable stars are often taken advantage of," said Rob Shuter, deputy editor of OK! magazine. "The amount of control that certain managers and so-called friends have shouldn't be underestimated,"

Smith's svengali was lawyer Howard K. Stern. Her body was not yet cold when he claimed to be the father of her infant daughter, Dannielynn, who stood to inherit her mom's millions. A DNA test revealed the real dad was another shifty character named Larry Birkhead.

Spears appears to have a Stern problem of her own, a manager named Osama Lutfi, who has drugged her, called her a "whore" and has tried to impose total control over her life, her parents have charged in court papers.

"It's clear that Sam had a huge impact in Britney's life, acting as the gatekeeper to the troubled star," Shuter said.

When Smith and Stern lived together, he was in control of all of the former Playboy playmate's meds. Even the prescriptions for her anti-depressants and sleeping pills were in his name.

In her restraining order against Lutfi, Spears' mother, Lynne, claimed Lutfi is managing her daughter's meds.

"He told me if he weren't in the house to give Britney her medicine, she would kill herself," Lynne Spears insisted.

Lutfi also claimed he ground up Britney's pills and put them in her food to keep her quiet — and imposed his will on a singer who has been in and out of psychiatric wards since splitting with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Just as Stern tried to keep Smith away from Birkhead, Lutfi has reportedly been responsible for the rift between Spears and paparazzo beau Adnan Ghalib.

Just as Stern kept Smith's mother, Virgie Smith, out of her life, Lutfi has tried to isolate Spears from her family, according to court papers.

Lutfi reportedly cut all of the phone lines inside Spears' home and confiscated all the cell phone chargers so she couldn't juice up and call her folks, the papers state.

Smith and Spears also share a horrible taste in men. A new book about Smith written by her former dress designer and his partner alleges Birkhead hit on them at Camp Kindle, a retreat for HIV-positive youths. Birkhead is trying to bury the book by threatening to sue.

Federline, a former backup dancer, took Spears to the cleaners when their 25-month marriage ended in 2006 — and then moved to gain custody of their kids.
[source]

Angelina Jolie brought her star power to Baghdad Thursday on a mission as a U.N. goodwill ambassador to highlight the plight of Iraqi refugees.

The actress said there needs to be a more coherent plan as the more than 2 million internally displaced Iraqis begin to trickle back to their homes amid a recent lull in violence that had threatened to spark a civil war in the country.

"There's lots of goodwill and lots of discussion, but there seems to be just a lot of talk at the moment," Jolie said in excerpts of an interview aired on CNN.

"What happens in Iraq and how Iraq settles in the years to come is going to affect the entire Middle East," she added. "And a big part of what it's going to affect, how it settles, is how these people are returned and settled into their homes and their community and brought back together and whether they can live together and what their communities look like."

Jolie's itinerary included meetings with the top U.S. commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Iraqi migration officials during her visit, according to the American Embassy.

AP Television News footage also showed the Academy Award-winning actress mingling with American troops during lunch at a dining facility in the heavily guarded Green Zone, which houses the embassy and Iraqi government offices in central Baghdad.
[source]