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Hayden Panettiere

A Superior Court commissioner placed Britney Spears and her estate under temporary conservatorship today, a day after the pop star was taken to a psychiatric hospital.

Spears' loss of control over her own affairs came less than a decade after she shot to stardom as a teenager with the hit "... Baby One More Time," and followed a year of bizarre behavior captured by paparazzi lenses.

Her father, James Spears, was named conservator of Spears herself. His eyes teared when the decision was made. He and an attorney, Andrew Wallet, were name conservators of the estate.

The singer's mother Lynne Spears, was also in court. The parents sat with attorney Blair Berk throughout the hearing and they smiled and embraced her after the announcement.

A court creates conservatorships when a person cannot care for themselves or handle their affairs.

The court also issued a restraining order against Britney Spears' sometimes manager and friend, Sam Lutfi, and gave permission to change the locks on her estate and remove anyone who is there.

Commissioner Reva Goetz said Spears would be under conservatorship until Feb. 4, at which time another hearing will be held.

"It is in the best interests of the conservatee to have conservatorship over her person," Goetz told a packed courtroom.

There was no account or description of the young star's actual condition during the hearing.

The conservator will have the power to "restrict visitors," have around-the-clock security for Spears, and have access to all medical records, Goetz said.

The commissioner noted that if the attorney meets with the singer to discuss her medical records he must not leave them with her.

Goetz said conservatorship over the estate was "necessary and appropriate." She gave approval for the conservator to "take all actions to secure all liquid assets including credit cards."

The court, which rejected a request to hold the hearing without news media present, did not immediately rule on another request to seal all documents. Goetz said she would rule on Monday, and court spokesman Allan Parachini said the papers would remain sealed until then.

The conservatorship was approved by a different court than the one handling a custody dispute over the singer's children. A hearing on custody issues is set for 8:30 a.m. Monday in that court.

Paramedics with a heavy police escort took the troubled pop star from her home to UCLA Medical Center's psychiatric hospital early Thursday.

It was the second hospitalization this year for the 26-year-old singer, who has been in spiral of bizarre behavior since November 2006, when she filed for divorce from Kevin Federline, the father of her sons, 1-year-old Jayden James and 2-year-old Sean Preston.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported that the police cars, motorcycles and helicopter that helped get the singer to the hospital cost the Los Angeles Police Department an estimated $25,000, though a police spokeswoman would not confirm that figure.

Police officials have defended the motorcade, saying it was provided to get Spears through a paparazzi swarm without endangering her or the public.
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Eva Mendes checked into Utah's Cirque Lodge and has been in the facility, which deals with substance-abuse problems, for several weeks.

"Eva has been working hard for the past year and made a positive decision to take some much-needed time off to proactively attend to some personal issues that, while not critical, she felt deserved some outside professional support. Out of respect for Eva's privacy, we do not wish to discuss further details," her rep told PEOPLE Friday.

Cirque Lodge became a familiar name last year, when Lindsay Lohan checked in for treatment. The substance for which Mendes is being treated has not been reported.

The news was first reported on TMZ.com.

At last year's Cannes Film Festival, Mendes told reporters that to feel comfortable doing a sex scene with Joaquin Phoenix in We Own the Night, which also starred Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall, she required a drink.

The Miami-born Mendes, 33, is of Cuban-American background and first made a name for herself when she starred with Denzel Washington in 2001's Training Day. She played Will Smith's love interest in the 2005 comedy Hitch, as well as in the screen version of the Marvel Comic Ghost Rider, with Nicolas Cage.

Come fall 2008, Mendes will be seen in an all-star remake of the stage and screen comedy The Women, costarring Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Bette Midler. For 2009, she has already finished the thriller The Spirit, directed by Sin City and 300 creator Frank Miller.
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Sounds like another Hollywood actor is on the brink of disconnect. Nicholas Cage recently said “Some movie stars look like they are having a ball, but I am tired of it. It has made me reclusive. That is an increasingly gnawing feeling at my body.”

Cage feels like he makes the audience mad and that if you like him in one certain type of movie, you will hate watching him in any other. This seems to be as good of time as any to retire or change careers.

The actor is married to Alice Kim and they have a 2 year old son. The three have set up residence at an English castle.

Get out now Nicholas, before your child grows up with a bitter, nasty and unappreciative father.
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Pamela Anderson will be taking to the Paris stage at the Crazy Horse cabaret club, famous for its nude set pieces.

The former Baywatch star, 40, will perform on two nights in a number inspired by the song Harley Davidson from French singer Serge Gainsbourg.

A Crazy Horse spokesperson would not say whether the actress would be required to bare all.

"We're going to have to talk to Pamela about that," the spokesperson said.

"The Crazy Horse has always been about, 'You think you see everything, [but] you see nothing,"' she added when talking to AP news agency.

The celebrated Paris cabaret began inviting top female stars to join its regular performers last year.

Anderson follows in the footsteps of French actress Arielle Dombasle and Burlesque performer Dita von Teese.

Anderson has recently been performing in a magic show in Las Vegas.

Her four shows at the Crazy Horse will be on 13 and 14 February.
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appears as though Lindsay's lifestyle has taken its toll on her skin.
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Imagine the scene: a psychiatrist is urgently called to the home of a severely disturbed young woman.

Together, the psychiatrist and the family decide to take her to hospital – without her consent – for a mental health evaluation. A specialist unit of the local police is called to facilitate the journey. Traumatic enough, one might think.

Except that when the young woman in question is Britney Spears, the nightmare has only just begun. The 26-year-old star was indeed admitted to the University of California Medical Center in Los Angeles in the early hours of Thursday morning – the latest in a long series of deeply troubling episodes involving her wayward behavior, her young children, her ex-husband and a whole retinue of relatives and hangers-on.

What made it a whole lot worse, though, was that the paparazzi pack got wind of the psychiatrist's late-night visit. By the time everyone was ready to move out of the house – a gated home near the top of Coldwater Canyon in the Hollywood Hills – the area was swarming with about 200 photographers and television camera operators.

TV helicopters swooped overhead. The Los Angeles police were forced to carry out an evacuation plan worthy of a military campaign – guarding the house against a possible paparazzi invasion, setting up a complicated series of roadblocks to throw the photographers off the trail, and blacking the windows in the ambulance so Britney could experience her trauma as privately as possible.

The whole operation lasted hours and cost an estimated $25,000 (£12,600) – money the police would much rather have spend on something else.

Last night it was reported that an LA court had taken possession of her estate "due to mental health issues". The rapid downward spiral of Britney Spears' life marks perhaps the lowest watermark in our tabloid culture – an entire industry feeding off the misery of a former teenage idol turned very public basket-case. A business publication called Portfolio estimated a few days ago that the "Britney-Industrial Complex" is worth about $120m a year to the US economy – everything from the fees generated by her pictures to the boost in circulation, as much as one-third more, enjoyed by publications who put her on the cover.

In the increasingly Wild West atmosphere of Hollywood's paparazzi agencies, she alone currently accounts for as much as 30 per cent of total revenues.

Much of this has gone unquestioned, outside of some high-minded media discussion forums at the Los Angeles Times.

Now, though, even some of the photographers who make their living chronicling every step of her meltdown are beginning to examine their consciences, and their professional ethics. One British photographer based in Los Angeles, Nick Stern, became perhaps the first to make a public stand when he quit his job with the Splash news agency a few days ago because he could not bring himself to cover Britney another day longer.

"The Britney story is no longer about Britney," he said. "It's the media circus surrounding her... It's not journalism. Sooner or later, someone's going to get killed. Possibly Britney herself."

Stern said he could no longer stomach the sheer aggression of the pack – many of whom have no photographic training and, he said, include members of street gangs treating the trade in Britney snapshots as a criminal racket.

"I've heard stories of fights, of car tyres being slashed, or cars being blocked in and vehicles jumping lights, all in the name of getting a picture," he said.

"It's now acceptable for paparazzi to drive the wrong way down a street in pursuit of Britney." Stern, who moved to Los Angeles last August following several years at the head of his own agency, First News, said he had no objection to celebrity journalism.

He made a fine living from it, selling mainly to the lower end of the British newspaper market, and felt the press corps were unfairly blamed for the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Nor does he have any particular beef with Splash, who he said were "one of the more honorable professional employers out here".

He has now joined another agency, Bauer Griffin.

The Britney circus, though, has turned his stomach. "If there's a story concerning Britney that's justified, that's great," he said. "But it's gone way beyond that... She has real psychological problems."

A few months ago, those problems extended to her shaving her head or appearing at nightclubs without any underwear on.

A month ago, though, she refused to hand over her sons Sean Preston, two, and Jayden James, one, to her ex husband Kevin Federline, 29, and then locked herself in a bathroom.

That prompted a day-long involuntary hospitalisation. More recently, she was spotted repeatedly driving past a courthouse where custody hearings about her children were under way, but not stopping to go in.
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A burglar posing as a construction worker broke into "60 Minutes" reporter Lesley Stahl's Upper West Side penthouse and carted off more than $100,000 worth of jewelry and electronics, police said.

The brazen bandit stole several diamond watches, a pearl necklace, earrings, and gold and silver necklaces in the heist last Friday, cops said.

In addition, a laptop computer was filched from the CBS star's 15th-floor apartment, which overlooks Central Park in the West 70s.

Stahl - a former White House correspondent who has worked on the long-running TV-magazine show since 1991 - was not home at the time of the break-in.

She did not return calls for comment and a "60 Minutes" representative declined to comment.

The incident, which was first reported in the West Side Spirit, occurred at around 11 a.m.

The thief gained access to the building by pretending to be a construction worker fixing the landmark building.

The building has scaffolding and there are several projects under way, according to permits listed on the city's Department of Buildings Web site.

One of the hardhats working there yesterday said it wouldn't be that difficult to get in posing as a laborer.

"It's tough with so many people coming in and out," said the construction worker, who declined to give his name.

"There's new people in here every day."

He said he has seen Stahl, 66, since the break-in, but she hasn't spoken to him about it.

"She's really upset. She hasn't talked to anybody about it," he said.

The crook gained access by heading to the roof, and then entered Stahl's multimillion-dollar pad by breaking the patio door, police sources said.

Once inside, the thief ransacked the place in search of swag.

Cops are searching for a black man, about 5-foot-8 and 180 pounds.

Stahl shares her high-end digs with her husband, writer Aaron Latham. They have a daughter, Taylor.

Meanwhile, one longtime resident said the work has been under way in the building for more than a year, and it has made him nervous.

"I have windows that they could get into," said the resident.

"You're always a little concerned [about workers in the building]. It's been going on a year and a half."

He added, "It could've just been an oddball."
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