Britney Spears looks 'terrified,' says former manager Sam Lutfi: 'Enough is enough'
Britney Spears’s former manager, Sam Lutfi, offered his take on her well being Monday, one day after the singer was photographed leaving the Montage Resort and Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, as she took an Easter break from her stay at a mental health facility.
Lutfi, who was infamously by Spears’s side during her 2007 breakdown, suggested that her father, Jamie Spears, should be replaced in his post as her conservator.
Spears’ conservators have taken on the legal responsibility of making decisions for the pop star, which include her career and finances. Jamie Spears and lawyer Andrew Wallet took on the roles of co-conservators of Britney in 2008, and Wallet resigned from his role in March.
Lutfi’s take on Britney’s latest appearance is public is that she looked “terrified and aberrant” in photos from her outing. “Your actions have instilled fear into barbaric handlers minds but this staged performance is unacceptable.”
Lutfi elaborated in a statement to Yahoo Entertainment:
“The co-conservator Andrew Wallet abruptly resigned last month. A paralegal formerly employed by Britney's attorney spoke out last week explaining his concerns with the egregious amount of control by her father and the lack of transparency with the public. Reports also indicate her father is gravely ill. The oversight of this conservatorship has been severely lacking from the start. The Adult Protective Services of California urgently needs to investigate this matter. I agree with the millions of fans supporting the FreeBritney movement, this conservatorship needs to come to end! Enough is enough!”
Jamie Spears is recovering from his colon having ruptured in November. Britney announced earlier this month that she would be taking time off to be with him and the rest of her family.
Yahoo Entertainment has reached out to Spears’s team for comment.
The “Toxic” singer, as well as her father and mother, Lynne Spears, all have long, complicated relationships with Lutfi.
The more famous Spears met Lutfi at a nightclub during a time when she’d already completed a stint in rehab, stopped talking to her parents and fired various members of her team, according to what a Lutfi lawyer has said in court. He worked with her for less than a year, beginning in 2007, when her father established the conservatorship and promptly ended Lutfi’s professional involvement with Britney.
At one point, Spears’s parents even obtained a restraining order against Lutfi, accusing him of, among other things, drugging Britney by hiding pills in her food and communicating her whereabouts to the paparazzi.
Lynne wrote about Lutfi in her 2008 book Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World, calling him a “predator” and accusing him of controlling Britney’s life.
Lutfi then sued for defamation. He alleged that he’d tried to help Britney stop using drugs and said the family owed him money. Lutfi’s lawyer said he had been made “a scapegoat” for Britney’s public struggles.
After years of lawyers and judges, the Spears family and Lutfi reportedly settled out of court in 2016.
Lutfi has continued to pop up in the entertainment world over the years. In January, a judge granted Courtney Love and daughter Francis Bean Cobain a restraining order against him, reportedly noting his previous relationship with Britney.
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