Britney Spears Gets Permanent Restraining Order Against Former Manager, Posts a Video of Her New Closet
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Yesterday, Britney Spears was officially granted a permanent restraining order against the “predatory” Sam Lutfi. It will last 5 years, and include stipulations to ensure he has no public or private channel to the pop star. (This includes speaking to the press.) While the news is expected, there are some interesting details emerging as the story develops. The case was shown before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny, who’s been involved in other high profile celebrity conservatorship like that of Zsa Zsa Gabor in 2017. Marc Gans, Lutfi’s lawyer, previously represented Courtney Love in a 2015 defamation case. This was before her falling out with Lutfi over the kidnapping of her ex son-in-law over Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged guitar. Judge Penny, who previously called Lutfi “evasive” in the initial May 8th hearing, further said that Jamie Spears’ was found “forthright and credible.” From Page Six:
James Spears testified that Lutfi, who was close to Britney Spears in 2007 and 2008 and served briefly as her manager, has been a “predator” on his family for more than a decade whose harassment has recently resumed. “I worried that he was trying to take down the conservatorship,” Spears said from the stand. “I was very angry. I was worried that we were right back in 2008.” Spears and his lawyers suggested, and Penny appeared to agree, that Lutfi has attempted to incite fans who have used the social-media hashtag #Free Britney to criticize the control James Spears and the court have had over the pop star for the past 11 years. Lutfi’s Twitter account, the subject of much of the testimony, consists almost entirely of posts critical of Spears’ circumstances and those surrounding her.
Britney’s father also testified that “Me and my daughter’s relationship has always been strained,” illustrated by his daughter’s absence in court. (It’s unclear if the nature of the conservatorship dictates her testimony in matters like this.) Gans used this as “evidence” to prove that “her father and his lawyers were not speaking for her and had provided no evidence that she had in any way been harmed by Lutfi’s statements.” Page Six further reported:
The judge also shut down most of Gans’ questions toward James Spears. The questions asked him to discuss his daughter’s mental state and tried to establish that disparaging online statements Lutfi had made about James Spears’ use of alcohol and his enriching himself through the conservatorship were true and constitutionally protected.
Amidst the legal proceedings, Britney Spears posted an Instagram video showing off her closet’s new organizational pattern (courtesy of her housecleaners.)
[People]