The personal touch seems to have paid off for Britney Spears. She'll be spending a little more time with her kids.
After making her first appearance in court in her long-playing divorce and custody saga, the "Gimme More" singer is allowed to have her children spend the night with her once a week, as long as they were accompanied by a court-sanctioned monitor. (View the order.)
Spears' attorney had filed an emergency motion Wednesday seeking to expand the singer's visitation rights. Spears was hoping her recently reconciled mother, Lynne, would serve as chaperone instead of a judge-appointed supervisor.
Mark Vincent Kaplan, the lawyer for Kevin Federline, said he "voluntarily agreed" to allow the elongated visit but declined to offer any other specifics.
Spears was obviously displeased by the decision and left the courthouse in tears without commenting to the press.
Her in-person appeal came two hours after the commissioner overseeing the case initially refused to alter the custody arrangements.
The 25-year-old, sipping a Coke and accompanied by her new assistant, arrived at the courthouse in her convertible Mercedes with light-up pumpkin string lights on the dashboard and was immediately surrounded by a dozen sheriff's deputies.
"I'm fine, thank you," she told reporters, as she put down her beverage and stepped into the courtroom wearing jeans, a black satin top, a gold chain, sunglasses and, presumably, panties. Flanked by her lawyers, she was sworn in by Los Angeles Court Commissioner Scott Gordon.
Asked to state her name, Spears replied, "Britney." The commissioner said, "Full name," and she responded, "Britney Spears."
She was allowed to keep her sunglasses on. "I understand you have a medical condition," said Gordon without elaboration. (Spears is reportedly suffering from conjunctivitis, aka pinkeye.)
He then closed the hearing to the public.
Spears spent an hour answering the judge's questions, before ducking down a back staircase and leaving the premises in her white Mercedes convertible.
Gordon apparently had a change of heart after the meet-and-greet with Spears. Earlier Thursday, he dismissed both legal teams without adjusting the visitation terms. He said he wanted to allow attorneys more time to discuss any proposed modifications.
"I don't see the emergency...here," Gordon said.
"I do think it is an emergency for them not to have overnights with their mother, which they've always had," argued Spears' attorney, Anne Kiley. She claimed the current visitation schedule was "disruptive" to Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, because Spears had to wake them from naps at the end of their visits, which typically wrap up midafternoon.
Gordon, however, claimed it was Spears' own behavior that was really disruptive.
"If a person's dealing with challenges, and those challenges, including substance issues and emotional issues...some of the behaviors that accompany those challenges can have a devastating impact," said Gordon, who has yet to get confirmation of Spears' passed drug tests. "It has disintegrated from there because of choices made by your client."
Gordon, who had earlier deemed Spears a "habitual, frequent and continuous user" of alcohol and controlled substances, temporarily stripped her of custody last week after she failed to abide by his terms, including submitting to random drug testing and showing proof of a California driver's license.
Since then, Spears has passed both her driver's license exam and two drug tests and was banking on that to expand her visitation rights.
But that wasn't enough to sway Kaplan. "If she could remedy all of those problems...in one week, that would be a miracle," he told the court.
Under Gordon's current order, Spears is required to have a monitor with her at all times when she is in the presence of her sons. Should the handler determine that any behavior Spears exhibits endanger her children or be simply inappropriate, her visits may be cut short.
Before the hearing, Federline's legal point man said Spears just didn't get it.
"The fact that a party, one week after a full court hearing, attempts to change the orders of the court, in the absence of an emergency or without any new facts, suggests a continued lack of respect and understanding for what an order of the court actually means," he told E! News.
While Kaplan said from the outset that Federline, 29, wouldn't show for the hearing, Spears signaled she would be present this morning to prove how serious she was. However, as the proceedings began, the court's public information officer announced she would be MIA, after getting word from Kiley, who blamed the enormous amount of media attention on the event as the reason for Spears' no-show.
"Nobody should have even known about this hearing today," the attorney told Gordon. "Very, very few people in our office even knew we were appearing."
Spears apparently changed her mind when Gordon failed to act on her motion.
The next hearing is set for Oct. 26.
While the custody drama played out in court, more of Spears' antics were being showcased online.
Raw footage of the singer's "Gimme More" comeback music video appeared on YouTube, showcasing Spears in pasties and not much else.
In the official version of the video, Spears, donning a blond wig, arrives at a strip club with friends. The pole dancer the group watches is none other than Spears herself, this time in a black wig.
In this version, Spears is seen removing her top and covering herself with her hands while dancing around. In the alternate version circulating online, well, her hands aren't quite big enough to maintain her modesty.
Also on Wednesday, hours after filing the petition with the court, Spears engaged in something of a throwback antic, exiting a paparazzi-surrounded car without the appearance of underwear.
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