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BRITNEY SPEARS


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Video Barred In Spears' Court Depositions

Spears, Federline Try To Work Out Custody Of Two Sons

POSTED: 7:39 am MST October 26, 2007
UPDATED: 5:40 pm MST October 26, 2007

A bid by Britney Spears for shared custody of her two young sons was put on hold Friday by a court commissioner, a lawyer for Kevin Federline said.

An afternoon hearing included extensive testimony and covered a number of issues in the high-profile case, lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan said.

Spears did not comment after the hearing. But during an earlier break in the closed hearing, she uttered an epithet at a reporter in the hallway who asked how the proceedings were going.

Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon is expected to issue a written ruling by next Tuesday, Kaplan said.

Earlier in the day, Spears' lawyer won a motion to bar videotaping of depositions in the custody battle.

Thomas Paine Dunlap, Spear's attorney, said that any video of depositions in the case would most likely end up online. He argued that Spears has the right to be protected from such exposure.

Although Gordon agreed in his ruling, he also expressed concern that Spears is constantly courting "an inordinate amount of media." He said those actions run counter to her desire for privacy.

Spears lost shared custody of her two sons earlier this month. Her lawyers were expected to argue that she has complied with court orders and should be granted the shared custody.

Gordon, who has said there is evidence Spears is a "habitual, frequent and continuous" user of drugs and alcohol, withdrew approval for her to even visit the children after finding she had failed to comply with some conditions for shared custody.

He later withdrew the ban and allowed her to visit Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1 - but only in the presence of a court-approved monitor.

The order by Gordon was tough and unambiguous.

Spears was to undergo random drug and alcohol tests and meet weekly with a parenting coach who would report back to the court about her parenting skills. Spears and Federline also were prohibited from making derogatory remarks about each other in their children's presence and from using "corporal punishment" to discipline them.

Both parents also were ordered to complete the court's "Parenting Without Conflict" class.

The custody fight has played out on a public stage, with paparazzi and celebrity Web sites reporting on the former couple's every move - including sightings of Spears driving with her sons and a monitor in Beverly Hills.

On Thursday, another Spears lawyer entered a not guilty plea for her on a misdemeanor charge of driving without a valid driver's license.

Michael Flanagan said Spears recently obtained a California license and he hoped the charge would be dismissed.

At the same hearing, a Superior Court judge dismissed a hit-and-run charge stemming from an Aug. 6 accident. Flanagan said his client had paid an undisclosed amount to the woman whose car the star hit in a Studio City parking lot.


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