After the worst week of her life, pop singer Britney Spears is slowly trying to rehab herself in order to get her children back.
A Los Angeles judge ruled Wednesday that Kevin Federline will retain custody of his two boys with Spears but said the troubled singer can have supervised visitation rights.
The decision was actually a step forward for Spears, who was ordered Monday to hand over her children, Sean Preston and Jayden James, because she had failed to undergo random drug testing, counseling, and parenting classes.
Spears decided to give up her children immediately and then work her way through the judge’s list of demands. One report had her flying this weekend to Antigua to once again check herself into Eric Clapton’s Crossroads rehab center, where she had been briefly treated earlier this year.
“Britney’s team has been working closely with her attorneys to figure out a way to get the babies back,” a Spears source told Muckety. “She is giving up the late-night parties and the alcohol so that there is no questioning if she is drinking or missing any future tests.”
Legal experts told MTV News that the most Spears could hope for in Wednesday’s hearing would be visitation. In fact, Manhattan divorce lawyer Lois Liberman told MTV that it would take at least three months of clean drug-testing and parenting classes to get custody back.
“The court is going to err on the side of caution now,” Liberman said. “It will be a gradual opening of the valve, and hopefully for her, custody in the future.”
Meanwhile, Spears is headed to the top of the music charts despite, or perhaps because of, the negative publicity from the custody battle. Her single “Gimme More” is getting airplay on Top-40 stations, where it’s been one of the top-15 performing songs on pop radio.
The song also landed in the No. 1 position on Billboard’s Hot Digital Songs chart, having sold 179,000 downloads in its first week. It’s been more than eight years since Spears’ breakthrough, “Baby One More Time,” hit No. 1 in January 1999, the newspaper said.
On the web:
Britney’s ‘Gimme More’ a digital hit – Los Angeles Times