MUMBAI: Pop diva Britney Spears has been surrounded in a fresh round of controversy as her former manager Sam Lutfi has accused her of drug addiction.
According to her manager’s claims, the singer’s famous head-shaving and car-smashing antics were a result of her drug addiction. He also claimed that the singer was hooked on prescription drugs, downing up to 30 a day, which led to her meltdown in 2007.
As per reports, Lufti is suing Spears and other members of her team including her mother Lynne and father Jamie for unpaid wages, defamation and alleged assault. He claims that he was entitled to 15 per cent of her earnings during his tenure as her manager but he did not receive the said payment. Moreover, her mother Lynne claimed that he dragged and manipulated her daughter in a tabloid while her father punched him in the chest in January 2008.
His lawyer Joe Schleimer made the big claims in opening statements at Los Angeles Superior Court, saying the singer had shaved her head to beat hair strand drug test but Spears' parents contend he crushed up tablets and put them in her food.
Schleimer told the jury, “She liked to use amphetamines. Mostly everything that went wrong was because of this drug.” He also stated that Spears had a ‘prescription for amphetamines, and overdosed on them’ before being put in the involuntary conservatorship.”
Superior Court judge Susan Bruguera told Schleimer during a break in proceedings that all the accusations he raised during his opening statement should be supported by evidence to be presented at trial. Schleimer said he would prove them through either 'testimony or documentary evidence.
Attorneys for Spears' parents and conservators will have their own opportunity to present opening remarks to jurors. But Jurors are unlikely to hear directly from the singer, who remains under a conservatorship overseen by a judge who has ordered her not to appear for trial or a deposition. The order has expired, but conservatorship attorneys are seeking repayment for more than $93,000 in legal fees - a judgment Lutfi is appealing. The court case resumes tomorrow.
Lutfi and Spears' family have been at loggerheads for a long time. Her family even obtained a restraining order against him to keep him from contacting the singer.
Spears is still under conservatorship but has made a successful comeback in her career. She is currently judging talent reality show 'X Factor'. The singer is also preparing to marry her agent Jason Trawick. It would be her third attempt at matrimony after her ill-fated 55-hour marriage to childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander and to backup dancer Kevin Federline with whom she has two children.