Spears Family Lashes Out At Dr. Phil
January 9, 2008

Dr. Phil has gotten some bad press in the past, but nothing backfired on him quite like the way he handled the recent interaction with Britney Spears and now her family has lashed out at his claim that she's in dire need, which they feel betrays a trust. And, they're right. The family of Britney Spears asked Dr. Phil to visit their daughter in the hospital as she was being released and, even though he wasn't technically her doctor, there was a naturally assumed level of confidence there that the good 'doctor' broke by blabbing about the interaction anywhere that would listen to him. Did anyone think there would be a situation this early in the year where we would feel sorry for Britney? Leave it to Dr. Phil.

Lou Taylor, the family business manager for Britney Spears, appeared on The Today Show this morning and laid down the law on Dr. Phil, saying, "Here you have Britney, who needs to have some security somewhere that every single thing she does and every single person she has a relationship with doesn't become an opportunity to be exploited. I mean, when do you ever rest if you're in constant fear of being exploited, of being taken advantage of?"

He went on to say, as quoted by MTV, "The family extended an invitation of trust for him to come in as a resource to support them, not to go out and make public statements. Any statement he made publicly, because he was brought in under this cloak of trust, is inappropriate."

What happened is that Dr. Phil thought he would get a show out of this visit but the family decided that, especially after the losing of custody to ex-husband Kevin Federline, now may not be the time to go on TV and talk about BritBrit. When the family was approached to come on the show, they claim that they thought it was self-serving and inappropriate to even bring it up.

The defense of Britney Spears is growing in 2008. A photographer for OK! Magazine, which Britney appears on the cover of this week. tells the magazine, "She was very loving. She told me that she loved her children and that they are her life. She was very attentive to their needs. You can see a connection between parents and their kids, and you can get a feeling if a child is well-loved by the mother. That's exactly what I experienced."

Perhaps finally shining a light into some of the problems of Britney Spears, the photographer goes on to say, "She was an extremely sweet and kind person. She said, 'Yes, ma'am,' every time she responded to me. I'm told that when she saw the photographs, she literally cried for over an hour and stared at them all night long." She may have known she would lose custody at that point.

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline will be back in court on Monday. There's no saying where Dr. Phil will be.

For more Britney news, check out our stories on Her Attorneys Dumping Her, Britney Skips Deposition, and The Britney Horoscope.