Child welfare investigators are looking into "multiple child abuse and neglect" allegations in the custody battle between Britney Spears and her ex-husband Kevin Federline, according to court documents released this week. In a request to unseal parts of the case file, an attorney for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services wrote that there are concerns about the safety and welfare of the two toddlers, Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, if they are left in their mother's care. Though the agency mentioned investigating referrals relating to Federline, the documents don't provide details. Federline has temporary custody of the boys after Spears defied court orders about regular drug testing. Spears had asked the court to seal the files in an October declaration, arguing that "such information greatly increases the chances that the actions of the media could threaten the safety of the children by, for example, causing a traffic accident."
Twice blocked by striking musicians and stagehands, Daniel Barenboim makes his debut as La Scala's principal visiting conductor on Friday night with a gala premiere of "Tristan und Isolde." Barenboim's six-season arrangement with La Scala will be an exercise in cross-fertilizing Italian and German operatic traditions as he wings between Milan and Berlin, where he is the Staatsoper's music director. "It is not an act of globalization, but it is an act of cosmopolitan thinking," Barenboim said.
The creators of the hit film "Borat" have been sued again, this time by a driving instructor seen in the comedy admonishing the fake Kazakh reporter for yelling insults at other drivers. Michael Psenicska was duped into participating in the film after it was described to him as a "documentary about the integration of foreign people into the American way of life," he said in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court. The suit named the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays the title role, One America Productions and the film's distributor, 20th Century Fox. Psenicska said he was paid $500 in cash to give Borat a driving lesson. He described the experience as "surreal," saying Cohen drove erratically, drank alcohol and yelled to a female pedestrian he would pay her $10 for "sexy time." The lawsuit seeks $400,000 in actual damages and additional punitive damages for misleading Psenicska and for emotional harm he continues to suffer. Fox said the lawsuit was without merit.
The "Desperate Housewives" star Teri Hatcher is being told to pay $2.4 million to a skin care products company that says she promoted the wrong lip gloss. Filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Hydroderm's lawsuit claims that a 2005 agreement with ISBE Productions, Hatcher's production company, stipulated that Hatcher would not endorse other competing products as part of a $2.4 million endorsement deal. According to the suit, last summer the company learned Hatcher, 42, was also promoting CityLips, a lip plumper made by City Cosmetics. In a statement, Hatcher's lawyer said she complied with all of her contractual obligations.
Exit Brad Pitt. Enter Russell Crowe. Crowe has agreed to star for Universal Studios as an investigative journalist looking into the murder of a lawmaker's mistress in the film "State of Play," Variety reported. Pitt abruptly bowed out of the production late last month, when his representatives indicated that he was not happy with the script, a situation complicated by the writers' strike. The decision by Crowe left "State of Play," directed by Kevin Macdonald, on course to go before the cameras this year.
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