Spears checks back into rehab

Britney Spears shaved her head Friday night. (AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Britney Spears entered rehab yesterday after a bizarre weekend that included shaving her head and getting a new tattoo. Spears' manager, Larry Rudolph, told People magazine's website that Spears, 25, had voluntarily checked herself into an undisclosed treatment facility. "We ask that the media respect her privacy as well as those of her family and friends at this time," Rudolph said.

The website TMZ.com said Spears had entered an inpatient facility in Los Angeles after family members pressed her to check in. Entertainment TV shows and websites had reported Friday that Spears had gone in and out of rehab that week. Since announcing her separation from Kevin Federline in November, Spears has been seen partying heavily, and her appearance has been increasingly sloppy. "We are witnessing Britney in the midst of a breakdown," said Ian Drew, editor at large at Us Weekly magazine.

"She is a child star unraveling and is the perfect example of when a child star evolves into an adult and doesn't have someone telling them what to do, or giving them the right affirmative advice, and the right support." New York-based psychiatrist Gail Saltz said she "would not be surprised" if Spears, mother to 5-month-old Jayden James and 17-month-old Sean Preston, was suffering from postpartum depression. Her public split with Federline isn't helping matters, Saltz said. She suggested Spears' s seemingly impulsive decision to shave her head was "a blatantly self-destructive, . . . desperate kind of act."

Spears grabbed an electric shaver at a San Fernando Valley salon and shaved her head Friday night. Video on KABC-TV showed a newly shorn Spears with tiny tattoos on the back of her neck as she sat for a new tattoo -- red-and-pink lips on her wrist. Esther's Haircutting Studio, where Spears shaved her head, set up a website to auction off her hair and other items for a minimum of $1 million, said owner J.T. Tognozzi.

Nicole Richie's lawyer appeared in court yesterday without her client and entered a not guilty plea on Richie's behalf to a driving under the influence charge. The complaint alleges Richie, 25, was under the influence of an alcoholic beverage and an unspecified drug when she was arrested Dec. 11. A pretrial conference was scheduled for April 2. Richie, who starred in the TV reality show "The Simple Life" with Paris Hilton, was not required to appear for arraignment because the charge is a misdemeanor. In addition to the single count, the Richie case contains an allegation that she had a prior misdemeanor DUI conviction in June 2003. The California vehicle code specifies that if convicted of DUI twice within 10 years, a person can be sentenced to between 90 days and a year in jail, fined between $390 and $1,000, and have driving privileges suspended. Richie was arrested after 911 callers reported seeing her car headed the wrong way on a freeway in Burbank about 12:30 a.m.

Busta Rhymes rejected a prosecutor's offer of six months in jail on two assault charges yesterday but is considering a deal that would let him plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and remain free. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Tanya Kennedy said the 34-year-old rapper could plead guilty to third-degree assault and receive a conditional discharge. Rhymes, whose real name is Trevor Smith, is accused in one complaint with beating his ex-driver Edward Hatchett, 39, "with a closed fist about the head and neck" and kicking him in the ribs and torso during a dispute over back pay. In the other, Rhymes is charged with assaulting a fan, allegedly for spitting on his car, after an Aug. 12 performance.

A judge yesterday ordered that O.J. Simpson's income from past work in movies, television , and commercials go directly to the family of murder victim Ron Goldman, but he rejected the family's bid to collect Simpson's earnings on future projects. Simpson was acquitted in October 1995 of murder charges in the June 12, 1994, slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman, but a civil court jury later held him liable for the killings in a wrongful death lawsuit and ordered him to pay $33.5 million. Most of that debt remains unpaid. On Simpson's royalties, his attorney, Yale Galanter, said, "Last year, Simpson's royalty checks from all his movies were less than 39 cents."

The Van Halen tour is off before it even got started. Pollstar, a concert industry publication, reported on its website yesterday that the reunion tour, which has been rumored, but not been officially announced, is now "postponed indefinitely." Original singer David Lee Roth has not actually signed to reunite with guitarist Eddie Van Halen and the rest of the band, Pollstar said.

Celebrity worship

'I don't do clubs. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I'm not having no club party; I better have a praise party.' Oscar nominee Jennifer Hudson, telling the crowd at her family's church, the Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago, that she would celebrate her success in the week leading up to the Academy Awards right there, with them.

FROM WIRE REPORTS