Britney Spears Arrives at Court Four Hours Late, Then Splits

Britney Spears Arrives at Court Four Hours Late, Then Splits 1/15/08

Britney Spears did make it to court for a crucial custody hearing in Los Angeles on Monday (14Jan08) - four hours late.

Wearing jeans and a black satin top, the troubled pop star was sworn in at 1.35pm (local time).

Her attorney then asked for the session to be closed, at which point the court was closed to the media.

TMZ reports Spears then told her lawyers Anne Kiley and Tara Scott she just didn't want to testify and drove off.

But that was only the start of a crazy afternoon.

Minutes later Spears arrived back at the courthouse in her black SUV, briefly got out of the vehicle, climbed into the driver's seat after telling photographers, "Move back. I'm scared... I want to get back in the car," and left again.

Seconds later the vehicle came to a stop and Spears' companion Sam Lutfi took the wheel as the star climbed into the backseat - and the Toxic singer drove off again.

Spears then arrived at the Little Brown Church in the San Fernando Valley, California for a brief prayer session and then went for lunch at a nearby restaurant with paparazzi boyfriend Adnan Ghalib.

Ironically, the singer was wearing one of the dresses she wore during her 2004 wedding weekend to Kevin Federline - a designer outfit she was also spotted wearing last Friday (11Jan08).

This all happened just after the custody hearing, which began at 9.30am (local time), broke for lunch.

Spears' ex-husband Kevin Federline along with police officers and paramedics, who witnessed Spears' bathroom breakdown at her home on 3 January (08), were among those expected to testify on Monday.

Federline, sporting a Mohawk haircut, arrived in court on time with his attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan.

The hearing is expected to determine whether Spears can have her visitation rights reinstalled; her access to sons Sean Preston, two, and Jayden James, one, was cut off earlier this month (Jan08) after she refused to return the boys to Federline following a scheduled visit.

That resulted in the 3 January (08) stand-off between the pop star and the authorities who were called to her home. Spears was briefly hospitalized following the incident.

Sources told People Magazin that Spears had "no plans" to attend the custody session at all, ignoring her lawyers' "strong advice" about the importance of the meeting.