K-Fed's Attorney: Media Interest Helpful
Federline's Lawyer Discusses Britney, Kevin And Their Children
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Play CBS Video Video Britney On Prime Time Britney Spears is back on prime time TV with a reprise of her successful guest role on "How I Met Your Mother." Alyson Hannigan talks about what it was like working with the famous star.
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Video Britney Back On TV "ShowBuzz RAW": Britney Spears is back on TV with a follow up to her successful guest appearance on the hit CBS series "How I Met Your Mother."
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Video Britney To Appeal Court Ruling Britney Spears is expected to appeal to a family court judge in Los Angeles concerning the custody of her two children. Manuel Gallegus reports.
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Kevin Federline's lawyer Mark Kaplan at his Los Angeles office. (AP PHOTO)
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Timeline Britney's Meltdown She shaved her head, went commando and drove with a baby in her lap. Here's a look at past antics of pop princess Britney Spears.
He doesn't grumble about the television trucks and news reporters swarming the courthouse every time there's a hearing, or the paparazzi who hound the pop princess every moment there isn't. And he's certainly not opposed to the TV reports, tabloids and Web sites that have documented every shred of the case that has consumed him for the past 18 months.
After all, the attention has saved his side some major cash.
"If I had to hire an investigator or investigators to provide me with the intelligence about what's going on, where they are, how are they doing," said Mark Vincent Kaplan, "it would be north of half a million to a million dollars ... as opposed to buying People magazine for $3.95 on Thursday morning or going on TMZ."
On May 6, the 61-year-old attorney emerged from Superior Court in Los Angeles where, for the first time in months, there was positive news to report about the former couple's custody tug-of-war: Spears was to have longer visits with her children.Photos: Standoff At Britney's
The change, he said, was "recognition of the progress that has been made, a progress in structure and stability."
Days later, he sat down with The Associated Press at his high-rise office near Beverly Hills, letting on that those inside the case were viewing it through the same prism as the rest of us.
"Everyone who had a big toe in this case at every level followed what was going on by looking at the Web sites," he said.Photos: Britney Goes To Court
Spears has always been an irresistible media target, but the 26-year-old's split from Federline launched a series of antics that amplified coverage of her life. The pop star appeared in public without underwear, shaved her own head at a suburban salon and beat a car with an umbrella. She checked in and out of rehab, got into fender-benders, inexplicably spoke with a British accent and made a paparazzo her personal companion.
Twice she was rushed by ambulance to local hospitals, drawing hordes of helicopters each time.
"No other case has had the media addiction and frenzy that surrounded this case and these people 24-seven," he said. "There's never been anything like this, and there probably won't be for a while."
Each bizarre episode formed a new wrinkle in her custody dispute, and each twist prompted a new round of news reports. The press swarmed whenever Spears was allowed to see 2-year-old Sean Preston and 1-year-old Jayden James, and she was not averse to trotting the tots through known paparazzi hot spots.Photos: Britney And K-Fed
In January, after her second hospitalization, Spears' visitation rights were suspended completely; her father, Jamie Spears, legally took over her personal and financial affairs in a conservatorship - a legal designation normally reserved for cases involving the elderly and infirm.
But in the ensuing months, she has avoided the harsh spotlight, instead spending time with family and even finding success in a cameo role on television's "How I Met Your Mother."
By Sandy Cohen
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Photos: Standoff At Britney's
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