Britney's "Blackout" Album Released

Attention all Britney Spears fans! Her album “Blackout” is officially available for purchase.

While your out buying Britney’s album, Brit-Brit is attending her parenting classes with K. Fed. The two had their second scheduled parenting session yesterday at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills.

Last week, Britney left the class in tears but this time around she seemed to be in higher spirits. 'Afterwards Britney drove off in what appeared to be a good mood,' an onlooker said.

Britney needs to keep it together if she wants 50/50 custody back with her kids. The Commissioner is said to make a ruling as soon as today.

Lucky for Britney Spears, L.A. keeps mug shots under wraps

If you are a celebrity with a nose for trouble, here's some advice: Stay within city limits or risk having your mug shot broadcast around the world.

Unlike Malibu, Santa Monica or Glendale, where law enforcement agencies release booking photos, the city of Los Angeles refuses to fork them over unless investigators decide a picture will help with a criminal investigation or they feel the public is in danger.

The latest celebrity to escape mug shot fallout was Britney Spears, who reported to a Los Angeles police station in suburban Van Nuys on Monday and was booked on charges of hit-and-run and driving without a valid license.

Stars accused of breaking the law in Los Angeles and some surrounding cities - including celebrity-rich Burbank and Beverly Hills - can consider themselves fortunate. Just ask Mel Gibson, Nick Nolte or Lindsay Lohan, who were caught in less-friendly precincts.

"There are certain photos that will follow them forever," said veteran Hollywood publicist Stan Rosenfield. "The mug shot alone doesn't get you the notoriety. It's the bad mug shot that stays with you."

Booking mugs have long been a standard for law enforcement agencies, and they become part of a person's criminal record. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency said it created the mug shot concept back in the 1850s when the pictures were attached to wanted posters.

As recently as a decade ago, suspects would be snapped holding a tablet with the date of their arrest and an assigned booking number. Many law enforcement agencies have scrapped that format thanks to digital cameras that can be linked to computer databases.

There is no question that celebrity mug shots are some of the most identifiable and most-used photos today because of an insatiable appetite for entertainment news.

There are the embarrassing - Hugh Grant getting arrested for lewd conduct with a prostitute in 1995.

There are the somewhat glamorous - a well-groomed, slightly smiling Paris Hilton after she went to jail earlier this year for violating her probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.

And then there is the downright bizarre - a disheveled Nolte in a Hawaiian shirt, hair askew, after he was stopped for driving erratically on Pacific Coast Highway in 2002.

The most infamous booking mug might be O.J. Simpson's 1994 photo after he was arrested for investigation of murdering his former wife and her friend. He was later acquitted.

Grant's photo was the last known celebrity mug shot released by Los Angeles police, Lt. Roger Mora said. One of Hilton's booking shots taken by the LAPD was accidentally released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Mora said the LAPD wouldn't rule out the release of a mug shot, but it would be at the department's discretion based on a "particular crime."

"Generally speaking, we don't release mug shots," Mora said. "We treat everyone equally."

Sheriff's officials release mug shots on a "case-by-case basis," spokesman Steve Whitmore said. He cited a 2003 opinion by then-California Attorney General Bill Lockyer that said mug shots are part of the investigative record that can be made available to the public.

"If there is a request for a booking photo, we check to make sure it wouldn't hurt an investigation," Whitmore said. "If it doesn't, we get approval and then release it.

"We don't treat celebrity photos any different. We look at inmates with an equality, regardless of their standing."

But do booking photos - both of celebrities and garden variety criminals - serve a higher purpose?

Rosenfield believes the release of the pictures "sensationalizes an arrest in most cases."

"I think it would be great," he said, "if booking photos weren't released, across the board."

Britney Spears Leaves Court In Tears

I'm officially on Britney Spears overload! Like we reported earlier, Spears went to the courthouse in downtown LA to personally ask for overnight visits with her children.

L.A. County Court Commissioner Scott Gordon accepted her plea and agreed to give Spears ONE overnight visit a week.

Although she technically got what she asked for, Spears left the courtroom visibly upset and teary-eyed.

After court Brit decided to do some retail therapy. She went to Neiman Marcus for some shopping.

Britney Spears Seems To Be Drowning In Troubles

Hot Britney Spears Seems To Be Drowning In Troubles, So Why Won't She Listen To Anyone?

One of the perks of being a superstar is that it frees you from worrying about the little things, like what clothes to wear to a photo shoot, how to style your hair, how you're getting to the recording studio and where your next meal is coming from.

Sure, hands-on multitaskers like Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake and Gwen Stefani make a point of being involved in even the most minute decisions about their next project or a product bearing their name, but they also know when to let go and listen to the advice of their trusted teams of advisers, managers, publicists and assistants.

So why does it seem like Britney Spears — who is estimated to be worth more than $300 million — does everything on her own? From reportedly acting as her own publicist/manager/stylist to helping direct the still-unreleased video for her current hit, "Gimme More," to driving her two young children around Los Angeles (without a valid license) and picking the outfit for her ill-received VMA performance, Spears has been painted as an artist-as-island.

Reportedly feuding with her mom and recently dropped by both her attorney and manager, Britney not only doesn't follow the advice of the dwindling members of her professional team, according to reports, she appears determined to listen to no one but herself. And given some of her recent choices, the decision seems to be seriously affecting both her personal and professional lives — and it could have its roots in some troubling causes.

There are two likely reasons for this type of seemingly reckless go-it-alone behavior, according to Dr. Drew Pinsky — host of the syndicated radio show "Loveline" and a board-certified addictionologist — and both of them are potentially disastrous.

"Everyone is looking at this woman and trying to make rational the disease we call addiction, and it's not rational," said Pinsky, who is not treating Spears, but explained that the singer must be suffering from some form of addiction because a person cannot be admitted to a treatment center in California — as Spears was earlier this year — without meeting certain criteria for addiction. "Work, people we love, eating — everything is usurped by this desire to do drugs and alcohol, and all that thinking serves a broken motivation, so the things people do can look nutty because they're not making sense."

Someone suffering from what Pinsky speculates is a combination of different drug addictions in Spears' case is likely to act irrationally and suffer from paranoid delusions, usually directed at friends, family, co-workers and neighbors. Getting someone in that condition to listen to the advice of those around them is a major challenge.