Big weekend for Britney - USA TODAY

Category Magazine | Permalink | 18. February 2007

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Even by Britney Spears standards, this weekend packed a wallop.

The pop star, 25, was lying low Sunday after creating a frenzy by shaving her head.

Video of Spears’ mother, Lynn, in Los Angeles Saturday shows her giving a thumbs-up sign when asked if Spears was OK. But the singer has not been spotted since she was photographed and videotaped Friday night in an L.A. hair salon, where she had her hair shorn off. Afterward, she got a new tattoo.

Salon owner Esther Tognozzi tells Us Weekly that after Spears’ hair was gone, the singer “looked in the mirror and said with tears in her eyes, ‘My mom is going to be so upset with me.’ ” Tognozzi says that before her head was shaved, Britney complained that her extensions were “very tight and uncomfortable.”

The pop princess’ camp has made no comments since reports erupted Friday afternoon that Spears had checked into Crossroads Centre, a rehab clinic in Antigua, and left shortly afterward.

But other stars are speaking out:

•Kelly Clarkson. The American Idol darling was in Florida to perform at NASCAR’s Daytona 500 when she saw photos of a bald Spears. “She’s Britney Spears. She can do whatever she wants,” Clarkson told reporters. “She’s still hot.”

•Rosie O’Donnell. On her blog (www.rosie.com), The View co-host suggests, in poetic fashion, that Spears latest move is a scream for help and offers Spears a respite from her celebrity: “super rich 24 yr olds/who have spent half their lives/in the FAMOUS-SPHERE/mary kate and ashley/miss britt/same same same/i want them to come live with us.”

Spears has been front-page fodder for gossip weeklies since she filed for divorce in November from Kevin Federline. The mother of two apologized to fans in January after she was pinged for a nightclubbing spree that made headlines when she was photographed wearing no panties. “I know I’ve been far from perfect,” she wrote on her website, which has been taken down for redesign.

Last week, amid reports that Spears was clubbing through Manhattan, a letter from her former assistant Felicia Culotta was posted on That Other Blog. “I am crushed/saddened/heart sick by the way her life is unfolding,” wrote Culotta, who worked with Spears for nearly 10 years. “Her Family and nearest and dearest … are doing EVERYTHING in our power to get help for Britney.”

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2007-02-18-britney-spears_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA

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