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Britney Spears...TZM

TV's king of the pranksters Jeremy 'was laughing and joking right to the very end' Mail

Paparazzi admit pursuit of Britney has gone too far



By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles


Imagine the scene: a psychiatrist is urgently called to the home of a severely disturbed young woman.

Together, the psychiatrist and the family decide to take her to hospital – without her consent – for a mental health evaluation. A specialist unit of the local police is called to facilitate the journey. Traumatic enough, one might think.

Except that when the young woman in question is Britney Spears, the nightmare has only just begun. The 26-year-old star was indeed admitted to the University of California Medical Centre in Los Angeles in the early hours of Thursday morning – the latest in a long series of deeply troubling episodes involving her wayward behaviour, her young children, her ex-husband and a whole retinue of relatives and hangers-on.

What made it a whole lot worse, though, was that the paparazzi pack got wind of the psychiatrist's late-night visit. By the time everyone was ready to move out of the house – a gated home near the top of Coldwater Canyon in the Hollywood Hills – the area was swarming with about 200 photographers and television camera operators.

TV helicopters swooped overhead. The Los Angeles police were forced to carry out an evacuation plan worthy of a military campaign – guarding the house against a possible paparazzi invasion, setting up a complicated series of roadblocks to throw the photographers off the trail, and blacking the windows in the ambulance so Britney could experience her trauma as privately as possible.

The whole operation lasted hours and cost an estimated $25,000 (£12,600) – money the police would much rather have spend on something else.

Last night it was reported that an LA court had taken possession of her estate "due to mental health issues". The rapid downward spiral of Britney Spears' life marks perhaps the lowest watermark in our tabloid culture – an entire industry feeding off the misery of a former teenage idol turned very public basket-case. A business publication called Portfolio estimated a few days ago that the "Britney-Industrial Complex" is worth about $120m a year to the US economy – everything from the fees generated by her pictures to the boost in circulation, as much as one-third more, enjoyed by publications who put her on the cover.

In the increasingly Wild West atmosphere of Hollywood's paparazzi agencies, she alone currently accounts for as much as 30 per cent of total revenues.

Much of this has gone unquestioned, outside of some high-minded media discussion forums at the Los Angeles Times.

Now, though, even some of the photographers who make their living chronicling every step of her meltdown are beginning to examine their consciences, and their professional ethics. One British photographer based in Los Angeles, Nick Stern, became perhaps the first to make a public stand when he quit his job with the Splash news agency a few days ago because he could not bring himself to cover Britney another day longer.

"The Britney story is no longer about Britney," he said. "It's the media circus surrounding her... It's not journalism. Sooner or later, someone's going to get killed. Possibly Britney herself."

Stern said he could no longer stomach the sheer aggression of the pack – many of whom have no photographic training and, he said, include members of street gangs treating the trade in Britney snapshots as a criminal racket.

"I've heard stories of fights, of car tyres being slashed, or cars being blocked in and vehicles jumping lights, all in the name of getting a picture," he said.

"It's now acceptable for paparazzi to drive the wrong way down a street in pursuit of Britney." Stern, who moved to Los Angeles last August following several years at the head of his own agency, First News, said he had no objection to celebrity journalism.

He made a fine living from it, selling mainly to the lower end of the British newspaper market, and felt the press corps were unfairly blamed for the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Nor does he have any particular beef with Splash, who he said were "one of the more honourable professional employers out here".

He has now joined another agency, Bauer Griffin.

The Britney circus, though, has turned his stomach. "If there's a story concerning Britney that's justified, that's great," he said. "But it's gone way beyond that... She has real psychological problems."

A few months ago, those problems extended to her shaving her head or appearing at nightclubs without any underwear on.

A month ago, though, she refused to hand over her sons Sean Preston, two, and Jayden James, one, to her ex husband Kevin Federline, 29, and then locked herself in a bathroom.

That prompted a day-long involuntary hospitalisation. More recently, she was spotted repeatedly driving past a courthouse where custody hearings about her children were under way, but not stopping to go in.
Independent

Zimbabwe sends British mercenary to face the despot he plotted to overthrow



By Andy McSmith and Basildon Peta


Simon Mann, the former SAS officer turned mercenary, has been deported to Equatorial Guinea to face the wrath of one of Africa's most corrupt and violent despots.

The alleged leader of a foiled coup in Equatorial Guinea was taken from his cell at a maximum-security prison in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, in the early hours of Thursday and despatched to an air force base near Harare airport where he was briefly detained and then deported.

Fears of what now lies in store for him will be exacerbated by a sudden decision by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema to cancel a visit to Equatorial Guinea by the UN special rapporteur on torture. Mann is expected to be held in Black Beach prison, in Malubo, the Equatorial Guinea capital. Conditions there are said to have improved since Amnesty International issued a warning in 2005 that the inmates were in danger of starving to death on their daily ration of a cup of rice and one or two bread rolls.

In Zimbabwe, Mann's lawyers had pleaded against extradition on the grounds that he would be tortured if he fell into the hands of the African ruler whose overthrow he is accused of plotting in 2004.

Mann's lawyers are insisting that he should be returned because he was deported in violation of the law, after they had indicated that they were filing an appeal against a decision of a High Court judge Rita Makarau, who had ruled in favour of Mann's deportation on Wednesday. She said Mann's team had failed to come up with convincing evidence that Mr Nguema practises torture on political opponents.

He was on a plane to Malabo at about 1am on Thursday, apparently under an agreement between the Zimbabwean and Equatorial Guinean authorities. In the morning, his lawyer Jonathan Samkange lodged an appeal in the Zimbabwe Supreme Court, only to learn that his client was "missing".

It is another twist in an extraordinary life of an officer and a gentleman who seems to have stepped out of the pages of a Victorian penny thriller. Mann's father, George, and his grandfather, Frank, heirs to the Watneys brewery fortune, both captained the England cricket team. The only other father-and-son combination to have done that are Colin and Chris Cowdrey.

Mann himself, born in 1952, went to Eton and Sandhurst, joined the Scots Guards and served in the SAS until 1981. Early in the 1990s he set up Executive Outcomes, a security consultancy which earned millions guarding Angolan oil installations against rebel attacks. He then joined a fellow former Scots Guardsman, Tim Spicer, to set up Sandline International, which smuggled arms into Sierra Leone to help bring down the regime of Foday Sanko and restore President Ahmed Kabbah to office.

In March 2004, Mann was arrested at Harare airport after he touched down in a plane carrying more than 60 mercenaries, most from South Africa, and a huge quantity of arms. They claimed to be on their way to guard diamond mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mann was sentenced to seven years for breaking immigration laws, and was expected to be released last year.

In Equatorial Guinea, an advance party of 19 men, including the Afrikaner arms dealer, Nick du Toit, received long jail terms. Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former prime minister, was arrested in South Africa and received a heavy fine for helping to finance the coup.

Du Toit's wife has claimed he was tortured, provoking fears that the same is in store for Mann. Mr Nguema has a fearsome reputation, though there is no evidence to support the more lurid stories about him, such as his supposed habit of eating his victims' testicles. But Marise Castro, of Amnesty International, said there were three known cases in 2007 of petty offenders being beaten to death by the police in Equatorial Guinea.

Mann was whisked to Equatorial Guinea on the very day that the UN special rapporteur, Manfred Nowak, was due to begin a 10-day visit to look into allegations of torture. Professor Nowak was told "at very short notice" that the visit was being put off because of "urgent government business". He contacted Equatorial Guinea's Vice-Prime Minister for Human Rights, Aniceto Ebiaka Moete, to ask what this urgent business was, and was told that the government was updating its electoral register.

Professor Nowak's spokesman said: "The special rapporteur wishes to remind the government of Equatorial Guinea that fact-finding missions are planned long in advance and require extensive research as well as logistical and financial resources on the part of the special rapporteur. It is therefore with strong regret that the special rapporteur accepted this postponement."

The men behind the 'coup'

* Nick Du Toit

A South African arms dealer and former commando, he was jailed for 34 years in November 2004 after confessing to his role in the coup allegedly masterminded by Simon Mann. Du Toit, 51, withdrew his confession before his trial, claiming it was forced out of him under torture.

* Severo Moto

Moto is the exiled, self-styled "president" of Equatorial Guinea, who allegedly would have been installed in power in Malubo had the coup succeeded. In 1997, he was arrested in Angola, where the authorities found him aboard a boat laden with arms. He then sought exile in Spain, where he still lives. The Spanish government was accused by Equatorial Guinea of complicity in the 2004 coup attempt. He was sentenced in his absence to 63 years in prison.

* Sir Mark Thatcher

The former prime minister's son is an old friend of Mann, and they brokered a number of business deals together. The South African authorities intercepted a letter from Mann saying he was expecting £111,000 in US currency from "Scratcher" – his nickname for Sir Mark – as an investment in the coup. Sir Mark was fined £250,000 and received a four-year suspended jail term. As a result, he was refused a residence visa in America.

* Eli Calil

The Lebanese-born businessman was accused by the government of Equatorial Guinea of financing the alleged coup, but this has never been proved.

* Jeffrey Archer

Four days before the planned date of the coup, £74,000 was deposited in Mann's account by one JH Archer. Lord Archer categorically denied any involvement in the coup, and was not accused of wrongdoing.
Independent

Celebrity synergy

Friendship is all about memories, emotional bonds, history - unless you're a celebrity, of course

Observer

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