Hit me Britney one more time

Days after shaving her head, the troubled 25-year-old used a large green umbrella to try to beat up a photographer who had spotted her outside her estranged husband Kevin Federline's house.

As the cameraman fled, she then turned her attention to a silver car parked in the street. Whether it belonged to Federline was not clear, but it was obvious that it had somehow incurred her disapproval.

Fury contorting her features, she launched a sustained attack on the unfortunate vehicle, bashing it several times before the umbrella snapped under the strain.

The incident happened after the singer, whose successes include Hit Me Baby One More Time and Oops, I Did It Again, had checked herself out of a rehabilitation unit for the third time in a week.

She was being treated at the Promises Clinic in Los Angeles when she was informed that Federlinehad sought an emergency court hearing in Los Angeles to ensure temporary custody of their sons Sean Preston, 17 months, and five-month-old Jayden James.

Miss Spears drove first to her lawyers' office, then to Federline's home where she banged on the door for 20 minutes, hollering into the intercom: "I know you are in there. Open the door. I need to talk. Let me in."

When she got no answer, she drove around the block, returning five times, each time becoming more irate at Federline's refusal to open the door.

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By the final occasion, photographers had arrived and according to a source, one of them "made a comment which appeared to goad her".

Miss Spears then "went berserk". 'She just lost it, shouting obscenities, kicking out and trying to whack the photographer with her umbrella, then trying to smash the car windows with it.

"She was totally out of control - practically foaming at the mouth. She got back in her car and was just fuming."

Clearly in an unstable state, Miss Spears later checked herself back into the clinic with the help of a bodyguard her mother Lynne appeared to have employed to get her there.

According to friends, Britney's current volatile state is due in part to clashes with her mother. "After she broke up with Kevin, Britney went into wild partying mode. One night she took home two female lapdancers with her. And the next day she told Lynne, "I've had it with men - I'm off them".

"Her mother lost it with her. She is devoutly religious and was telling her it was against God what she was suggesting. She was telling her she was possessed by the Devil. Lynne was saying she needed to go to rehab to cleanse her soul."

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