Britney Spears doesn’t want her father in charge of her welfare, her lawyer told a court commissioner on Monday, but a court-

appointed attorney who interviewed her in a hospital psychiatric ward said the pop star can’t even grasp what is going on in court.

“She has expressed to me very strongly that her father not be the conservator,” said her attorney Adam Streisand. “There has been an estrangement for quite some time. With him as conservator, that is causing her more agitation and more distress.”

The hearing came three days after her father, and her attorney, Andrew Wallet, were granted temporary conservatorship after Court Commissioner Reva Goetz ruled that Spears needed someone to take over her personal and financial affairs.

Samuel Ingham, who was appointed by the court, said he interviewed Spears on Sunday at UCLA Medical Center and determined she didn’t understand the court proceedings, and “she lacks the capacity to retain counsel.”

Streisand said Spears hadn’t been given any notice of Ingham’s plan to interview her and he appeared at the hospital unannounced.

Attorney Vivian Thoreen, who represents Spears’ father, said her client wants to be conservator because “his daughter is in great distress.”

“He’s not here to take over her assets,” Thoreen said. “He’s here to get her medical help. He’s here to take over while she’s healing.”

Streisand said Spears authorized him to represent her after talking with her on the phone over the weekend, but lawyers for James Spears objected.

Goetz did not immediately rule on whether Streisand could represent Spears. She closed the courtroom after Ingham’s initial report so she could get more information about Spears’ behavioral condition based on his interview.

Spears was originally to be released Sunday from UCLA Medical Center’s psychiatric ward after undergoing a 72-hour mental evaluation. But doctors and a ward medical officer cited California law to keep her for two weeks, a person close to the pop star told The Associated Press.

The state law allows patients to be kept for medical treatment if they are found to be gravely disabled or a danger to themselves or others.

Streisand also said that Spears authorized him to nominate Northern Trust Bank as her conservator. He also told Goetz that Spears estate has assets totaling $40 million and it is currently being audited by the IRS.

Earlier Monday, a child custody hearing was held but it was continued because of Spears’ condition.

Lawyers for Spears, her ex-husband Kevin Federline, and her conservators met behind closed doors. The hearing was meant to deal with efforts by Spears’ legal team to withdraw from the case, but the lawyers abandoned that effort last week.

Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon barred Spears from contact with her two small children after she refused last month to relinquish the children to representatives of Federline after a court-sanctioned visit.

On that occasion, she was also taken to a hospital for psychiatric observation but quickly released.

DOCTORS last night ruled BRITNEY SPEARS must stay in a psychiatric ward for an extra 14 DAYS.

The troubled singer was due to leave the UCLA Medical Center yesterday after a 72-hour evaluation.

But a source said staff decided she must remain.

Britney, 26, was rushed to the Los Angeles unit last week amid claims she had turned “psychotic” after three sleepless days, during which she took a cocktail of drugs.

Yesterday her parents claimed intimate photos and other items were stolen from her house after she was sent to the ward.

LYNNE and JAMIE SPEARS have called in the cops to investigate — and suspect the star’s manager Sam Lutfi of taking the personal belongings.

But Lutfi denies the theft and accused her parents of taking “everything” from Britney.

He said: “First they take her kids, then her home and money. Britney does not have anything left.”

Cops went to Britney’s Hollywood home after her parents reported a theft.

Some 13 years after Alanis Morissette exploded onto the charts with her angst-ridden kiss-off anthem “You Oughta Know,” the candid singer-songwriter is writing about break-ups again.

This time the pain is drawn from the collapse of her well-publicized four-year relationship with actor Ryan Reynolds, now romantically linked to Hollywood beauty Scarlett Johansson.

Morissette says she turned to writing as a way to cope as the union unravelled, a painful experience that forced her to examine her own destructive patterns as she searched for wholeness again.

“It was the perfect time for me to write the (new) record, basically,” Morissette says of the period that led to the split, which she refers to as “the shift in our form.”

“And the songs are in order, so it chronologizes the rock bottom and then the phoenix rising and everything after it.”

“Flavors of Entanglement,” is due in the spring, although a firm release date has yet to be set, she says.

The 11 tracks were co-written by U.K. songwriter/producer Guy Sigsworth (Madonna, Bjork, Seal), featuring new sonic paths for Morissette that include electronic hues and Eastern percussion and strings.

“I just wanted to surprise myself a little bit and stretch,” Morissette says recently by phone from Chicago as she tours the U.S. with Matchbox 20 and MuteMath.

Lyrically, much of the disc focuses on the 33-year-old’s relationship with herself, and less so on her romantic partners, she insists.

 sex tape socialite-turned-reality TV star Kim KARDASHIAN has confirmed reports she’s dating American football stud REGGIE BUSH. The couple hosted a pre-Super Bowl party in Arizona on Wednesday night (30Jan08), and Kardashian used the occasion to end months of speculation about her love life. The former best pal of  who made headlines in 2006 when a sex tape she filmed with ex-boyfriend Ray J hit the Internet, says, “I’ve known Reggie for a few years and it’s been a slow progression.” And now she’s planning to settle down with the New Orleans Saints star: “In five years, I definitely will be married, hopefully. I am not getting any younger but he’s young and I definitely want kids.

Former “American Idol” contestant, Katharine McPhee, married her longtime boyfriend in Los Angeles on Saturday. The 23-year-old wannabeen singer/actress and Nick Cokas (who is 42, by the way) were strictly platonic before Katharine auditioned for the hit reality show. As Kat’s star began to rise, so did the relationship. The two started dating and Nick became a strong support for the Suga-Mama as she struggled with the pressures of the show and her secret eating disorder. McPhee told Peoplethat “Nick is the love of my life. This is a once in a lifetime occasion and everything is just perfect.” Katharine was recently dumped by her record label.http://cnn.comwww.tmz.com/2008/02/03/idol-takes-a-walk-down-the-aisle/