LOS ANGELES — Britney Spears’ friend Sam Lutfi told Barbara Walters in a phone call over the weekend that the pop star has been to a psychiatrist for “mental issues which are treatable,” Walters said Monday on “The View.”

Lutfi, described by Walters as Spears’ “manager and very good friend,” also said that Spears has been suffering from mood swings and has had trouble sleeping.

Lutfi also told Walters that Spears is in touch with her mother — who arrived in Los Angeles Sunday night — and that she has been very supportive.

The court commissioner handling Britney Spears’ custody case has repeatedly ordered the pop star to undergo a psychological evaluation, but she has refused to comply, TMZ.com reported.

Commissioner Scott Gordon has issued multiple orders — known as a 730 evaluation, TMZ said.

Meanwhile, Spears’ lawyers will go to court Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. ET and ask Gordon to allow the singer “monitored visitation” with her two sons “in a therapeutic setting,” TMZ reported.

But TMZ is hearing buzz that Spears’ ex-husband Kevin Federline (and probably the court) will not want Britney to bypass the 730 evaluation process. That could make it unlikely for Brit’s lawyers to win a bid to regain visitation in a therapeutic setting, the Web site said.

On Monday, Spears left the deposition in her custody battle nearly two-and-a-half hours after arriving at the offices of Federline’s attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan, People.com and TMZ reported.

Spears’ deposition has been an emotionally difficult experience that has only just begun, Kaplan told People magazine.

“We are going over things that are very, very gut-wrenching,” Kaplan said Monday night, speaking outside of Katsuya restaurant in Brentwood. He declined to discuss specifics of the questioning, but said, “Just to revisit them even in your own mind would not be pleasurable.”

“It’s not something anyone would enjoy,” he said.

Spears was about 50 minutes late for Monday’s deposition.

“After an hour I would have been over it. I was prepared to terminate had she not showed at that time,” he told People.

Kaplan said there will further depositions in the unspecified future, claiming that he has only worked through “2 percent” of his questions. But he added that he was heartened by the idea of even having the meeting in the first place.

“She came for her deposition, that’s great,” Kaplan said.

In an interview with TMZ, Spears’ attorneys Sorrell Trope and Tara Scott said the singer was “in good spirits” at Monday’s deposition.

Spears, 26, and Federline, 29, have been wrangling over custody of their sons, 2-year-old Sean Preston and 1-year-old Jayden James.

Federline has temporary custody of the children because Spears has defied court orders. The two were married in October 2004 and divorced in July. Spears also does not have visitation rights at this time.

Britney Spears appears to still be in a relationship with British pap’ Adnan Ghalib after they were photographed together!

They spent the weekend apart and sources claimed they had split up.

Adnan has now given an interview to US TV where he claims their recent pregnancy scare was for real.

“She was hoping she was pregnant with my child,” he said. “She was feeling a lot of things she said she felt when she was pregnant.”
He denied the reports that they had broken up: “People don’t want fairytale endings. I don’t think anybody wants her to be happy.”

Britney Spears is courting to reclaim her kids.

Sources close to the “Gimme More” singer confirm to E! News that Spears will appear in court Wednesday morning to ask a court commissioner to restore her visitation rights for her sons withKevin Federline, Sean Preston and Jayden James.

The emergency hearing was called by Spears’ attorneys at the behest of the 26-year-old entertainer and will come two days after she finally showed up for a deposition in her long-playing custody dispute with Federline. The next scheduled court date for the former wasn’t until Feb. 19.

Spears is expected to attend the 8:30 meeting along with manager Sam Lutfi, who accompanied her to the Monday session.

Los Angeles Court Commissioner Scott Gordon stripped Spears of visitation rights after she refused to return the boys at the prescribed time back on Jan. 3, leading to a tense standoff with police and, ultimately, her forced hospitalization. The children, who remain in the care of Federline, 29, have not seen their mom since.

According to TMZ, Spears will seek monitored visits with the boys in a “therapeutic setting.”

Meanwhile, Spears is expected to continue being deposed by Federline attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan in the coming days.

Speaking to reporters on Monday evening, Kaplan said that he questioned Spears for about 40 minutes, even though she was present in his office for over two hours.

“We are going over things that are very, very gut-wrenching,” Kaplan told People. “It’s not something anyone would enjoy.”

Asked by Access Hollywood if he believed Spears would be able to see her children soon, the attorney said, “There are certain things that have to be done by her in order to make everyone comfortable—and to answer any unresolved questions so that we don’t have to worry about anything that occurred a few weeks ago.

“She is not the enemy. She is not being viewed as the enemy, and what is being done, even though it may be unpopular with her, is to make sure that she can be a full participant going forward in the future.”