Britney Spears enters substance abuse treatment facility weeks after her arrest on suspicion of DUI
LOS ANGELES — Britney Spears has entered a substance abuse treatment facility just over a month after she was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
A representative for Spears said in an email to the Associated Press on Sunday that the 44-year-old pop superstar had voluntarily checked herself into the facility.
On March 5, California Highway Patrol officers received a report that a BMW was driving fast and erratically on U.S. 101 in Ventura County near the Los Angeles County line, the CHP said.
Spears, who lives in the area, took a series of field sobriety tests and was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of a combination of alcohol and drugs, authorities said. She was taken to a county jail and released several hours later.
Investigators turned over the case on March 23 to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office, which plans to make a decision on charges against Spears before a scheduled May 4 court date.
A representative at the time called Spears' actions “completely inexcusable” and said it would ideally be “the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life.”
Spears has mostly set aside her music career. She has not toured in nearly eight years and has not put out an album in nearly a decade.
In 2021, she regained control of her life decisions and finances when a court-ordered conservatorship was dissolved after nearly 14 years. Two years later, she released a bestselling memoir, “The Woman in Me.”
NEW YORK — After having more than a dozen books of her own published, Whoopi Goldberg wants to help others do the same.
The Oscar-winning actor and co-host of “The View” has launched the imprint WhoopInk, a partnership with Blackstone Publishing that will focus on bringing “fresh, diverse new talent to the marketplace” and on works spanning across genres. According to Blackstone, Goldberg will be “intimately involved” with the imprint, on everything from cover design to promotion.
At least one WhoopInk author already is well known to Goldberg — Rick Bleiweiss, a Blackstone executive who signed up Goldberg's “Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me” for the publisher. Goldberg plans to publish the next novel in Bleiweiss' “Pignon Scorbion & the Barbershop Detectives” mystery series and to release some of her own books, including a follow-up to “Bits and Pieces,” a bestselling memoir that comes out in paperback this week.
“I am personally looking forward to finding new authors, working with established authors, and bringing influential voices into this curated imprint,” Goldberg said in a statement Monday.
Numerous other celebrities have overseen their own imprints in recent years, including Sarah Jessica Parker,John Legend and Questlove. Reese Witherspoon, Dakota Johnson and Dua Lipa are among the public figures who have formed their own book clubs.
NEW YORK — Natasha Lyonne says she was pulled off a Delta flight before it departed for New York on Tuesday because her sleeping pill kicked in too soon.
“Indeed, I took a Lunesta once seated, to ensure some shut eye on the Delta One red eye flight to NYC,” she posted on social media Friday. “Boarded seamlessly with just a backpack and sneakers, eager for a nap.”
The 47-year-old “Russian Doll” actor was responding to reports that she was yanked off a flight after appearing despondent following the red carpet premiere of “Euphoria” on the West Coast. Lyonne was said to have been dozing off and unresponsive to flight attendant instruction on the red eye to New York, where she was to have appeared on Wednesday’s “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
“Plan was to be bushy tailed & beauty rested, as I was meant to head straight to glam for a slot with our beloved @DrewBarrymore upon landing,” she posted on X.
The New York City native, whose show business career started with “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” in 1986, has a well-documented history of battling addiction. She admitted to relapsing in January, but gave no indication Tuesday’s incident was cause for concern.
Lyonne expressed disappointment and indicated U.S. Customs and Immigration played a hand in her itinerary change.
“Was looking forward to seeing Drew & an in depth convo, but I guess ICE had other plans & I was detained instead,” she posted. “Sign of the times, I guess.”
ICE officials couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. It’s not clear if that agency was involved in her detainment. Lyonne was one of several celebrities who signed a petition earlier in the week to close Texas’ Dilley Immigration Processing Center, which ICE operates.
In her social media post, she apologized to travelers who may have been inconvenienced. She also expressed sympathy for Transportation Security Administration workers whose paychecks were delayed in recent weeks due to the partial government shutdown.
