Britney's former friend faces restraining order

A former paparazzi friend of pop superstar Britney Spears - inseparable from the singer in the last few years - has received a three-year restraining order from her, a Los Angeles court said Wednesday.

Adnan Ghalib, a photographer who appeared alongside Spears in a series of public episodes leading to her hospitalization for psychiatric problems, was ordered to stay away from the singer and her family until March 2012.

Judge Aviva Bobb ruled in favor of an order brought by her father, Jamie Spears, the singer's legal representative.

Jamie Spears also sought court protection for his daughter from another of her former close friends, Osama "Sam" Lutfi, who has presented himself as the star's manager.

Attorneys for Spears and her father, who is her legal conservator, received the order Friday. The documents state that Lutfi, Ghalib and attorney Jon Eardley have been trying to gain control of Spears' affairs.

"On the first anniversary of the establishment of the conservatorship, the co-conservators are informed and believe that these three figures are working in concert to disrupt the conservatorship, with an utter disregard for Ms. Spears' health and well being," the documents state.

Lutfi was a manager and friend of Spears, whose mother once accused him of grinding pills into her food to control her. Ghalib, a paparazzo, had dated the singer.

Judge Aviva K. Bobb signed a temporary restraining order Friday forbidding Lutfi, Ghalib and Eardley from having contact with Spears, her parents and her young children. A hearing on whether to extend the order is scheduled for next month.

The documents, released late Friday, claim that Lutfi tried to contact Spears in late December by sending text messages to her hairdresser. The documents state Lutfi later started sending text messages to Spears and one of her father's attorneys, Blair Berk, trying to arrange a meeting.

Spears father, Jamie, wrote in a sworn declaration that he has found Lutfi's phone number in his daughter's phone records.

The documents state that Spears continues to inform Ghalib of her travel "and that he then arranges for paparazzi to meet and film her to his financial benefit," the documents state.

A phone message left for Lutfi was not returned Friday. A phone number for Ghalib could not immediately be found.

Geraldine Wyle, an attorney for Jamie Spears, wrote that Lutfi and Ghalib have "disappeared," and private investigators had been trying to find the pair unsuccessfully for six weeks.

The order, first reported Friday by the celebrity Web site TMZ, alleges that Lutfi has also sent "anonymous, harassing and threatening" messages to Spears' father.

This week, the documents state, an attorney sent a proposal to remove Spears' court appointed attorney. He later told Spears' attorneys that he had been contacted by Eardley and Lutfi, according to the filings. The documents were never filed with the court, and that attorney dropped Lutfi and Eardley as clients, the documents state.

Eardley once claimed to be Spears' attorney and tried to get her conservatorship case moved to federal court. A phone message left at Eardley's office was not returned Friday.

Spears and her father agreed not to renew a temporary restraining order that was issued against Lutfi last year when it expired in July.

At the time, Spears' court-appointed attorney Samuel D. Ingham III issued a statement renouncing their friendship. "Britney has made clear to everyone that she does not want to be further harassed or contacted in any way by Osama 'Sam' Lutfi, now or at anytime in the future," Ingham said in a statement.

Lutfi at the time declined to comment, saying only that he and Jamie Spears had reached an agreement.

That arrangement called for Lutfi to have no contact with Britney Spears or her parents, according to details released Friday.

Spears was placed under the conservatorship a year ago on Sunday. The arrangement has been expensive — her estate has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees — but since her father took control of her life, the pop singer has not had the bouts of erratic behavior, including two hospitalizations, that led to his intervention.