A Los Angeles court has placed Britney Spears and her estate under the temporary control of her father while she remains under round-the-clock supervision in a psychiatric hospital.
Jamie Spears petitioned for the emergency "temporary conservatorship" order yesterday, and was given control over his daughter's financial assets including her Hollywood home and credit cards. The order is granted by a court when a person is deemed unable to look after themselves or manage their own affairs.
It came a day after the 26-year-old singer had been taken to UCLA medical centre in an ambulance for a three-day psychiatric evaluation; she is believed to have gone five days without sleeping before admission.
More than 30 vehicles, and a dozen police cars acting as an escort, reportedly trailed the ambulance carrying her to hospital.
Mr Spears has the power to bar people from visiting her in hospital, will have sole control over her medical records, and can cancel any contracts she may have signed. He was also named conservator of Spears herself after Commissioner Reva Goetz told a packed courtroom that conservatorship over her person was necessary and appropriate: "It is in the best interests of the conservatee to have conservatorship over her person."
The singer's mother, Lynne, was also in court for the hearing.
The singer rose to fame less than a decade ago with a series of pop hits, and the ruling follows a tussle between the singer's parents and her manager, Sam Lufti, over who should take responsibility for her. The court issued a 22-day restraining order against Lufti.
It is the second time Spears has been admitted to hospital this year. The first was on January 3, after police were called when she had refused to return her two children - one-year-old Jayden James and two-year-old Sean Preston - to her former husband Kevin Federline.
Since then her illness has played out in front of a transfixed media, and fears have been raised over the impact of the intense coverage.
One member of the paparazzi was moved to quit his job with a photography agency on Friday, in protest at the "aggressive" pursuit of Spears.
Nick Stern, a Briton working for the Splash news agency, said that high-speed convoys of photographers' cars and motorbikes tailing the star were a danger to her and the public. "Directly or indirectly, Britney is going to come to some horrific end, or a member of the public will," he predicted.