Britney Spears ignored eight random drug test requests, according to her ex Kevin Federline's attorney. The dancer's lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, made the allegations in an emergency hearing he had called in Los Angeles on Thursday to discuss the former couple's ongoing custody battle. Neither Spears nor Federline - who has been granted custody of their two boys - appeared in court for the last-minute meeting. Under the latest court ruling, Spears is allowed to see her boys - Sean Preston, two, and Jayden James, one - three times a week, but must follow an earlier court order to undergo mandatory drug and alcohol tests and well as attend joint parenting sessions with dancer Federline. But Kaplan claims Spears has violated the court drug test order by ignoring eight out of a total of 14 requests and lives in a "parallel universe". He also told the court, "Mr. Federline doesn't want to take these children out of their mother's life, but what are we to do?" However, Spears' new lawyer, Anne Kiley, has defended the star's actions and branded the drug testing procedure "unconstitutional," claiming a missed test does not indicate a positive one. And Kiley also hit back at Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon when he said the early morning requests for the tests were not "unreasonable." But Kiley claimed superstars like Spears were not used to being woken up at 8am, retorting: "You are not a pop star with a number one album, so you don't know." If Spears is proved to have violated the drug-testing procedures, she faces having her visitation rights suspended until she follows the court order. The hearing continues.

Comedienne Ellen DeGeneres is facing the wrath of angry Hollywood protesters - after failing to act in support of the screenwriters' strikes. While fellow U.S. talkshow hosts David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien have all stood in support of the striking members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), DeGeneres crossed picket lines to tape her show Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Tuesday - the day after the union went on strike. Defending her actions, she told the studio audience, "There's a writers' strike going on, and here in Los Angeles, it's a huge story. I want to say I love my writers. I love them. In honour of them today, I'm not going to do a monologue. I support them and hope that they get everything they're asking for. And I hope it works out soon. In the meantime, people have traveled across the country. They've made plans. They're here. I want to do everything I can to make your trip enjoyable and give you a show." But it's a decision DeGeneres may come to regret, as screenwriters are already attacking the move. One writer for her former 2001-2002 sitcom, The Ellen Show, reports she treated her writers "like s**t". The unnamed writer adds on his internet blog, "I'm disappointed in Ellen (for crossing the picket line) but not surprised... given what I've seen from her with my own two eyes." A TV insider tells the New York Post's PageSix, "DeGeneres is unwilling to honour the picket line because this is her last chance in show business. This show is the only thing keeping her from a lifetime of touring college campuses." A representative for the star has refused to comment.

Actor Mickey Rourke was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Florida on Thursday morning. The Sin City star - real name Philip Andre Rourke Jr. - had just left a Miami Beach nightclub with an unnamed woman at around 4am when he was busted for making an illegal turn on his Vespa scooter - right in front of a policeman. A paparazzo who witnessed the incident tells Tmz.com, "They... crossed Washington Avenue to go to his scooter. They both got on it, and he did a U-turn to go north. He was pulled over within a block. The cop says to him: 'You swerved right in front of me.' And Mickey answered, 'No, no, dude, I'm all right.'" According to the police report, Rourke's eyes were bloodshot, his face flushed and his speech slurred as he told the officer: "What the f**k did I do?!" before saying, "I'm not drunk, I didn't even drink that much." The 51-year-old was booked into the Miami-Dade Pre-trial Detention Center at 9.30am local time and is being held on $1,000 bond.

Attorneys representing Blade star Wesley Snipes are attempting to move the actor's upcoming tax evasion trial from a Florida court because they fear their client will be judged on his color. In a motion filed in U.S. District Court, Snipes' lawyer argued that the U.S. Attorney's Office willfully selected the Ocala courthouse in Marion County because it's one of the "most racially discriminatory venue available." Lawyer Robert Bernhoft claims the court was picked because the locally-selected jury is likely to be made up of "an all-white Southern jury", adding the area is a "hotbed of (Ku Klux) Klan activity." The attorney asks for the charges against Snipes to be dismissed, or the trial moved to New York. Snipes was served with federal indictment charges for fraudulently claiming tax refunds totaling almost $12 million in 2006. The actor, 45, was also charged with failure to file tax returns for the five years following 1999. His trial is scheduled to begin in January. Chief Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway has dismissed the racism claims, stating, "That's perhaps the most outrageous claim I've ever heard made in open court."

Comedienne Rosie O'Donnell has lost out on a deal to host a new talk show - because network MSNBC "panicked" when she let slip details of the program before negotiations had been finalized. O'Donnell was in talks to front a new primetime program for the American cable channel earlier this week (- but admits her excited comments at the prospect of taking on CNN's Larry King caused the deal to fall through. Writing on her website blog, she says, "we were close to a deal. almost done. i let it slip in miami, causing panic on the studio end. well, what can u do. 2day there is no deal... poof. my career as a pundit is over b4 it began." But according to Fox News, it was O'Donnell's reluctance to commit to further presenting duties which resulted in negotiations being called off. The U.S. news channel reports, "The network couldn't afford to make a deal for Rosie just based on a nighttime show. It would have to have been tied into something else on daytime. The problem with that? O'Donnell doesn't want to return to a grueling daytime schedule while her kids are in school." The chat show would have been O'Donnell's first since she left daytime talk show The View in May.

Kiefer Sutherland's tense drama 24 has become the latest TV show hit by the Hollywood writers strike, which began on Monday. Bosses at Fox, the network which airs the show in America - are refusing to air the new season of 24 until they are guaranteed the entire series can be aired without interruption. Fox scheduling chief Preston Beckman tells trade paper Daily Variety, "The viewers have told us that this is a show that needs to be digested with minimal, if any, interruptions." 24's new season was scheduled to debut in January. It now looks likely that the show won't hit TV sets until the spring. It will be replaced by Terminator TV spin-off Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which was set to air later next year, and hit show Prison Break's hiatus has been cancelled. The show will continue to air after the holidays. Cast and crew have joined the picket lines on their breaks as they continue to work on the available scripted episodes. Desperate Housewives and Greys Anatomy are among the other hit shows hit by the strike. Late-night chats shows The Tonight Show and Late Show With David Letterman are running repeats this week because of the walkout.

Teri Hatcher is publicly supporting her Desperate Housewives co-star Eva Longoria after she was verbally abused while serving up pizza to striking writers. The actress fought back tears as she spoke to TV reporters on the picket lines on Tuesday, but the footage failed to capture the taunting she received from angry writers, who felt she and her co-stars should have joined them on strike. Hatcher insists her co-star was caught up in a tense stand-off, when she simply wanted to show striking writers her support. The actress says, "She was upset. It's a very difficult position to be in... We support the writers and the issues that they're fighting for... But we also have contracts and our union says that we have to go to work. We can picket when we're not filming, like, we can join them and have solidarity, which we do - which is what her gesture was with the pizza, and unfortunately it wasn't received well... They were chanting a lot of intense things about all of us. I think they all sort of kissed and made up at the end but it was just a difficult, stressful day." Longoria has since promised to join Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry on the picket line on Thursday. She says, "I support the writers 100 percent. I don't think the writers are unreasonable in anything that they're asking for." Meanwhile, Hatcher insists she and her cast mates are now "out of work" after filming on the show was halted on Tuesday afternoon.

The woman who Duane 'Dog' Chapman called racist and sexist epithets in a leaked audio tape recording is planning to sue the shamed TV star. A taped phone conversation Chapman had with his son Tucker, in which he made his offensive remarks against Tucker's girlfriend Monique Shinnery, ended up in the hands of editors at U.S. tabloid the National Enquirer, who went public with it last week. And now Shinnery is planning to sue Chapman for slander. She says, "I want justice. He has slandered me, stated that I have bad character and repeatedly lied about me on national television." Production on Chapman's American TV show Dog The Bounty Hunter was halted by A&E television, the company behind the hit series, just days after the tape's controversial contents were made public.

Pop superstar Michael Jackson knows the media portray him as a freak - but simply ignores all the reports. The Bad hitmaker has earned himself the nickname "Wacko Jacko" in the tabloids for his allegedly abnormal behavior - such as keeping a pet monkey called Bubbles and bleaching his skin. But he admits he has shunned the press for years because the majority of stories about his personal life are unfounded. He tells Ebony magazine, "I don't pay attention to that. In my opinion, it's ignorance. It's usually not based on fact. Every neighborhood has the guy who you don't see, so you gossip about him. You see those stories about him, there's the myth that he did this or he did that. People are crazy!" And the 49-year-old father-of-three insists he has hardly changed since recording the hugely successful Thriller album, at the tender age of 24. He adds, "That Michael is probably the same Michael here. I just wanted to get certain things accomplished first. But I always had this tug in the back of my head, the things I wanted to do, to raise children, have children. I'm enjoying it very much."

Singer Amy Winehouse's London home has become the scene of an ongoing investigation following a police raid on Thursday. The hitmaker has not been arrested and police have not revealed why her Camden house was targeted, although forensic photographers were reportedly seen entering the property. Winehouse and her husband Blake Fielder-Civil were not thought to be at home at the time of the raid. A police spokesman says, "We can confirm there is police activity as part of an ongoing police operation." A spokesman for Winehouse denies drugs are involved in the investigation. He says, "The only thing I can tell you is that it has nothing to do with drugs and that Amy is fine and she has not been charged or arrested." Winehouse and Fielder-Civil were arrested for marijuana possession in Norway last month. Cops did arrest four men, aged from 19 to 25, elsewhere in the same operation on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

LATEST: Amy Winehouse's husband Blake Fielder-Civil has been arrested over an alleged $400,000 plot to fix a trial. The arrest came hours after police used a battering ram to smash down the door of the couple's London home on Thursday . Fielder-Civil, 25, is being held by police at a North London police station on suspicion of perverting the course of justice with three other men aged 19, 22 and 25. According to reports, Fielder-Civil was involved in an alleged plot to halt a trial in which he and pal Michael Brown have been accused of assaulting a barman causing GBH with intent. It has been claimed alleged victim James King would have been paid $400,000 to withdraw his police statement. As Fielder-Civil was led away by police officers, Winehouse told him, "Baby, I love you. I will be fine."

The card company Paris Hilton is suing for allegedly using her likeness and trademarked "That's hot" phrase without her permission has hit back at the hotel heiress - claiming she's a publicity seeker. Hilton filed her lawsuit against Hallmark Cards in September, citing invasion of privacy and misappropriating her image. But Hallmark bosses have now filed a motion to dismiss the case, in which they defend their right to use Hilton's image because she deliberately courts public attention. The motion reads: "Hilton has become a household name, based in large part on her efforts to draw attention to herself. Having done so, she has subjected herself to public scrutiny and the parodist's pen. The First Amendment does not allow her to respond by welcoming the fawning and flattering, but silencing the critical and comical."