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Britney's Inner Circle: Who Is Sam Lutfi?
January 30, 2008
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: January 30, 2008 15:45 PM
LOS ANGELES, Calif. --
It's hard for any pop culture aficionado to find themselves immune to the paparazzi madness surrounding pop star Britney Spears. But one journalist recently went beyond just reading about her latest travails or watching video of her escapades — Blender Magazine Editor, Michael Gross, who single-handedly infiltrated Britney’s constant roving pack of paparazzi and saw firsthand her relationship with friend and self-proclaimed "manager," Sam Lutfi.
Last night, Spears had a verbal altercation with Lutfi — lashing out at him in full view of the cameras.
"Will you please get out?" Spears said. "I don’t care about them right now. I want to drive my ****ing car!"
Spears offered the expletive-filled rant in her British accent as she sat in the passenger seat. Lutfi agreed to Spears' demands and let her take the wheel, but despite that one nice gesture, Blender’s Gross paints a scary picture of the pop star’s companion.
"What we do know is that this man has a history of very violent temper, of emotional extortion, of blackmail, of using secrets against people in order to embarrass them and control them," Gross said.
Add to that three restraining orders.
The first two stem from minor conflicts with a former neighbor and associate. The third was from a 29-year-old man named Danny with whom he had a long-term friendship, one that found Sam encouraging Danny to share all his secrets.
Gross talked directly to Danny, who had disturbing claims.
"Sam would then go into violent rages against Danny when he felt like Danny was not being loyal to him," Gross said. "He would use the confessions that Danny had made and say, ‘If you don't fly right I will tell everybody!’ In the end he did e-mail naked pictures of Danny to all his family and friends and then be began to make all sorts of violent threats against Danny's family saying that he hoped his sister would be raped to death.
"Britney is also probably in a situation where she has a lot of secrets that could be really good fire for blackmail if somebody wanted to use it against her," Gross added.
Gross also spoke to Britney’s parents about their daughter’s "friend."
"When Lynne and Jamie Spears found out about the details of Danny's experience with Sam they were horrified and terrified for their daughter’s well being and they both expressed grave concern to me about Sam's ongoing involvement in Britney's life," Gross said.
Copyright 2008 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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