Names and faces
■ A judge has issued a five-year restraining order forbidding Britney Spears’ former manager from contacting the singer or her family or making disparaging statements about them online. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny reached the decision Thursday after hearing testimony from the ex-manager, 44-year-old Sam Lutfi, and from Spears’ father, James Spears, who has controlled his daughter’s money and affairs via a court-ordered conservatorship for 11 years. Penny rejected arguments from Lutfi’s attorney, Marc Gans, that the order is an unconstitutional restraint on his client’s free speech, calling Lutfi’s testimony evasive and extending the temporary restraining order she first issued on May 8. Gans said outside court that they are considering an appeal. James Spears declined comment. But, under questioning from Gans, James Spears conceded that, “Me and my daughter’s relationship has always been strained.” In further testimony that Penny said she found forthright and credible, James Spears testified that Lutfi, who was close to Britney Spears in 2007 and 2008 and served briefly as her manager, has been a “predator” on his family for more than a decade and whose harassment has recently resumed. Spears and his lawyers suggested, and Penny appeared to agree, that Lutfi has attempted to incite fans who have used the social-media hashtag #Free Britney to criticize the control James Spears and the court have had over the pop star for the past 11 years. Britney Spears was not present in court. The Spears family has frequently fought Lutfi in court, starting with a restraining order they obtained against him in 2009.
■ Missy Elliott, the creative mastermind who has written hit songs for a number of female acts and created camaraderie among women in the music industry for more than two decades, felt the love back from her musical sisters as she became the first female rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. During a performance Thursday night in New York, breakthrough singer-rapper Lizzo brought Elliott’s colorful and eccentric music videos to life in an ensemble similar to what Elliott sported in the late ’90s — the finger wave hairdo included. Da Brat, fiery as ever, joined Lizzo onstage for “Sock It 2 Me.” Queen Latifah, a Grammy, Emmy and Golden Globe winner, inducted Elliott with kind words as she paid homage to their long-lasting friendship. It all brought Elliott to tears. “I want to say one thing to the writers, to the upcoming writers, ‘Do not give up.’ We all go through writer’s block. Sometimes you just have to walk away from a record and come back to it. But don’t give up, because I’m standing here. And this is big for hip-hop, too.”