News

Britney Files For Divorce; K-Fed Files Counter-Claim

It just keeps getting worse for Kevin Federline, who as everyone knows by now is in the process of getting dumped by his pop tart wife Britney Spears. First news of Britney's divorce filing hit newsstands; then today, K-Fed got word that his debut album, Playing With Fire, sold a measley 6,500 copies in its first week, despite an avalanche of publicity.

K-Fed -- or "FedEx" as the tabloids have now dubbed him -- struck back Wednesday (November 8) with a counter-claim seeking sole custody of his two children with Spears, one-year old Sean Preston and two-month old Jayden James. He's also seeking spousal support, which seems like a longshot since the couple signed a pre-nuptial agreement and Spears has retained the services of Laura Wasser, one of the most powerful divorce lawyers in Hollywood.

"Kevin is prepared to go the distance in order to do what he feels is necessary to protect and safeguard the children and will not be intimidated or dissuaded from pursuit of those goals," said a spokesman for Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan.

Quite a change of tune from K-Fed's last public appearance before news of the divorce first broke. At a TV taping in Toronto on Monday night, the ersatz rapper gushed about his famous wife, saying "She's probably my No. 1 fan."

She might have been his only fan before this week; by now, that number may have dropped to zero. Even when he had the curiosity factor of his marriage to Spears working for him, Federline played to a nearly empty concert hall in New York last week and reportedly cancelled a concert in Cleveland because of low ticket sales.

TMZ.com, which broke news of the divorce on Tuesday (November 7th), reports that in the divorce filing, Spears is asking for physical and legal custody of the couple's two children, one-year old Sean Preston and two-month old Jayden James. Federline, already an expert at these things (he also has two children with his former girlfriend, Shar Jackson), would get visitation rights.

Tuesday night, Spears was spotted ice skating in New York's Rockefeller Center, reportedly looking happy and upbeat. She also made a chipper appearance on Late Night With David Letterman on Monday night, looking svelte in a black mini-dress and trading one-liners with Dave.

An interesting footnote to this story: Britney's divorce papers confirmed that the couple was not officially married until October 6th, 2004, more than two weeks after a well-publicized wedding on September 18th. Us Weekly published a report at the time saying that the wedding ceremony was staged, and that the couple did not actually tie the knot until much later, after a detail pre-nup was hammered out. But a representative for Spears vehemently denied the Us report, saying "This is all ludicrous. They are happily married, and I have no reason to believe otherwise."

--The ARTISTdirect Staff
11.07.06