Tony Barretto - the ex-Britney bodyguard who testified to the singer's drug problems before family court - is on the loose and talking to magazines. Among Barretto's revelations - that Britney was involved in a wild drug-binge with singer Howie Day a couple of days after leaving rehab. Said the blubber-butt to News of the World:
[Britney] was in a terrible state, just sweating and shaking. Her pupils were huge—we thought she was dying.
Barretto claims that security checks were run on Howie Day, and that Britney was warned to stay away from him - but of course didn't listen. Then came a crazed phone-call from Britney, who was locked up with Day in his room at the Mondrian Hotel. Barretto recalls:
She said she wanted to cancel the tour. She was very confused. We asked her if she was OK and reminded her she had a show to do. Then Howie came on the phone and started arguing with us. We knew we had to get to her fast.
Barretto, another bodyguard and
Alli Sims rushed to Britney's aid. Barretto describes what they saw when they arrived:
We could see Britney all red-eyed from crying. Howie was lying in his boxers asleep on the bed. The hotel room was trashed. There were half-eaten plates of food everywhere. There were blankets all over the floor, clothes strewn everywhere. The trash was emptied everywhere over the floor.
The entire place was littered with empty beer bottles and liquor bottles, small glasses of ice and cigarette butts everywhere.
On the surface of the dresser, I could see mounds of white powder and a straw on top. I suspected it was cocaine or powdered methamphetamines.
By the side I spotted a glass pipe, which I knew from my drugs training was often used with crystal meth.
Britney's a meth-head too? Christ, what isn't this chick on?
Barretto continues:
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Britney was completely out of it. We thought she'd overdosed. She was distraught, crying. Her skin was all waxy. She looked so ill. We tried to speak to her. My fellow bodyguard and Alli were so worried they wanted to get hold of a medic to detoxify her. We were panicking. We thought she was going to die. There was talk about where to put the detox line it was that serious—through her arm, which would make fans think she'd been injecting, or through her neck.
It was very distressing. Eventually we decided to get her out of there. We grabbed her and took her downstairs. All the time all she could say was, "I don't feel good."
In the car she was really odd. She kept asking for the air conditioning to be turned up because she was sweating so much. I knew that was a bad sign.
Somehow, we managed to get her to the gig and on-stage in time. When she started singing she was staring intensely at me. She was out of it. I kept telling the other guard she needed help but he said she'll get you if that's the case.
On the way home, she was making up strange songs and singing them in a weird voice. Then she wound down the window and started yelling, "I'm a rock star. I'm a rock star."
She thought she was a rock star? Wow - she was out of it.
According to Barretto, this was not the only time he saw Britney bombed out of her mind. Says fatso:
I saw her snort white powder on two nights out at Teddy's nightclub in LA. The first time, she was in a private booth. She was sat with another girl. The second time she had asked me to walk her to the rest room. After she'd been inside for about half an hour I poked my head round the door. There she was with a straw up her nose.
And, says Barretto, Britney was sometimes intoxicated in the presence of her kids:
There were times when Britney appeared to be under the influence near them. It was frightening. ... She has a whiskey stash in her pantry—and even if the children are close by, that doesn't stop her drinking. After rehab she didn't want people to see her boozing. So in clubs she'd have Jack Daniels and coke in polystyrene cups so it would look like coffee.
I noticed that when she was under the influence of drugs at home, she behaved the same way as she'd done on drugs at the club.
Adds Barretto:
I was worried about the children due to her erratic behaviour. She wouldn't talk to them at all and she would be in her own world. I remember being in the hallway, and she was at the other end looking completely out of it.
She would be nervously chewing her fingernails and babbling away. We'd have to look after the kids while she went through her strange behaviour.
I know enough about drugs to know she was not being the normal Britney.
And if that's not bad enough, Barretto says Britney has a tendency to behave like a total psychotic around her kids even when she's not loaded:
Britney does love her kids but she is a fickle mum. When the kids are happy, she's happy. When they're crying or unwell, she's not sure what to do.
She speaks to them in weird, creepy, baby voices, in made-up languages, which they just don't get. All it does is unsettle, upset and scare them. Often she would scream and cry uncontrollably. Imagine what that is like for young children.
And says Barretto:
When they are unwell, her answer is: "Give the baby a bottle of medicine." I've never seen her deal with them like a full, attentive mum.
NOTW also has video of Barretto talking about Britney. Well, they've got him talking on video. It must all be true then.
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