Lawyers representing Britney Spears have got themselves an emergency injunction from the High Court in London to stop an unknown person who seems to have access to confidential information about the singer's recent stint in rehab from selling those stories to the press or, to be precise, to stop the press from publishing those stories.
The order was granted by Mr Justice Gray who said he recognised the need to prevent "further disclosures invading her privacy". A subsequent statement from legal firm Schillings, who secured the injunction, said: "We can confirm that an emergency injunction was obtained in London's High Court this afternoon as ordered by Mr Justice Gray on behalf of Britney Spears to restrain the person or persons, known as 'John Doe', who has/have been leaking information about Ms Spears' time in a rehabilitation clinic from further disclosures invading her privacy. This injunction will now be served on the UK media so as to assist them in not making the mistake of carrying such further disclosures if approached by this person or his/her agent".
The lawyers added that despite the injunction to stop future publication of rehab gossip, Spears' people still intend to take legal action against media who have published 'false allegations' in recent weeks. Their statement said: "Ms Spears reserves the right and intends to challenge false allegations which have already been published about her time in rehabilitation and which are the subject of ongoing legal complaint".
Spears people are also seemingly keen to know the identity of the person or people who have been feeding Britney rehab stories to the British press, and may return to court to try and force papers who have printed such stories to reveal their sources. Schillings: "Applications are pending in London's High Court to seek an order requiring certain UK media organisations to disclose their respective sources so that John Doe can be identified and action can be taken against him/her".
It's not clear which of the many many Britney rehab rumours that have been circulating both online and in the press the singer's lawyers are concerned with - all of them possibly. Presumably editors will be treading more carefully before they print such stories in the coming weeks while the injunction is in play.