Now that she's a stable, hardworking Circus performer, Britney Spears will be seeing her kids...as much as always.
Lawyers for the pop princess and ex-hubby Kevin Federline have reconfigured the details (i.e. time of day, which days) of their existing custody arrangement for the remainder of her summer tour. But the amount of time they each spend with sons Jayden James and Sean Preston will not change, according to longtime Federline attorney Mark Kaplan.
"As a matter of fact, there was a lot of effort put into the arrangement that was agreed upon to make sure that, although the days might change and the hours might change, that when she has to be on a particular venue, the amount of time doesn't change," Kaplan said when asked about a report that Spears was going to be in charge of the boys more than 50 percent of the time.
"You have to look at the overall time and not just a very limited focus on a particular week," Kaplan said by way of explaining the time-frame misunderstanding. "That is really just an accommodation to ensure that she can meet her commitments for performing and meet her obligations and desires as a parent."
Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon signed off on the deal, which was filed under seal.
"The whole plan and structure of the tour as it's related to custody was that the venues are in a hub...so that Kevin can be in that area [on] days where the kids are going to be with Britney," Kaplan said. "They don't sacrifice her commitments to a particular venue and...the kids, while the house might look different, the scenery might look different, the custodial time with the parents doesn't look different."
Whether or not the agreement will apply to Spears' just-announced Australian leg of her tour, Kaplan couldn't say just yet, but he expects it to be similar.
"Whatever conditions existed before the tour, as far as when and under what particular circumstances custody will be exercised, they are the same here as they would be in Europe, Australia, anywhere—so the whole plan is to have the parents accommodate each other without making the kids have any kind of adjustment."
Spears has booked a new slew of North American dates to take her through September, after which she'll move the show Down Under.
—Additional reporting by Josh Grossberg
(Originally published June 11, 2009, at 11:20 a.m. PT)
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