Court didn’t buy argument that ex-hubby could pay his own way

By Matthew B. Zeidman

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Today) 3/18/08 – It may not be the half-million dollars that he originally asked for, but a court has ordered Britney Spears to pay $375,000 to her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, to cover legal bills relating to the pair’s child custody battle.

The ruling was handed down on Monday, despite arguments by Spears’ legal team that Federline was capable of paying his own legal fees. The pop star’s lawyers had pointed to Federline exorbitantly tipping a food server $2,000 for a $365 bill as one example of the dancer/rapper’s financial independence and complained further that his attorneys were overcharging her. Federline’s legal team claimed that Spears was to blame for overcomplicating and drawing out the case.

Spears, 26, married Federline, 29, whom she met while he was backup dancer on one of her concert tours, in 2004. The pair divorced in 2006 after producing two baby boys, Sean Preston and Jayden James. Federline has enjoyed full custody of the children since a court ruling in October, which followed increasingly erratic behavior by his former wife. Spears’ estate was later put under control of her father, James Spears, in January, following two highly publicized breakdowns.