Sideshow: Brit's pal told to steer clear

Just when we thought the day would pass without any news on the

Britney Spears

front, word has come of a restraining order aimed at Spears' friend and manager

Sam Lutfi

, alleging that he drugged her, took over her life and finances and - get this - even controlled those pesky paparazzi who have been chasing her for months.

The order, based on a lengthy declaration from Spears' mother, Lynne, says that Spears met Lutfi in October 2007.

According to documents released by the court yesterday, Lynne Spears said that "Mr. Lutfi drugged Britney, he has cut Britney's home phone lines and removed her cell phone chargers. He yells at her. He claims to control everything - Britney's business manager, her attorneys and the security guards at the gate." With friends like that . . .

Lutfi has been ordered to stay away from Brit and stop the harassment. Sounds reasonable to us.

We were worried that the demands of rehab would keep the always-exciting

Amy Winehouse

from attending the Grammy Awards on Sunday. But, according to the Brit tabloid the Daily Mail, yesterday the intrepid songbird was briefly allowed out of the treatment center where she's been resting up in order to stop by the U.S. embassy and apply for a visa.

She looked spiffy in a white skirt and black polka-dot vest, and seemed to have put on some weight - a far cry from the pale gauntness that characterized her just a while back.

Winehouse has been nominated for six Grammys, including album of the year.

Roistering celebs will have one less watering hole this Oscar Night. Vanity Fair magazine has decided to cancel its Academy Awards party in deference to the continuing strike by the Writers Guild of America, People.com reports.

"After much consideration, and in support of the writers and everyone else affected by this strike, we have decided that this is not the appropriate year to hold our annual Oscar party," the magazine said in a statement. "We want to congratulate all of this year's nominees and we look forward to hosting our 15th Oscar party next year."

The Writers Guild has promised not to picket this Sunday's Grammy Awards, but has not yet extended a similar guarantee for the Academy Awards on Feb. 24.

The show will go on whether the writers issue a waiver or not, organizers say. Some actors have spoken out to say they will not cross any picket lines that may be set up outside Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.

The threat of picket lines has already yanked the red carpet out from under the People's Choice Awards and the Golden Globes. The writers gave the Screen Actors Guild a pass for its awards ceremony.

Teri Hatcher

won't be taking any unnecessary lip from from an angry cosmetics company.

That's because a judge ruled Monday that a $2 million lawsuit against the 43-year-old Desperate Housewives star should be moved out of court and into arbitration.

Seems that said cosmetics company - Hydroderm - claims a 2005 endorsement agreement with Hatcher's production company stipulated that she would not pitch competing products. Hydroderm filed a suit to that effect in Superior Court last year.

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Helen I. Bendix ruled that both sides are bound by a prior agreement to arbitrate Hydroderm's claims rather than litigate them.

According to the lawsuit, "Hatcher's name, image and likeness have been linked to so many competitors' products that it is anyone's guess as to what product keeps her skin and lips youthful."

He's been dead for more than four years, but that didn't stop

John Ritter

's relatives from taking their $67 million lawsuit to trial yesterday. They claim the actor would have survived if two doctors had recognized his heart abnormality and not treated it as a heart attack.

The procedure for treating a heart attack is the "exact opposite" of what a patient with Ritter's condition should have undergone, according to papers filed by lawyers for the plaintiffs.

"One would imagine that having a doctor treating you would increase your chances of survival rather than decrease them," said lawyers for Ritter's family.

Not surprisingly, defense lawyers say that Ritter's condition - aortic dissection, a tear in the aorta - mimics a heart attack and that the doctors did nothing wrong.

Influential Southern rapper

Pimp C

died of an accidental overdose of a combination of drugs he had named in his lyrics - codeine and promethazine - the Los Angeles County coroner's office ruled Monday.

The drugs are key ingredients in "syrup," a narcotic of choice in Southern rap circles that was most famously celebrated by Three 6 Mafia and Pimp C's group Underground Kingz in the 2000 single "Sippin' on Some Syrup."

So what makes them think it was accidental?

Well, it seems Pimp C had sleep apnea, which causes people to stop breathing for up to 30 seconds at a time while sleeping. That, combined with large amounts of prescription-strength cough syrup, is what killed the rapper, coroner's Capt. Ed Winter said.

Canadian singer

Leslie Feist

is the winner of the Seventh Annual Shortlist Music Prize for her album

The Reminder

. Feist is the second female artist to win the prize, following

Cat Power

, who won last year.