![]() Lutfi’s lawsuit states that in his role as Spears’s manager, he helped her select songs and artwork for her album Blackout, and also helped her produce a music video. He also testified that he never told anyone about the agreement with Spears, and he never requested payment in writing. In fact, during the trial, Lutfi has only produced a completely blank Artist Management Agreement form he downloaded from the Internet. But they didn’t sign a contract then, either. He also testified that in October 2007, he reminded Spears that he didn’t have a written contract, and they agreed to a four-year deal, which either party could terminate in 90 days. Lutfi claims he entered into a verbal management contract with Britney Spears in June 2007, but was never paid for his work and is entitled to 15 percent of her income from that time period. I keep up to date with things going on in the industry … It’s just something you learn via osmosis just being raised in L.A.” Under cross-examination, Lutfi admitted that he hasn’t earned $10,000 for all of his entertainment jobs. I read the trades for well over 15 years. “Film is kind of in your blood if you have a liking for it. “I’m a native Angeleno,” Lutfi said in an April 2011 videotaped deposition shown in part to the jury. Lutfi testified that he managed one artist before Britney Spears and is now is the co-manager of Hole, Courtney Love’s band. Even so, Lutfi testified, he managed to work on a dozen productions as a producer or associate producer-mostly music videos, but also a film produced by Ben Affleck. But his dream was always to work in the entertainment industry, though he did not study or train in any aspect of show business. Instead, his mother paid for his health insurance and other expenses. Over the years, Lutfi worked as a consultant for his mother’s chain of gasoline stations but didn’t receive a salary, he testified. Lutfi also majored in psychobiology at the University of Southern California, but dropped out in 1998 because, he said, he suffers from dyslexia and attention-deficit disorder. ![]() Nicknamed “Sam” as a young boy, he graduated from El Camino High School and attended Pierce community college in the Valley. The 38-year-old was born Osama Lutfi in Panorama City, Calif., in the San Fernando Valley, and grew up in nearby Woodland Hills. Lutfi spent four days on the witness stand last week filling in some of the blanks in the public record about his life. Lutfi is also suing Lynne Spears for libel, and broke down last week as he testified that he suffered “suicidal” feelings after receiving death threats when her book was published.īut who is Sam Lutfi? Was he, as he maintains, a concerned friend and manager who urged the Grammy winner to get off drugs and reconcile with her family? Or is he, as Spears’s parents assert, an opportunistic Svengali figure who controlled a vulnerable young woman’s life? It will be the jury’s job to decide if Lutfi is a “scapegoat” or a “puppet master,” as each party has claimed. He has also filed a battery claim against her father, stemming from an incident at Britney Spears’s house in which Lutfi says Jamie Parnell Spears punched him in the solar plexus. Lutfi, who claims he worked as the pop star’s manager for a few months, has sued her for breach of contract. Lutfi responded by filing a lawsuit in 2009 against Britney Spears and her parents, and the trial is now unfolding in Los Angeles Superior Court. Later that year, Lynne Spears published a memoir, Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World, that included three chapters about Lutfi, in which she called him a “predator” and accused him of drugging her daughter and controlling every aspect of her life. Spears’s parents said they were worried about Lutfi’s hold on their daughter, and took actions to protect her through a conservatorship and a restraining order on Feb. News reports trickled out of restraining orders against Lutfi, revealing allegedly violent tendencies, financial problems, and his dubious track record in the entertainment industry. As the tabloids and paparazzi chronicled the spectacular flameout of Spears’s personal life and career, the man by her side became more and more famous. That was five years ago, when Spears was self-destructing in front of the world.
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