By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Friday, February 1, 2008

Britney Spears was whisked from her Los Angeles home early yesterday by an ambulance with a massive police escort and admitted to a psychiatric hospital in the most public and dramatic celebrity meltdown since -- well, since she was carted to the hospital on a gurney just four weeks ago.

Is this the rock bottom everyone's been waiting for? And is anything different this time?

Answers remained elusive yesterday, as the most over-reported saga in showbiz collided with the culture of confidentiality that shrouds most mental health cases.

Video images of the bizarre 1 a.m. parade -- an ambulance with blacked-out windows, flanked by more than a dozen officers in cars, on motorcycles and in helicopters -- filled the airwaves and gossip Web sites yesterday. What's known: that the troubled pop star, 26, was taken to UCLA Medical Center for what the L.A. Times reported was a "mental health evaluation hold," which typically involves a 72-hour stay.

What's unclear: whether Spears was forcibly committed or went voluntarily. Various publications reported that her hospital trip followed a carefully coordinated intervention that involved her mother, her manager, lawyers and a friend.

Also unclear: what happens next.

Things sure looked pretty serious when Spears was forcibly committed Jan. 3, after weeks of erratic behavior and a four-hour barricade with her toddler son. (Ex-husband Kevin Federline has had custody of their two young boys since October.)

But she was released after just a day -- and was off on another binge of shopping sprees, abandoned cars, strange costumes and an apparent fling with one of the guys from the paparazzi mob that has chronicled every step of her sad journey.

Are things different this time? The unusual show of law enforcement strength certainly gave the impression that this was a big deal. But an LAPD spokesman told us the police escort was simply "for the community's safety" -- to keep this incident from turning into another of the paparazzi traffic jams Spears tends to create.

Gossip publications have described a feud between Spears's manager and her sometimes-estranged parents over who has control of her affairs -- a question that could end up in court. But experts told us that how long Spears stays in the hospital will largely be determined by doctors. They could decide to let her go before the standard three days -- or to keep her beyond that period, involuntarily, though she would have the legal right to appeal.

For Spears to be committed in the first place, a doctor had to determine that she suffered mental illness and posed a danger to herself or others, said Carolyn Reinach Wolf, a legal mental-health expert in N.Y.C. And not necessarily a homicidal or suicidal danger, she said: "It can be putting yourself in a dangerous situation, not taking care of yourself, being provocative, not dressing appropriately for the weather." Which will all sound familiar to any regular reader of TMZ.com.

Speed diplomacy! Iraqi Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie was presented with his country's redesigned flag at the University Club Tuesday, just one week after the Iraqi parliament approved the new design -- and before the embassy itself got one.

When ambassadors become honorary members of the private club, they traditionally donate one of their country's flags for display -- but given the timing of the parliament's vote, the Washington embassy hadn't received copies of the new standard. So the University Club placed a rush order with Alexandria's National Capital Flag Co. and received the new banner just minutes before the luncheon honoring Sumaidaie.

"We wanted to be absolutely sure we weren't committing some kind of faux pas," said John Hardisty, chair of the club's International Committee. "He was surprised that we got it, especially as fast as we did."

Like the old flag, the new one has red, white and black stripes and green Arabic letters spelling "Allahu Akhbar" ("God is great") across the center. The three green stars that were associated with Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party are gone.

Expecting: Chloe from "24" and -- check it out! who knew? -- her much younger personal-trainer boyfriend. That would be actress Mary Lynn Rajskub, 36, and Matthew Rolph, 27. First child for both, due at the end of the summer. With the writers' strike going on, she told People, "I had to keep busy!"

Marion Barry, trying out his lounge act at the 21st Amendment Bar & Grill. The D.C. Council member made a surprise appearance Wednesday night at the bar in the Capitol Hill Holiday Inn as a small crowd listened to the jazz stylings of saxophonist Brian Lenair and his band. After working the room, the former mayor took the microphone and sang "Stormy Monday" as the band vamped behind him. Cellphone camera frenzy!