No-show Britney Spears loses in court again

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Britney Spears failed on Wednesday in her latest bid to regain the right to see her two young sons after again ducking a court hearing on the issue, Los Angeles court officials said.

Spears, 26, who has either not turned up at numerous hearings or has turned back because of a media crush, was filmed by news media arriving at the Los Angeles court building on time.

But she did not make it to the courtroom where her lawyers and her ex-husband, dancer Kevin Federline, went ahead with proceedings without her, court spokesman Alan Parachini told reporters.

Spears' lawyer Anne Kiley told family court Commissioner Scott Gordon she did not believe Spears would attend. Kiley gave no explanation and court officials said Spears left the building after about 30 minutes after apparently changing her mind about attending.

After a brief, closed-door hearing Gordon made no change in arrangements which gave Federline sole custody of the couple's young sons and denied Spears the right to see them, Parachini said. Federline and his lawyers left without commenting.

The troubled pop star, whose personal life has veered out of control in the last 12 months, lost custody of sons Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, in October but had been allowed to see them three times a week in court-monitored visits.

Those visitation rights were stripped on January 4 after Spears refused to hand back the boys to Federline and reportedly locked herself in a bathroom in a fit of hysterics. That episode ended with her being taken away on a stretcher and hospitalized for two days.

Spears failed in a bid last week to regain her visitation rights after the erratic singer made it to the court house but climbed quickly back into her car and drove off after being mobbed by photographers at the entrance to the building.

(Reporting by Justin Kroll, Editing by Dan Whitcomb and David Wiessler)