Britney Spears' Fans: As Blackout's Release Looms, Who Exactly Are They?

Fans — some of them closeted — try to ignore the drama and focus on the music.

Forget the head-shaving, the custody drama, fender benders, trips to rehab, wardrobe malfunctions, divorces and all of Britney's non-music-related train wrecks. When it comes to her true fans, the wait for Blackout has been harder than any tabloid travail. And despite having a solid hit with "Gimme More," the buzz around her first album in four years (see "Britney Spears' New Album, Blackout: A Track-By-Track Report"), which is slated for release next week, has been a bit muted.

We asked some Britney fans, peers and music professionals to help us figure out just who is holding their breath to hear the singer's fifth studio album. From former tweeners to DJs and producers who are sure she's still got more music in her, from fans in Britney's traditionally strong gay following to now-former fans, what we found is that despite her ups and (OK, mostly) downs, all said that great music can make a big difference.
"I've been a Britney fan since I was 10 and now I'm 18," wrote fan and Britney Spears Community member Stefania Segovia in an e-mail. "Even though she has let me down so many times during this year, I've never got to the point of thinking, 'I don't like her anymore,' because I've changed as she has in these eight years." However, Segovia, who lives in Italy, said she doesn't really talk about Spears with her friends because they don't share her adoration for the troubled pop star and think it's "odd" that Segovia still likes Spears.

"She has become a woman, a wife, a mother, and unfortunately for her this has been pretty difficult," Segovia added. "About her music? There's never been a song [of hers] that I didn't like — and of course I love 'Gimme More,' I can't stop listening to it. I'll definitely buy the album because that's the only way I can help her and I'll do it because I want to have a peaceful woman to look up to, as I had a peaceful and successful teenager/ young woman to look up to."

That kind of response doesn't surprise Billboard magazine Director of Charts and Senior Analyst Geoff Mayfield. "She's not been doing [her old style] of music for a while," he said of the spare electro sound of "Gimme More," referring to the transition Spears underwent on her third album, 2001's Britney, on which she shed her teenybopper image for a more hard-edge dance sound on songs like "I'm a Slave 4 U."

"Somewhere along the line on songs like 'Toxic,' she morphed into more of a dance-oriented artist and she's been doing that for a while now," he continued. "She's no longer getting the same numbers she got at the height of teen pop, but she wasn't going to keep that audience anyway."

In general, Mayfield said some of the generation of teen pop artists Spears came up with (Backstreet Boys, 'NSYNC) have been able to hang on much longer than previous generations, but he's not surprised "Gimme More" has had such strong legs. The song has been firmly in the Billboard Hot 100 for more than a month, holding strong at #3 for several weeks. He said that the tune has done well at top-40 radio and it's grown from week to week, with especially strong support on the East and West Coasts and in Florida.

Though young girls likely made up Spears' biggest fanbase early on, Mayfield suspects some young men hold a soft spot in their heart for their teenage crush. "The song has succeeded on its own merits, [though] I'm sure there are some people who are turned off by the stuff that comes out in the gossip rags," he said.

Ruben Garay, a producer at CelebTV.com and former webmaster of the fan site World of Britney (who famously quit his gig after tiring of the singer's antics), said he thinks her core audience of young girls has dropped off over the years as Spears' personal life has gone into freefall, splintering her supporters into a number of different camps. "I think that right now Britney has three or four different kinds of fans," he said rather cheekily. "I think her biggest fans right now is the gay community ... and then she has the fans that are just as much a train wreck as she is, and then she has Chris Crocker."

Garay said he also thinks that Spears has likely lost that core early audience who went to her concerts and bought her albums because she's managed to "piss off every single mom in America with her antics. ... So do you think that mothers all across America want to take their kids to a Britney Spears concert? No, forget it."

But another Britney Community member, 18-year-old artist/student Isaac Curry of Columbus, Ohio, wrote that he thinks "Gimme More" is popular for the same reason Spears has always connected with fans: It's hot. "I think that anyone who has ever been a Britney fanatic would probably agree that she's always sounded the same," he said. "Maybe she had a little more vocal skill at the beginning, but her fans know that she's not famous for her voice. It's the energy she gives that's so amazing."

Like Segovia, Curry said his friends think Britney is a "lost cause," and even he admitted to not being blind to the tarnishing of her image through repeated scrapes with the courts and outrageous behavior. Actually, he added, when it comes to Britney, it's sometimes best not to overthink things. "A lot of the time fans grow up and realize, like I did, that what she's doing isn't music," he wrote. "There's no message, no pulse and no meaning. It just leaves you in a trance-like state. [The music is] good for working out, but that's about it."

In-demand DJ/remixer Tommie Sunshine (Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Pink, Avril Lavigne) said that even though he doesn't play "Gimme More" in his sets, he's a fan of the tune because, like "Toxic," he thinks it's a well-written, well-performed, immaculately produced song. "I'm at a point where I'm stewed in totally forward-looking dance music and playing things that won't come out for six months, but that didn't stop me from playing 'Toxic' for three-quarters of a year when it came out, because even though people thought I was being ironic, it was totally relevant," said Sunshine, who added that even Spears' numerous personal problems don't matter when she's putting out hot songs.

"This song is a good song, and at the end of the day ... you go to Middle America, where people don't give a f--- what she's doing in her personal life and when they turn on a song on the radio and they like it, all that doesn't matter," he said. "People in Ohio will buy the record and won't hate on Britney Spears because they bought the last one. In clubs, the reaction is a mixture of, 'Oh hey, great new song,' 'Oh, it's the new Britney song' and, 'Oh, it's that train wreck.' " As for Sunshine, he's eagerly awaiting a phone call to remix the tune, which he said he'd jump at "in two seconds."

One person who is on record as being an ex-Britney fan is blogger Perez Hilton, who told MTV News, "I may be a hater, but [that's] because I used to be her biggest fan," he said. "[It comes from a] place of love and disappointment. Britney, you just need to go away for a while, for real, whether that be rehab or L.A. or somewhere else." Former "TRL" host Carson Daly expressed similar views on the red carpet at the Video Music Awards, just before Spears' notoriously shambolic performance. "She has the opportunity to step back and find a touch of class, I'm sure that's not going to happen," said Daly, who wished the singer happiness, but lamented that her former squeaky-clean "Disney, 'TRL,' pop, mass-media appeal to little girls" has brought on a backlash due to her rebellious acts.

Not surprisingly, songwriter Sean Garrett (Beyoncé, Usher, Chris Brown) says he's a huge Britney fan, though that might have something to do with his work on Blackout. "I'm really excited about Britney's new album," he said at the VMAs, noting that he was slated to have three songs on it. "Me and [producer] Bloodshy did something different for her, something crazy for her, exciting. I really like it, she eased in, she didn't hit you too hard ... It's going to be hot, it's going to be really hot. Everyone wants to see her come back, because she had the world dancing for her. You give her an opportunity to show what she's made of."

Britney has long had a strong following in the gay/lesbian community and "Gimme More" has already become a dance-floor staple in many gay clubs. But in a poll that ran on the Gay.com Web site over the weekend, the support for Brit was somewhat mixed. Asked about general feelings about Britney, 22 percent of respondents said "I have always loved her. LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!," while 29 percent clicked "Are you serious? How can you love trash?" Coming in a close third at 21 percent was "I feel for a girl who's clearly troubled, but no love," and a tie at 8 percent with respondents voting "I love her these days! I needed a new spectator sport" and "I hate Britney phenomenon but still like her music."

The results were more clear-cut when the votes were tallied on the question of whether respondents liked the single. An overwhelming 63 percent said "Love it, love it, love it," while 10 percent said "It's OK, but no 'Toxic,' " 8 percent dubbed it "crap on a platter" and 12 percent said "I never, ever want to hear it."

In the end, former superfan Garay had a grim assessment of who might turn out for Blackout next week. "I think the biggest chunk of people that are interested in Britney ... are the people that just like to watch a car accident happen," he said. "If that's going to translate into actual album sales, that still remains to be seen."

Britney Spears Regains Visitation Rights Of Her Children

Singer's lawyer tells Associated Press Spears has temporary visitation rights of sons.

Britney Spears has regained visitation rights with her children.

Her lawyer Anne Kiley told The Associated Press on Sunday (October 21), "Yes, she has visitation with the children."

The singer was seen driving with her two sons — Sean Preston and Jayden James — on Saturday, according to photos obtained by the magazine and TMZ.com. An unidentified woman, possibly the court-appointed monitor who had been ordered to accompany Spears during the visits, is pictured in the front seat of the singer's white Mercedes convertible. Spears was driving in Studio City, California, according to People.

While the news may come as a surprise, it was not completely unanticipated. Last week, Mark Vincent Kaplan, an attorney for Spears' ex-husband, Kevin Federline, said he expected her to become involved in the lives of her sons after she complied with part of a court order she previously had not met. Her initial failure to comply with the order led to a suspension of her visitation rights with them on Wednesday.

Kaplan also confirmed last week that Spears and Federline were about to start attending co-parenting therapy sessions, as required by the court, and had begun evaluations by a third party as to the quality of their parenting skills, also as required by the court. Even so, legal experts said Spears would have to go the extra mile if she wanted to see her own children without a court-appointed monitor.

On October 11, Spears was given one monitored overnight visit per week with her sons after having lost the right to see her children unsupervised the previous week. The singer's lawyer had requested an emergency hearing that to see if the judge in Spears' custody case would extend her visitation time with her two sons to include overnight stays, since she had passed her first week of random drug tests.

Britney Spears Will Have To Go Extra Mile To Get Back In Her Kids' Lives, Legal Experts Say

Kevin Federline's lawyer says singer is likely to become involved with sons again after complying with court order.


First Britney Spears has her kids — then she doesn't. She gets visitation rights — and then she loses them. The singer's recent child-custody dispute has been one big yo-yo, so what are the chances she'll get her two sons back at all?

Earlier this week, the singer's visitation time with her two young sons was suspended after she failed to comply with a court order. Since then, Spears has made amends and complied with the part of the court order in question, and even ex-husband Kevin Federline's attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan expects her to become involved in the lives of Sean Preston and Jayden James once again as a result.

Spears and Kevin Federline are also about to start attending co-parenting therapy sessions, as required by the court, and have begun evaluations by a third party as to the quality of their parenting skills, also as required by the court, Kaplan confirmed. Even so, legal experts expect that Spears will have to go the extra mile if she wants to see her own children without a court-appointed monitor.

"This judge has been very stringent with Britney," celebrity-divorce attorney Raoul Felder — who handled the Robin Givens/ Mike Tyson split, among many others — said of Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon, the judge in Spears/Federline custody dispute. "And yet, at the same time, he's actually been overly kind, and that's the problem. It's not working, because you can't just keep yanking the kids and the visitations. It's absurd."

Felder recommends that Gordon do something more drastic to get the singer's attention, like take custody away entirely until Spears goes to rehab, since Felder believes she has shown a pattern of not following the court's orders. "She's a mess," Felder said. "You can't be this dumb, this careless, this indifferent. It's as if she doesn't want the kids, she doesn't want the responsibility, because she doesn't seem to get she's had an opportunity here, even with supervision, to see her kids. And yes, if she doesn't get to see them, it'll be terrible for the kids too, but they're safer without her."

"She needs a plan," suggested Susan Reach Winters, chairperson of the Family Law Department at the New Jersey firm Budd Larner, P.C. Winters recommended that Spears not wait for the judge to require rehab but to offer to go before it becomes a court order.

"She can redeem herself," she said. "If she goes to the court and says, 'Give me a chance, judge, to show you I can exercise good judgment, and I'm not the party girl you think I am. Even though I'm not addicted, I'm going to put myself in a program, and go beyond what you think I need to do.' Because if the judge thinks she's doing drugs, even if she's not admitting a substance-abuse problem, she has to acknowledge that something's amiss and show she's willing to put herself through rehab for the sake of her children. Because she has to go beyond at this point."

Felder reiterated that Spears needs a non-celebrity rehab program, a "real boot-camp rehab," to get her back on track. Otherwise, he said, "How can she take care of the kids? She can't even take care of herself."

Winters also recommended that Spears offer explanations for why she violated previous court orders, and make it clear she's going to follow them from now on. "From the judge's perspective, if you snub your nose at what he orders, he can take your kids away," Winters said. "But if you go overboard and do exactly what the judge orders you to do, to the letter, and you're on your best behavior? He's going to do what's in the interest of the children."

In all the custody cases Felder has worked on, he said, it's "very rare" for the mother to lose custody entirely, yet he believed Federline will win in this case. "I think that will be the final decision," he said. "Kevin will get permanent custody. The options are very limited at this point. And if she doesn't go to rehab, she should just give up."

"I think ultimately they'll end up with shared parenting," Winters countered. "It takes two parents to bring a child into the world, and it takes two to raise a child. That's what the court is looking to do. That's got to be everybody's goal: joint custody. Nobody wins with sole custody, least of all the kids. And if she can show she's fit, she'll have a chance."

And now, CMJ’ers, something from the left end of the musical spectrum — last night a decently sized, but still smaller than it should have been crowd

Singer's visitation with sons 'is suspended pending [her] compliance with court orders,' according to document released Thursday.

Just one week after her visitation rights with her sons were expanded, Britney Spears has lost the right to be with them yet again.

Legal representatives for the singer and her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, had an ex-parte hearing for an hour on Wednesday with Commissioner Scott M. Gordon, the judge in the couple's custody case. The emergency hearing — for which neither Spears nor Federline were present — was held at the request of Federline's attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan, who one week ago criticized Spears for requesting an emergency hearing to get overnight stays with her two children.

According to a court document released Thursday (October 18), Kaplan's request that Spears lose custody was granted. "[Spears'] visitation with minor children is suspended pending [her] compliance with court orders," the document reads. The orders are not specified in the document, as the hearing was closed and the rest of the transcript is sealed.

Spears and Federline are both required to be present for the next hearing in the custody dispute, to be held October 26. Gordon has requested that, at the hearing, the parenting coach have a report ready to share with the court on Spears' progress. Spears was previously ordered to partake in random drug testing, individual counseling and parenting coaching, while also attending joint co-parenting counseling and re-enrolling in a Parenting Without Conflict program with Federline.

Spears was temporarily stripped of custody on October 1 and was later granted visitation rights approximately every other day with Sean Preston and Jayden James, so long as a court-appointed monitor would be present. Last week, the couple's lawyers compromised outside of the courtroom to give the singer one overnight visit per week, since she had made progress by passing her first week of random drug tests.

Spears' attorney did not return requests for comment by press time.

Britney Spears Booked On Traffic Charges

Singer was photographed and fingerprinted Monday night.


Just weeks after finally getting her California driver's license, Britney Spears turned herself in to Los Angeles police Monday night in connection with a pair of minor traffic offenses. Reuters reported that a gum-chewing Spears, wearing a black minidress, leather jacket and large designer sunglasses, spent 45 minutes being fingerprinted and photographed at a police station in the Los Angeles suburb of Van Nuys around 9 p.m. PT.

The singer was booked for an August 6 incident in a Los Angeles parking lot where her car scraped up against another parked vehicle — an incident that was captured on film by some of the many paparazzi trailing her on the outing (see "Britney Spears Charged With Two Driving-Related Misdemeanors"). At the time, Spears got out of the car, looked over the damage to her car, and then walked into a nearby building, not leaving a note for the other vehicle's owner, who filed a police report three days later.

Spears was later charged with one misdemeanor count each of hit-and-run and driving without a California driver's license, (see "Britney Spears Now Has A Valid Driver's License"), and is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges October 25 in Van Nuys Superior Court. Each count carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail or a $1,000 fine.

Reuters described the uneventful booking as an "oddly low-key affair" for the drama-prone Spears, who is typically trailed by a horde of paparazzi. As just a handful of reporters looked on, she walked through the front door of the police station accompanied by a male companion, turning down an offer from police to use a back entrance to avoid making a scene.

LAPD officer Mike Lopez told the Associated Press that Spears was, "fine, cooperative" and that she "did her business and came out." Asked how she was treated while (briefly) in custody, Spears told reporters, "They were nice," explaining that she was wearing sunglasses at night because she is suffering from pinkeye.

Britney Spears' New Album, Blackout: A Track-By-Track Report

Collaborators Pharrell Williams, T-Pain, Sean Garrett, Danjahandz talk about the creation of Brit's new LP, due October 30.

There's hardly been a media Blackout for Britney Spears' next album, especially after many of the songs purportedly recorded for it leaked onto the Internet. Just two days ago, Britney's label, Jive, announced it was moving up the release date by two weeks, from November 13 to October 30, due to those leaks.

But as it turns out, few of those tracks are on Blackout — most of the leaked songs may have been demos — and the album contains some of Spears' strongest material from these sessions.

"This is Britney's fifth studio record, and it shows a lot of growth as a performer," said the singer's A&R rep, Teresa LaBarbera Whites. "She was very involved in the songs and how they turned out. It's her magic that turns these songs into what they are."

Not to mention studio magic. "Piece of Me," Spears' mission statement of sorts, finds the singer so vocoder-ized that it's hard to tell where the real Britney begins and ends — which is part of the point. "I'm Mrs. 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,' I'm Mrs. 'Oh my God, that Britney's shameless," she "sings" while dissecting some of her own media coverage. She sings "you want a piece of me?" with moans and sighs, as if she's offering herself up on a platter, but then she tweaks the idea with a wink, suggesting she's "bad media karma" and that we're all going to suffer in the end. "Now are you sure you want a piece of me?"

"Radar" — produced, like "Piece of Me," by Bloodshy & Avant (the Swedish duo did "Freakshow" and "Toy Soldier" as well) — also tries for an electro/Eurodisco approach, but keeps Spears' vocals more in the foreground. Instead of emulating a video game, she's accompanied sparingly by sonar pulses and distorted synths to keep the sound dangerous, because she's on the prowl. "I got my eye on you," she speaks at one point. "I can't let you get away."

The uptempo "Break the Ice" might have been a stronger album leadoff track than "Gimme More" (see "Britney Spears Fans [And Haters] Weigh In On 'Gimme More' Video"), since she re-introduces herself at the top and apologizes for being gone for so long. "It's about two people, a girl and a guy," Keri Hilson, one of the song's writers, said, "and the girl is saying, 'You're a little cold. Let me warm things up and break the ice.' " Here, Spears' breathy vocals are layered, so that she's singing, "Hot hot hot — ahh," on top of the chorus, and stopping the song à la Janet Jackson to say, "I like this part. It feels kind of good."

The Giorgio Moroder-inspired "Heaven on Earth" is far more layered — which is a good thing, considering her vocals are especially airy here. Three different vocal lines take place over the throbbing beat, in a way similar to Moroder's signature song, Donna Summer's disco classic "I Feel Love." Reciting what she wants as a come-on in one line ("Your love, your teeth, your tongue"), she tells her lover sleepily to "lay your head on my chest and drift away," while simultaneously singing in a more bouncy style in a third lyric: "You've taken me so far away, one look and you stop time." It's one of the more complex tracks she's attempted, with whispers sneaking in and out of other lyrics so that two or three songs could be happening at once.

By comparison, "Get Naked (I Got a Plan)" is far more simple. Produced by Danjahandz (who also did "Gimme More"), it's simply meant to be an uptempo dance track. "My body is calling for you bad, boy," she sings amid squiggly synth lines as a separate male vocal line makes the song sound tipsy. "I just want to take it off," she sings in response. "She wanna dance, she wanna dance, she wanna dance," Danja said of that track. "That's all she want to say. She just wanted high-energy music, and that's what we did."

"No disrespect to Danja, but 'Gimme More' is definitely not the best joint," said Sean Garrett, who co-produced and sang on "Toy Soldier." "They just warming up. I got the 'Whoop!' It's starting this artillery style of heat. It's going to be hot."

Garrett said that while most of the album "is definitely dance," a lot of the songs are also talking about Spears' life, "how she feels, how she sees things. It's hard to stay in the pop world that long," he said. "Obviously, she has something special. She's just down-to-earth. She's her. She's not trying to be nobody else but her. And she makes mistakes — we all make mistakes — but you gotta love her. She'll have the world dancing for her, if you give her an opportunity to show what she's made of."

And according to the bouncy "Hot as Ice" (known as "Cold as Fire" to those who heard the leaked version), Britney is made of fire and ice. "I'm just a girl with the ability to drive a man crazy," she sings in a higher register, as if she's trying to sound like a little girl. "Make him call me 'mama,' make him my new baby." T-Pain, who arranged the song and provided background vocals, said Spears was ultra-professional when they recorded the track, even though she was in the midst of her purported "breakdown."

"I thought she was going to be sitting on the couch eating Doritos or nachos or something," he said, "but she came in, shook my hand, gave me a hug and went right in the booth. She got in there and put it down" (see "T-Pain Talks About Recording With Britney Spears: 'She Was About Her Business' ").

Likewise, Hilson said she was amazed at Spears' work ethic — considering she was very pregnant when they did "Break the Ice" and "Perfect Lover," which is just about what it sounds like. "It's just, 'I would be the perfect lover for you,' " Hilson explained.

"When we were arranging the vocals in the studio at her house," she added, "she was about eight months pregnant, and she was standing up in the vocal booth, just banging it out. Three weeks later, she had the baby."

Despite everything going on in her life during the making of Blackout, all of Britney's co-workers said she put the music first. That was a huge accomplishment in itself, said Pharrell Williams, who produced her closing track, "Why Should I Be Sad."

"She's going through a lot that people don't recognize," Pharrell said. "You got to understand, she was a child star and she's held on way longer than most people can. You got to understand the pressure. Her record is cool, but you got to give her a second to get things back together. You're seeing a reality show that no one's producing, that no one's directing, and that's a problem."

The album, though, had plenty of producers adding to the mix in many different ways. "There's plenty in there for people to love," Danja said. "Take your pick. If you're a fan of Britney, you're going to love it."

Blackout's track list, according to Jive Records:

1. "Gimme More"
2. "Piece of Me"
3. "Radar"
4. "Break the Ice"
5. "Heaven on Earth"
6. "Get Naked (I Got a Plan)"
7. "Freakshow"
8. "Toy Soldier"
9. "Hot as Ice"
10. "Ooh Ooh Baby"
11. "Perfect Lover"
12. "Why Should I Be Sad"

Britney Spears Granted One Overnight Visit Per Week With Kids

Singer, who has been passing drug tests, had to testify at hearing; weekly visit with sons will be monitored.

Britney Spears has been given one monitored overnight visit per week with her sons after losing the right to see her children unsupervised last week. The singer's lawyer requested an emergency hearing on Thursday (October 11) to see if the judge in Spears' custody case would extend her visitation time with her two sons to include overnight stays, now that she's passed her first week of random drug tests. Ex-husband Kevin Federline initially opposed the request outright, but the judge, Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon, asked the couple to work out a compromise.

They met for 45 minutes and didn't reach one, at which point Gordon asked them to try again to work out an arrangement. Following the hearing, Federline's lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan said Commissioner Gordon was appreciative that the could have brokered an agreement.

In order to even get the once-weekly, monitored overnight visitation rights, Spears had to agree to meet other conditions, as Federline wanted to make sure the kids were "protected." The specifics of those conditions were not provided, nor was it disclosed which night she will get the overnight visit.

"He agreed, he didn't have to allow additional time provided there were assurances in place," Kaplan told reporters after the hearing.

In cases in which economics or other factors are an issue, family members are sometimes allowed to act as monitors. But counsel for Federline opposed the notion on the grounds that having a family member be the monitor would be a conflict of interest. The monitor, therefore, will not be changed.

Although not compelled to be at court, Spears arrived at noon after a phone call from her lawyer. The singer testified at the hearing — and was described by a court officer as having a "soft and respectful voice." The content of her testimony is not being made public. When Spears left the courthouse after the hearing, her white Mercedes was mobbed by photographers and cameramen as she was stopped at a red light.

Kaplan had opposed the hearing on the grounds that it was premature, as Spears' progress report is scheduled to be submitted to the court on October 22, with a hearing to follow on October 26 to reassess. "The fact that a party, one week after a full court hearing, attempts to change the orders of the court, in the absence of an emergency or without any new facts, suggests a continued lack of respect and understanding for what an order of the court actually means," Kaplan said in a statement.

"We hope she made progress," he reiterated after the hearing. "[But] again, we're a week into an order."

Spears' attorney, Anne Kiley, counter-argued that the singer's request was for the benefit of the children, because the current visitation schedule is disruptive to the boys' sleeping schedules and requires them to be woken up from their naps. Kiley called it "traumatizing" for Sean Preston and Jayden James to be without their mother, but Gordon countered that it could be just as traumatizing for the boys to be around a mother who has substance-abuse and emotional issues.

"I think the fairest way to put it is that it is a compromise between two parties," Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini said. "[Commissioner Gordon] emphasized that this is a relationship between young parents. [He] wants to be sure that their commitment level to be good parents are what he thinks is necessary."