Dr. Phil
Gossip

Struggling crooner and Roger Clemens mistress Mindy McCready is headed to rehab after trying to finish herself off with vodka and Ambien - and ding dang it, Dr. Phil's inserting himself into the whole shebang!

McCready went off the deep end late last week after getting dumped by her boyfriend and collapsed while on the telephone with her mother.

She downed a bottle of vods and pills in what sources say was a suicide attempt. This followed a pair of spectacular arrests earlier this year.

She's now headed to Arizona for treatment, and a source says that was all the brainchild of none other than Dr. Blowhard, er, Phil, himself.

Hoping to get some cash and publicity lend a helping hand, the selfless Phil has taken Mindy McCready under his wing as a "personal project."

As for whether or not she'll be on the show, time will tell. We just want him to take on DMX as his next pet project. Now that would be good TV.

A new chapter in Dr. Phil's publicity crisis was written over the weekend, and some sources close to the show wonder whether his show will survive.

NOTE: Cross your fingers that it won't!

Already having the year from hell, the shrink and daytime talk show host is under some intense scrutiny for posting $30,000 bail for Mercades Nichols, one of eight teens arrested for severely beating another teenager in Florida.

The Dr. Phil show has issued a statement saying that "certain staff members went beyond our guidelines (re: the bail being paid)," but a source close to the show's production fears that this incident could be the final straw.

"It's getting desperate behind the scenes. Dr. Phil is so demanding, and there's a feeling anyone will do anything for the get. But it creates chaos. I don't know how much longer everyone can take it," a source told MSNBC.

Dr. Phil just wants to help... by meddling and trying to cash in.

The talk-show shrink earlier this year came under fire for spreading word that he'd visited Britney Spears at Cedar-Sinai at the request of the family, and was going to be the one to save the troubled pop star.

Later on, however, with the recovering pop singer still in the hospital, a doubt began to emerge as to whether the self-serving hack sought the publicity from getting involved, rather than the Spears family really requesting his services.

Thus, credibility concerns are front and center right now.

"People don't trust him like they used to," a source revealed. "The Britney Spears incident was beyond embarrassing. How do you bounce back from this?"

Does that mean Dr. Phil's days with the show are numbered?

Rumors about Oprah Winfrey's Harpo productions cutting ties with Dr. Phil have been circulating for months, but even if Harpo did pull out, it's still CBS TV that handles the day-to-day production of the show. Stay tuned.

The LAPD slapped Britney Spears with a temporary restraining order last Thursday during her custody standoff, celebrity news sources report.

Called an "emergency protective order," it is enforced for five business days. LAPD officers took this step to "stabilize the situation," Kevin Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, confirmed to People.

Mark Vincent Kaplan, who did not request the restraining order, declined to say whether he would seek to extend it beyond five days.

"Kevin doesn't want to keep his kids from being involved in [Spears'] life. But foremost is that the children be in an environment of structure [and] stability," he said. "The next goal in this process is to get things to a point where both parents are able to participate fully in their [children's] lives."

Spears, 26, was stripped of all custody and visitation rights with Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, pending her next hearing January 14.

Meanwhile, her family is now blasting Dr. Phil McGraw for "breaching their trust and misleading the public" in speaking out about his visit with her.

"He was not invited to make this a public display," Lou Taylor, spokesman for Brit's mom, Lynne Spears, said on Today this morning.

Taylor denied Dr. Phil's claims that Britney's parents planned to appear on his talk show following her stint in L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last week, calling McGraw's plans to do a show on Britney "self-serving."

The day he visited Britney in the hospital �" Dr. Phil claimed Lynne called him to come intervene �" he released a statement saying Britney Spears that was "in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention" and that he planned to address her mental situation on an upcoming episode of Dr. Phil Now.

Of media criticism surrounding his association with Spears, Phil fired back in a statement released Monday, saying "they want to criticize me for trying to help her? Get real. She needs less publicity, not more!"

Regardless, the increasingly insane Britney has put her family in a tough spot. "She needs to be on suicide watch," her aunt, Chanda McGovern, said.

This is bad news for celebrity gossip, but good news for humanity.

Bowing to public pressure, Dr. Phil has pulled the plug on his Britney Spears special tomorrow, as he had planned after meeting the train wreck in L.A.

Summoned to the hospital by Lynne Spears this past weekend after Britney's infamous mental spazz-fest, the good doctor planned a show about it.

But it's now off. Why? In a statement on his site, Dr. Phil writes:

"As was widely reported this weekend, at the request of concerned family members, I visited Britney Spears in the hospital. The details of that visit will, of course, remain private. We had planned to tape a "Dr. Phil Now" special show today, focusing not on the tabloid side of Britney Spears' latest problems, but instead on the very serious issues surrounding this case.

Clearly it is not just Britney's family struggling to protect adult children who cannot be ordered or compelled to seek help. Because the Spears situation is too intense at this time, and out of consideration to the family, I have made the decision not to move forward with the taping at this particular time. Britney and her family are in our prayers, and we ask that they be in yours."

*Tear* Awww. Dr. Phil, you big sap, you. You know what? You're in our prayers here at The Hollywood Gossip, big fella.

NOTE: Said prayers may or may not involve you being hit by a bus.

In light of his recent heroics - coming to the rescue of the troubled Britney Spears at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center - Dr. Phil is set to publish a new memoir.

With their daughter on lockdown after a complete mental meltdown, did Lynne and Jamie Spears trust the medical professionals at Cedars-Sinai?

Hells no. They called Dr. Phil. Shortly after? Britney was released! It's a miracle! Here's a sneak peak at the Dr. Phil's new tell-all (with working title) ...

Dr. Phil says Lynne Spears called and asked him to intervene before Britney Spears was released from L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Saturday.

"I want to set the record straight. I went to see Britney Spears at the request of her family. I talked to Lynne, [father] Jamie Spears and [brother] Brian Spears because they were frustrated that she wasn't going to be held for a longer time," Dr. Phraud said on CBS' The Early Show this morning.

So, just so we understand this: Britney Spears' mother - despite her daughter being treated at a world-class hospital - decides to call Dr. f*%king Phil!?

Sad, but true. Dr. Phil â€" who will devote a show to the troubled singer this week â€" says he got looped in after Britney was rushed to the hospital.

"Thursday night, the phone rang, it was Lynne. Clearly she was very upset, as any parent would be," he said. "I was first contacted by her family a year ago and had maintained a running dialogue for the last year or so."

While Lynne Spears continues her relentless, decade-long effort to cash in on her daughter at every turn, Britney's father has been falling apart at the seams.

He and his eldest daughter have had a rocky relationship, but with ex-wife Lynne and daughter Jamie-Lynn Spears already traveling back to Louisiana, he was the sole family member present for Britney's mental evaluation.

After keeping close watch of his daughter at Cedars-Sinai hospital, Jamie Spears broke down in tears shortly after her discharge Saturday morning.

"Jamie was really upset," a source says, "He was in tears. When he got to the house and realized the situation there, it broke him down."

Jamie Spears, who supported Dr. Phil's visit, "thought he understood what was going on. He doesn't know what to do. Everyone is trying to figure out the best thing to do, but who knows what that is now."

Britney Spears was released from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday. She is currently at her Beverly Hills home with her father, Jamie Spears.

Shortly after arriving at home, the 26-year-old Spears drove her white Mercedes convertible to the end of her gated community �" but made a U-turn home after seeing all the celebrity news photographers waiting for her.

Spears was on 72-hour lockdown after tweaking hard core Thursday night but was released surprisingly early after a hospital visit from Dr. Phil.

You cannot make this stuff up.

Entertainment Tonight reports that the star left the hospital via an underground tunnel with Dr. Phil because, "there was no reason to hold her longer."

Reports say Dr. Phil is angling to get Britney Spears on his show Monday.

Dr. Phil did show up, but strangely, several inconsistencies have emerged between what Phil says went down at the hospital and what witnesses tell TMZ.

People on the 7th floor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center say Phil arrived at 7:30 a.m. Saturday. TMZ reports Britney did not invite him in; in fact, she didn't even know he was coming. Sources say it was Britney's parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, who told Dr. Phil to go to the hospital.

When he walked into her hospital room, several celebrity news sources report, a blindsided Britney walked out - but eventually came back. Phil tried speaking with Spears for about 15 minutes - not an hour as Dr. Phil's press release states - but she wanted none of it. Phil did almost all the talking.

As for walking with her to the car on her way out -, as his release states - if he was walking behind her, that's news to her. She was not accompanied by him.

Sources say Dr. Phil somehow has convinced Lynne and Jamie Spears to be on his show, which will tape Monday and air Tuesday, but as one person put it, "Based on the interaction between Dr. Phil and Britney this morning, it'll be a cold day in hell before Britney Spears goes on his show."

Britney Spears was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance after disobeying court custody orders and having a massive mental meltdown Thursday night.

Friday, L.A. County Commissioner Scott Gordon suspended her visitation rights with sons Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, giving K-Fed sole custody "pending further order of the court." The order is effect until January 14.

You know the basic mantra of Dr. Phil, right? It's all your fault! Take responsibility! Cry him a frickin river!

Well, according to a recently settled lawsuit, the failure of certain diet pills to get the job done is all Dr. Phil's fault. So there!

The better-be-grateful-to-Oprah good doctor has agreed to pay $10.8 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed by people who didn't like his Shape Up! diet products. The supplements and meal replacements are no longer being sold, as the people who bought them accused the defendants, including Dr. Phil, of making false claims about their efficacy.

They seem to have done wonders for Kate Bosworth, however.

McGraw's name and image appeared on the products. To satisfy the plaintiffs, Dr. Phil and his fellow defendants will be setting up a fund in which the plaintiffs can choose between Nutrilite vitamins or a whopping $12.50 in cash. Of course, Dr. Phil won't end up paying a cent of his own money, as his insurance will cover whatever he has to pay.

Nevertheless, this goes to show that Oprah doesn't know everything about weight loss or those who claim to inspire it. She is an expert at not being gay, however.

Don't mock Dr. Phil McGraw. First of all, the man will stare daggers into your eyes that may blind you for life.

But, secondly, his advice can lead to significant (i.e. HOT!) life changes. Just look at his soon, Jay. The younger McGraw married actress - and Playboy model - Erica Dahm on Saturday.

She might not be Jenna Jameson, but Dahm probably knows a lot about crazy, fun, multiple orgasm, mind-blowing sex successful, happy marriages, as well.

The couple wed in a non-denominational ceremony before 70 guests inside Dr. Phil and wife Robin's Tuscan-style home in Beverly Hills.

It doesn't appear as though the woman that gave Dr. Phil his big break was there. But Oprah did send the couple a congratulatory card, wishing them a life full of contentment and noting that she still isn't gay.

"They wrote the entire ceremony and their vows themselves," wedding planner Michael Gapinski of Along Came Mary told People magazine. "It was a very intimate and beautiful ceremony."

We're sure Dave Navarro sent along a fist bump and knowing smile to Jay, as well. McGraw met Dahm on an episode of FOX's 2004 reality show, Renovate My Family. Jay hosted the affair and it featured Erica and her sisters as construction experts.