The plan to save Britney Spears’ fortune

Courtney Hazlett The Scoop

There’s some belt-tightening going on in the Britney Spears camp, but it’s not because Spears is going broke or was recently told to pay Kevin Federline’s attorneys $375,000.

The reason is that Britney Spears’ conservators and advisors want to make sure that Spears and her two kids, Sean Preston and Jayden James, can have everything they need.

“If Britney Spears never goes back to work, there is no reason she and her kids shouldn’t be able to live a very comfortable life with the kind of money she has in the bank,” said a source close to the Spears family.

As for what Spears has in the bank, it’s not as much as what’s been reported. “Those figures of $100 million or more were so off the mark,” a Spears source told OK! magazine. Best estimates for her net worth are in the $40 million range, according to several people with knowledge of Spears’ finances.

The cutbacks in spending are widespread, according to OK!, who estimates that she’ll go from a “budget” of $100,000 a month on entertainment and vacations to 10 percent of that; her $16,000-a-month clothing allowance will get halved; and as of April 1, Spears will let go of her $30,000-a-month Malibu home she hasn’t been to in months.

“It’s taken a huge team to bring some normalcy out of the chaos that existed,” the source told the magazine. “This team will have to be in place for years.”

Inside Snoop’s ‘One Life To Live’ cameo
Snoop Dogg taped not one, but two episodes of soap “One Life to Live” March 14, and he’s also going to redo the soap’s theme song. What went on behind the scenes? A source close to the production says that he performed two songs from his new album, one of which took three tries to get right.

Slide show   The week in celebrity sightings Ferrell and Reilly shake ‘n bake again, Miley sings in the city, McCartney stirs Beatlemania in Quebec and more. more photos

“He first taped ‘Life of Da Party,’ and before the third take he looked out to the studio floor and said, ‘I am just trying to get it right for you ABC. You’re gonna be No. 1 in the ratings when this sh-- comes out.’” From your lips to God’s ears, Snoop. The rapper’s performance follows a guest spot from Mary J. Blige, and will air May 8 and May 9.

Valerie Bertinelli’s talk-show hopes
“I adore Rachael Ray and I love Oprah,” Valerie Bertinelli said at the The Ladies’ Home Journal Never Underestimate the Power of a Woman Luncheon. But would she model a talk show after them?

“Who I’d really love to model my own talk show after is George Stroumboulopoulos, who has a show in Canada (called “The Hour”). He’s amazing,” Bertinelli said at the luncheon. “He’s smart and funny and sometimes I think TV shows don’t realize that the audience is smarter than they give them credit.”

She added, “I was talking to Rachael the other day saying that I really wanted my show to be inspirational — I want to inspire people and be inspired and she said, ‘So, basically, you want to turn your book into a talk show?’ She nailed it! I want it to be about weight loss, weight gain, relationships, divorce, family. We have a lot of material to cover!”

If you’ve got a moment …
Scoop friend and Glamour.com fashion blogger Suze Yalof Schwartz has, like many of us, noticed that Angelina Jolie’s pregnancy fashions have evolved a bit. Check out her photo gallery and let her know what you think.

Also, make time to catch the March 20 episode of “The View” — “Tudors” star Jonathan Rhys Meyers visits the ladies at America’s breakfast table. The last time he was on the show, it was just after he’d been arrested for public drunkenness and breach of peace at a Dublin airport.

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