Child welfare agents pay visit to Britney Spears

Britney Spears

LOS ANGELES - Two months after she caused a stir by driving a car while holding her infant son in her lap, pop star Britney Spears received an unexplained house call from child welfare authorities.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said deputies accompanied workers from the county's Department of Children and Family Services on a Saturday visit to Spears' home in the beachfront enclave of Malibu.

The spokesman, Sgt. Ken Cheurn, declined to discuss what prompted the DCFS house call, saying, "It was their investigation." But he said the matter was settled at the time of the visit and called the incident "a big nothing."

In February, photographs of Spears driving a car with her then-five-month old son, Sean, on her lap behind the wheel ignited a media uproar and led sheriff's deputies to visit Spears' home at the request of county child welfare agents.

Spears later issued a statement saying she had "made a mistake" when she pulled her sport utility vehicle out of the parking lot of a coffee shop without first strapping her son into his car seat, a violation of motor safety laws.

The singer said then that she was reacting to a "frightful" encounter with "physically aggressive" paparazzi, although the photo agency that took the pictures has denied Spears' claim that photographers were hounding her.

- REUTERS