Though Britney Spears pulled another court no-show this week, others in her camp are proving more reliable.

The troubled singer's manager pal Sam Lutfi arrived at the office of Kevin Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, Thursday morning to give a deposition in the ex-couple's ongoing custody battle. The session continued into the afternoon.

A member of the Spears camp told E! News that no matter what, "Sam would never sell [Spears] out. There is no bigger supporter of Britney than Sam. I can't imagine Kaplan is going to get much out of him."

Separate sources confirmed that Kaplan would be querying Lutfi on whether he helped Spears strike a deal with paparazzi agency X17, entailing payouts for money shots of the singer's day-to-day existence.

Speculation that Spears was in cahoots with the paparazzi intensified this week, when photog Alison Silva told the New York Post the singer tips off the hordes of shutterbugs to her every move.

"Britney is in on it. [She] calls the paparazzi before she goes out. We know 15 minutes before she leaves the house. It's all staged," Silva said.

Lutfi had eluded Kaplan's clutches for weeks, managing to dodge several attempts at being served before one of Kaplan's agents finally got the subpoena to Lutfi in early November.

But Lutfi wasn't the only one giving his insights into Spears this week.

Spears' former bodyguard Tony Baretto also gave a deposition at the office of his attorney, Gloria Allred, on Wednesday.

Allred said the two-hour sitdown was to prepare her client to testify in the Spears-Federline case when it goes to trial.

"We discussed several issues, including Britney's drug use, her nudity and her ability to drive with her children," the legal eagle told In Touch Weekly.

Spears herself is expected to resume her deposition in the coming days.

Kaplan has already grilled several Spears hangers-on past and present, including buddy Alli Sims, former manager Larry Rudolph and former bodyguard Daimon Shippen. Also on the to-do list for this month: former bodyguard Lonni Jones, former manager Adam Leber, actress pal Christina Cindrich and Ashley Chapman.

On Wednesday, Spears made a brief appearance at Los Angeles County Superior Court for an emergency hearing at which she was meant to ask the judge to restore visitation with her sons.

However, she departed minutes later without ever entering the courtroom, leading the court commissioner to uphold the suspension of her visitation rights.

Spears has not seen her boys, one-year-old Jayden James and two-year-old Sean Preston, since Jan. 3.

Barring any more emergency hearings, attorneys for both Spears and Federline are due back in court Feb. 4 for the next scheduled hearing in the custody battle.

Though Spears' attorney, Anne Kiley, and her law firm of Trope and Trope had filed a motion with the judge earlier this month asking for permission to quit as the singer's counsel, they withdrew it Wednesday, apparently electing to give the business of representing Spears another chance.

i'm didn't read this whole article.. but geez people leave the girl alone

i was watching TMZ the other day and they mentioned she was a no show to her court date... well, actually she showed up got out the vehicle and was mobbed by photographers.. she couldn't walk 2 feet so she got back in the vehicle and left... no wonder this poor girl is going crazy....

as Chris Crocker would say "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!!"

She needs to leave the country, get away for awhile. Those photographer's should leave her alone.

There are to many other things going on in this country that are newsworthy. Leave the poor girl alone.

She might end up being another Nicole Smith.