AFFAIRS OF THE TART Spears, Lufti (Photo: Getty Images)

While some are wondering about Sam Lufti's role in Britney Spear's dysfunctional entourage, talk-show queen bee Barbara Walters considers Lufti a benevolent force in the wayward singer's careening life. Speaking yesterday on The View, Walters told her minions that Sammy called her to talk about Britney and said the troubled pop singer is suffering from treatable mental issues, is seeing a psychiatrist, and is on speaking terms with her mother. "He seemed to be very knowledgeable, and he was certainly very nice," Walters said.

But the melee outside Brit's home last night suggests the singer and Sam aren't so peachy. Following an unseemly spat, Brit was left crying amid a pack of paparazzi as Lufti drove away. Boy-pal Adnan Ghalib, himself a pap, says Spears then beckoned for him, but he was unable to get past brutish security guards, who, it is said, were under strict orders by Lufti not to let him in.

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