BRITNEY SPEARS - SPEARS IN 'BUST-UP' WITH FEDERLINE

BRITNEY SPEARS' marital troubles are for real, according to sources close to the pop star and her party-loving husband KEVIN FEDERLINE.

Reports surfaced last week (ends02DEC05) that Spears had kicked Federline out of the couple's Malibu, California, home after tiring of his partying ways, leaving the dancer to check into the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The couple's publicists are refusing to comment on the domestic spat, but US TV show Entertainment Tonight insist the story is true.

Friends of the couple tell the show that reports have been blown out of proportion and the couple is expected to sort out their differences.

Meanwhile, America's In Touch magazine reports Spears has sought counselling in a bid to mend her troubled one-year-old marriage to Federline.