Spears' troubles inspire ballet routine

Britney Spears' recent troubles have inspired a one-off ballet entitled Meltdown.

The 14-minute routine shows the singer being chased by paparazzi and includes the night she shaved off her hair last February.

It ends with Spears being carried off stage on a stretcher, echoing the night she was removed from her LA home on a gurney following a custody dispute over her two sons.

The Rambert Dance Company will perform the sequence at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on Friday.

Choreographer Hubert Essakow said: "[Her life is] a modern day tragedy. You can't open a newspaper without her being in it. I became obsessed by every detail of her life."

Spears also provided inspiration for a storyline in Courteney Cox's US series Dirt as well as a 2007 art exhibition.

The 26-year-old has been told that she will remain in the psychiatric ward at UCLA Medical Centre for an extra 14 days.