Britney's Bumpy Landing in La-La Land

Paparazzi ready and waiting in Los Angeles when Spears returns from trip to Louisiana for niece's birth

By Natalie Finn Jun 21, 2008 12:43 AMTags
britney spearsThornton/Adao/INFphoto.com

It had only been a few days, but the paparazzi welcomed Britney Spears home as if she's the one who's been gone for nine months.

Despite rumors she was going to hunker down and play aunt for a while, the popster touched down at LAX Friday afternoon and was immediately accosted by flashbulbs after a quick jaunt to Kentwood, La., to celebrate the arrival of sister Jamie Lynn's first child.

Maddie Briann, Jamie Lynn's daughter with fiancé Casey Aldridge, was born just after 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in McComb, Miss., where the couple recently bought a three-bedroom home, and just a hop over the border from the Spears homestead in Kentwood.

The usually private-jet-favoring Spears and dad Jamie hopped a Delta flight from Los Angeles to New Orleans on Wednesday morning and took the same route home today.

And although the paparazzi hungrily awaiting her return at the airport were chomping at the bit, enough to warrant the attention of police (who made no arrests) and a few shoves from Jamie, Spears cheerfully flashed her pearly whites at the wolf pack.

Airport police said that one of the singer's bodyguards pushed a camera into a photog's face, leaving a mark, but that both parties calmed down and no official force was necessary, despite the 30 or so shutterbugs swarming around Spears' getaway vehicle.

"She was really happy to see the photographers again," an eyewitness at the Delta terminal told E! News. "She smiled and posed for them when she got off the plane."

Indeed, it's hard to be separated from your constant companions, even for only a couple of days.

—Reporting by Danielle Dixon