Amanda Bynes’ Psych Hold Was Orchestrated by Sam Lufti, Britney Spears’ Ex-Manager
After a series of reports of strange and concerning behavior taking place in New York City, Amanda Bynes was placed in an involuntary 5150 psychiatric hold in a Los Angeles area hospital immediately after her arrival at LAX.
TMZ has now learned how the plan was put in place to get Amanda help, and that story is equally as surprising.
The site has learned that Bynes' parents, Rick and Lynn Bynes, enlisted the help of Britney Spears' former manager, Sam Lufti, to convince her to fly to Los Angeles. Lufti was infamously accused of preying on Britney by Britney's parents, which led to them filing a court order against Lufti preventing him from ever having contact with Britney again. Lufti would later sue the Spears, accusing them of defamation and always maintained that he was acting in Britney's best interest.
In the cast of Amanda Bynes, however, Bynes' parents are actually grateful for his help.
Lufti reportedly convinced Bynes to fly out to Los Angeles and told her that given his experience with fighting Britney Spears' parents, he suggested to Amanda that he had advice for her on suing her parents.
When Bynes arrived at LAX airport, he arranged for a car service to pick her up. He told her the car would be making two stops: first at a lawyer's office in Pasadena, and then later at The London Hotel in West Hollywood.
But when Amanda thought she had arrived at the lawyer's office, she had actually been taken to a hospital where the lawyer for the Bynes, Tamar Arminak, was there along with doctors ready to evaluate her.
This story seems to be confirmed by Amanda's last tweet, in which she thanks Sam Lufti for his help.
Afterwards, Lufti took to Twitter to acknowledge that she needed help.
Amanda's hospitalization on Friday came after she made public allegations on Twitter that her father sexually abused her growing up. She later recanted and deleted the tweets and claimed that a "microchip" made her say those things. She was later spotted arguing with an airline employee at LaGuardia Airport and was escorted out by security.
Bynes' involuntary psychiatric hold will last a minimum of 72 hours but could go on for as long as 14 days.
Meanwhile, Bynes' parents are reportedly seeking another conservatorship, much like they did last year when Bynes was accused of throwing items outside of her NYC apartment window and also setting someone's driveway on fire. Their first conservatorship over Amanda lasted until June 2014.
Bynes' mother maintained earlier this year that Amanda never suffered from any mental illnesses despite reports that she had been diagnosed as suffering from bi-polar depression and schizophrenia.