Lindsay Lohan at London's Nozomi restaurant on Jan. 2, 2013. (Credit: Michael Jaworski/FilmMagic/Getty Images.)

Lindsay Lohan did not show up in court today for a hearing involving her altercation at a NYC nightclub in which she allegedly punched a Palm Beach psychic, and Lohan’s lawyer doubts that the case against her will proceed.

Attorney Mark Jay Heller told reporters the 26-year-old “Liz & Dick” actress “never made any physical contact with the alleged victim,” Tiffany Ava Mitchell, who he said was trying to read Lohan’s fortune at the time of the incident.

“From my understanding, Lindsay was being approached by a fortune teller who sought to provide a reading to her and she politely said ‘I don’t want to participate’ and declined,” Heller said. “You would think if [Mitchell] was a fortune teller, she would have been able to see this happening in advance. But obviously her skills weren’t that honed.”

Heller said that after Lohan asked to be left alone, “other individuals became very aggressive. Lindsay Lohan did not commit any crime, she did not assault anyone, all she did is verbally request her privacy.”

Heller said Lohan will only appear in court when there is an accusatory document, which has not yet been filed. He signed required paperwork in her behalf today.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said the investigation into the case is continuing.

TIMELINE: Lindsay Lohan’s Courtroom Drama and Comeback Attempts

Lohan was arrested on a charge of misdemeanor assault on Nov. 29 after allegedly punching Mitchell at a brawl at the Manhattan nightclub Avenue. Mitchell did not seek out medical attention. At the time of Lohan’s arrest, her attorney said the actress was “a victim of someone trying to capture their 15 minutes of fame.”

Mitchell’s husband Wayne Stevens spoke to ABC News after the incident and said he didn’t know what caused the fight. “I don’t even know why [Lohan] pushed her,” he said. “And we didn’t realize who it even was. Five minutes later, she comes around and tells my wife, ‘If I need space,’ and then she just punched her.”

That same day, Lohan was charged with three additional misdemeanors for lying to Santa Monica, Calif., police about a June car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway. Because of that, in December, a California judge revoked Lohan’s informal probation stemming from a 2011 necklace theft case. Lohan is due back in court for a probation violation hearing on Jan. 15.

Despite all of this, Lohan has been a regular on the party circuit. Last week, she was spotted leaving a London nightclub at 5 a.m. And she’s maintaining a positive outlook. On New Year’s Eve, she tweeted, “i feel very blessed to be able to spend time w/ my mom, family&very wonderful friends. Very grateful.. May only good things come this year.”

ABC News affiliate WABC contributed to this report.

Credit: Getty Images.

Miley Cyrus believes there’s a lesson to be learned from the death of a paparazzo who was fatally struck by a car Tuesday while attempting to snap pictures of Justin Bieber’s Ferrari after it was pulled over in Los Angeles.

Miley tweeted Wednesday, “Hope this paparazzi/JB accident brings on some changes in ’13 Paparazzi are dangerous! Wasn’t Princess Di enough of a wake up call?!”

She said no one should blame Bieber for the accident. She continued, “This was bound to happen! Your mom teaches u when your a child not to play in the street! The chaos that comes with the paparazzi acting like fools makes it impossible for anyone to make safe choices.”

RELATED: Bieber Hopes Paparazzo’s Death Stops Crazy Chases

Bieber, who wasn’t in the car at the time of the accident, released a statement Wednesday, saying, “While I was not present nor directly involved with this tragic accident, my thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim.”

He added, “Hopefully this tragedy will finally inspire meaningful legislation and whatever other necessary steps to protect the lives and safety of celebrities, police officers, innocent public bystanders, and the photographers themselves.”

TMZ has reported that rapper Lil Twist was behind the wheel of Justin’s Ferrari at the time of the incident. The paparazzo hasn’t been named by authorities.

Paparazzi have had many dangerous run-ins with Justin, including a high-speed chase last July that led to the arrest of a photographer. At the time, Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine said Justin was to blame and deserved to be arrested.

Justin Bieber in his white Ferrari. (Credit: INF.)

Justin Bieber hopes that the death of a paparazzo who was trying to photograph his car will slow the snapping masses’ relentless pursuit of him.

“While I was not present nor directly involved with this tragic accident, my thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim,” the pop star said in a statement released by his spokesperson. The paparazzo, who hasn’t been named by authorities, was hit by oncoming traffic in Los Angeles Tuesday while taking pictures of Bieber’s white Ferrari. Bieber wasn’t in the car at the time.

“Hopefully this tragedy will finally inspire meaningful legislation and whatever other necessary steps to protect the lives and safety of celebrities, police officers, innocent public bystanders, and the photographers themselves,” Bieber added.

Paparazzi have had many dangerous run-ins with Bieber, including a high-speed chase in July that led to the arrest of a photographer. At the time, Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine said Bieber was to blame and deserved to be arrested. “As I watched, I was anticipating a crash,” Zine told ABC News. “It was chaos. Total willful disregard for people on the roadway.”

RELATED: Justin Bieber Opens Up About Selena Gomez 

(Neil Mockford/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

Justin Bieber was the target of a grisly murder plot hatched by a convicted killer imprisoned in New Mexico, police told ABC News today.

Dana Martin, 45, an inmate at the Southern New Mexico Corrections Facility, is accused of masterminding the plan, which called for castrating Bieber and his bodyguard in New York, and two unnamed victims in Vermont, before strangling them, according to a New Mexico State Police affidavit.

Martin, who was sentenced to 978 years in jail for rape and murder in 2000, had an image of Bieber tattooed on his leg and plotted to kill him after his attempts to contact the 18-year-old pop star failed, according to the affidavit, which also alleged that he orchestrated the plot to achieve notoriety.

Former inmate Mark Staake and his nephew, Tanner Ruane, set off for Vermont on Nov. 14 to carry out the plan, intending to continue on to New York, according to the affidavit. They intended to catch Bieber between his Nov. 28 and 29 Madison Square Garden concerts.

The three now stand accused of two counts each of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts each of conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, according to Lt. Robert McDonald of the New Mexico State Police. New Mexico is awaiting Staake and Ruane’s extraditions from the East Coast. McDonald did not know whether they had retained legal representation.

Martin wanted Ruane to attack the victims with Fiskars “Durasharp” gardening clippers, and offered to pay Ruane $2,500 for each testicle he got, the affidavit alleged.

It added that Martin wanted the intended victims strangled with a paisley necktie, just as Martin had done in a prior crime.

He referred to the murders as “the whole putting down of the ‘dogs,’” the affidavit said.

Staake, who was released in October after serving time for burglary, and Ruane left Albuquerque for Vermont, where they had plotted to kill the two unidentified victims. However, before committing any killings, the pair missed a highway exit in Vermont near the border crossing into Canada and got stopped by a border patrol agent, according to the affidavit. Staake was arrested in Vermont on outstanding warrants.

Ruane was released, but New York State Police later arrested him after officials eavesdropped on a phone call in which Ruane and Martin allegedly made references to the murder plots, the affidavit said.

The car in which Ruane and Staake were stopped contained pruning shears.

When prison authorities confronted Martin, he allegedly detailed the plan and gave them a hand-drawn map of where Ruane and Staake had traveled.

A representative for Bieber released this statement to ABC News: “We take every precaution to protect and ensure the safety of Justin and his fans.”

ABC News’ Russell Goldman and Michael S. James contributed to this report.

Jefferson Siegel/for New York Daily News

French Canadian actress Genevieve Sabourin, accused of stalking the actor Alec Baldwin, was handcuffed and removed from a New York City court following a hearing Tuesday.

Sabourin’s former attorney, Maurice Sercarz, told ABCNews.com that Sabourin was called into court after he filed a request to withdraw as her attorney. When the hearing was over, Sabourin was rearrested and taken into custody.

Authorities did not tell Sabourin why she was under arrest, said Sercarz.

Sercarz said he filed a motion for withdrawal from the case in October. He said his client would not listen to his legal advice regarding a protective order, preventing her from contacting Baldwin and his wife, Hilaria Thomas. He said she also could not pay his legal fees.

Charged earlier with stalking and harassing the “30 Rock” actor, Sabourin said the allegations that she sent countless emails to Baldwin about his then-fiancee had been damaging to her reputation, according to the New York Daily News.

“Alec Baldwin wife Hilaria REAL name:Hilary Hayward-Thomas.LIED wile call 911 on me w her false name.I’ll file 4felony,” Sabourin tweeted before her court appearance.

Sabourin was first arrested in April after sending frequent emails and texts to Baldwin. In the messages, Sabourin told Baldwin that she loved him and wanted to have his child, according to the New York Post.

Sercarz said Sabourin will be arraigned on new charges.

Credit: Getty Images.

Britney Spears’ past came back to haunt her again today, as Adnan Ghalib, the paparazzo she once dated, recounted their romance and her downward spiral during 2008.

Ghalib, 40, said he went from photographing the pop star to dating her in December 2007. He testified that he saw her “daily” during their time together and denied that he ever saw Spears’ former “manager” Sam Lutfi hide her cell phones, cut off phone lines, or withhold access to her dog, all allegations that Spears’ parents have made against Lutfi.

Ghalib alleged that Spears’s mom Lynne once tried to get him to speak negatively about Lutfi.

“She requested that I say [to the press] Sam Lutfi was responsible for Britney Spears’s behavior,” he said.

RELATED: Top 10 Revelations From the Britney Spears, Sam Lutfi Trial

According to People magazine, during cross-examination, Ghalib said he bought a disposable cell phone at Lutfi’s request to be smuggled to Spears in mid-2008, months after her father obtained legal control over her. He also confirmed that a judge ordered him to stay away from Spears for three years and admitted he was once arrested while evading a process server in the case.

Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, took the stand after Ghalib. He testified that he never chased Lutfi around the kitchen counter and that he never punched him, allegations that Lutfi made against him last week.

Lutfi’s mother, sister and several other family members appeared in court today for the first time.

Lutfi’s case against the Spears family is expected to conclude Tuesday, and the pop star’s legal team will begin their defense. Lutfi is suing Spears for unpaid fees during the time he supposedly served as her manager, Jamie Spears for allegedly punching him, and Lynne Spears for purportedly defaming him in her 2008 book about her daughter’s breakdown.

RELATED: Sam Lutfi May Be Working on Kurt Cobain Movie With Courtney Love

 ABC News affiliate KABC contributed to this report.

Sam Lutfi, left, and Britney Spears. Credit: Toby Canham/Getty Images.

Sam Lutfi, the man who claims to have been Britney Spears’ manager in 2007 and 2008, broke down in a Los Angeles courtroom today talking about the death threats he received after Spears’ mom published a book that called him a “gatekeeper” who preyed on the pop star’s insecurities.

“After the book came out, there was a huge spike in death threats,” he said. He described Britney’s fans assaulting him in public, and seeing numerous negative posts about him online. “There were people wishing that I was dead,” Lutfi told jurors, through tears. “People wishing to harm my family”.

Lutfi is suing Spears’ parents, Lynne and Jamie Spears, for defamation, libel, and breach of contract, among other claims. The suit stems from how Lynne Spears depicted Lutfi in her 2008 book about Britney’s breakdown. She wrote that Lutfi secretly drugged her daughter and refused to let her speak freely to family and friends.

Lutfi also claims he was Spears’ personal manager during 2007-2008 and deserves millions as his share of her income during that period.

RELATED: Britney Spears Joins ‘The X Factor’

ABC News affiliate KABC and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images.

Jessica Simpson‘s parents, Tina and Joe Simpson, have filed for divorce, a representative for the family told People magazine today.

“It is an amicable split and there is no third party involved,” the rep said. “Any other related allegations are completely false. The family appreciates your respect for their privacy at this time.”

Tina, 52, and Joe, 54, are also the parents of Ashlee Simpson. They have been married for more than 30 years.

RELATED: Jessica Simpson Says She’s Lost More Than 40 Pounds

Rumors about their divorce began circulating after Joe was arrested on DUI charges in August. He plead not guilty to two misdemeanor counts in September.

Joe managed Jessica’s career as she shot to fame in the late 1990s and early ’00s. He infamously bragged about his daughter’s breasts in a 2004 interview with GQ, saying “Jessica never tries to be sexy. She just is sexy. If you put her in a t-shirt or you put her in a bustier, she’s sexy in both. She’s got double D’s! You can’t cover those suckers up!”

Sam Lutfi, left, and Britney Spears in happier times. Credit: Toby Canham/Getty Images.

Sam Lutfi, the man who claims to have been Britney Spears’ manager in 2007 and 2008, took the stand in a Los Angeles courtroom this morning in the defamation suit he filed against the pop star and her parents, Lynne and Jamie Spears.

Lutfi recalled meeting Spears at a nightclub in early 2007. He said she came to him and asked if she could have his hat. He told the jury he said “no” which he claimed she liked because she wasn’t refused often. “She told me it was refreshing to hear a no,” Lutfi said, adding, “We hit it off. She took my number and email, she began calling and texting. We hung out and became friends.”

Lutfi said Spears later texted and called him as she dealt with her divorce and child custody battle.

“She was in crisis mode, dealing with press photographers, 30, 50, 100 following her every move, speeding, driving next to her,” he said. “She was dealing with a lot of anxiety when they followed her. When she got out of a car they would cluster her, she couldn’t move, she was very anxious.”

RELATED: Britney Spears Joins ‘The X Factor’

Lutfi said that after Spears hired him “as her manager,” he began texting photographers to tell them where they were going in an attempt to stop them from following her. “I was also setting up private meetings with Britney and press photographers at her home, so [they] could get to know her as a human being,” he said.

Judge Suzanne G. Bruguera interrupted Lutfi to review the ground rules of his testimony with him and his attorneys. Outside the presence of the jury, Bruguera scolded Lutfi for saying he was Spears’ manager. ”Do not interject your position of a manager or non-manager, specially if you are not asked,” Bruguera said.

Bruguera also barred admission of Spears’ medical records as testimony, calling them irrelevant.

Lutfi claims he was Spears’ personal manager and deserves millions as his share of her income during that period. The defamation suit stems from the way Lutfi is depicted in a book written by Spears’ mother that detailed the star’s meltdown, “Through The Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World.”

In her book, Lynne Spears wrote that Lutfi secretly drugged her daughter and refused to let her speak freely to family and friends.

Lutfi said he currently works as a consultant for his mother’s company, which owns and operates a chain of gas stations. He also claimed to be a co-manager of problem-prone singer and actress Courtney Love. (Love’s publicist confirmed to ABCNews.com that Lutfi is her co-manager.)

RELATED: Sam Lutfi Says Drugs Led to Britney Spears’ Meltdown

On Monday, Barry Weiss, the former CEO of Jive Records who signed Spears when she was 16, said he never considered Lutfi to be Spears’ manager.

“Sam Lutfi never introduced himself or came in for a meeting. He never discussed records or a record contract,” Weiss told the jury.

“He helped us get a video made,” Weiss acknowledged. “He was trying to keep Britney on the set.”

But ultimately, Weiss said he saw Lutfi’s role as a “gofer … like a personal assistant.”

He added, ”There was no manager involved. She was estranged from her family. I felt I was a lifeline for her. She was texting me constantly from her cellphone.”

The  courtroom drama comes as Spears moved on from her personal drama, getting engaged to her manager, Jason Trawick, and scoring a steady gig judging “The X Factor” on FOX.

ABC News affiliate KABC and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jesse Grant/WireImage/Getty Images

The woman accused of stalking “30 Rock” actor Alec Baldwin has said her reputation has been destroyed and she can’t access information that could clear her.

Genevieve Sabourin, 40, of Canada, said the allegations against her stem from a “misunderstanding” and that she hasn’t been able to retrieve Facebook correspondence with the actor to prove her claims, AFP has reported.

“When I saw that he had begun seeing someone else, I decided to cancel our friendship on Facebook, and because of that I lost the entire content of our conversations,” she also told AFP.

Characterizing media reports about an alleged love triangle, Sabourin said she has been “stoned in the public square.” She also said she feared a jury of New Yorkers would be biased against her.

The actress has also been talking to other media. She told Huffington Post Quebec that her reputation was “destroyed” and her “self-esteem eroded.”

WATCH: How Baldwin And Alleged Stalker Met

The actress allegedly stalked the actor after he failed to return her affections. She has denied any allegation of wrongdoing.

Sabourin was arrested in April outside the actor’s apartment in New York City, not long after he became engaged to Hilaria Thomas, a yoga instructor whom he later married. Sabourin had reportedly flown from Montreal to the actor’s Hamptons home in March and followed him to an event at Lincoln Center prior to her arrest.

Emails from Sabourin to Baldwin were made public in July and the actress was charged with aggravated harassment and stalking.

According to a signed affidavit filed by the actor, Sabourin sent the 54-year-old actor 10 emails on a single day in March.

“She said that I could call the FBI and have her put in jail, or I could call her and speak to her,” Baldwin wrote in the affidavit.  “She told me if I did not have a conversation with her it would mean ‘war’ and that she was ‘ready for it’ and asked if I wanted to have this happen in a non-control[led] place and time at any given moment like a bad surprise.”

He also said that one of the emails was titled “Defcon 1″- and stated that Sabourin planned to start a “massive destructive war.”

The pair met in 2002 on the set of the film “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” in which the actor had a cameo. Sabourin is credited on IMDb as part of the crew.

Court records show Sabourin and Baldwin once shared a dinner together, but Baldwin claims he only offered her advice as a favor to a friend.

Sabourin is expected to be tried on the charges in November.