This week’s Life & Style has a whole exclusive interview with Lynne Spears in which she seems to take several well-deserved underhanded verbal shots at Britney. Although Britney’s mom Lynne says she “blames herself” for Britney’s behavior, what she’s really doing is publicly acknowledging that her daughter is f***ed up. By admitting her daughter has problems, she also seems to be letting us know that she’s not going to go easy on Britney in her upcoming tell-all book about her. Although Britney’s friend Sam Lufti claims the book is going to be about Lynne’s spiritual journey guiding Britney and Jamie Lynne’s careers or some shit, tabloids are hyping it, saying Britney is worried about the bombshells Lynne might come out with.

Britney has cut Lynne off from her money and seems to be enjoying spending it all on throwaway fashion and high end hotels each month, so Lynne has got to be ready to spill the beans. It’s doubtful that she can do any more damage to Britney than she’s managed to do on her own, but we’ll have to see.

Lynne cites her lack of involvement with Britney while she was touring as a teen, saying that she was too busy watching her other two kids to save Britney from an inevitable life of running over photographers’ feet and shopping and dining aimlessly, drifting to different four-star hotels each night:

For everything that’s gone wrong for Britney, “I blame myself,” Lynne says. “What mother wouldn’t?”

“I wish I’d been there more while she was touring,” Lynne says. “But I couldn’t be. I had the other kids [Britney’s brother, Bryan, now 30, and sister Jamie-Lynn, now 16] to look after.”

And while Lynne seems unable to explain exactly what went wrong while Britney was out of her care, her conscience is heavy. “I didn’t raise my children to have Hollywood careers,” she notes. “This all just exploded in my face, and big dreams become big headaches.” Again, she says, “I do blame myself…”

In the meantime, Lynne says she’s trying to help broker the peace by acting as a mediator between Britney and Kevin. “Here are two parents who care about their kids,” Lynne tells Life & Style. “They’re good people. While my daughter’s, Kevin’s and the boy’s interest at heart, I’m trying to bring them together, to bridge the gap. I think things are getting good.”

As for her own relationship with Britney… “We’ve reunited,” Lynne says. “We’re friends…” Still, she notes, she and Britney aren’t going to be moving in together any time shoon. “Britney’s not a keep-me-around person,” Lynne says. “I also have a 16-year-old to look after. I can’t be there for Britney all time.”

[From Life and Style, print edition, November 19, 2007]

I picture Lynne Spears saying all that in this faux-motherly tone, looking all innocent. What she’s really saying is “Britney is f***ed up, maybe I screwed up but there’s nothing I can do about it at this point. I’m working with Kevin and the kids are ok.”

While we were ignoring Britney, she failed one of the drug tests she bothered to show up with and ran a red light while her kids and court-appointed monitor were in the car for one of her random drives, maybe not in that order, I can’t keep up. The drug test failure was attributed to one of the various prescription medications she’s on, with the most recent theory being that the adderral she takes for ADD caused her to test positive for amphetamines.

She also ran over a third person’s foot and has to attend an emergency hearing today for running that red light. It is thought that Kevin will ask for her rights to drive with her two boys in the car to be suspended. So Britney is getting as much driving time in as she can before it’s stripped from her. She was spotted out driving last night while wearing dark sunglasses, her two kids passed out in the back of the car, the court appointed monitor riding shotgun.

Thanks to WENN for these photos of Britney last night.