Dr. Phil visits Britney...seriously?

Dr. Phil McGraw's visit with Britney Spears in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center was instigated by her family shortly after the pop star was admitted to the facility, the TV therapist confirmed on CBS's The Early Show Monday. Saying he wished to set the record straight, McGraw said, "I went to see Britney at the request of her family, I talked to [her mother] Lynne, I talked to [her father] Jamie, I talked to Bryan, her brother. They were very frustrated that she apparently wasn't going to be held for a longer period of time" ... As for McGraw's entering the picture, he said, "Thursday night, the phone rang, and it was Lynne – and she has a very close relationship with my wife, Robin – and, clearly, she was very upset, which you would expect, as any parent would be." McGraw, who would not discuss specifics of Britney's situation, did say, "I was first contacted by her family over a year ago and have maintained a running dialog with them throughout the last year."

Uh huh ... well, it looks like the love affair is off because, Life & Style reports, Papa Jamie Spears didn't take too kindly to the way that Dr. Phil was trying to exploit his daughter's illness for his own gain:

Britney Spears' dad Jamie Spears has angrily banned the family from any involvement or participation with Dr. Phil's planned Britney-intervention episode, a source linked to Dr. Phil's camp tells Life & Style. "As soon as Jamie realized Dr. Phil was making public statements about Britney, including assessments of her condition, he got angry. He started making phone calls to everybody in the family, telling them not to cooperate with Dr. Phil. Jamie was totally incensed that Dr. Phil—who he knows a little, because Lynne is friends with Dr. Phil's wife—seemed to be using Britney for self-promotion. Dr. Phil had told Jamie everything would be off the record until the show was done."