Britney behaving badly

She seemed to be growing up beautifully. But at 21, Britney Spears has decided it is time she expressed her true personality.

And unfortunately, it is nothing like the girl she used to be.

The new grown-up Britney seems to think maturity means a taste for boozy nights out and sordid flings with renowned philanderers.

As record company executives grow increasingly nervous about damage to her clean-living image, Britney seems determined to show that she is no longer a little girl's dream best friend.

On Tuesday, she was seen smoking and wearing a top with '**** You' emblazoned on the back.

She later made a spectacle of herself with her latest boyfriend, Irish actor Colin Farrell, 26, at the premiere of his movie The Recruit in Los Angeles.

She then joined him at a private party at the Chateau Marmont hotel in his suite with 50 others.

'They kept on disappearing out onto the balcony,' said one partygoer.

'Then they went into one of the adjoining bedrooms where they stayed for at least an hour.

'Britney left the party at 5am but Colin carried on partying. He obviously wasn't satisfied enough with Britney and was all over one of the waitresses.' Insiders believe Farrell won't be around long enough to be a fixture.

He recently boasted: 'I'm into casual sex - I come into town and **** whoever I can.'

'Farrell has a different woman every week,' said one New York gossip writer.

'He was last with Demi Moore and has had heaps of girls since finding himself hot property. This won't last at all - and Britney is a silly girl if she thinks it will.'

Farrell is the third man Britney has been linked to in as many weeks.

Rock group Limp Bizkit's controversial frontman Fred Durst admitted a romance with the singer, while she also had a brief reconciliation with her long-term boyfriend Justin Timberlake two weeks ago.

Record company executives are beginning to fear that the pop princess who made herself a multi-million pound fortune is going off the rails.

'We don't mind her behaving like a normal 21-year-old but things have been getting a bit out of hand,' said one record executive.

'Behaviour like this is terrible for image and will put off all her young fans.

'Neither Fred Durst nor Colin Farrell are the right men for her to be seen with but she is not listening to anyone around her.

'She feels she has been mollycoddled all her life and she is only now beginning to realise what is out there.

'She had a pretty horrible time of it last year, splitting up from Justin and then having to watch her parents separate, but now she is trying to put all that behind her. 'Britney is rich, she is gorgeous and she feels like she should enjoy all that while she can. It's not great for us who want her to continue to be the world's biggest female artist though.'

Britney's mother Lynne is also known to be concerned about her daughter's sudden penchant for parties. Her name has been growing more tarnished over the past months.

First her record sales slumped and she took time off work suffering from 'exhaustion'.

She was spotted coming out of parties drunk and was seen with a cigarette in her hand.

Then Timberlake hinted he had broken off their engagement because she had been unfaithful.

She was dropped from an £80million deal with Pepsi while her debut movie was a box office disappointment.