For Britney Spears, 2007 hasn’t exactly been a banner year. From multiple trips to rehab to shaving her head in public to a disastrous VMA performance to a custody battle that could linger on indefinitely, it’s hard to think of someone in Hollywood who should be hoping to ride out the remaining hours of the year without a scandal. But OK! has learned exclusively that the troubled pop star and her two young sons will be ringing in 2008 with Brit’s new beau — paparazzo Adnan Ghalib, who, sources tell OK!, happens to be a married man!

According to a source close to the Spears family, Britney, Adnan, who made headlines on Dec. 22 when he stayed overnight with the singer in her Beverly Hills hotel room, and her two boys, Sean Preston, 2, and 1-year-old Jayden James, are spending New Year’s Eve at a private beachfront residence near Dana Point, Calif. The source says they will also be joined by the court-appointed monitor who is responsible for overseeing all of the boys’ visits with their mom.

While Adnan recently told ABC’s 20/20 that he and Britney were only having “lunch” during their overnight visit, he’s telling a different story to his fellow shutterbugs. “He was bragging last week that the night he spent with her at the Peninsula was ‘the best night of his life,’” one insider reveals to OK!.

So are his intentions with Britney honorable? “He’s always played her knight in shining armor,” says the insider. “Not just because he’s a gentleman, but because he’s a true mercenary.” The source recalls one recent incident where Britney was hiding inside of a locked utility closet in a Target store in Culver City, Calif. “He told me that the reason he talked to her through the door and convinced her to let him escort her to her car was because if she were to leave the store through the back loading dock, he wouldn’t get good photos.”

Ironically, in that interview with 20/20, filmed days before his slumber party with Britney, Adnan had some not so nice words to say about the singer’s pals. “It’s unfortunate that she is the way she is because of the people she surrounds herself with,” he explained. “She’s easily influenced, and that’s where her bad choices come from.”

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