[buttmunch]

Britney Spears is nothing if not loyal.

The day she married Kevin Federline, two years and one month ago, she split with Larry Rudolph, who discovered her at 13, when she was on "The Mickey Mouse Club." An entertainment lawyer who has handled teen faves like Justin Timberlake and Aaron Carter, as well as documentarian Barbara Kopple and arty Janus Films, Rudolph built Spears into a superstar and managed her for nine years.

He weathered her 55-hour marriage to childhood friend Jason Alexander, and opposed her union with backup dancer Federline, who at 26 had one kid and another on the way with "Moesha" star Shar Jackson.

Madly in lust, er, love with "What Does That Guy Have?" Federline, Spears didn't want to sign a prenuptial agreement, says a source. But Rudolph, who'd helped the pop star go from singing in malls to earning a $156 million fortune by the time she said "I do," insisted on the prenup. That was his undoing, says our source.

"Kevin was so heated by it that he forced her to fire Larry," our source reports. "She did."

But Monday night, just two hours after her divorce filing was announced and shortly after she text-messaged her goodbye to Federline after he stood her up, Spears was hand in hand with her mentor on the ice at Rockefeller Center.

It's strictly a career love, says the source. "It's more like a father-daughter thing," the source says. "They are only a few points away from locking the deal and Larry will be her manager once again."

Spears is undoubtedly grateful to Rudolph that Federline will get "only" a reported $30,000 a month for a year — though the wanna-be rapper is trying for more by filing for spousal support and custody of the couple's sons, Sean Preston, 1, and Jayden James, who'll be 3 months old on Sunday. Spears doesn't even want Federline to profit from any sale of Jayden's baby pix, a common celebrity windfall. She will actually allow a magazine to print them for — gasp! — free, just to cut him out, Women's Wear Daily reported.http://www.nydailynews.com/news/goss...p-395571c.html

Here comes the comeback.