It was not immediately clear who would act as conservator. The singer's parents, mother Lynne Spears and father James Spears, were in Superior Court for the hearing.

A court creates conservatorships when a person cannot care for themselves or handle his or her own affairs.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LOS ANGELES (AP)—The question of who should control Britney Spears' affairs was posed in a court filing Friday, as her parents made a surprise appearance at a conservatorship hearing while their daughter was under psychiatric evaluation in a nearby hospital.

It was not immediately clear who made the filing, or whether it sought to establish control over Spears affairs in whole or in part. Lynne Spears and James Spears, his eyes very red, entered a Superior Court room Friday without commenting to reporters.

"There is a conservatorship filing" and a hearing was scheduled, court spokesman Allan Parachini said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. He gave no details, including who made the filing.

Conservatorships are created to care for people deemed by a court to be incapable of taking care of themselves or managing their finances. A court appoints another individual or organization to act as the person's "conservator," taking charge of the person's care or finances or, in some cases, both.

Paramedics with a heavy police escort took the troubled pop star from her home to UCLA Medical Center's psychiatric hospital early Thursday. The law allows a person to be placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold for 72 hours if they are believed to be a danger to themselves or others.

The parents arrived at the court by late morning and sat in the back of Commissioner Reva Goetz's courtroom while attorneys showed a thick stack of paperwork to the clerk and had a whispered discussion. Goetz handles probate matters.

The commissioner said she could not look at anything until 1:30 p.m. PST, after the noon lunch break at the court, which is separate from the one handling a custody dispute over the singer's children.

Attorneys who were present said nothing to reporters.

It was the second hospitalization this year for the 26-year-old singer, who has been in spiral of bizarre behavior since November when she filed for divorce from Kevin Federline, the father of her sons, 1-year-old Jayden James and 2-year-old Sean Preston.

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Raquel Maria Dillon contributed to this report for The Associated Press.