Talk of Britney Spears sex tape abounding on internet, tabloids

British tabloid News of the World is reporting that Britney Spears' estranged husband Kevin Federline is threatening to sell a homemade sex video of the pair.

Spears and Federline have reportedly been locked in a custody dispute in the shadow of last week's news of a separation filing and the British tabloid is reporting that Federline is leveraging his threat against millions of dollars in child support payments and custody.

Earlier this month, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge threw out Spears' lawsuit against celebrity magazine Us Weekly, ruling the pop star could not be defamed by published rumors that she and her husband had made a sex tape and were worried about its release.

The lawsuit stemmed from an article published Oct. 17, 2005, in the magazine's "Hot Stuff" column under the headline, "Brit & Kev: Secret Sex Tape? New parents have a new worry: racy footage from 2004." Judge Lisa Hart Cole said Spears had "put her modern sexuality squarely, and profitably, before the public eye" and it would be unlikely for the magazine article to be found defamatory.

In the lawsuit, Spears' attorneys had contended, "There is no such video."