COURTENEY COX has defended her decision to base a character on troubled star BRITNEY SPEARS in the second season of her hit TV show DIRT.

The former Friends actress plans to use Spears' antics - including her divorce and custody battle with ex Kevin Federline and her bizarre head-shaving incident earlier this year (07) - as inspiration for the show's second series.

But Cox - an executive producer on the show, in which she also plays ruthless magazine editor Lucy Spiller - claims Spears shouldn't take offence.

She says, "This is not an attack on Britney. I am not out to offend anyone."