There's no question Britney Spears could use a mentor, but we're still not quite convinced Mel Gibson is the right person for the job. Still, the closely supervised cautionary tale continues to look to the DUI-busted Oscar winner for advice.

People magazine reports the former Malibu, Calif., neighbors and recent Costa Rican vacation buddies spent nearly three hours chit-chatting at a members-only cigar bar in Beverly Hills Tuesday night.

While the mind boggles at what Brit, 26, and Mel, 52, discussed for so long at the swanky, smoke-clogged Havana Club (imagined dialogue: "You know Britney, sometimes a cigar really is just a cigar," or, "So, Mel, what's Danny Glover really like?"), the mag calls the confab "more of an ongoing guidance session than a business powwow."

Spears, sporting denim capris she'd purchased earlier that day during a shopping trip to the Lisa Kline boutique and a puffy-sleeved blue polka-dot top, arrived with a bodyguard and her assistant in tow.

Britney cleans up nicely for her meeting with guidance counselor Mel Gibson.

"Britney looked like a doll with bright red lipstick," says a paparazzo on the scene, who adds that she was "very quiet" and had "a serious look on her face" as she made her way into the club.

When Gibson turned up, he good-naturedly attempted to block his weathered visage with what the shutterbug describes as a "man-purse."

The tailor-made-for-a-buddy-comedy twosome were first spotted together in March, when they dined at a Russian restaurant in Los Angeles a few weeks after Spears checked out of the psych ward. It was believed to be one of a series of meetings between the mother of two and the father of seven.

"Mel and his wife Robin clearly saw a woman in crisis and wanted to extend themselves in any way possible," a source told People at the time. "There are no expectations, there is no agenda. It's simply an act of human kindness -- one neighbor reaching out to the other."

Speaking of no expectations, Britney's mom, Lynne, is finally releasing the biography she shelved after Jamie Lynn announced her almost-done-baking bun in the oven back in December.

People says "Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World" will be released in September by Thomas Nelson, a publisher specializing in Bibles and inspirational books.

"When Jamie Lynn got pregnant, it was put on hold," a company rep tells the mag. "Lynne never stopped working on it because she wants to express her love for her children and tell their stories through a mother's eyes."

The tome "will not be a parenting book," promises the mouthpiece, who is perhaps underestimating the potential sales of a "How Not to Rear Your Child" guide from Lynne. "It's her story of what it was like being a mom and raising two very famous people. It's a memoir."

Meanwhile, it looks like Brit will also fill someone else's coffers get the book treatment in reporter Ian Halperin's proposed, "Stalking Britney: Under Siege With Britney Spears," reports the New York Post, which says the title will contain "details of at least two suicide attempts by the troubled star."

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