Are Britney And Jason On The Rocks?

It seems like there's trouble in paradise for Britney Spears and Jason Trawick.

We haven't seen the couple together since the 16th of December and even their last few appearances together didn't seem too blissful.

Our Britney expert photographer tells us:

"Britney has just been in a funk recently. The last few times we spotted her with Jason, they didn't seem to be getting along. Honestly, Jason seems like Britney's b*tch. She tells him what to do and he does it and even then, she usually looks annoyed with him."

Back on December 6th, you may remember, Brit yelled at Jason for leaving her alone in the Fred Segal cafe while he chatted outside on his phone.

Later on in the month, we spotted Jason driving Brit around town - while she was asleep! And it wasn't the first time ... our photographers told us they had seen Jason doing that a lot recently -- seemingly rocking Britney to sleep with the motion of the car so she could fight her insomnia and get some rest. But why the stress and sleep deprivation? Perhaps her relationship with Jason was at the root of it ...

Our photographer tell us:

"They were never really that close. Jason isn't really Britney's type, either."

Maybe not, but Brit and Jason were together at least... right? Sources tell us that may not be the case.

We're hearing that Britney's relationship was perhaps only half-hearted at first but descended into a full-on PR push by her family and handlers and maybe even from Jason himself. The source tells X17 Brit and Jason's relationship was a convenient publicity sham -- it made Britney look happy and healthy which pleased her family and management and it satisfied Brit's need to appear responsible the "recovered" from her past problems in the eyes of the court.

The story goes, Britney went along with it at first and for a while she was genuinely interested in Jason, if for no other reason than that he was relatively cute and offered her stability and friendship. But that eventually, as it became clear to Brit that Jason wasn't right for her, her parents began to force the relationship by planting stories in the media about how great Jason is and how perfect he is for their daughter. At that point, with public opinion behind their relationship, Britney had almost not choice but to continue dating Jason. But it seems now, the ruse may be up!

We haven't spotted Jason around at all for the past three weeks. If Britney's in town while he's in town, why aren't they spending time together?

And Britney's mom Lynne was just in town visiting -- perhaps to console her daughter after a difficult breakup? Britney was certainly in a bad mood yesterday when we spotted her at the Mondrian, hiding from our lenses under a blanket as she entered the hotel. And then her mom left town, leaving Brit by her lonesome, at the hotel with her assistant, but Jason nowhere in sight ...

Could this be the end of Britney and Jason and if so, will their professional relationship continue?