Allen's past arrest spells trouble for her upcoming US tour

Los Angeles Customs officers on Sunday night detained the British pop sensation Lily Allen at the LA international airport. The singer reportedly has had US work visa retracted after being locked in a cell and strip-searched by customs and immigrations officials.

The English pop star Allen, best known for songs such as "Smile" and "LDN", had flown in from Australia to appear at the MTV video music awards launch in Las Vega and shoot a music video with rapper Kanye West, but was stopped by the authorities when she arrived at Los Angeles International Airport.

The US customs and immigrations officials detained the singer for five hours, locked her in a cell, strip-searched and questioned over her arrest in March for an alleged assault on a photographer in London.

In June, the 22-year-old singer was arrested and later released on police bail over the alleged assault on photographer Kevin Rush near the Wardour club in the Soho area on March 13. The incident took place after Allen left a party she was hosting at The Wardour club in London.

U.S. government’s decision to ban her from working in the country comes just few weeks ahead of Allen’s North American tour. Allen is likely to start her U.S. tour in San Diego on September 6

"Lily doesn't know why it happened, she is quite shocked," some media reports quoted her spokesperson as saying. "She's due back in the UK at the end of the week to continue work on her second album, and we're sure all this will be sorted out in time for her American tour."

As per the reports, Allen too has said that she hopes the problem will soon be resolved. "It is my intention to play my American dates in September. This depends on the authorities granting me a new work visa. I want my fans to know that I will do everything I can to be back in September. I don't like letting my fans down and this is a situation I am sure we can sort," Allen said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Allen's manager Neale Easterby abruptly dismissed all the reports that U.S. Customs have revoked her visa and she will not be allowed in the country, calling those reports “rubbish”.

"She's in Las Vegas right now. She will be there until Thursday shooting a video with Common and Kanye West for Common's track 'Drivin' Me Wild'," he said. Easterby also confirmed that Allen will kick off her tour as scheduled.

Allen is a BRIT Award nominated English singer-songwriter, who has cultivated a wild child image and who rose to fame on the back of her MySpace page. Born on May 2, 1985 in Hammersmith, Londonis, Lily Allen, birth name Lily Rose Allen, is the daughter of actor/comedian/musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen.

Her single "Smile" (the first song she ever wrote with Future Cut) reached numero uno position in July 2006 on the UK singles charts. In September 2006, "Smile" was made available onto the United States version of the Apple Inc.'s iTunes Music Store.

Allen, always jam-packed in the quagmire of controversies around, stirred more controversy, when New Musical Express (better known as the NME) asked Allen how she would celebrate if her single got to Number 1 in the UK charts, and she responded "gak" (a slang term for cocaine). Although, she immediately said that she was joking, but the "gak" remark was widely quoted in the tabloid press.

During her concert in early April in San Diego, California Lily had launched a drunken rant against US President George Bush. She also branded George Bush an a******.

Besides calling Texans “backward,” the UK singer on the NME stage at SXSW told the music weekly to go away, saying “Fuck off you cunts.”