Spears says she made a mistake

Britney Spears has taken responsibility -- well, some -- for driving with her baby son, Sean Preston, sitting in her lap.

“I made a mistake and so it is what it is, I guess,” Spears told “Access Hollywood” in an interview that was to air Thursday.

Several photos published Tuesday showed Spears driving her sport utility vehicle in Malibu with her 4-month-old son perched on her lap rather than strapped into a car seat in the back seat.

The 24-year-old pop star said she did it because of a “horrifying, frightful encounter with the paparazzi.” X17, the agency that snapped the pictures, said they were taken “in a very peaceful context.”

“Being put in the situation that I was in, it was kind of bad with the paparazzi,” Spears told “Access Hollywood.” “Last week, my mom and I went out and they were on us really bad, so you instinctively do what you need to do.”

The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has said it won’t pursue any charges.

*

FINALLY

Broadway bound: Ali MacGraw will make her Broadway debut in “Festen,” the London hit that will also star Larry Bryggman, Michael Hayden and Julianna Margulies. The play, David Eldridge’s stage adaptation of the acclaimed 1998 Danish film, opens April 9 in New York.