Britney to media -- "I was in Vegas, got really really drunk, and thought it'd be funny to get married to one of my friends... who knew the media would go this crazy over it!"
quote:Britney Spears weds -- but will annul marriage
Sunday, January 4, 2004 Posted: 11:52 PM EST (0452 GMT)
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Pop star Britney Spears married a childhood friend from Louisiana in an early morning ceremony, but quickly arranged to have it annulled, a source close to the singer told The Associated Press on Sunday.
George Maloof Jr., owner and operator of the Palms Casino Hotel, confirmed that the 22-year-old Spears married Jason Allen Alexander of Kentwood, La., about 5:30 a.m. Saturday at a Las Vegas wedding chapel.
"Nobody knew it was coming," said Maloof, Spears' good friend. The two arranged an annulment Saturday afternoon in the presence of several people, including a Las Vegas lawyer, said a source close to Spears who spoke on condition of anonymity. The signed annulment will be filed when the courts open Monday morning, the source said.
Calls to Spears' representatives were not immediately returned.
Spears and Alexander journeyed by limousine to the Little White Wedding Chapel on the Strip after a stop at the Ghostbar, a club in the Palms Casino Hotel. The chapel staff told the couple they couldn't get married without a license, so they were taken to get a license and driven back to the chapel, where they were married.
The bride wore a baseball cap and torn jeans down the aisle and was escorted by a Palms limousine driver, the source told the AP.
Maloof denied rumors that Spears was drunk and had to be carried out of the Rain nightclub inside the Palms on New Year's Eve.
"I was with her the whole night," he said. "None of those reports were accurate. She was just having a good time."
Spears was still staying at the Palms and was expected to leave Sunday. Employees at the chapel declined comment.
Alexander was back in his hometown Sunday, according to his grandfather, Robert Alexander.
"He'd been through a lot. We picked him up in New Orleans coming back and he didn't have much to say," the elder Alexander told Entertainment Tonight.
"I wish them well," he said. "Whatever happens, happens."
He said Spears and Alexander had also spent Christmas Eve together.
Calls to Alexander's family home in Kentwood, La. were answered by a machine. His grandmother said any details about the wedding would have to come from Jason or his father.
"We know about the wedding and stuff. It's all over the news," Betty Alexander said.
Spears released her fourth album, In the Zone, last November. It debuted at the top of the album charts. She begins a concert tour March 2 in San Diego.
Posts: 764 | Location: Buried under a pile of school books... | Registered: 23 June 2003
quote:Originally posted by Arista: My 2004 prediction on this story...
Britney to media -- "I was in Vegas, got really really drunk, and thought it'd be funny to get married to one of my friends... who knew the media would go this crazy over it!"
How about ...
Britney to Manager -- "That outta keep me in the fading spotlight for a little longer. Now, how are those plans coming along for me to adopt that leopard as my legal heir?"
~~~~~~~~~~
Who did you think I would be? - HA! - well you got me instead.
Posts: 5457 | Location: Oz | Registered: 22 June 2003
Singer and friend married 'just for the hell of it' Monday, January 5, 2004 Posted: 2:14 PM EST (1914 GMT)
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- Britney Spears filed for an annulment Monday of her two-day-old marriage to a childhood friend, saying she lacked understanding of her actions when she got hitched on the spur of the moment.
Prominent Las Vegas lawyer David Chesnoff told The Associated Press that he filed the "complaint for annulment" in Family Court at 10:12 a.m.
"There are grounds for this court to grant an annulment ... because plaintiff Spears lacked understanding of her actions to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to the marriage," the annulment papers said.
The 22-year-old pop star married Jason Allen Alexander of Kentwood, Louisiana, about 5:30 a.m. Saturday at a Las Vegas wedding chapel. Alexander said he and Spears hatched the idea to get hitched early Saturday morning.
"It was just crazy, man," the 22-year-old told "Access Hollywood" in an interview at his home Monday morning. "And we were just looking at each other and said, 'Let's do something wild, crazy. Let's go get married, just for the hell of it."'
But the couple arranged an annulment Saturday afternoon in the presence of several people, said a source close to Spears who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The annulment petition filed Monday had been signed Saturday by Spears, but not by Alexander.
"Before entering into the marriage," the petition said, "the plaintiff and defendant did not know each other's likes and dislikes, each other's desires to have or not have children, and each other's desires as to state of residency. Upon learning of each other's desires, they are so incompatible that there was a want of understanding of each other's actions in entering into this marriage."
After being filed, the annulment was to be assigned to a Family Court judge, Clark County District Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said. If the annulment is uncontested, the judge could approve it in a couple of days or schedule a hearing, he said. The parties also could ask to have the case sealed.
Because Nevada law allows for community property between married couples, any income that Spears made while she and Alexander were married could be contested, Sommermeyer said.
Spears' record label, Jive Records, released a statement on the marriage by Sonia Muckle, Jive's vice president of publicity, to "Entertainment Tonight."
"On January 3rd, Britney Spears and a friend took a joke too far by getting married."
Calls to Spears' representatives were not returned.
Spears and Alexander, a junior at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, La., traveled by limousine to the Little White Wedding Chapel on the Strip after a stop at the Ghostbar, a club in the Palms Casino Hotel. The chapel staff told the couple they couldn't get married without a license, so they were taken to get a license and driven back to the chapel, where they were married.
The bride wore a baseball cap and torn jeans down the aisle and was escorted by a Palms limousine driver, the source told the AP.
Employees at the chapel declined comment.
The singer released her fourth album, "In the Zone," in November. It debuted at the top of the album charts. She begins a concert tour March 2 in San Diego.
Posts: 764 | Location: Buried under a pile of school books... | Registered: 23 June 2003
