“A Joke that has gone too far…”

Britney Spears, After a Dip Into Marriage, Is Free for Whatever Future May Hold

By LOLA OGUNNAIKE

Forlorn men around the world can breathe a collective sigh

of relief. Britney Spears is one step closer to being

available again.

Confirming reports that her marriage to a childhood friend

early Saturday morning in Las Vegas might not last forever,

a spokesman for the Clark County District Court in Nevada

said yesterday that Ms. Spears had filed a request for an

annulment that morning.

The request was made on the grounds that “plaintiff Spears

lacked understanding of her actions to the extent that she

was incapable of agreeing to the marriage.”

It said that Ms. Spears and her husband, Jason Allan

Alexander, “did not know each others likes and dislikes,

each others desires to have or not have children and each

others desires as to State of residency.”

“Upon learning of each others desires,” the request

continued, “they are so incompatible that there is a want

of understanding of each others actions in entering into

this marriage.”

A statement issued Sunday by Ms. Spears’s record company,

Jive, called the sudden union “a joke that went too far.”

Mr. Alexander, a college student and aspiring football

player, was back home in Kentwood, La., by Sunday night.

“It was just crazy, man,” he told NBC’s program “Access

Hollywood” yesterday, according to The Associated Press.

“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.’ ”

Ms. Spears’s publicists said they had no comment beyond the

record company’s statement.

Just five months after kissing Madonna in a mock wedding

ceremony at MTV’s annual Video Music Awards, Ms. Spears did

it – well, something like it – again. She and Mr.

Alexander, both 22, met in kindergarten. They were married

at 5:30 a.m. Saturday after a long night of partying,

according to press reports.

There is no word yet on whether her wedding ensemble – a

baseball cap and torn jeans – was designed by Vera Wang.

But by Saturday evening they were arranging for an

annulment.

Ms. Spears’s latest album, “In the Zone,” is currently No.

10 on the Billboard chart after starting at No. 1 in

November.

Ever since rocketing to fame in the late 1990’s with her

platinum-selling debut album, “Baby One More Time,” she and

her midriff have been ubiquitous.

A self-described innocent at the onset of her career, Ms.

Spears, who once favored pigtails and Catholic schoolgirl

skirts, espoused the virtues of saving virginity until

marriage.

But with each album she has grown increasingly provocative.

In an interview with W magazine last year she acknowledged

that she had had sex with the singer Justin Timberlake,

when they were dating.

Over the years her shirts have got tighter, her skirts

shorter. She recently posed for the cover of Esquire in

nothing more than sweater and pumps.

“I think this is a classic Britney move,” said an MTV News

correspondent, Su Chin Pak. “She’s always walked the line

between good girl and bad girl. The craziest thing she

allows herself is to get married to a perfectly sweet guy

from Kentwood, La., that she’s known all her life. It’s not

like we’re pulling her out of rehab.” Ms. Spears, she said,

is not taking her sundered nuptials too seriously.

“She has a 10-minute video of the wedding that she’s been

showing to friends,” Ms. Pak said. “She thinks it’s a big

joke.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/06/arts/music/06BRIT.html?ex=1074416247&ei=1&en=a310aa03e8f21709

Update November 11, 2006.

Britney’s second marriage producing two children in two years has just fallen apart. By galley, watch out for YouTube.

Poor Kevin Federline was filmed when he apparently got the SMS from Britney that it was over.

See Video.

Tabloid frenzy over Spears, Witherspoon divorce filings is keeping courthouse staff busy

Harried clerks are caught in tabloid news spotlight after filings by Britney Spears and Reese Witherspoon.

By Jessica Garrison

Times Staff Writer

November 10, 2006

Los Angeles may not have a professional football team, but it does have celebrity divorce watching