New bride Britney unties the knot

Pop star Britney Spears’ spur-of-the-moment wedding to a childhood friend has been annulled, her lawyer said tonight.

Spears, 22, had been married to Jason Allen Alexander for just two days when she asked a judge in Nevada to annul the marriage to her ‘husband for a weekend’.

Documents filed by the singer’s lawyer setting out the reasons for the request stated she “lacked understanding of her actions” when she got hitched.

Her Las Vegas attorney David Chesnoff said: “There is no marriage now, Jason agreed to this completely. They’ve made a wise decision. I know they care about each other. They are friends.”

He added that Judge Lisa M. Brown sitting at Clark County Family Court signed the order at 12.24pm local time, around two hours after the “complaint for annulment” was filed.

The documents said: “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 papers added: “Before entering into the marriage 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.”

Meanwhile, Alexander, 22, said they hatched the “crazy” wedding idea “just for the hell of it”.

He told Access Hollywood: “It was just crazy, man. 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.”’

The pop diva, dressed in torn jeans and a baseball cap, wed Alexander on the Las Vegas Strip in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Within hours the Oops I Did It Again star realised she had taken the “joke too far“, a spokesman said.

Lawyers were called and the annulment papers were drawn up.

Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said Alexander could contest any earnings Spears made during their brief marriage. But such a move was not expected.

Spears’ record label, Jive, said in a statement: “On January 3, Britney Spears and a friend took a joke too far by getting married.”

The ceremony was reportedly videotaped and Spears is said to have shown the footage to friends.

The Las Vegas Sun reported that the Little White Wedding Chapel, where Spears said “I do“, has been offered hundreds of thousands of pounds by newspapers for a copy of the tape.

Spears and Alexander apparently planned their rushed wedding on Friday night as they partied at the Ghostbar, part of the Palms Casino Hotel in Las Vegas.

They were driven to the Little White Wedding Chapel, where Dixie Chick Natalie Maines, and film stars Bruce Willis and Demi Moore have also tied the knot.

When they were told they needed a licence they were driven to the Clark County Marriage Bureau office at the downtown Las Vegas courthouse.

Documents filed early on Saturday with the Clark County marriage bureau showed that Spears, of Kentwood, Louisiana, and Jason Allen Alexander, also of Kentwood, were granted a marriage licence.

The “honeymoon” took place back at a luxury suite at the Palms hotel immediately after the wedding.

Alexander’s father, Dennis, said he was not angry with his son.

“Hell, I don’t blame him. I would have done the same. If Jennifer Lopez had called me up and invited me to New York, I would have been straight there,” he said.

His sister, Amanda, added: “Jason usually tells me everything. But I had no idea about this.

“I knew they were friends and they were going to Las Vegas and all that, but in regard to all this other stuff… Lord.”

Spears’ father Jamie was less relaxed about the nuptials, snapping at reporters: “There was no wedding.”

George Maloof, owner and operator of the Palms Casino Hotel, confirmed that the wedding went ahead at about 5.30am on Saturday.

“Nobody knew it was coming,” he said.

But he denied reports that Spears had been partying too hard over the New Year period.

Referring to stories that she had been carried out of the Rain nightclub inside the Palms on New Year’s Eve, he said: “I was with her the whole night.

“None of those reports were accurate. She was just having a good time.”