Britney's a 'quickie' bride

Wedding venue: where Britney and Jason wed for full picture

They say that those who marry in haste repent at leisure. And that certainly seems to be true in the case of Britney Spears.

Only hours after the 22-year- old singer exchanged vows with a childhood friend at a Las Vegas wedding chapel, she was said to be planning an annulment.

There was speculation last night that the whirlwind marriage might have been the culmination of a weekend that got out of hand, or - more cynically - that it could all have been a publicity stunt.

In the early hours of Saturday, Miss Spears applied for a marriage licence in Las Vegas with her groom, Jason Alexander, who she grew up with in Kentwood, Louisiana.

Half an hour later, they arrived at the Little White Chapel for a quickie ceremony, with a hotel bellboy giving the bride away. The chapel's top-price ceremony is the $100 'Cherubs Chariot'.

Back home in the Bible- belt town of Kentwood, there were very mixed reactions.

The singer's father Jamie refused to shake hands with a reporter offering congratulations. He spat his chewing tobacco on the ground and said: 'There was no wedding.'

But across town, the groom's father Dennis appeared to be in the best of spirits. 'Jason was supposed to be spending New

Year with us and we were going to have a bit of a party,' he said.

'But then last minute he told us he was going to Vegas instead with Britney. But 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 described his son as a 'good old homeboy' who was popular with girls but whose first love was American Football.

'He's not the sort to crave the celebrity life,' said Mr Alexander. 'His whole life right now is American Football. He's been playing since he was eight and he dreams of becoming pro.

'He's at college at the moment, in his fourth year, but he wants to get into one with a great football team.'

Mr Alexander and his celebrity bride apparently hatched the plan to get married on Friday night.

They were drinking with friends at a bar in the Palm Hotel, where Miss Spears is staying, when she asked staff to get a limousine to take them to the chapel - where Joan Collins married husband number four, Peter Holm.

Staff at the chapel told them they would need a licence and they had to travel to an area of the city popular with drug dealers and prostitutes.

After getting the paperwork, the couple returned to the chapel.

Sources close to the singer have said the wedding was nothing more than a joke that went too far.

But Linda Wells, who works at Las Vegas Marriage Bureau, said she saw nothing to back that up. 'They were deadly serious,' she said. 'They weren't laughing and joking, like you would expect if the whole thing was a prank.

'Britney was wearing jeans, a hooded jumper and one of those trendy Von Dutch hats. I don't think she said a word the whole time.

'I didn't recognise her companion. He was wearing a white shirt and was very polite. They filled in the licence, I authorised it and they were gone within 15 minutes.'

Her colleague, Joyce Singer, dismissed claims that the couple could have been drunk. 'She was sober,' she said. 'We are not allowed by law to give a licence to anyone who is under the influence.'

A source told the American magazine People that Miss Spears is already looking at getting an annulment, adding: 'I don't know what's going through her mind.'

The once squeaky-clean Miss Spears has become increasing troubled since her split from Justin Timberlake in 2002.

She recently cancelled promotional engagements in Britain and France, claiming she was suffering from exhaustion.

Then she broke down in tears during an interview on American television to promote her album, In the Zone, claiming she was still heartbroken over Timberlake.

One industry insider said: 'It sounds cynical but ultimately her getting married is going to boost her profile and it's all going to be good publicity for the album.'

At the MTV Video Awards last summer, Miss Spears passionately kissed Madonna - an incident which added to her reputation as a publicity-seeker. Ironically, she also performed on stage dressed as a bride.

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