Monday, Jan. 5, 2004 | 10:40 a.m.
Never mind.
That's what pop tart Britney Spears and her childhood friend from Kentwood, La., Jason Allen Alexander, said to one another after a quickie pre-dawn wedding on Saturday at the Little White Wedding Chapel on Las Vegas Boulevard North.
"Ms. Spears and Mr. Alexander have filed for an annulment, which will become official on Monday," said Sonia Muckle, vice president for publicity for Jive Records, Spears' recording label, in a statement released Sunday night.
But not all is lost -- the couple seem to have set the record for Shortest Celebrity Wedding, Ever.
While sipping champagne at ghostbar (Palms) on Friday night, the couple, both 22, hatched a plan to get married, a plan later described by Spears as "a practical joke that went too far," according to broadcast reports.
The couple tied the knot about 5:30 a.m. Saturday. Their Palms limo driver walked Spears down the aisle and was their sole witness.
Fourteen hours later the newly married couple were sitting with Spears' friend, Palms owner George Maloof, at the restaurant N9NE, while Maloof arranged with a lawyer friend for documents for Mr. and Mrs. Alexander so they could annul the marriage. As of this morning at 10 no papers had been filed.
The crack VegasBeat research team -- consisting of Las Vegas Sun librarian Rebecca Bagayas -- has deduced that the Spears-Alexander merger is the shortest celebrity marriage on record.
Two other celeb unions lasted one day, but we give the nod to Spears because the annulment papers were reportedly signed less than 24 hours after the deed.
The other marital day trippers are Robin Givens and tennis instructor Svetozar Marinkovic (Aug. 22, 1997) and Zsa Zsa Gabor and Felipe De Alba (April 13, 1982).
Other notable brief celeb enounters include Dennis Hopper and Michele Phillips (Oct. 31 to Nov. 7, 1970), Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman (in Las Vegas, Nov. 14 to Nov. 23, 1998) and producer Robert Evans and former "Dynasty" star Catherine Oxenberg (July 12 to July 24, 1998).
As the story broke over the weekend little was known about Alexander other than he was a beefy football player at Kentwood High School and a longtime friend of Spears'.
The Associated Press reported that while Spears appeared "a little stunned" after the ceremony, she was "not drunk" during the nuptials.
Charolette Richards, owner of the Little White Wedding Chapel, where Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, and Joan Collins and Michael Jordan have also done the deed, was besieged by global media on Sunday.
She told VegasBeat that one tabloid newspaper had offered her $1 million for the wedding video, a copy of which Spears was given at the conclusion of the ceremony. But Richards said she wasn't selling.
Spears left the Palms for her Louisiana home Sunday night; Alexander reportedly returned to the Bayou State earlier in the day.
Fame game
While poking around the Palms on Saturday night looking for the happy (?) couple, we eyeballed actor Nicolas Cage, who was waiting for a limo in front of the hotel about 12:30 a.m. We saw him wander out into the taxi lanes and nearly get hit by a slow-moving hack.
"Watch yourself there, Mr. Cage," a concerned bellman told the Oscar-winning thespian before escorting him back inside the casino.
Anchor love
Matt Damon has a new fan: KLAS Channel 8 anchor Paula Francis. She and co-anchor Gary Waddell were broadcasting live from the Mon Ami Gabi (Paris Las Vegas) patio on New Year's Eve when they came across the film star and gal pal Eva Mendes.
Francis says it was "amazing" to see him go completely unnoticed.
"I think it says something about the way he views his celebrity. He must be very down to Earth," Francis told VegasBeat on Sunday. "Quite the opposite of most of the glitzy types who come to town and make a big splash."
She also admitted it was "quite a thrill" to have Damon sitting only a few feet away during her broadcast.
Clothes save
Goo Goo Dolls played the House of Blues (Mandalay Bay) on New Year's Eve, but their clothes didn't make the trip.
So band leader John Rzeznik and his four bandmates went looking for appropriate duds hours before show time, and ended up dropping just south of $20,000 at Elton's, the new men's haberdashery at Mandalay Place.
They walked out with two Corneliani charcoal-gray suits with matching shirts and ties, two Hugo Boss suits, an Equilibrio jacket, a couple pairs of Donald J. Pilner black crepe dress shoes and various hosiery, ties and other accessories (including high-priced cuff links).
Store owner L.T. Salinas said he got an appreciative phone call from Rzeznik, thanking him for the last-minute custom tailor job.
VegasBits
Power: It was one power table after another Thursday night (New Year's Day) at Piero's. Ann-Margret was at the head of one table, Maloof and a group of six were at another table, Vegas scenester Michael Shulman was at a table on the other side of the room and finally, Clint Holmes, "Vegas Live! With Clint Holmes and Sheena Easton" announcer Kelly Clinton and DJ Skribble were at another ...
Ringy dingy: On Tuesday morning Harrah's headliner Mac King again attempts to set a Guinness World Record for the longest game of telephone. His first attempt in November was postponed because of bad weather. Registration begins at 9 a.m. at the outdoor Carnaval Court. The game starts at 11 a.m. ...
From Sun wires
Singer-songwriter Ray Davies of the Kinks was shot in the leg while chasing thieves who snatched a purse from a woman he was with, police in New Orleans said today. He was not seriously injured.
Police said Davies, 59, and the woman were walking along the Quarter's Burgundy Street around 8:30 p.m. Sunday when the theft and shooting happened. He was treated and released at a hospital. One suspect was captured within hours of the shooting and another was being sought.
Osbourne gives up ATVs: Singer Ozzy Osbourne says he has given up riding all-terrain vehicles after a crash twice caused him to stop breathing and left him in a coma for eight days, a newspaper in London reported Sunday.
Osbourne, 55, fractured his collarbone, eight ribs and a neck vertebra when the 600-pound vehicle he was riding flipped and landed on top of him at his estate in Buckinghamshire, England, on Dec. 8.
Osbourne, who posed for photographs at his estate wearing a neck brace and with his left arm in a sling, said he owed his life to bodyguard Sam Ruston, who twice gave him mouth-to-mouth to restore his breathing.
Wildlife host answers critics: "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin snapped back at critics who have accused him of endangering his month-old son's life by holding him while hand-feeding a crocodile, saying today that he would even do it again.
"What I would do differently is I would make sure there were no cameras around," Irwin told Network Nine television's nationally broadcast "A Current Affair" program in Australia.
Child welfare advocates have said the TV hero endangered his son, Robert, in the incident Friday, drawing comparisons with pop star Michael Jackson who dangled his infant out of a hotel window in Berlin in November 2002.
'American Splendor' honored: "American Splendor," the life story of a grumpy file clerk who attains cult celebrity status by becoming a comic book writer, took Best Picture honors at the National Society of Film Critics awards in New York on Saturday.
Clint Eastwood's working-class crime drama "Mystic River" was second in the voting for Best Picture and Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation," a quirky tale of two Americans finding friendship while in Japan, took third.
Eastwood got the nod for Best Director for "Mystic River;" Bill Murray won Best Actor for "Lost in Translation;" and Charlize Theron in "Monster" won Best Actress.
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