VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Spears takes attorney for the better

Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2004 | 10:53 a.m.

For Britney Spears, the clock struck 12.

Or, 12:24 p.m., to be exact.

At that time the legal union of Spears and Jason Allen Alexander officially was nullified.

"There is no marriage now," attorney David Chesnoff said shortly after Clark County Family Court Judge Lisa Brown signed the joint petition granting the couple an annulment of their whirlwind Saturday morning marriage.

The petition was signed by Spears and Alexander on Saturday, the same day they were wed at the Little White Wedding Chapel on Las Vegas Boulevard South.

It was filed at the North Pecos Road courthouse at 10:12 a.m. Monday and was signed by the judge more than two hours later.

"I know they care about each other. They are friends," Chesnoff told the media after the judge signed the order. "They've made a wise decision."

He was referring to the annulment, not the quickie marriage that set the entertainment world on its head. The five-page document said the 22-year-old pop star "lacked understanding of her actions to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to the marriage because before entering into the marriage, the plaintiff and the defendant did not know each other's likes and dislikes, each other's desires to have or not to 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."

Spears has not publicly commented on the events.

On Monday, Alexander told the syndicated TV show "Access Hollywood" that "It was just crazy."

Alexander said the couple were at ghostbar (Palms) Friday night and were looking at each other and said, "Let's do something wild and crazy. Let's go get married, just for the hell of it."

So they did.

Roth return?

"X" co-producer Angela Sampras says that she and partner Bobby Boling are not looking to incorporate David Lee Roth into their existing show, as we reported last week.

"We are creating a whole new show for David," Sampras said.

And regarding Roth's poorly received 1995 Bally's headline gig?

"That was not the right time for David to appear on the Strip," Sampras said. "Now, with our creative genius and his talent for comedy, I think we can have yet another hit show."

Dion star

Caesars Palace headliner and international singing star Celine Dion will be honored today with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Diva Las Vegas was supposed to be honored in March when her show opened, but asked to have the ceremony postponed because of the start of the war in Iraq.

The ceremony will take place in front of the Kodak Theatre, site of the Academy Awards.

Move back

Simon Kitchen and Bar partner Elizabeth Blau is featured in a two-page, inside-front-cover ad for the gourmet Illy coffee in the current issue of Food Arts, the culinary industry's leading journal.

At the end of the month she returns to the employ of Steve Wynn. She was his head of restaurant development for several years before starting her own consulting business.

She'll help decide what eateries go into Wynn Las Vegas and his Macau property, among other duties. She'll also keep her interest in Simon.

Move back, II

Daniel Shumny, the marketing veep at Golden Nugget, says it is only a matter of time before one-time Golden Nugget headliner Amazing Johnathan returns to the downtown property.

"If everything goes as we hope, he'll be back before the end of the month," Shumny told us.

Johnathan was at the Flamingo Las Vegas for most of last year and left on less than good terms. He has publicly complained about a lack of support from the property, among other issues.

VegasBits

Call me: Sheena Easton is back on the market. She told her "Vegas Live! With Clint Holmes and Sheena Easton" audience this morning that she is ready to start dating again. Her most recent marriage, to plastic surgeon John Minoli, ended last year. It started last year, too ...

No clothes: Adult film icon Ginger Lynn, actress and failed gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey, show host Tabitha Stevens and series producer Harry Feingold are expected at the Strip club Seven tonight for the premiere of the groundbreaking reality pay-per-view series, "Can You Be a Porn Star?" One of the show's 28 contestants will get a $100,000 prize ...

Special guests: Ed and Lois Smart -- parents of abducted and returned child Elizabeth Smart -- will attend the Canon U.S.A "Bring the Kids Home" reception and fund-raiser for various law enforcement agencies at the Four Seasons on Saturday ...

Party: Tommy Lee, Justin Guarini, Keith Urban, Rachel Hunter, Ice Cube and Ryan Seacrest all hit the party at AquaKnox (Venetian) after the Fox "America's Party" New Year's Eve broadcast.

From Sun wires

Righteous Brothers singer Bobby Hatfield's death in November was caused by cocaine and not just heart failure, according to the official autopsy report.

Dr. Richard Tooker, chief medical examiner for Kalamazoo County, Mich., told the Kalamazoo Gazette in today's editions that Hatfield's death was triggered by acute cocaine intoxication.

Hatfield, 63, died Nov. 5, just hours before a Righteous Brothers concert.

"This is a shock to me," partner Bill Medley told The Orange County (Calif.) Register from his Newport Beach, Calif., home. "I never saw him (use cocaine). I knew absolutely nothing about it. If I had known, I would have said something to him."

Fox on "Scrubs": Sitcom veteran Michael J. Fox will appear in two episodes of NBC's "Scrubs" next month as a doctor who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Fox, whose television appearances have been limited because of Parkinson's disease, is reuniting with Bill Lawrence, executive producer of "Scrubs" and creator of Fox's last series, "Spin City."