Britney's mother stepped in

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears sheepishly had her marriage of two days annulled after a telling-off from her mother.

Having got hitched at 5.30 in the morning at the Little White Wedding Chapel on the Las Vegas Strip to her childhood pal and drinking buddy Jason Alexander, Spears came round to the sight of an irate Lynne Spears, who had flown in from Louisiana after being told of the nuptials.

The newlyweds promptly called a lawyer and signed an annulment, which was filed when the Nevada courts opened. The singer's record company said the wedding had been a "joke" that had gone too far.

The singer's head of security, Big Mo, allegedly told them: "What you guys did was totally stupidly ridiculously insane."

In the annulment, Spears claimed she did not fully understand what she was doing when she married on the spur of the moment.

Clark County Family Court Judge Lisa M. Brown signed the order, said Las Vegas lawyer David Chesnoff, who was cleaning up after the weekend frolic.

"There is no marriage now," Chesnoff said. "Jason agreed to this completely. They've made a wise decision. I know they care about each other. They are friends."

It took the judge about two hours to act on the "complaint for annulment" filed in Family Court.

"Plaintiff Spears lacked understanding of her actions to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to the marriage," the annulment petition said.

Alexander said he and Spears hatched the idea to get hitched early on Saturday morning local time.

"It was just crazy, man," the 22-year-old told website Access Hollywood. "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'."

According to the petition, "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."

- INDEPENDENT