Continued from page 1

What Was She Thinking?

Thursday January 08, 2004 10:00 AM EST

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Seven minutes later, after minister Ian Schonken proclaimed Spears and Alexander husband and wife, the newlyweds locked in a long and passionate kiss, and the limo driver said, "Congratulations!" As the couple exited, "they were smiling and laughing," says another witness. "But it didn't seem like, Oh, this is the love of her life."

Perhaps because it wasn't. Just 11 hours later, after the pair called their respective families and, as Alexander put it, "all hell broke loose," the newlyweds appealed for an annulment. Citing a failure to "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," the formal request concluded, "they are so incompatible that there was a want of understanding of each other's actions in entering into this marriage." Two days later it was all over but the memories.

One question remains, however: What were they thinking? Was this evidence of a Spears meltdown? A misguided attempt to convince the world she's no longer a teeny-bopper princess? An impetuous gesture springing from deep feelings that neither have owned up to? Or was it all just a p.r. gimmick? "This is by no means a publicity stunt," says Lizzie Grubman, Spears's former rep. "What good could come out of this?"

People close to Spears and Alexander vigorously deny that the two wacky kids from Kentwood, La., were in an alcoholic haze when they exchanged vows. "They weren't drunk," says Doreen Seal, 45, Alexander's mother. "It's just a moment that got out of control, and there was no one there to stop them. They made a mistake and then they fixed it." Lance Bass, who, unlike his 'N Sync bandmate and Spears's ex Justin Timberlake, remains close to Britney, spent an hour with the pop diva in her suite soon after Alexander headed back to Kentwood late the afternoon of his wedding day. "Young people do stupid things every day," says Bass. "She was of sound mind. It's just a moment where a joke went too far."