LAS VEGAS - Pop star Britney Spears married a childhood friend during an apparently impromptu wedding ceremony on Saturday in Las Vegas, according to published reports.
A marriage license was filed in Clark County, Nevada, on Jan. 3, for Jason Allen Alexander and Britney Jean Spears, both 22. Signed by both, the document says they are both residents of Kentwood, Louisiana, who were born in Mississippi.
Neither has been married before.
The wedding was only the latest lurch toward adulthood by the pop princess, a one-time children's television performer turned teen-aged sex symbol who most recently has posed scantily clad on magazine covers and kissed Madonna on national television while promoting her latest album.
Spears married Alexander at the Little White Wedding Chapel on the Las Vegas strip early on Saturday, according to online reports by the Las Vegas Review Journal newspaper and People magazine.
The pop diva's most high-profile romance previously was with fellow pin-up Justin Timberlake, now enjoying a successful solo career after years with the boy band 'N Sync.
Spears admitted last year she had sex with Timberlake, despite famously vowing to remain a virgin until she wed.
Both publications said Spears was walked down the aisle by a Palms Hotel bellman.
Although confirming details of the marriage license, reports could not immediately reach Spears' representatives for comment. Representatives for the Little White Wedding Chapel and the Palms Hotel declined comment.
People reported that the Grammy-nominated Spears wore jeans and a baseball cap for the ceremony.
Spears shot to superstardom as a teen-ager with her debut album "...Baby One More Time." She released her latest, "In the Zone," in November, storming to number one on the music charts with the aide of a publicity blitzkrieg.
It was the singer's fourth consecutive No. 1 debut, but the album's first-week sales of 609,000 units fell short of her previous efforts, continuing her downward sales trajectory in recent years.
"Oops!...I Did It Again" sold 1.3 million units in its opening week in 2000.
To promote the album, Spears has seemed omnipresent, posing for magazines, appearing in several television interviews and causing a major stir -- and massive attention on the Internet -- with her sensational open-mouthed kiss with Madonna during the MTV Video Music Awards.
Spears will tour to support "In the Zone" for 2004.
