Britney's Brief Honeymoon In Vegas

Britney Spears and a childhood friend apparently "took a joke too far" by tying the knot at a wedding chapel after a long night of partying — and then quickly arranged an annulment.

The 22-year-old pop star married Jason Allen Alexander of Kentwood, La., about 5:30 a.m. Saturday at a Las Vegas wedding chapel, said George Maloof Jr., owner and operator of the Palms Casino Hotel.

"Nobody knew it was coming," said Maloof, Spears' good friend.

But the couple arranged an annulment Saturday afternoon in the presence of several people, including a Las Vegas lawyer, said a source close to Spears who spoke on condition of anonymity. The signed annulment will be filed when the courts open Monday morning, the source said.

Spears' record label, Jive Records, released a statement on the marriage by Sonia Muckle, Jive's vice president of publicity, to Entertainment Tonight.

"On January 3rd, Britney Spears and a friend took a joke too far by getting married. Ms. Spears and Mr. Alexander have filed for an annulment which will become official on Monday, January 5."

ET, like CBSNews.com, is part of Viacom.

"If it is just a cry for help or some little PR stunt that she thinks is going to be interesting to people but not to herself, I think that's a little sad," Michael Musto of The Village Voice told CBS News. "She's only 22 and some people have already called her a has-been and that's really rough."

"Pop singers are not just singers any more," said People magazine editor Larry Hackett. "Controversy and outrage and scandal are part of what you do. Madonna set this level 20 years ago."

Us Weekly senior editor Caroline Schaefer says this might be a little more serious than a publicity stunt or a fling.

"I think she's very comfortable with Jason," Schaefer said on CBS News' The Early Show. "She's known him since she was 4. They have been dating.

"I think she has relationship. They've been spending time at each other's family's houses," Schaefer said. "This is not just some guy she met in a bar."

However, Schaefer doesn't believe Spears intended to get married this past weekend.

Spears and Alexander journeyed by limousine to the Little White Wedding Chapel on the Strip after a stop at the Ghostbar, a club in the Palms Casino Hotel. The chapel staff told the couple they couldn't get married without a license, so they were taken to get a license and driven back to the chapel, where they were married.

The bride wore a baseball cap and torn jeans down the aisle and was escorted by a Palms limousine driver, the source told the AP.

Alexander was back in his hometown Sunday, according to his grandfather, Robert Alexander.

"He'd been through a lot. We picked him up in New Orleans coming back and he didn't have much to say," the elder Alexander told Entertainment Tonight.

Us Weekly magazine spoke to Jason Alexander, and he is "extremely distressed at this point," Schaefer told Early Show co-anchor René Syler. "He's not willing to talk about it. His family also says he's very distressed and not up to talking about it."

Spears released her fourth album, "In the Zone," last November. It debuted at the top of the album charts. She begins a concert tour March 2 in San Diego.