Britney Spears Secretly Weds Backup Dancer
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The Princess of Pop is turning into a bona fide Serial Bride.
Singer Britney Spears said “I do” on Saturday night to backup dancer Kevin Federline, her fiance since June. The marriage is the second this year for the 22-year-old Ms. Spears – in January she married childhood friend Jason Alexander on a shocking, Las Vegas style whim, a union that was annulled three days later.
The date of this wedding came as a surprise, but a convenient one. It may boost attention for next week’s release of Ms. Spears’s new video and single, “My Prerogative,” a cover of the 1988 song by Bobby Brown.
Ms. Spears and her man had reportedly sent out invitations announcing that they would wed on October 16, but, to avoid unwanted press attention, secretly moved up the ceremony four weeks.
“They threw up smokescreens, mainly through reports in the British press,” a Las Vegas Sun gossip columnist and former Page Six editor at New York Post, Timothy McDarrah, said.
A report in the British tabloid the Sun said Mr. Federline would have a bachelor party September 18 and Ms. Spears would hold a gathering of her girlfriends at the same time in Malibu.
As Star magazine first reported, however, the happy couple invited family and friends to what was billed as an engagement party at a private residence in Studio City, Calif., then gave them the main event instead.
Star reports that Ms. Spears wore a gown by Monique L’Huiller and that Mr. Federline and the groomsmen wore custom-made tuxedos.
The event also came on the eve of the Emmy Awards. Would it overshadow the annual awards? Maybe if it were the first time to the altar for this young star.
“The Emmys only happen once a year. Britney Spears, apparently, gets married twice a year. But it’s only September, so who knows,” Mr. McDarrah said.
The mid-September union might not only boost the star’s flagging career but could also serve other needs. In a television interview on “The Insider,” Ms. Spears said she’s eager to start a family and wants to be “a young mom.”
Her new husband, who is 26, is already a young dad. Mr. Federline’s previous girlfriend, Shar Jackson, an actress on the show “Moesha” who is single, has a newborn baby and a 2-year-old by the dancer. She was pregnant when Mr. Federline and Ms. Spears began their romance.
That puts Ms. Jackson in the category of a discouraging statistic: In 2000, one-third of all children born in the United States were born to single mothers. And according to the director of communications at the New York think tank the Institute for American Values, Mary Schwarz, a celebrity’s churn through mates has an overall negative effect on our attitudes toward marriage.
“Behavior like this changes the definition of marriage from a lifelong commitment that is about the needs of children into a romantic relationship that’s about the needs of adults,” she said. “We are living in a time when the institution of marriage is very weak and fragile.”
Celebrities who make marriage ap pear no different from cohabitation contribute to a lowering of the standard for marriage. “They set the stage for what’s normal. It defines what’s acceptable behavior,” Ms. Schwarz said.
But when a saucy mega-star comes calling, what’s a back-up dancer to do?
Mr. Federline’s credits include a role in the hip-hop flick “You Got Served” and a stint as a dancer for Justin Timberlake. It can only help his career to be the flavor of the month for Ms. Spears.
On the other hand, Jennifer Lopez’s second husband, Chris Judd, who was a back-up singer, has scarcely entered the popular culture as anything but a once and former Mr. J. Lo.
Still, Mr. Judd and Mr. Federline can inspire hope in flashy boy-toy performers everywhere.
While it may be too late for guys to hitch their stars to Beyonce or Avril Lavigne, there’s always a new crop of eligible tartlets coming up. At 19, Ashlee Simpson is boldly removing herself from the shadow of her older sister, Jessica. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are, improbably, 18. And for advance planners, Jojo, the Boston-born brunette will be of age in about five years.