After Pamela Anderson’s latest split from Paris Hilton-sex-tape-star Rick Salomon, I started seeing her name pop up again in all of the celebrity gossip blogs, linked to several different new men. All I could think was “stop the madness!” This, of course, is the woman who has been married three times (longest marriage - three years) and engaged several other times. The whole thing got me wondering about the shortest celebrity marriages on record. I think we’ve come up with a pretty comprehensive list of the quickest unions and separations in Hollywood history. Here ya go:

• Robert Evans and Catherine Oxenberg - he was old (68) and she was not (36); they split after 12 days of marriage
• Ali Landry and Mario Lopez - this acting couple dated for six years and separated after two weeks of marriage
• Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds -they dated after Murphy broke up with Scary Spice, then married on an island in the Pacific on New Year’s Day; they acknowledged that the marriage wasn’t legal and planned to have a legal ceremony in L.A.; it never happened, they split two weeks later
• R. Kelly and the late Aaliyah - the singers were married for less than three months before the union was annulled due to Aaliyah’s age (15)
• Janet Jackson and James DeBarge - the young Miss Jackson was secretly married to DeBarge for four months
  
• Nicky Hilton and Todd Meister - married in Vegas, this marriage was annulled after four months
• Charlie Sheen and Donna Peele - this lasted four months; Sheen has married and divorced since and is now engaged again
• Colin Farrell and Amelia Warner - these two co-starred in a movie and were married for four months
• Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney - an odd couple, this marriage was annulled after four months

Oh yeah, there’s more… Continue reading "The Shortest Celebrity Marriages Ever"

Pamela Anderson finally got her annulment on earlier this week. Her five month marriage to Rick Salomon was declared a nullity by a Los Angeles County judge on the basis of fraud. Anderson originally filed for divorce in December, 2007 but withdrew her petition in order to reconcile with Salomon. She re-filed her petition in late February, 2008, this time seeking an annulment. Anderson’s petition claimed fraud as her grounds for annulment. Last week, Salomon filed his own request for annulment on the grounds of fraud. Neither has specifically stated how they were defrauded by the other.

You can read more about annulment in Monica Mazzei’s March 8th post on the Anderson-Salomon case. This week’s judgment does not appear to reference any property division. Presumably, Anderson and Salomon kept their assets separate for the entire two months of their marriage and did not accumulate or earn enough during that time to argue over. Anderson, of course, is an actress and model, famous for the TV series Baywatch and for her Playboy features. She was previously married to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and to music star Kid Rock. Salomon is known for his videotaped bedroom romp with former girlfriend Paris Hilton. He was previously married to actress/singer Elizabeth Daily and to actress Shannen Doherty. He reportedly made millions from the release of his sex tape featuring Hilton. Interestingly, Salomon was represented by attorney Laura Wasser, who represented Johnny Knoxville in his divorce last week.

Pamela Anderson, the former Baywatch star and famous Playboy Playmate, has filed to annul her marriage of two months to movie producer Rick Salomon. According to court documents, Anderson cited “fraud” as the reason for the annulment.

Private Judge

Anderson elected to have her divorce case heard by a retired judge instead of in the Los Angeles Superior Court. People usually choose to use a private judge in order to keep their divorce confidential. In a standard divorce hearing, members of the public and other litigants are in the courtroom when your case is heard. On top of that - and many people do not realize this - all papers filed in Court become public record; for celebrities this is often worth avoiding by working with a private judge. Anyone can have their case heard by a private judge in order to keep it confidential, but private judges are expensive, sometimes charging as much as $10,000 - $50,000 up front, and then hundreds of dollars per hour beyond the initial retainer.

Annulment

Although the term annulment is thrown around a lot in popular media, obtaining an annulment is not easy and the court does not grant them often. An annulment is a request from the Court to “undo” the marriage as if it never happened. When you are granted an annulment you are not “divorced” - rather it makes it as if the parties were never married. One of the grounds for an annulment is fraud, which means that a party was misled by the other party about something fundamental to the marriage. For example, if one party finds out after marriage that the other party really does not want children (even though they previously represented that they did) that may constitute fraud and be grounds for an annulment. Another important repercussion of an annulment is that no spousal support (alimony) is awarded, because the marriage essentially never legally happened.

Anderson cited “fraud” as her basis for annulment. It is likely that we will not find out the details about Anderson’s claim of fraud since her case is now before a private judge, but if Anderson did not have a premarital agreement with Salomon, she may very well be seeking an annulment in order to avoid paying spousal support.

On December 14, 2007 actress/model Pamela Anderson filed for divorce from Rick Salomon in Los Angeles Superior Court after only two months of marriage.

Anderson and Salomon married on October 6, 2007, in Las Vegas. But because Anderson and Salomon are residents of Los Angeles, Anderson was required to file for divorce in Los Angeles. Many people assume that a person must file for divorce in the state they were married, however, the law requires that a petition for dissolution (the form filed for divorce) be filed in the state and county in which one or both parties have resided for at least six months.

Shortly after Anderson filed for divorce she withdrew her petition which stopped the divorce process from continuing. A party who files a petition for dissolution may withdraw the petition, or “stop” the divorce, at any time before the final judgment has been entered. The final judgment is entered when the final agreement between the parties (regarding the division of property) has been filed and processed with the court. Then once a judgment is submitted to the court it generally takes the court about 6 months to enter it.

So, because Anderson decided to reconcile with Salomon (she says “We are working things out…”), it was necessary for her to withdraw, or cancel, the petition for dissolution she filed in order to prevent the divorce process from continuing. In the case that Anderson and Salomon are unable to “work things out,” Anderson will have to re-file a petition for dissolution.