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CNN Live Today

Interview With Harvey Levin

Aired January 06, 2004 - 11:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well she did it, she's undone it. Now Britney Spears is living the single life again. She and her hometown friend Jason Allen Alexander have been granted an annulment. Their 55-hour marriage ended when a Las Vegas judge signed the order yesterday. Spears and Alexander tied the knot early Saturday in what was described as joke that went too far.
Not a lot of people are laughing with Britney Spears but laughing at her. With more on this Harvey Levin from "Celebrity Justice" joining us. Harvey, you guys laughing at "Celebrity Justice"?

HARVEY LEVIN, "CELEBRITY JUSTICE": I love my job. You know what? Honestly, Daryn, this is actually a really interesting legal case.

KAGAN: And how is that?

LEVIN: Because in Nevada, happen to have the law here, in Nevada there are requirements for getting a marriage annulled. And the only real basis that she would have for getting it annulled, which means it never really happened in the first place, would be if she could prove she had a lack of understanding.

Now, typically -- we went back and looked at the law. There are cases as early as 1925 in Nevada were people proved that by showing they were so drunk they didn't have the ability to form a thought.

Well, she's not alleging that. She's just saying, You know, we didn't think it through. Technical that may not be enough to actually get an annulment in Nevada because they did go to a chapel. They were turned away. They had to go to the marriage license bureau. They had to go back to the chapel.

And if the judge were really hard-nosed about it, he might have said, You know what? I don't think you had a lack of understanding, really. But that that's what he said.

KAGAN: But he did say you can get out of this. But why is an annulment preferable over a divorce?

LEVIN: An annulment basically negates the marriage. It means all sorts of things. One, let's face it, Britney Spears has image issues here.

KAGAN: Ha, yeah.

LEVIN: Better to have an annulment than a divorce, period. Also there are monetary issues here. You know, Britney Spears is a cash register. And every day she makes a lot of money in royalties. And when you annul a marriage you can basically turn back the hands of time so that it never really happened legally in the first place and that's what happened here.

KAGAN: Real quickly in the logs of Hollywood divorces I'm thinking of David and Liza, a few others out there. How does this one rate?

LEVIN: Well David and Liza, they -- that was like the silver wedding anniversary.

(LAUGHTER)

LEVIN: You know, it's a really fast one. Daryn, real quickly, I've got to tell you, I had a brush with greatness. She worked out at my gym a couple of times.

KAGAN: Which one? Britney or Liza?

LEVIN: Britney. And she's just this happy-go-lucky kid. And you know you can kind of picture what happened here. She's 22-years- old and she's just kind of acting out the way 22-year-olds sometimes do. It happens that she's Britney Spears.

KAGAN: Yeah, right. OK, good way to explain away her behavior. Harvey, thanks for the quick visit.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 6, 2004 - 11:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well she did it, she's undone it. Now Britney Spears is living the single life again. She and her hometown friend Jason Allen Alexander have been granted an annulment. Their 55-hour marriage ended when a Las Vegas judge signed the order yesterday. Spears and Alexander tied the knot early Saturday in what was described as joke that went too far.
Not a lot of people are laughing with Britney Spears but laughing at her. With more on this Harvey Levin from "Celebrity Justice" joining us. Harvey, you guys laughing at "Celebrity Justice"?

HARVEY LEVIN, "CELEBRITY JUSTICE": I love my job. You know what? Honestly, Daryn, this is actually a really interesting legal case.

KAGAN: And how is that?

LEVIN: Because in Nevada, happen to have the law here, in Nevada there are requirements for getting a marriage annulled. And the only real basis that she would have for getting it annulled, which means it never really happened in the first place, would be if she could prove she had a lack of understanding.

Now, typically -- we went back and looked at the law. There are cases as early as 1925 in Nevada were people proved that by showing they were so drunk they didn't have the ability to form a thought.

Well, she's not alleging that. She's just saying, You know, we didn't think it through. Technical that may not be enough to actually get an annulment in Nevada because they did go to a chapel. They were turned away. They had to go to the marriage license bureau. They had to go back to the chapel.

And if the judge were really hard-nosed about it, he might have said, You know what? I don't think you had a lack of understanding, really. But that that's what he said.

KAGAN: But he did say you can get out of this. But why is an annulment preferable over a divorce?

LEVIN: An annulment basically negates the marriage. It means all sorts of things. One, let's face it, Britney Spears has image issues here.

KAGAN: Ha, yeah.

LEVIN: Better to have an annulment than a divorce, period. Also there are monetary issues here. You know, Britney Spears is a cash register. And every day she makes a lot of money in royalties. And when you annul a marriage you can basically turn back the hands of time so that it never really happened legally in the first place and that's what happened here.

KAGAN: Real quickly in the logs of Hollywood divorces I'm thinking of David and Liza, a few others out there. How does this one rate?

LEVIN: Well David and Liza, they -- that was like the silver wedding anniversary.

(LAUGHTER)

LEVIN: You know, it's a really fast one. Daryn, real quickly, I've got to tell you, I had a brush with greatness. She worked out at my gym a couple of times.

KAGAN: Which one? Britney or Liza?

LEVIN: Britney. And she's just this happy-go-lucky kid. And you know you can kind of picture what happened here. She's 22-years- old and she's just kind of acting out the way 22-year-olds sometimes do. It happens that she's Britney Spears.

KAGAN: Yeah, right. OK, good way to explain away her behavior. Harvey, thanks for the quick visit.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com