But Brown joins a long line of stars who ran to the altar when mere mortals would still be at the 'Can I buy you a drink?' stage.

And, unfortunately for her, alarm bells should be ringing, as the duration of most have been shorter than the ceremony.

Drew Barrymore is a repeat offender. She wed Welsh bartender Jeremy Thomas the night they met after an evening's boozing and divorced him a month later. Next was an ill-fated union with comedian Tom Green; they were engaged for six months and managed to stay married another six.

Then there's car-crash extraordinaire Britney Spears, who married childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander at 5.30am in Las Vegas. It was quickly annulled, leaving Spears free to marry Kevin Federline later that year. Widely regarded as pretty useless, K-Fed subsequently showed himself to be a much more grounded person than Britney following their divorce and is now likely to gain custody of their two children.

Then we have actress Kate Hudson and Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson, who met in May 2000.

She moved into his apartment four days later and they married that December . . . although they did stay married for six years.

Poor Renae Zellweger seems to have morphed into her Bridget Jones character with no Mark Darcy to rescue her from singleton status. She had been dating country singer Kenny Chesney for a couple of months before she married him and duly divorced him 128 days later, calling it "the biggest mistake of my life."

There's also the 'blink and you'll miss it' coupling of Celebrity Big Brother's Chantelle and Preston who managed to stay hitched for 10 months. What's left to say to Mel B except hope you signed a pre-nup love.