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The man who was once engaged to the runaway bride has gotten married — to another woman. John Mason, 35, married Shelley Martin, 34, in a quiet ceremony Saturday at his parents' home in Duluth, his father, Claude Mason, told People magazine for a story posted Tuesday on its Web site.

DULUTH, Ga. (AP) - The story of runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks is on its way to a theater in the form of a rock opera. The show is scheduled to open in October at the Red Clay Theatre and Arts Center. But Mark Pitt, the theater's owner, says the show will not be a comedic spoof of Wilbanks' infamous disappearance before her scheduled 2005 wedding. Instead, the rock opera will show how the community came together and bonded over the experience, which included a massive search for Wilbanks before she turned up a few days later. Wilbanks and her then-fiance,...

Wedding Off for Runaway Bride Thursday May 18, 2006 3:00pm EST John Mason and Jennifer WilbanksCREDIT: AP(2)A year ago Jennifer Wilbanks bolted into tabloid infamy as the "Runaway Bride" when she faked her own kidnapping for three days on the eve of her wedding in Duluth, Ga. To the amazement of many, fiancé John Mason quickly took her back, with the couple even moving into a large new home in an Atlanta suburb and talking about taking a second run at marriage. But in early May Mason's camp let it be known that any nuptials were off – and suddenly...

A year ago Jennifer Wilbanks bolted into tabloid infamy as the "Runaway Bride" when she faked her own kidnapping for three days on the eve of her wedding in Duluth, Ga. To the amazement of many, fiancé John Mason quickly took her back, with the couple even moving into a large new home in an Atlanta suburb and talking about taking a second run at marriage. But in early May Mason's camp let it be known that any nuptials were off – and suddenly the woman who couldn’t take "I do" for an answer seems to be having a problem...

DULUTH — So there are more important issues than the anniversary of the Runaway Bride fiasco. The proliferation of nuclear technology in Iran. The energy crisis. The upcoming election for Georgia governor. But come on. How could we not take a moment to pause, reflect and wonder on this, the one-year anniversary of Jennifer Wilbanks’ ill-fated decision that turned Gwinnett County (Duluth in particular) into a zoo of television crews, public officials and curious spectators? Let’s face it, the woman was more ubiquitous than Britney Spears. She’s been on everything from NBC’s “Dateline” with Katie Couric to a piece of...

ATLANTA (AP) - The pastor who became spokesman for runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks has hit the ground running with a book about "the various issues of life that cause us to make foolish decisions." The Rev. Tom Smiley said he started writing "Runaway Lives" about a year and a half ago, long before Wilbanks' escapade became national news. But when it did, he said it provided a perfect window for the thesis he was trying to convey. "With the national media putting her in our living rooms with her emotional issues, I think her story gave credence to the fact...

Instead of cutting out of town, runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks is cutting lawns. Wearing an orange community service vest and a baseball cap with the slogan "Life is good," Wilbanks did part of her court-ordered community service Tuesday for lying to police after she ran off days before her wedding. "I'm doing well. ... I'm getting there," a sweating Wilbanks told a throng of reporters and photographers after her mower died out in the tall, wet grass. "I need to get back to work. I don't want to get into trouble." But her mower kept sputtering out, prompting her to...

Runaway Bride Mows Lawn As Part of Service By DANIEL YEE, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks mowed the lawn of a government building Tuesday as part of her court-ordered community service for lying to police after she ran off days before her scheduled wedding. Wearing an orange community service vest, a ballcap that said "Life is good" and running shoes, Wilbanks seemed upbeat as she pushed a powered mower by a swarm of reporters and photographers. She briefly spoke when the mower's engine died in some tall grass. "I'm doing well," said Wilbanks, who has...

Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks mows the lawn of a government building, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2005, in Lawrenceville, Ga. Wilbanks also has been picking up litter, washing public vehicles and cleaning government offices as part of her sentence for lying to police after she ran off days before her scheduled wedding. (AP Photo/Gene Blythe)

Word out of Duluth, Georgia is that runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks is ready to take the plunge with her fiancé, John Mason, 3½ months after wedding-day jitters prompted her to skip town and claim she was abducted. The two have reportedly registered at Pottery Barn. The registry lists things like dining room furniture, a desk and some wine glasses, but shoppers say that's not what Wilbanks really needs: "How about a mirror to take a look at herself?" "A suitcase." "A ball and chain to tie her to the room when he comes in." "She should be registered at Athlete's...

The best part of the New Yorker's Q&A with morning show war writer Ken Auletta is at the end. Couric told you she believes it is her responsibility as a journalist to explore and talk seriously about issues 'that people need to know about to be informed citizens.'She then persued an exclusive interview with the 'Runaway Bride' Jennifer Wilbanks and defended it as 'a terrific story.'Did you get a sense from any of the morning anchors that there was an internal conflict about what their journalistic mission was?Most people don't get out of bed in the morning believing they are...

Run away bride Jennifer Wilbanks' twin brother said he had a "gut feeling" his sister was never in danger when she disappeared four days before she was scheduled to be married. In an exclusive interview, Matthew Wilbanks, 32, spoke for the first time about his sister. He said: * Her years-long habit of stealing was "inexcusable." * His sister knew exactly what to do to make her faked abduction appear frighteningly real. * She was always the wild twin. * And she comes from a loving family. -snip- Jennifer had an addiction to plastic surgery — proudly displaying her breast...

A Katie Couric Special NBC 5 Jun 21 08:00pm Add to My Calendar Series/Other, 60 Mins. Jennifer Wilbanks discusses why she fabricated her own abduction in order to avoid marrying fiance John Mason. Original Airdate: June 21, 2005.

So what could she possibly have been thinking? Eight weeks ago, bride-to-be Jennifer Wilbanks hopped on a Greyhound bus. She certainly would not have been the first young woman to get cold feet on her way to the altar. But she disappeared without a trace. And the search that followed gripped the nation. Now, Jennifer and her fiancé, John Mason, finally tell their side of the story. Jennifer has received sympathy from some quarters. But she's also been mocked and ridiculed. And many people are just plain furious about her escapade. Now, speaking out for the first time, Jennifer Wilbanks...

Remember Runaway Bride Jennifer Wilbanks? How could any of us forget the fleeing fiancée, considering the wall-to-wall media coverage we had to endure. Well, now after pleading no contest to faking her own kidnapping, Wilbanks has been sentenced to probation and community service. She's also been fined $2,550 and is repaying the city of Duluth, Georgia, $13,250 towards the $40,000 search tab. In addition, Wilbanks is receiving treatment at a mental health facility. Oh, yeah, did I mention that she's just snagged a book and TV deal for a reported half-million dollars? That's right. According to the New York Post,...

In her first interview since her famous cross-country flight in April, runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks has called her decision to run away "the best mistake I ever made." Wilbanks said that even though the search for her inconvenienced a lot of people and worried friends and family, it forced her to seek help, which she admitted she badly needed. The entire interview will be aired by NBC next Tuesday at 8 p.m., with excerpts to be shown on the "Today" show Tuesday and Wednesday. NBC released a partial transcript of the interview with Katie Couric today: RE: Her feelings about...

ATLANTA - Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks has struck a deal for a TV project about her misadventures, irritating some people in her hometown. ReganMedia, which publishes books and produces TV shows and movies, said Thursday that it has acquired all media rights to the stories of Wilbanks and her fiance, John Mason. The New York company did not say whether any money had changed hands. In a statement, company President Judith Regan called the tale "an unexpected and compelling story of love and forgiveness that has certainly taught me a thing or two." ReganBooks has published novels such as Wally...

JUDITH Regan did everything possible to keep her $500,000 deal with "Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks a secret. But PAGE SIX has obtained a copy of the "deal memo" that led to Wilbanks' interview with NBC's Katie Couric, plus an e-mail from Regan's office swearing Wilbanks and her family to secrecy. "I must stress the importance of keeping this deal and all its details absolutely confidential," Regan's assistant, Doug Grad, e-mailed the Wilbanks family this month. "Nobody can know that this deal has gone through — and those who do know . . . must keep it secret. Any leaks can...

Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks made a deal with a company that is pitching a movie about her life to networks - annoying officials who spent thousands of dollars searching for her. ReganMedia, a New York multimedia company, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a story in Thursday's papers it has acquired all media rights to the "life stories" of Wilbanks and her fiance, John Mason. The company did not say whether any money had changed hands. "I am looking forward to developing the scripted project with Wilbanks and Mason," company president Judith Regan said in a statement. "Theirs is an unexpected...

RUNAWAY DEAL AT NBC NEWS DID NBC News pay for an interview with "Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks in a roundabout way, and has publisher Judith Regan turned into a booker for the Peacock Network? Regan — who runs ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins, which is owned by News Corp. — is widely credited with brokering the deal Wilbanks made with NBC. Wilbanks became a huge "get" when she ran away from her fiancé, John Mason, without a word and fled cross-country. She later falsely claimed to police she'd been kidnapped and is repaying her hometown of Gainesville, Ga., $13,000 —...

It's a huge 'get' for Katie Couric.She is sitting down with the 'Runaway Bride' Jennifer Wilbanks, and her fiancee John Mason, for an exclusive primetime interview June 21.Parts of this interview will air on Tuesday and Wednesday's 'Today' show.Why Katie? An emailer asks and answers: 'NBC was instrumental in getting the book deal done for the bride that wasn't.'

Judith Regan is about to let the ink dry on a six-figure book deal with "Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks. The deal also includes television movie rights and network interview (both likely with NBC).

Per Fox News...

CNN breakin news says... "Runaway bride" Jennifer Wilbanks pleads guilty to felony charge of making false statements to police. Details soon.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks (search) has been released from a mental hospital and has turned herself in to the county courthouse on Thursday to face criminal charges related to her disappearance.

My wife and I just saw a strange object in the sky. It was round and stayed in one spot than it moved fast. It had 2 shooting stars coming from it. We heard no sound than a rumbling. We tried to take pictures, too dark. Wondering if anyone say this. Mid-Coast of Maine. Very odd.

ATLANTA - Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks has agreed to pay $13,250 to the city of Duluth, Ga., to help pay for the costs the city incurred searching for her, the mayor said Tuesday. The city attorney notified Mayor Shirley Lasseter that a written agreement for compensation had been reached. The city was expected to receive a check from Wilbanks on Tuesday, Lasseter said. In accepting the agreement, the city will have to write off about $30,000 in other costs searching for the bride-to-be, who disappeared April 26, four days before her planned wedding. "We're very appreciative they were willing to...

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - A warrant has been issued for runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, but officials don't expect her to report to police while undergoing psychiatric treatment. The warrant was issued Thursday, the day after a grand jury indicted her on a felony charge of making a false statement and a misdemeanor count of making a false police report. Since her return to Georgia from New Mexico, she has entered into psychiatric treatment. Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said he will wait until she completes treatment before asking her to turn herself in. "The earliest I would expect anything to...

Jennifer Wilbanks, the notorious runaway bride of Duluth, Georgia, was indicted Wednesday on two charges of lying to the police, and could face up to six years in prison. Some, no doubt, will find these indictments to be overly harsh. After all, can't a girl change her mind? Other prospective brides have been known to get cold feet before their weddings, so why should Ms. Wilbanks be so signally punished? Besides, her lying to the police was just the frantic response of a woman caught in an embarrassing pickle — though a pickle of her own making. Who could blame...

Saying that the Joint Chiefs and combatant commanders “strongly support” ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has stated that the measure “ensures the ability of the US Armed Forces to operate freely across the vast expanse of the world’s oceans under the authority of widely recognized and accepted international law.” [1] But would our military leaders support the treaty if they knew that the activists behind it were also instrumental in promoting the International Criminal Court (ICC), which could prosecute and imprison American troops and military...

Runaway Bride Indicted for Making Up Story Woman Claimed Abduction After Disappearing Days Before Wedding By DANIEL YEE, AP LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (May 25) - Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks was indicted Wednesday for allegedly filing a false police report claiming she had been kidnapped, charges that could mean up to six years in prison. A grand jury indicted the 32-year-old woman on one count of making a false police report, a misdemeanor, and one count of false statement, a felony. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, said Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter. The other...

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Runaway Bride Jennifer Wilbanks is indicted with making a false statement and reporting a false crime.

Conan is about to do a skit on Jennifer Wilbanks and her husband! Using the talking heads thing! This should be GOOD!

Wow, did you hear the latest on the runaway bride? Turns out she was going to New Mexico to visit an ex boyfriend to get some action before her wedding. Todd Kendrick, a CPA, said, “she liked sex,” and added, “It wasn't serious. It was what it was,” referring to their brief, but steamy, relationship. Kendrick never did hook up with Jennifer this time, but stated that “we broke up when she started freakin’ out on me, I mean who wants to have sex in a hot tub filled with Cheetos®?” Sources report that Kendrick said Wilbanks had a healthy...

  -- explore the new feminism -- introduction | interaction | information   ifeminists.com > introduction > editorials   Runaway Bride Lost in Junk Journalism May 11, 2005 by Wendy McElroy, wendy@ifeminists.net Veteran newsman Sam Donaldson announced it. Jennifer Wilbanks -- the Runaway Bride -- proved it. "Network news is dead." Tabloid journalism used to be a guilty vice enjoyed by people waiting in supermarket lines. They now dress it up as evening news, but even good journalists cannot infuse the supermarket stories with substance. In fact, they don't seem to be trying. Elements of the Wilbanks story are...

May 16, 2005 -- TAOS, N.M. — Jennifer Wilbanks wasn't just running away from her wedding, she was running toward something — an old paramour with whom she had a steamy sexual relationship. The bolting bride set her sights on New Mexico sometime during her three-day cross-country sprint from the altar because it's the home of a short-lived fling, several sources told The Post. But if Wilbanks harbored hope of reigniting an old passion, she would have been sorely disappointed. "I would have turned her ass in, no question," former flame Todd Kendrick told The Post. "And then," he joked,...

Hot Sauce Cashes in on Bride's Cold Feet May 14, 2005 2:46 PM EDT ATLANTA - Maybe hot sauce is the cure for cold feet. "Jennifer's High Tailin' Hot Sauce," a nod to the saga of runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, has sold briskly since its debut Wednesday. "I'm in the hot sauce business and this is the hottest thing I've got right now," said "Pappy" David Ryan, who runs Pappy's Peppers in Lawrenceville, Ga. and says he's sold 10 cases of the private-label sauce. He's not the only one cashing in: Herobuilders.com, a Danbury, Conn.-based manufacturer, has sold out of...

Wilbanks told cops of forced sex with rotten-toothed Hispanic man MAY 12--Before admitting that she simply fled west to avoid her super-sized Georgia wedding, Jennifer Wilbanks gave cops a graphic account of her purported sexual abuse at the hands of her abductors, a Hispanic man with rotten teeth and his heavyset blonde girlfriend. The kooky claims of the 32-year-old "Runaway Bride" are memorialized in the below Albuquerque Police Department reports. After surfacing on April 30 in New Mexico, Wilbanks spun her story for FBI agents and Albuquerque cops, who eventually confronted her with inconsistencies in that account. Wilbanks then admitted...

Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks' fake story of abduction and sexual assault in a van headed from Georgia to New Mexico contained precise and graphic details of the alleged crime, according to police documents released Wednesday. According to a police summary of the April 30 interview with Wilbanks, she claimed she was abducted April 26 "by two individuals, a 'Hispanic male' and a 'white female,' and thrown in the back of a van. Her hands were then tied with a rope, she told investigators. "The individuals placed her on her right side on the floor of the van and made her...

ATLANTA — Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, whose three-day disappearance led to a nationwide search and more than a week of tabloid headlines, has entered a medical treatment program. The location of the program and its likely duration were not disclosed. Wilbanks "entered a highly regarded, inpatient treatment program on her own volition to address physical and mental issues that, she believes, played a major role in her 'running from herself,' as she described in a public statement last week," family spokesman Sammy Smith wrote in an e-mail. Wilbanks initially told investigators that she had been abducted, a story that quickly...

Jennifer Wilbanks, the runaway bride whose disappearance triggered a nationwide search, has entered a voluntary medical treatment program. According to a statement from the family's church, "Ms. Wilbanks entered a highly regarded, inpatient treatment program on her own volition to address physical and mental issues which, she believes, played a major role in her 'running from herself' as she described in a public statement last week." Wilbanks entered the program late Monday. The location of the program and suggested duration of treatment was not disclosed. Wilbanks was already undergoing professional treatment. On May 5, the pastor for the Wilbanks family,...

As much heat as I've taken of Free Republic for being friends with John and Jennifer, this is the best one by far. First, a quick background: They are both friends of mine via Sunday School in our church. John and I have played golf and have become good friends. Hence: Jennifer Wilbanks found alive in New Mexico!!! (Missing Georgia bride-to-be found alive) CNN ^ | April 30, 2005 Posted on 04/30/2005 12:05:31 AM PDT by kcvl CNN: Missing Georgia bride-to-be found alive in New Mexico ATLANTA (CNN) -- Jennifer Wilbanks, a Georgia woman missing since Tuesday night, has been...

GAINESVILLE - Attorney Lydia Sartain said Monday she wants to set the record straight by saying she did not personally prosecute her now client, runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks in 1996. The Atlanta Journal reported Sunday that Sartain was the prosecutor of the shoplifting arrest but Sartain said the pre-trail diversion program handled the charges. "Those folks handled her case." Sartain said. "She qualified for the program and evidently completed the program. Subsequent offenses were prosecuted by the state court and municipal courts, so I was not involved in those." She added even if she had prosecuted Wilbanks, it would not...

Pastor Tom Smiley, who became a familiar face to millions of Americans as the public spokesman for runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, failed to show up at a press conference scheduled for today, sparking a nationwide manhunt. Those close to Mr. Smiley said that they were shocked by his sudden disappearance and began holding a candlelight vigil for his safe return. "I hope to high heavens that there is no foul play involved," said Sheila Delawn, a family friend of Mr. Smiley's who joined the vigil outside his home in Gainesville, Georgia. "What we are all praying for is that the...

The "runaway bride" is the perfect story for our time, a tale made in cable-TV heaven, with something for everybody, including me. Jennifer Wilbanks, who took a bus to Las Vegas on the eve of her wedding and called her fiancé from Albuquerque with a tall tale of kidnapping, is a triumph of radical feminism: she escaped the conventional trappings of marriage. Or maybe she reflects the failure of feminism: the dithering poor thing who couldn't make up her mind. Absolute moralists call for retribution, insisting that she pay her debt to society, literally, reimbursing several states for all the...

Runaway Bride's Attorney Previously Prosecuted Her POSTED: 11:02 am CDT May 8, 2005 UPDATED: 11:57 am CDT May 8, 2005 ATLANTA -- Court records reportedly show that runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks served jail time for shoplifting several years ago. SURVEY Has media scrutiny of "Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks gone too far? Yes. Leave her alone. No. She asked for it. Who's Jennifer Wilbanks? Results | Disclaimer The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting Wilbanks faced a felony charge back in 1996 for allegedly shoplifting $1,700 worth of merchandise from a mall. Records show the prosecutor in that case dropped the charge after...

This really is wonder bread. eBay bids for an image of the runaway bride that a Newton man carved into a piece of toast rose thousands of dollars before the deal crumbled Sunday. Perry Lonzello, a Newton antiques dealer, carved the image of Jennifer Wilbanks, the bride who led her hometown and the nation to believe she was kidnapped, into his breakfast last week before putting it on the eBay Web site for $1. The toast, which sold for $15,400, after bidding ended at 10:42 a.m. Sunday, received 109 bids during its five-day stay on eBay. After attempting to contact...

STILLWATER, N.J. -— A man who auctioned off a slice of toast carved with his drawing of the runaway bride feels burned because the winning bidder has refused to pay for the item.

1. Who pays for what? There are no hard-and-fast rules today about who is responsible for footing the bill, but usually the family of the felon pays for the getaway limo before the wedding, the cancellation announcements, the defense lawyer, the court rehearsal dinner and the bail bond. The groom pays for his boutonniere as well as the bride's electronic monitoring bracelet. snip---

The runaway bride's story has captured the nation's attention. While extreme, it seems that she strikes a chord in all of us -- how do we distinguish between natural pre-wedding jitters and a nuptial change of heart? Whether the runaway bride's cold feet were in response to the looming pressure of a 600-person wedding extravaganza, or a deeper concern about the marriage itself, remains to be seen. Her forgiving fiance has given back the ring, but it's going to take more than a diamond to make this couple last forever. snip----