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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

Janeane Garofalo Didn't Realize She'd Been Married 20 Years

janeane-garofalo.jpg
Janeane Garofalo in L.A. in 2007 (Featureflash / Shutterstock.com)

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It's not (necessarily) the punch line to a joke in comedian Janeane Garofalo's stand-up routine, it's actually part of the tale of Garofalo's quickie divorce that was two decades in the making. When Big Bang Theory producer Rob Cohen went to do the legal legwork to prep for his upcoming nuptials, he discovered he was already married--to Janeane Garofolo. As it so happens, the duo had been dating for about a year when, as so many wedding day stories go, they got drunk in Las Vegas and tied the knot in the early 1990s.

The trouble is, they forgot to legally untie it.

Garofalo explained the whole thing while participating in a New York Comedy Festival reunion for The Ben Stiller Show, according to Page Six. Right before the appearance, Garofalo and Cohen had their marriage formally and finally dissolved.

How does one forget a legally-binding recitation of vows? Garofalo explains:

“[W]e got married at a drive-through chapel in a cab. [We thought] you have to go down to the courthouse and sign papers and stuff, so who knew?”

Cohen is now free to marry his fiancée, Jimmy Kimmel Live producer Jill Leiderman, and Garofalo says she no longer drinks.

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