Bobby & Whitney MIA in Court

Fri., Jan. 4, 2008 2:15 PM PST by Josh Grossberg

Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston may no longer be coupled, but they were in unison on one thing Friday: skipping court.

The former lovebirds were both no-shows for a scheduled proceeding Friday in an Orange County, California, courtroom.

Superior Court Judge Claudia Silbar was due to preside over a routine hearing stemming from Brown's Apr. 26, 2007, motion aiming to set aside the divorce judgment that gave Houston full custody of their 14-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina.

But Stacey Phillips, the attorney Brown hired to win increased custody rights and spousal support, threw a monkey wrench into the case when, citing a series of spats with Brown, she asked to be released as his attorney.

The two most recently bickered publicly over whether Brown actually suffered a heart attack last October. She told the media he did; he insisted he didn't, despite shooting a teary goodbye message from his hospital bed that became a YouTube favorite.

Silbar was expected to rule on both Brown's motion and Phillips' request Friday, but did not do so after both Houston and Brown were missing in action.

The lawyer for the "Saving All My Love" songbird, Thomas Stabile, told E! Online he attended the hearing on her behalf and informed the judge Houston "was feeling under the weather" and wouldn't be able to make it.

Stabile said today's turn of events seemed to render Brown's petition to set aside the judgment dead in the water, and the terms of their divorce will remain as it was when it became official last Apr. 24.

There was no immediate comment from Brown or Phillips.

The R&B stars' train wreck of a marriage began in 1992 and included several stints in jail for him for charges ranging from drunk driving to failure to pay child support for his other kids to assault and Houston's own substance-abuse issues, which required a detour to rehab. Their shenanigans were chronicled in the painful 2005 Bravo reality series Being Bobby Brown.

Months after the show ended, their union followed: Houston formally filed for divorce in October 2006.

She has since moved to Atlanta to work on a long-awaited comeback album, while Brown's career has languished.