Less than a week after basketball bad boy Dennis Rodman balked at reports he was too drunk to know what he was doing during his quickie Vegas wedding to buxom ex-"Baywatch" babe Carmen Electra, the strapping star has filed for an annulment.

The bizarre flip-flop occurred over Electra's refusal to sign a postnuptial pact, a close friend of Rodman's told The Post.

Within days after the wedding, "Dennis was telling people, 'If she doesn't sign the paper, it's going to be a short marriage,'" the source said.

His lawyer, Gerald Phillips, said he had not talked to Rodman specifically about a pact to protect his outrageous client's millions, but "I had discussions about it, but not with him."

Rodman's spokesman, Dwight Manley, had been publicly pooh-poohing the validity of the marriage since the hot couple exchanged "I do's" in a cheap chapel Nov. 14, insisting it wasn't legal because his client was too boozed up to know what he was doing.

Phillips backed up Manley.

"Dennis alleges he was so inebriated at the nuptials that he didn't know which end was up, what he was doing," Phillips told The Post.

Rodman cited an unsound mind and fraud as basis for the annulment, according to the court documents filed in Orange County, Calif.

In papers bearing his signature, he also claims the separation began the day of the wedding.

That would contradict his bride's position a day after Manley's comments appeared in the press. Electra's incensed camp produced a "love note" from Rodman that said, "I love Carmen and am proud to be married to her."

In the note, Rodman, 37, also appeared to be trying to distance himself from his agent.

"I apologize for any false statements given on my behalf regarding my marriage to Carmen Electra," he wrote.

But Phillips last night said, "My understanding is, the handwriting is not his. And it's not his language, either. Dennis does not talk that way."

When asked what Rodman had said about the bizarre past week, Phillips said only, "He masks his feelings well."

Manley added, "The actions [toward annulment] speak for themselves."

Electra's publicist, Cindy Guagenti, denied reports of a postnup dispute.

Asked whether the "love note" was a fraud, she said, "That's wrong." She said the note had been signed in the presence of Electra's manager.

But things apparently went wrong after that, she said.

"Carmen and Dennis mutually agreed upon the termination of this marriage several days ago because of all the events that have occurred," she said, declining to disclose which events she was talking about.

Guagenti said the sultry Electra, 26, was filming episodes for her "Hyperion Bay" TV show in Los Angeles this week and could not be reached for comment.

The Chicago Bull hotshot was spending his free time during the NBA lockout "working out and keeping busy on his new movie, 'Simon Sez,'" Manley said.

-- Kate Perrotta - 11/25/98