Terrible lovebirds Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are capable of making no move without a cannery-level of fishiness (and paparazzi present, of course), and so it is with their Mexico wedding, which has since been revealed as the legally unbinding publicity stunt that, rather than being beneath the couple, represents the absolute apex of their combined powers. Still, Heidi's mother Darlene is not having it, and she's come out swinging in Us with some wild allegations about Spencer's Svengali-like hold on her daughter. But is it all part of the plan? Let's find out:

"He's manipulative and seems to have power over Heidi," Darlene Egelhoff, 46, told Us in an exclusive interview from her home in Crested Butte, Colorado the day after Montag, 22, blew off Thanksgiving with her family to stay with Pratt in Cabo San Lucas., the site of her Nov. 20 elopement. "I would like to see a blood test from Mexico. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had her drugged."

"Spencer has tried to cut everyone out of her life," Egelhoff tells Us. "I've been honest with Heidi, and it's caused our relationship to decline. I'm more devastated about that than the marriage, because I'm confident the marriage won't work out." [...]

So how long does she give their marriage?

"Six months," she says.

Harsh words from someone who's been a regular fixture in their staged paparazzi shoots, as seen above! Had Spencer slipped drugs into Egelhoff's mocha latte to earn her former compliance, or is she simply now playing along with the staged villainy that adds fuel to the duo's stalled Hills storyline? How long before Egelhoff packes her bags and moves from Crested Butte into Lauren Conrad's apartment, ready to provide her with a sympathetic shoulder pad to cry on (while making secret advances to Brody behind her back)?