Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are planning to be married Saturday in a Scientology ceremony held at a 15th-century Italian castle in a lakeside town near Rome, the town's mayor said Thursday.
The wedding party, along with guests, are then expected to attend a banquet the same day in Rome, Bracciano Mayor Patrizia Riccioni said. According to Forbes:
For weeks rumors have focused on Odescalchi Castle in the sleepy town of Bracciano as the likely venue for the celebrity wedding. Riccioni told a news conference Thursday she had met the couple the day before somewhere outside of her town, but she would not say where.
She was coy about other details, too, saying only that she expected the couple to arrive Saturday morning at the castle, which overlooks Lake Bracciano, for what she believed would be a Scientology wedding ceremony, followed by a banquet. She said she expected the couple to return to the Italian capital the same day.
Cruise, 44, star of the "Mission: Impossible" films, and Holmes, 27, have been staying this week at a luxury hotel near the Spanish Steps in Rome. They were photographed Thursday with their infant daughter, Suri, as they walked to a restaurant in the city.
"I want to thank Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes for choosing this venue for such an important event," Riccioni said, showing reporters a congratulations card she had for the couple.
"When we met, they seemed to me to be far more normal people than what I believed. I think all this secrecy depends on them wanting to keep their marriage private and intimate," the mayor said, sparking laughter in the room filled with the journalists who have been trying for days to find clues about how the wedding will be held.
The Hollywood stars' late-Wednesday visit to Rome City Hall caused a flurry of speculation that they were getting a marriage license, but city hall said Thursday it was only a courtesy visit to the mayor, a big movie buff.
As of midday Thursday, the Bracciano Town Hall was insisting it had not received any request to celebrate the wedding, but preparations for a party appeared to be under way at castle.
The Bracciano Town Hall said, however, that the mayor would not need much time prepare for a civil ceremony if the necessary papers were presented before Saturday.
To obtain a marriage license, U.S. citizens planning to marry in Italy must present specific documents - including their passports, birth certificates and an affidavit that there is no impediment to their marriage. Because the documents need to be translated into Italian and certified, the process is generally time-consuming.
A spokesman for the Church of Scientology for Rome said they had not been contacted about the Cruise-Holmes wedding. Cruise belongs to the Church of Scientology.
"If they're getting married with these rites, it won't be with a minister from the Rome church, so I would imagine that they would bring their own," spokesman Fabrizio D'Agostino said.
D'Agostino said an exchange of vows with a Scientology rite was not legally recognized in Italy, and would have to be preceded or followed by a civil union.
Meanwhile, Katie Holmes' parents arrived in the Italian capital Thursday. They were whisked away in a van that had been waiting outside Rome's small Ciampino airport.
Cruise and Holmes, who have been staying at the Hassler hotel at the top of the Spanish Steps, met Holmes' parents at the nearby St. Regis Grand Hotel, where they stayed for about an hour before returning to the Hassler.
Also spotted at the airport Thursday morning were Jim Carrey; Jennifer Lopez and her husband, Marc Anthony; Jada Pinkett Smith; and Brooke Shields.
Shields and Cruise had a public argument last year after the "Mission: Impossible III" star, echoing the position of the Scientology church, publicly criticized Shields' use of antidepressants after the birth of her first daughter. He said during a TV appearance that depression could be treated with exercise and vitamins rather than drugs.
But the two appeared to have made up, and Shields said in September that Cruise had apologized to her in person.
The world is still wondering where why Tom and Katie did not invite Oprah...let the catfight begin...
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