|
 |
Actor Tom Cruise holds his daughter Suri as he arrives with
his fiancee Katie Holmes (L) at a restaurant in Rome November 16,
2006. (Reuters)
Click for more
pictures |
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will likely wed 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.
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 and Holmes have been staying this week at a luxury hotel near
the Spanish Steps in Rome.
"I want to thank Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes for choosing this venue
for such an important event," Riccioni said.
While she stopped short of
confirming the actual date of the wedding, the town's Web site late
Thursday had a picture of Cruise and Holmes under the headline, "The
wedding of the year in Bracciano, Saturday, 18 November 2006."
In the Italian capital, meanwhile, Cruise and Holmes held a dinner at a
small restaurant near the Spanish Steps, drawing several hundred fans and
curious people hoping to catch a glimpse of the stars.
The area immediately surrounding Nino restaurant was cordoned off, and private security officials
crowded the area.
The restaurant owner's daughter, Francesca Luti, told TG Sky 24 news
channel that Cruise was "a regular," and that the evening's menu included
some of the actor's favorite dishes - gnocchi, several types of pasta, and ravioli with truffles.
Those spotted going into the restaurant included "Mission Impossible
III" director, J.J. Abrams, Brooke Shields and Jennifer Lopez. Lopez's
husband, singer Marc Anthony, briefly stepped out to smoke a cigarette.
(Agencies) | 
