A British couple who spent £9,000 on their dream wedding ceremony in Spain were jilted at the altar

SWNS

- by their priest.

Gary and Marie Mead had organised a ceremony with 74 of their friends after legally marrying in Las Vegas last August.

The pair had gone to great lengths to create their big day - from learning their vows inSpanish to exporting a cake from England - only to be left locked outside the pretty Las Alcazares church in Murcia, with no priest.

Gary, 51, who runs a scaffolding business, told the Daily Mail: 'The priest we had booked the whole thing with just never showed up.

'Our friends had a blessing by him in the same church just over a year ago and said how great it had been so we thought we'd do the same.

'When we got to the church and realised it was shut I grew more and more concerned but in the end we had to laugh.

'We knew the Spanish had a more laid-back attitude but didn't think it was this extreme.'

The couple had wanted a celebration near their villa in Mil Palmeras - but they didn't let a small thing like no priest put them off enjoying their reception.

After waiting 'for ages in a bar near the church', the couple realised he was coming, and along with their wedding party headed to the beach, before making their way to their reception at a nearby bar.

They have not contacted the priest for an explanation so far.

Marie said: 'All I'm really missing from the day are pictures inside the church.

'We have just chalked it up to experience - we would not go through it again, it is surprising how much work went into it.

'I'm happy though - we had a lovely celebration with families and friends and have some great pictures to remember the day, it was definitely memorable.'

Music mogul Simon Cowell's fiancee moves into his ex's LA hideaway

 

SIMON Cowell’s fiancee Mezhgan Hussainy has moved out of his Beverly Hills mansion amid rumours their relationship is cooling. The make-up artist is now living in Cowell’s hillside retreat – where his ex Terri Seymour stayed after splitting from the X Factor judge in 2008. Cowell’s pals jokily nicknamed the £3.5million house in the Hollywood Hills “the girlfriend graveyard”. A worker at the house said: “Yes, Mezhgan is living here. She is here now.” She refused to confirm if the pair had broken up but one insider said: “It looks like history is repeating itself. “When Simon split with Terri, she moved to the hillside house for about 18 months before moving to a pad which Simon is supposed to have paid for. “Some people have joked that the other house is his girlfriend graveyard – it’s almost as though the girls get sent there when the relationship has died.” Neighbours said they have not seen the music mogul – who used to date 1980s singer Sinitta – recently, and believe the Afghan-born beauty is living alone. And Simon’s mum, Julie, says she has not heard from Mezhgan for “weeks”, although the pair used to speak regularly. Rumours that the couple have split after an 18-month engagement went into overdrive this week after Simon told a US radio station he was “not sure” whether they were an item. Simon, 51, said last year he would like children with Mezhgan saying he was “smitten” and was looking forward to having “little Simons around”. But in a recent interview with American GQ magazine, he appeared to change heart, saying: “Truthfully, with the schedule, the crazy hours, I don’t think it would work.” And the 51-year-old has been lavishing praise on his American X Factor co-star Paula Abdul. He said: “There is something about her. I find her fascinating.” Reports in the US claim the pair spend hours on the phone.

Millions of Hotmail users cut off by Microsoft 'cloud' failure

 

As well as Hotmail, the outage affected Office 365 and the Skydrive online storage service. Microsoft said the cause appeared to be related to the Domain Name System, the computer network that ensures that web addresses are connected to websites. “Preliminary root cause suggests a DNS issue,” the firm said on its office 365 Twitter feed. The problems lasted for at least two-and-a-half hours, beginning at around 4AM British Summer Time. On a company blog, Microsoft said it had fixed the problem at 5.45AM, but the repairs took some time to “propagate” through the DNS network.  "We are working on propagating the DNS configuration changes and so it will take some time to restore service to everyone. Again we appreciate your patience," the firm said. For Office 365, Microsoft’s subscription-only competitor to Google Apps, which went live earlier this year, it was the second major technical failure in less than a month. Such incidents are likely to give pause to organisations considering migration to online “cloud” services, whereby software is delivered from vast data centres, over the internet.

Pop legend Lulu and Harry Judd from McFly are putting on their dancing shoes for this year's Strictly Come Dancing competition.

 

Lulu is swapping singing for salsa

Ex-Neighbours stars Jason Donovan and Holly Valance have also agreed to take part in the show, according to The Sun newspaper.

It has been confirmed by show producers thatDaybreak's sport presenter Dan Lobb,Waterloo Road actress Chelsee Healey and impressionist Rory Bremner, will also be taking part in the hit TV show.

Sven-Goran Eriksson's ex Nancy Dell'Olio and ex- EastEnders star Anita Dobson plus astrologer Russell Grant are also set to be swapping their day jobs for salsa dancing.

Speaking about the line-up, a source told The Sun newspaper, "Lulu is lots of fun and will bring in viewers who remember her from the Sixties - but also younger fans who know her from her duet with Take That on Relight My Fire. Harry will tick the heartthrob box."

The BBC will officially confirm the Strictly Come Dancing line-up on The One Show on Tuesday.

One year of sobriety before romance? Really? Why?

I want to date this guy but he's only six weeks sober. My therapist says I should wait. What do you say?

The Only Way Is Essex star Lydia Bright and James 'Arg' Argent are very much back on, kissing and cuddling as they hung out by the pool together in Marbella.

'Look at the stud on me arm' tweeted Lydia, apparently in reference to Arg (Picture: LydiaRoseBright)

They may have had a rocky relationship in the past, but TOWIE cast members Lydia and Arg looked like the picture of happiness as they relaxed in Spain together over the weekend.

As Lydia tweeted a photo of the pair hanging out by the pool in a Marbella venue, she referred to her ex-boyfriend as a 'stud', confirming that the relationship was back on after they were spotted kissing in the sunshine. 

Last month, the 20-year-old admitted that she was finding it hard to move on from Arg: 'I don’t want anyone else. James was my first love and was in my life for such a long time, I don’t think I’m ready to start looking for other people yet.’

And as Arg tweeted this weekend, referring to his girlfriend as 'my' Lydia and asking his followers to wish her better when she wasn't feeling well, he seemed to want people to know that he and Lydia were a couple again. 

The aspiring singer arrived in Marbella on Thursday after deciding to fly out at the last minute, where he tweeted: 'Lydia dragged me round the shops of Marbs!' as soon as she joined him in Spain a few days later.

 

The Only Way Is Essex star Lydia Bright and James 'Arg' Argent are very much back on, kissing and cuddling as they hung out by the pool together in Marbella.

Prince Harry splits from lingerie model Flee

 Prince Harry has reportedly called off his romance with Florence Brudenell-Bruce.

The 26-year-old is busy with military training and apparently doesn't want to be "tied down" to a girlfriend, even if she is a lingerie model.

An insider told The Mirror: "Harry has a lot on his mind at the moment. He is concentrating on his Apache helicopter training. After that, he's expecting to return to Afghanistan.

"Harry enjoyed spending time with friends over the summer, but he doesn't want to be tied down in a relationship when training, so he called time on Flee."

We reckon the split has less to do with helicopter training and more to do with the fact that 'Flee', as she's known to friends, was rumoured to have fallen in love quicker than one can say 'royal wedding'.

Hey ho... wonder how long it'll be before Harry's rumoured to be back with Chelsea Davy again.

Fears are growing over the eating habits of England’s future Queen.

The Duchess of Cambridge is said to have lost two dress sizes since her recent marriage to Prince William.
And her little sister Pippa Middleton is rumoured to be ringing her five times a day to make sure she is eating.
Kate - who has wowed the world since her marriage to Prince William - is rumoured to have lost five pounds since their tour of the US in July.
She has given up her love of Haribo sweets and pizza in favour of long workouts and runs along the beach.
Now people close to Kate - who is expected be England’s next Queen after Prince Charles wife Camilla - want her to ease up on the workout regime.
An insider said: "She dropped two dress sizes before the wedding and loved how it made her feel.
"She's showing no signs of slowing down now, and the weight is just falling off of her.
"Friends are always trying to get Kate to eat something when they see her, but she just ignores them and refuses.
"She changes the conversation and makes an excuse like she's eaten already or that she's not hungry."
And it’s not just Pippa who is worried. "William is concerned," added the source. "He doesn't want to see Kate get sick."

Hollywood's first sex addict: Never mind Liz Taylor - a new book reveals Richard Burton slept with three women a week for 30 years

Richard Burton waited until his wife Sybil was asleep before, in the dead of night, creeping out to the woodshed.

One by one, he carefully removed the logs and placed them on the ground. Then, with the stealth of a cat-burglar, he squeezed through an access flap at the back of the shed.

Yes! Standing up again, he found himself within the sumptuous Beverly Hills home of the Hollywood actor Stewart Granger. As he  tiptoed down a corridor, he held his breath.


Another notch on his bedpost: Richard Burton with Angie Dickinson in The Bramble Bush - he reportedly slept with 2,500 women between 1947 and 1975

He had good reason to be on edge: not only did Granger possess a collection of firearms, but he was unlikely to give Burton a chance to explain himself.

And what would he say, anyway, if he had the misfortune to be caught? It wasn’t as if he had any excuse. Although the Burtons were house guests of Granger and his wife Jean Simmons, they were staying in a cottage in the grounds.

But Granger, who slept in a separate bedroom from his wife, didn’t hear a thing. Not even when Burton pushed open Simmons’ door, swept her into an embrace and proceeded to make vigorous love to her on a big sheepskin rug. Afterwards, the actor slunk out through the log-flap again and restacked all the wood. Moments later, he was lying beside his sleeping wife.

Amazingly, this wasn’t the last time he risked all for a few hours with Simmons. The secret night-time forays went on for months — yet neither of their spouses ever suspected a thing.

The story of how Richard Burton eventually left Sybil and married the screen siren Elizabeth Taylor (twice) has often been hailed as one of the greatest of Hollywood romances. What is far less well-known is that the actor from the Welsh valleys was continually unfaithful to both his wives.

Indeed, in Burton’s heyday — between 1947 and 1975 — he made love to at least one new woman every other day, with the total tally reaching around 2,500. At times, his promiscuity rivalled even that of the great Seventies playboy Warren Beatty.

The big difference, though, was that Burton was married and made the vast majority of his conquests virtually under the noses of the first two Mrs Burtons. Not only that, but for most of that time, he had a marital sex life that would have sated any other man.

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So how are we to account for his astounding one-man rampage through the female sex?  

The first thing to be said is that his motivation was quite simple: until his late 40s, Burton had an insatiable appetite for sex. He didn’t need to love the woman he was seducing, or to be loved by her; nor had he any desire to possess her.

If she was willing, he was happy to do the deed anywhere: a dressing-room sofa, a vacant room in a pub, a garden bench, or even — if his wife was out — the marital bed. Often, he never even knew his lover’s name.

Women were drawn to him as if by magnetic force. Many enthused later about his glinting grey-green eyes, full of mischief — but his chief seduction tool was undoubtedly his mellifluous voice.

Blessed with a prodigious memory, he’d usually start by reciting poetry. If that failed, he’d go on to Shakespeare, which he could declaim all night if required. And in the rare event that the woman was still standing, he’d sing — often in Welsh.




It helped, too, that he had a quick wit, charm and a total lack of inhibition when under the influence of alcohol — which was most of the time. He had no shame, either: even the wives of friends, like Simmons, were fair game. The writer Ruth Waterbury, who witnessed his dalliances with the women of Los Angeles in the mid-Fifties, was struck by the fact that he never seemed to make obvious passes.

‘He has a kind of availability about him, and the girls come running,’ she said. ‘He does not implore. He just quietly demands full surrender.’

Frank Ross, who produced two of Burton’s earliest films in Hollywood, was astounded by the respect women had for him, even when he signalled that a relationship was over: ‘I’ve watched some of his girls and you can see they’re bewildered, first by their good luck — and then by their loss of him. Yet when he rejects them, they all go away. They act as though they’ve been momentarily blessed — and that’s enough for them.’

If he’d been alive today, Burton would have been classified as a sex addict and urged to seek treatment. As his close friend, the actor Robert Hardy, remarked: ‘He was Don Juan, and it was a necessity in his nature to have any female who was not under age or terribly ugly.’

But even Hardy was wrong, because one of Burton’s more lengthy affairs was actually with a schoolgirl. Then aged 28 and married to Sybil, he’d bumped into Rosemary Kingsland at a cafe opposite the Old Vic theatre when he was appearing in The Tempest in 1954.

Burton’s sexual adventures had begun in 1944, while at Oxford University, when he lost his virginity at 18 to a mature student he met in a pub. Once initiated, he started rampaging through the town’s female population.

A pretty girl with thick dark hair and flawless skin, she was then just 14 — though she deflected questions about her age. Mesmerised by Burton, she started skipping hockey practice to hang around the theatre. ‘I think I was flaunting myself a bit,’ she said.

After a few meetings, Burton took her back to a flat that belonged to a friend, where she happily lost her virginity.  From then on, they met there most Wednesdays. 

By the end of 1956, Rosemary was pregnant. His response was immediate: ‘You’ll have to get rid of it’ — and he paid for her to have an abortion.

Later, he told her he was scared that he might be jailed, but claimed it was every man’s fantasy to make love to a schoolgirl. The affair came to a natural end when he moved to Switzerland soon afterwards for tax purposes.

Burton’s sexual adventures had begun in 1944, while at Oxford University, when he lost his virginity at 18 to a mature student he met in a pub. Once initiated, he started rampaging through the town’s female population. Alarmed by his promiscuity, Burton’s family put pressure on him to marry the blameless Sybil Williams, a girl from South Wales, whom he’d met on a film set.

The marriage was in all ways but one a great success. What Sybil didn’t know was that the day after the wedding in 1949, he met the actress Claire Bloom — then aged 17 — and quickly fell in love. Their relationship was finally consummated after he bet a fellow actor a pint that he could take Bloom’s virginity.

Bloom recalled: ‘We made love quietly in my room with my mother sleeping upstairs. Richard left me in the early morning to go back home, and I went to sleep happy and childishly thrilled that I was a “woman” at last.’

She gave him the key to the house, and Burton would often sneak into her bedroom. Before sunrise, he’d go back to Sybil, telling her he’d been out drinking all night with friends.


Richard Burton with Claire Bloom in Look Back In Anger: He took her virginity after meeting her as a 17-year-old

Even two besotted women weren’t enough for him, though. After he and Sybil moved to London, he took advantage of her frequent absences on tour with a theatre company.  Collecting random girls from pubs, cinema queues and buses, he’d take each in turn back for a tumble on the marital bed.

The sheer quantity of his casual conquests, say his friends, was astounding. And then he discovered the frustrated wives of Hollywood . . .

Arriving in Los Angeles in 1952, he found that almost every woman he met gazed at him with hungry and inviting eyes. One married starlet in her mid-20s — never named because of her powerful husband — walked into his trailer on the set of My Cousin Rachel, locked the door and removed her white mink coat to reveal she was wearing only underwear.

Even Sybil’s arrival in the city failed to cramp his style. Not only was he having an affair with Jean Simmons — who co-starred with him in The Robe — but he also bedded another actress in the same movie.

The only time Burton nearly came unstuck was at a New Year’s Eve party, attended by the cream of the Hollywood in-crowd. At midnight, he was seen kissing Simmons on the lips for the full 12 gongs. Everyone was transfixed, then Sybil dashed up to her husband and gave him a resounding slap across the face, before flouncing off. Burton was momentarily stunned and the music stopped.

Lee Remick said Burton had 'the marvellous quality of making a woman feel as if  she’s the only one in the world worth talking to, and it’s bliss'

Realising that they might no longer be welcome at the Grangers’ house, Burton and Sybil — by then convinced that her husband had only been flirting — moved out. Burton, of course, simply carried on sleeping with Simmons, as well as the wives of various Hollywood executives. By the time he went back to the UK, it was said that he’d caused more than a dozen husbands to file for divorce.

A year later, he was back in town — but this time, he left the wives alone and scythed through some of Hollywood’s leading actresses, including his co-star in the sentimental 1955 film Prince Of Players, Maggie McNamara.

Another conquest was the starlet Lee Remick. ‘He has the marvellous quality of making a woman feel as if  she’s the only one in the world worth talking to, and it’s bliss,’ she said later.

Even the love goddess Lana Turner, who co-starred with Burton in The Rains Of Ranchipur, enjoyed a fling with him in his trailer. Burton reportedly said: ‘She set out to get me, and I let myself get caught. Why not? Who’s going to turn down Lana Turner?’

After he’d also bedded many of the extras, producer Frank Ross said: ‘Richard is probably the most notable seducer of our time. He is sexually inexhaustible and, apparently, he gives a satisfactory performance any time, any place, anywhere, under any conditions.’

In 1957, for the first time since meeting Claire Bloom — with whom he was still having an affair — he fell in love, with his co-star in the Broadway comedy Time Remembered. Susan Strasberg, then just 19, was strikingly beautiful and similar in appearance to Bloom.

Immediately smitten, she kept Burton on a string for months before eventually inviting him into her bed. Even the arrival of his wife and baby daughter, Kate, failed to deter the lovers.

‘He surpassed all my childhood  fantasies when he laid his passion at my feet,’ said Strasberg. And Sybil? As always, she refused to believe anything was going on.


Richard Burton in a romantic scene from Look Back In Anger with co-star, conquest and the playwright John Osborne's wife Mary Ure

After Burton returned to the UK, Strasberg was distraught, taking to her bed for days on end with one of his old T-shirts. Some months later, she flew out to see him, and headed straight for the set where he was filming Look Back In Anger, with co-stars Claire Bloom and Mary Ure.

Burton was having the time of his life: not only was he back with his darling Bloom, but he was also sleeping with Ure — the wife of the playwright John Osborne — not to mention his own wife. But even he had to question whether he could manage a fourth lover.

As soon as Strasberg arrived at his dressing-room, she flung herself into his arms for a passionate kiss. Moments later, Bloom skipped through the door.

For almost five seconds, the two women simply looked at each other in shock. The incorrigible Burton, however, was merely bemused: he’d never realised, he admitted later, just how similar his lovers were in looks.Eventually, Bloom screamed: ‘F*** off, the pair of you’, and stormed off. Strasberg flew off the next day, but not before she’d contemplated throwing herself off Waterloo Bridge.

As for Burton, he was soon collecting scalps again. In 1959, he went back to Hollywood and made a film for Warner Brothers called The Bramble Bush. On set, Burton was having affairs with both his co-star Angie Dickinson and a starlet called Barbara Rush.

That year, Dickinson’s marriage to Gene Dickinson, the American football star, broke up. Some laid the blame on Burton.

Finally pinned down by a woman who had a chance of holding him in check, the great Welsh lothario ceased his extracurricular activities. For a while. Aware of his weakness, Taylor had warned him from the start of their marriage in 1964 that she had zero tolerance for infidelity.

He, meanwhile, even picked up a stewardess on a flight to the East Coast.

Then, back on Broadway two years later, he energetically worked his way through most of the 20 girls in the chorus of Camelot. The good-natured chorus-girls, fully aware of what he was doing, used to manipulate the lyrics in one of their songs — ‘I wonder what the King is doing tonight’ — to sound surprisingly like: ‘I wonder who the King is sc***ing tonight.’

Straight from Camelot, Burton flew to Rome for the making of  the film Cleopatra, where he was soon in the throes of a tumultuous affair with Elizabeth Taylor. Unlike his other entanglements, though, this one was making headlines round the globe that Sybil couldn’t fail to see.

Losing his nerve, Burton told Taylor he was going back to his wife. Taylor, who’d taken an apparently accidental overdose of sleeping pills after being dumped, reacted with jealous fury. Once she’d recovered, she pulled out all the stops to get her lover back.

Finally pinned down by a woman who had a chance of holding him in check, the great Welsh lothario ceased his extracurricular activities. For a while. Aware of his weakness, Taylor had warned him from the start of their marriage in 1964 that she had zero tolerance for infidelity.

But even she couldn’t stop him returning to his old tricks. During the filming of When Eagles Dare, while Liz Taylor was absent, he resumed his casual affair with co-star Mary Ure. After that, Taylor made sure she was with on set with Burton every day in 1969 for the shooting of Anne Of The Thousand Days.

But neither her vigilance nor her charms were proof against the ethereal glamour of his co-star, the  26-year-old French-Canadian actress Geneviève Bujold. Burton’s big chance came when Taylor was hospitalised with piles — and the resulting affair with Bujold carried on for many years.

In 1972, Burton enjoyed a romance with the French actress Nathalie Delon on the set of Bluebeard, and there were strong rumours that  he was also bedding pin-up Raquel Welch.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver have announced their separation after 25 years of marriage.

In a joint statement, the couple said that the mutual decision had been made with "a great deal of thought, reflection, discussion and prayer".

At this time, we are living apart, while we work on the future of our relationship," they added.

Prince William and Kate Middleton, the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have arrived in the Seychelles for their honeymoon after flying out on a private jet last night.

Their romantic break, which comes 10 days after their Westminster Abbey royal wedding, was confirmed by St James’s Palace.
A spokeswoman for the Indian Ocean country's department of tourism said the royal couple landed at the country's main airport at 7.20am local time this morning.
They were then transferred by helicopter to a private island where they were expected to spend 10 days at a secluded villa. The name of the island where they are staying has not been confirmed.
On Monday, the couple were seen leaving their Anglesey home with large amounts of luggage
Prince William and Kate were expected to go on honeymoon on April 30, the day after the wedding attracted more than a million people to the streets of London.


However, the prince returned to work as a search and rescue helicopter pilot, while the Duchess was seen pushing a trolley around their local supermarket.
The couple only have a few weeks to squeeze in their romantic break before they begin their first joint tour.
They are due to visit Canada and California for 10 days.
Prince William, 28, and his 29-year-old wife have previously enjoyed holidays together in the Caribbean island of Mustique.
It is understood that the second in line to the throne had kept the honeymoon destination a secret, but that it was going to be somewhere warm.
Earlier this week, a judge praised Prince William for helping to save his life after suffering a heart attack on Snowdonia.
Nick Barnett, 70, said he hadn't planned to be rescued by the prince, he merely wanted to "have a nice day on the hills".

 

Duchess of Cambridge was left in tears by the moving tribute paid by the groom's younger brother, according to the Mail on Sunday.

new Duchess of Cambridge was left in tears by the moving tribute paid by the groom's younger brother, according to the Mail on Sunday.

Prince Harry delivered a warm and humorous speech 
Harry took the spotlight at approximately 9.30pm and spoke of his impressions of the couple's long-term romance, although a joke about 'Kate's killer legs' is reported to have been excluded at the last minute.
He performed an impersonation of the pair, showing how his brother refers to his new wife as 'baby' and she labels him 'Billy'.
Several guests remarked on how warm and affectionate the speech was and Kate was slightly emotional as Harry described her relationship with the second in line to the throne as 'inspirational'.
A source told the newspaper: 'Harry said William was the perfect brother. It was exactly how you would expect a best man's speech to be. He cracked loads of jokes about William. He called him a 'dude' several times. He kept coming back to it, saying 'What a dude'.'
Kate and William have spent a weekend in a secluded and secret spot in the UK and will take a honeymoon at a later date.

The new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have decided not to go on honeymoon immediately and will spend the weekend in the UK before the duke returns to work next week

The new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have decided not to go on honeymoon immediately and will spend the weekend in the UK before the duke returns to work next week.

William and Catherine left Buckingham Palace by helicopter on Saturday, following their wedding parties.

They celebrated at the palace with 300 friends and family on Friday evening, after a larger lunchtime reception.

Meanwhile, Clarence House has released three official wedding photographs.

The locations of the couple's UK weekend and their honeymoon - which will be overseas - will not be disclosed in advance.

The couple have asked that their privacy be respected during the coming days, and while on their honeymoon.

The couple emerged hand-in-hand from Buckingham Palace's garden entrance on Saturday morning.

The couple, who had spent the night at the Queen's official London home, stopped briefly to chat to two Royal Household footmen before boarding the helicopter.

Prince William will go back to his job as an RAF search and rescue pilot next week. They live on Anglesey, but St James' Palace said they will not be spending the long weekend there.

British Royal newlyweds the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge left Buckingham Palace by helicopter this morning for a mystery honeymoon destination.

British Royal wedding - Watched by an estimated television audience of two billion
Among the destinations mentioned have been Kenya, Jordan, Bequia, Necker Island, Mustique, Lizard Island, off the coast of Queensland, Australia, Chile and Scotland.

It was earlier reported that Prince William had yet to tell his wife Kate Middleton where they were going.

The couple's wedding yesterday was watched by an estimated television audience of two billion.

Prince Harry has planned a secret ‘survivors’ post-wedding breakfast’ at Buckingham Palace for VIP guests who have partied through the night.

 

The 26-year-old, who is calling his part of the Royal Wedding planning ‘wedmin’, is said to be heavily involved with arrangements for the evening celebrations and wants to give William and his bride a party to remember.

Three of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace will be converted into a nightclub on the night of the wedding and Harry, who is best man, has organised for the DJ to play into the early hours, while caterers have been briefed to prepare bacon sandwiches and fry-ups for those guests still standing at the end of the night.

And although the bride and groom may not manage to stay up – they are leaving for their honeymoon the next morning – Harry, known for his partying stamina at nightclubs Raffles and Boujis, hopes many of their friends will be dancing until dawn.

The Prince has played a significant role in planning the evening celebrations, which are being hosted by his father Prince Charles.

Just 300 guests have been invited to the exclusive party, which includes a drinks reception from 7pm followed by a dinner and speeches and then dancing.

Charles and Camilla, who have arranged for a performance by Bollywood dance duo Sandip Soparrkar and his wife Jesse Randhawa, have asked around 100 family and friends, while the bride and groom have invited 200 friends from school and university and Prince William’s ‘Glosse Posse’ set from Gloucestershire.

Sources close to William and Harry have instructed aides to plan a proper ‘knees up’, and courtiers are expecting it to carry on into the next day.

Charles has hired chef Anton Mosimann to prepare the three-course meal while party planners Fait Accompli are understood to be overseeing the entertainment. A bar will serve spirits, cocktails and champagne all night.


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Caterers have been told they will be working a double shift to cook up breakfasts the following morning. 

‘Harry has organised a survivors’ breakfast at 6am in the Palace after the party. It will mostly be their best friends from Gloucestershire who have known William his whole life. 

‘It won’t be for the oldies, but the young ones. Harry is determined to make this a night to remember.’

Harry has been assisted by the princes’ close friend Guy Pelly, who owns Fulham nightclub Public and previously ran Mayfair haunt Mahiki.

The couple have organised for guests to enjoy ‘treasure chest’ cocktails – a potent mixture of rum and champagne served in a chest.

Royal snub to Blair, Brown

It's the political whodunit before the royal wedding. The exclusion of former Labour Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from Friday's wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton has led to furious speculation over whether it was a calculated snub and, if so, who was behind it. Labou
r MPs suspect Prime Minister David Cameron's office. "I blame Downing Street for not spotting it and saying, 'We don't like Gordon Brown either, but he really should be there'," said Labour's shadow justice minister Chris Bryant.
"It makes you want to ask what the motive is. It seems to be picking a fight quite unnecessarily," added Labour MP Graham Allen.

Former Labour Europe minister Denis Macshane said he will table Parliamentary questions to find out whether the government had any role, adding: "It is quite gratuitous to invite two living former Prime Ministers who are Conservatives, but snub the ones that are Labour."

The Palace's initial explanation was that former Tory premiers Margaret Thatcher and John Major are both Knights of the Garter - the highest knighthood given by the royal family. In addition, Major was made a guardian of William and his brother Harry after the death of Princess Diana in 1997.

A Palace spokesperson said, "It is a private wedding and the couple are entitled to invite whoever they want. Prince William is not the Prince of Wales or the King, and he hasn't got that link to prime ministers in the way that the Queen does."

 

President Jacob Zuma’s daughter Duduzile on Saturday wed businessman Lonwabo Sambudla at Nkwenkwezi Private Reserve in East London.

The wedding had a distinctly Durban flavour and guests looked on admiringly as father and daughter arrived by rickshaw, which they had boarded at the venue’s gate.

Dudu, 28, once described herself as a “jeans and T-shirt girl”, but on Saturday wore a white gown encrusted with Swarovski crystals and silver Christian Louboutin shoes.

The couple, who met through a mutual friend three years ago, announced their engagement in September.

Dudu’s twin brother, overnight multi-millionaire Duduzani, followed as the rickshaw pulled towards the garden, where the guests were waiting. Zuma later gave his daughter’s hand in marriage to Sambudla, a controversial ex CEO of the ANC Youth League financial arm. Zuma’s four wives were also present.

Flashy cars, police sirens and blue lights were the order of the day as political bigwigs, business heavyweights, serial BEE dealmakers, socialites and wannabes arrived.

The cavalcade was made up of everything from Range Rovers, Audi Q7s, Mercedes GL 500s to Maseratis, Bentley convertibles and Lamborghinis.

Duduzile’s cousin Khulubuse Zuma arrived in a huge 5.7 litre Dodge Ram SUV. Kenny Kunene was among the last to arrive, and he stole the show in a black Lamborghini.

The wedding took place amid tight security and the media was barred from entering. Security guards and wedding organisers had their hands full checking that the 650 guests had wedding invitations.

The guest list included Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe, his Science and Technology counterpart Naledi Pandor, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela.

With exclusive rights to the wedding sold to a local magazine, guests were asked to leave their cellphones in their cars.

Dudu’s spokeswoman Farah Fortune said: “Dudu really wanted it just to be her day that she can enjoy. She wanted it to be as private as possible.”

Although 40 members of the Kwakhanya Community Care project had stood outside for hours, looking colourful, ululating, singing and welcoming the guests, they were also not allowed inside.

An after-party organised by Kunene at Unitra sports ground in Mthatha on Saturday night was expected to draw thousands. A traditional Xhosa wedding will take place at Sambudla’s home in Mthatha on Sunday.

* The Zuma wedding threw parts of East London and Mthatha into party mode, with “sushi king” Kenny Kunene taking centre stage as the organiser.

The celebrations will reportedly cost more than R3 million.

Sunday’s cultural wedding in the semi-rural village of Sambundla at Fairfield Trust Farm, will be followed by an after-party at the Walter Sisulu University Unitra sports grounds in Mthatha. Saturday’s formal wedding came after a pre-party on Friday night at East London’s ZAR club, owned by Kunene.

On Thursday, Kunene flew guests from Joburg to Cape Town in two private jets and then back.

In typically over-the-top style, there was the licking of champagne off the bodies of two bikini-clad women in a champagne-filled bath – and throwing of rose petals and strawberries over their breasts – all the while posing for the cameras.

Entertainment includes award-winning Durban Kwaito group Big Nuz, DJ Fisherman, DJ Fistaz Lvovo, Winnie Khumalo and DJ Tumza in a mini-festival at Unitra sports grounds, where 50 000 are expected.

Ronnie Wood's ex-wife has sold the house they shared and has splashed out on two new luxury homes.

Jo Wood pocketed £11.2million from the sale of the seven-bedroom South-West London pile as part of her divorce settlement from the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist.

The mother-of-two, 55, is treating herself to a house in Primrose Hill, North-West London, where neighbours will include TV chef Jamie Oliver, 35. She is also buying a seafront flat in Miami.


Friends said that she wanted to move on after Ronnie ran off with young Russian lover Ekaterina Ivanova. One said: "There were too many memories of Ronnie in the old house."

Mel Gibson breaks silence on domestic violence scandal

Mel Gibson has broken his silence on his damaging domestic violence scandal, calling the leak of angry personal phone calls with his then-girlfriend last year a "personal betrayal."

The Oscar-winning director of "Braveheart" described the leaked tapes, in which Gibson was heard ranting, swearing and threatening Russian girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, "terribly humiliating and painful for my family."

Gibson added that he did not care if he ever acted again.

"I've never treated anyone badly or in a discriminatory way based on their gender, race, religion or sexuality -- period," Gibson told Hollywood journalist Allison Hope Weiner in a lengthy interview for website Deadline Hollywood on Friday.

Gibson last month pleaded no contest to a charge of hitting Grigorieva, the mother of his baby daughter, as their relationship broke down in early 2010.

He was sentenced to three years probation, a year of counseling and community service.

In his first public comments on the saga, Gibson said the tapes of phone calls leaked a year ago were edited, adding; "It's one terribly, awful moment in time, said to one person, in the span of one day and doesn't represent what I truly believe or how I've treated people my entire life."

"Who anticipates being recorded? ... Who could anticipate such a personal betrayal?" Gibson said.

Gibson's longtime manager left him, his movie "The Beaver" was delayed for months, and actors on the sequel to comedy "Hangover 2" refused to work with him because of the fall-out of the sexist and racist remarks on the tapes.

Baywatch star David Hasselhoff says he is enjoying romantic trips to the Welsh countryside as he "woos" his new girlfriend.

The actor, who is a judge on the new series of Britain's Got Talent, met Hayley Roberts from Glynneath at an audition for the show in Cardiff.

The couple have been spotted at restaurants in Swansea and Hasselhoff has been to meet her parents.

But he said he was struggling to understand her Welsh accent.

The actor, nicknamed The Hoff, said: "I'm big on romance. I wooed her, I was a gentleman.

"I went to see her in Wales. It's been really nice because I've got the chance to see a bit of the countryside, a bit of Wales and it's been a terrific time. Wales is nice."

He said he had met her family but their relationship was still in its early days.

We have long conversations because she's from Wales and I can't understand her”

David Hasselhoff
Former Baywatch star
Speaking on the ITV daytime show Loose Women he added: "We met when I was doing an episode of Britain's Got Talent in Cardiff.

"We have long conversations because she's from Wales and I can't understand her.

"We are just getting started . . . trying to go to the movies.

"We are trying to have a romance and the press is like all over her parents."

The actor, who first found fame in the USA series Knight Rider, said Miss Roberts had joined him on a recent trip to Germany to promote his new record.

She was in the audience as he appeared on the ITV daytime show.

"I have always been a one woman man, despite what people say," he added.

"I like sharing my success with people and taking people around the world. It's a lonely business."