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, 44, star of the “Mission: Impossible” films, and Holmes, 27, have been staying 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.
Scientology ceremonies contain many elements of traditional weddings — rings, procession, vows, etc. But they also include certain Scientology fundamentals, including vowing to never to go to bed without communicating about any differences. They also stress the Scientology tenet known as ARC — A for affinity, the closeness between a couple; R for reality, what a couple agrees on; C for communication, the exchange of ideas and thoughts.
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, ravioli with truffles and artichokes.
Those spotted going into the restaurant included “Mission Impossible III” director J.J. Abrams, Brooke Shields and Jennifer Lopez. Lopez’s husband, Marc Anthony, briefly stepped out to smoke a cigarette.
While Riccioni 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.”
“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.
Bracciano’s mayor said she had given the couple a small silver sculpture of the castle as a gift, and photographs posted on the town’s Web site late Thursday showed it was engraved with the word Bracciano and Saturday’s date.
The congratulatory card that went with it read: “A sincere note in sign of gratitude from the city of Bracciano, for having chosen it as the place where to crown your dream of love.”
Riccioni said she would like to give them honorary citizenship “because they have brought so much to our little village.”
“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 to 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 on Thursday. They had been traveling with about a half dozen people, and 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.
Jim Carrey, Lopez and Anthony and Brooke Shields also arrived Thursday.
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 U.S. television 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.
Cruise and Holmes were first photographed together in Rome in April 2005. They became engaged in June 2005 and are the parents of a daughter, Suri, who was born April 18.
Cruise flew into Rome on Monday with an entourage of 10.
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