Eva to wed in Versailles double
2007-07-05 11:44
Maincy - A 17th century chateau which serves as a film double for the Sun King's Versailles stages the celebrity wedding party of the year on Saturday, when French basketball supremo Tony Parker gets married to Hollywood starlet Eva Longoria.
The palace of Vaux-le-Vicomte southwest of Paris may be smaller than its more famous royal rival, but it yields nothing in style and splendour and - more to the point - it is available for hire.
The Longoria-Parker party will move to the chateau after their wedding at the Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois church in Paris.
According to the rumour mill, Beverly Hills-based wedding planner for the stars Mindy Weiss talent-spotted Vaux-le-Vicomte after Longoria, 32, said she wanted a "fancy wedding" and loved the romance of France.
In Paris a week ago after his triumphant NBA final for the San Antonio Spurs, Parker, 25, was typically nonchalant about the arrangements.
'It's a girl's day'
"Personally I don't care. I've been talking about it every day for the last seven months. It's a girl's day," he told reporters - though he denied rumours that the cake is being flown from the United States.
The guest-list for the festivities was being kept strictly secret, though reports circulating on celebrity Internet sites named Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jamie Foxx, Lionel Richie and Longoria's co-stars from hit show Desperate Housewives.
Rumours that Parker's best man will be best friend and Spurs point guard Boris Diaw were unconfirmed, as were suggestions that Parker - who released a hip-hop album in France earlier this year - plans to give a wedding-day rap performance.
Rights to wedding photographs are known to have been negotiated by OK! magazine for a reported fee of $2m.
"These were obviously highly coveted photos, and we were thrilled to negotiate the exclusive rights. Covering great moments with the celebrities that we love is what the magazine's all about," said editor-in-chief Sara Ivens.
As for the honeymoon, a luxury Paris hotel has been named - though reportedly Longoria has to begin filming again next week.
Set for dozens of films
Born in Belgium to an African-American basketball professional and a Dutch model, Parker was brought up in Rouen, west of Paris, and started his sporting career in the United States in 2001. Last month he became the first European to be named Most Valuable Player in the National Basketball Association Finals.
The Texan Longoria has long been a Spurs fan, and is a regular at his matches. They got engaged last November.
Set amid sumptuous gardens some 50 kilometres out of Paris, Vaux-le-Vicomte has been used as a set for dozens of films, from the Roger Moore Bond hit Moonraker to Sophie Coppola's Marie Antoinette.
In 2004 it staged India's society wedding of the year, when 1 000 guests were flown in for the marriage of Vanisha Mittal - daughter of steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal - and investment banker Amit Bhatia.
For the first time in nearly a decade, the chateau will, due to Saturday's wedding, be closed off to the public for two whole days.
Prestige and publicity
The last time the public was barred access to the castle for more than a few hours was during the filming of The Man in the Iron Mask, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which hit cinemas in 1998.
"We organise a wedding like this once every 10 years," said Jean-Charles de Vogue, whose family has owned the chateau since 1875.
"We do it less for the money it brings in as for the prestige and the publicity," he added.
The price for renting the chateau for the wedding bash has not been disclosed, but access to just the ground floor for five hours usually carries the price-tag of $48 500, before tax.
The chateau was built by the Louis XIV's finance minister Nicolas Fouquet, who fell from grace in 1661 after he staged a too elaborate party there and aroused the Sun King's envy. He spent the rest of his life in jail.
Hoop-leaping Parker may be interested to learn that Fouquet's motto was "Quo non ascendet?" - Latin for "What heights will he not scale?"