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10.
Liza Minnelli & David Gest
March 16, 2002 It was a production worthy of a Tony, with Liza Minnelli
giving the performance of a lifetime as a woman saved by the love
of a good man. But this show was very real -- and legally binding.
Liza's producer -- oops -- groom was David Gest, a lifelong bachelor
with a massive Shirley Temple collection. (The real Shirley, reportedly
"weirded out" by Gest's memorabilia, sent her regrets, but with
such C-list celebs as Gina Lollobrigida, Mickey Rooney and Carol
Channing in attendance, she wasn't missed.) The eccentric duo pledged
their troth with an equally eccentric 36-member bridal party, which
included co-best men Michael and Tito Jackson and bridesmaid Elizabeth
Taylor (whose 1991 Neverland wedding to Larry Fortensky had its
own freak-show factor). After taking his vows, shellacked-haired
groom Gest planted an extended, Hoover-like kiss on the thrice-wed,
recently rehabbed Minnelli. The newly minted couple managed to make
a mint off their conjugal bond, with OK! magazine paying an estimated
$1.3 million for exclusive photo rights, and their friends shelling
out big bucks for items off their Tiffany registry, which included
four $4,000 soup tureens and 12 silver platters at $2,900 a pop.
9.
Sarah Michelle Gellar & Freddie Prinze, Jr
Sept. 1, 2002 The wedding of Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze,
Jr., in Costa Careyes, Mexico, was the kind of fairy-tale celebration
every bride on a budget dreams about. Or was it? Sure, there were
plenty of pictures of the besotted groom and his glowing bride (courtesy
of an exclusive six-figure deal with Hello! magazine), but in reality,
the couple's lavish nuptials were plagued with a series of mini
disasters that would have left Buffy longing for a nice, quiet apocalypse.
In the Acts of God department came both Hurricane Hernan, which
forced the "Scooby Doo" sweethearts to move their beachside ceremony
indoors, and a 4.6 earthquake that struck as their guests were heading
home. And in the Acts of Mexico department, Gellar reportedly spent
part of her wedding day hooked to an IV after becoming dehydrated
due to a bout of Montezuma's revenge, while her Prinze was suffering
from both food poisoning-related hallucinations and an alcohol-induced
bout of amnesia. "I don't remember the details, because I was drunk
most of the time," says Prinze, who claims he was "butt naked" and
shaking on the floor five minutes before he tied the knot. "But
I survived."
8. Larry King & Shawn Southwick
Sept. 5, 1997 The "in sickness and in health" part of Shawn Southwick's
vows kicked in immediately after she married Larry King, who said
his "I do's" from a hospital bed at UCLA Medical Center. King, then
63 and a six-time matrimonial loser, had planned to wed lucky No.
7 in an elaborate affair on Sept. 6, but his sudden chest pains
and scheduled angioplasty put the kibosh on the event. The twice-divorced
Southwick, 37, reportedly argued with King's relatives about proceeding
with the wedding (his family wanted to postpone), but the couple
made it official in a sunrise ceremony the next morning (King remained
in his hospital gown). The newlyweds honeymooned at New York's Cornell
Medical Center, where the CNN host had his chest cut open and his
arteries unclogged. A month later, the couple renewed their vows
at a star-studded Beverly Hills celebration. "We were just creating
a new memory," Southwick told People. "The one from the hospital
was too intense for my taste."
7.
Pamela Anderson & Tommy Lee Feb. 19, 1995 Although the bikini-clad
bride had maintained a longer relationship with her swimwear than
her fiancé, that didn't stop Pamela Anderson from impulsively marrying
Tommy Lee in Cancún after a rapturous five-day courtship (the ink-stained
Motley Crue drummer had introduced himself to the hypermammiferous
"Baywatch" bombshell by licking her face). The lustful twosome turned
up hours late for their barefoot, beachside civil ceremony, with
the bride in an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny white two piece and the
groom sporting cut-off shorts and no shirt. After promising to stay
together until death, Tommy celebrated by tossing Pam into the surf.
Instead of the traditional ring exchange, the pair opted for ring
finger tattoos of each other's names. According to Pam, big diamond
rings are all about a man's insecurity about his, um, masculinity
(Tommy had Pam's name tattooed there, too). Their volatile beginning
was telling: After four explosive years and two children, they called
it quits. As for their ring tattoos, he inked over his, while hers
now reads "Momm
6. Myra Gale Brown & Jerry Lee Lewis
June 12, 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis may have been nicknamed "The Killer,"
but the 22-year-old wildman rocker committed career suicide when
he took his 13-year-old second cousin Myra Brown as his third wife.
The child bride said "I do" at a Mississippi chapel in the same
dress she'd worn to junior high school that day, unaware that her
betrothed hadn't yet secured a divorce from the previous Mrs. Lewis.
Upon learning of the marriage, Myra's father expressed his congratulations
by pulling out a belt and giving her a whuppin'. The newlyweds flew
under the media's radar for five months, but their secret came out
during Lewis' British tour. Asked by a reporter who she was, Myra
proudly replied, "I'm his wife." The resulting scandal led many
stations to ban Lewis' records (he never made the top 10 again),
but didn't turn the singer off to matrimony. He ended up at the
altar three more times. And good news, ladies: Jerry's available,
having divorced Mrs. Lewis No. 6 in 2002.
5. Three Lemons in Vegas Cindy Crawford & Richard Gere
Dec. 12, 1991 Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman Nov. 14, 1998 Angelina
Jolie & Billy Bob Thornton May 5, 2000 When impetuous celebs are
looking for the perfect place to elope, nothing says "true love
forever" like a quickie, cookie-cutter ceremony in a cheesy Sin
City chapel. We couldn't pick just one wedding, so here are three
Velveeta-filled lowlights: Back in 1991, marriage-minded supermodel
Cindy Crawford reportedly told Richard Gere, her boyfriend of three
years, that either they get hitched or they break up. The pretty
pair set out for Vegas and were married in a late-night ceremony
at the Little Church of the West, where they exchanged aluminum
foil rings and celebrated with dinner at Denny's. Three years later,
they were kaput, but the memory of that matrimonial meal will likely
last forever. A long night of drinking and gambling in Vegas left
Dennis Rodman in the mood for marriage, so he woke up girlfriend
Carmen Electra and proposed. Within hours, the b-ball bad boy and
the "Baywatch" babe had tied the knot in a frills-free $75 package
-- no flowers, no pictures -- at the Little Chapel of the Flowers.
"The priest was going on and on about life and you have to trust
each other and be together forever, and Dennis asked, 'Would you
just hurry it up, please?'" Electra told People. Two days later,
Rodman's agent claimed his client was three sheets to the wind when
he was wed, and nine days later, the Worm turned to his lawyer,
who filed for an annulment. Angelina Jolie was no stranger to bizarre
matrimonial rituals when she married four-time divorcé Billy Bob
Thornton. For her first wedding to Jonny Miller, she wore a white
shirt with the groom's name written in her blood. Jolie and Thornton
made it legal at the Little Church of the West in a 20-minute, $189
ceremony. Both wore jeans; the groom sported a baseball cap. The
romantic newlyweds exchanged vials of each other's blood and his-and-her
burial plots (there was a 20-year age difference, after all). Their
tattoo-filled, tabloid-magnet coupling came to end in July 2002,
shortly after Jolie adopted a baby boy.
4.
Tiny Tim & Vicki Budinger Dec.
17, 1969 Long before Rick and Darva soiled the pop-culture landscape
and Corey Feldman sold his soul in an MC Hammer-officiated wedding
on "The Surreal Life," there was Tiny Tim, the ukulele-strumming
troubadour of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" falsetto fame. On Dec.
17, 1969, amid thousands of tulips, Tiny, 38, took 17- year-old
Miss Vicki to be his bride live on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny
Carson. Forty-five million viewers (whose progeny are now likely
hooked on "The Bachelor" and "Married by America") tuned in for
the spectacle, which became the highest-rated "Tonight Show" in
history (Carson's farewell is No. 2). But the relationship never
bloomed. "I wish I had never married Miss Vicki," Tiny Tim told
People in 1992. "I was more elated by being at the height of glamour
than by getting married." The couple, whose wedding gifts were stolen
in the frenzy that followed the televised spectacle,divorced in
1977. They had one daughter named Tulip.
3. Shannen Doherty & Ashley Hamilton Sept. 24, 1993 With
two broken engagements in two years, Shannen Doherty, then 22, probably
wanted to keep her quickie wedding to Ashley Hamilton, 18 and recently
out of rehab, low-key. How low? It was strictly BYOB for her guests,
who arrived at the bride-to-be's Santa Monica house to find refreshments
limited to tap water. The event was keeping with Shannen and Ashley's
relationship: sparse. The two had dated for less than a month when
they decided to pledge their undying love in a last-minute ceremony
in Doherty's backyard. The barefoot bride wore a silk bathrobe and
walked down an aisle decorated with tiki torches. For their honeymoon,
Shannen and Ashley flew to New York, where the bride hosted "Saturday
Night Live" and pushed her new hubby's face into a wedding cake
during a skit. Five months later, the "Beverly Hills, 90210" bad
girl handed Hamilton his walking papers.
2. Lisa Marie Presley & Michael Jackson May 26, 1994 The
ink was barely dry on Lisa Marie Presley's quickie Dominican Republic
divorce when she became Michael Jackson's better half in a quickie
Dominican Republic wedding. Romantic it wasn't. The groom, dressed
in black and wearing lipstick, chewed gum throughout the 15-minute
ceremony, attended by lawyers and a bodyguard. When asked, "Do you
take this woman to be your wife?" Jacko reportedly replied, "Why
not?" The pair, who first met in 1975 when Elvis took his little
girl to a Jackson Five show in Las Vegas, exchanged gold rings and
sealed their union with a quick peck -- unlike their later bone-chilling
buss at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards. It took two months for
the oddball newlyweds to go public to a shocked world that collectively
asked, "Why?" Was Lisa Marie trying to launch a music career? Was
Jackson trying to put those child-molestation allegations behind
him? Whatever the reason for this pop culture nadir, er, marriage,
the King of Pop and the King's daughter lasted just 20 months before
moonwalking into divorce court.
1. Anna Nicole Smith & J. Howard Marshall II June 27, 1994
There are May-December romances, and then there's the May-Paleolithic-era
affair Anna Nicole Smith had with multi-millionaire oilman J. Howard
Marshall II. Given their age difference (she was 26; he was nearly
90), it had "gold digger" written all over it, but Smith, the zaftig
Guess? jeans girl and future reality TV star, insisted she was in
love with the man she affectionately called "Paw Paw." For their
nuptials at the White Dove Wedding Chapel in Houston, the bride
wore a perilously
plunging satin beaded gown; a door-knob-sized 22-carat engagement
ring; and curlers in her hair. The wheelchair-bound groom laughed
happily as his dewy bride made her way down the aisle. After celebrating
with cake and champagne, Smith kissed Paw-Paw and whispered, "Bye,
darling, I'm off to Greece." Mrs. Marshall was heading to a photo
shoot, accompanied by her strapping bodyguard, Pierre de Jean. "She
was throwing kisses, saying, 'You're the only one I love,' calling
him 'Poopsie baby' and all that," Pat Walker, the owner of the White
Dove Chapel, told the Washington Post in 1995. "He just sat in his
chair and looked at her and cried."
Honorable Mention: The Wedding That Wasn't Julia
Roberts & Kiefer Sutherland Planned for June 14, 1991
More than 500 guests were expected at the glittering $500,000
wedding of Julia Roberts and Kiefer Sutherland, which was to take
place on a flower-festooned soundstage at Fox. The cake, food and
champagne were ordered. The bride's custom-made Richard Tyler gown
was waiting, and the bridesmaids had picked up their seafoam green
dresses with matching Manolo Blahniks. If only Julia has ordered
some socks for her cold feet. Mere days before heading down the
aisle, the actress turned into a runaway bride. Kiefer, who had
been spied with a dancer a few weeks before the nuptials, reportedly
found out the wedding was off in a call from Julia's publicist.
On the day she would have become Mrs. Sutherland, Roberts was seen
canoodling with Kiefer's best bud Jason Patric on a flight to Ireland.
Sutherland, who was miserable after the breakup, now says he "completely
respects" Julia's decision to back out. "In fairness," he told the
Evening Standard in April, "you can't announce your plans to wed
and court the media on the level we did, then call it off five days
before it was supposed to happen and not expect a total tidal wave
to knock you on your ass."
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