Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise were married in a wacked-out Scientology ceremony in a fairytale Italian castle in front of over 150 guests tonight. Rose-scented candles lit the damp corridors of the castle, white flowers were scattered throughout, and Katie was said to be stunning in an off-the-shoulder Armani gown with Swarovski crystals. Guests dined on Italian hors d’oeuvres and an elaborate meal. The cake was multi-tiered white chocolate with marzipan roses.

It sounds like a dream come true for Katie, who once gushed to Seventeen magazine that she used to imagine marrying Tom Cruise when she was a girl.

The bride: Holmes wore an off-the-shoulder Armani gown with a train in ivory silk cadis adorned in Valenciennes lace and Swarovski beaded crystal embroidery. Holmes also wore an ivory tulle floor-length veil and ivory silk shoes. Armani, which outfitted the entire wedding, also supplied Katie’s bouquet of calla lilies, as well as a champagne evening gown, which she wore at the reception.

The groom: Cruise wore a navy blue Armani tux.

The couple’s rings: white gold Cartier with diamonds.

The meal: After cocktails, guests were served Italian hors d’oeuvres, followed by a multi-course meal.

The cake: Five-tiered white chocolate, decorated with marzipan roses, and studded with white chocolate chips.

The entertainment: Italian singer Andrea Bocelli.

Here are pictures of Katie arriving at Odescalchi Castle and looking out the window. [via] She sure looks upset at something, most likely the crowds outside. It could be a classic case of pre-wedding jitters, though. We wouldn’t blame her.

While I was quite fond of my conspiracy theory that Tom and Katie weren’t officially married, their rep says that they “officialized their marriage in Los Angeles prior to their departure for Italy.”

Update: Here are more wedding details from Star magazine. It really does sound lovely, although Katie’s face in these candids is kind of ruining it for me:

Katie wore an off-the-shoulder bridal gown by Giorgio Armani and carried calla lilies wrapped in leaves of galax and steelgrass. The gown featured a train in ivory silk cadis adorned in Valenciennes lace and Swarovski beaded crystal embroidery, featuring a delicate crinoline frill at the shoulders and a silk soleil border around the hem. Holmes also chose an ivory tulle floor length veil and ivory silk shoes.

Tom wore a navy blue two-button satin peak lapel single breasted Armani handmade tuxedo with flat front trousers and matching four-button vest. The tuxedo was complemented by an ivory silk French collar shirt, of the same fabric as the bride’s gown.

The wedding party included Isabella and Connor, Katie’s sister Nancy Blaylock as Matron of Honor and Tom’s best friend David Miscavige as the Best Man. Holmes’ two older sisters, her brother, and parents were also on hand, as were Cruise’s three sisters and mother Mary Lee. Katie was walked down the aisle by her father during the traditional marriage ceremony, which was performed by a Scientology minister.

After they took their vows, the couple celebrated with family and friends at a wedding reception which included colorful and elegant floral décor accented with red roses. TomKat was serenaded by world-renowned Italian vocalist Andrea Bocelli. Guests enjoyed a multi-course meal followed by five-tiered white chocolate wedding cake which was decorated with marzipan roses, and was studded with white chocolate chips and featured white chocolate mouse and white chocolate cream filling.

For the reception, Katie changed into an asymmetric champagne Giorgio Armani Privé evening dress made of silk organza and decorated in Swarovski crystal beads. It looks like Tom really did give Katie a fairy-tale wedding!

The TomKat wedding is said to be happening between 5 and 6 PM local time in Bracciano, Italy where a media circus surrounds the medieval castle where the wedding will take place. Katie has arrived at the castle with Suri, and the first guests have started to arrive. Stars attending the wedding include Will and Jada Smith, J.Lo and Marc Anthony, Brooke Shields, and Jim Carrey.

When I tuned into CNN this morning the reporter mentioned that anywhere from 150-300 guests are expected to attend. He said that the masses of white flowers alone cost $100,000, and that decorations included 600 white scented candles. He also said that there have been no arrangements for a civil ceremony, and that since Tom is divorced he cannot be married in a Catholic wedding.

USA Today, reports that the mayor says that the wedding with be Scientology-style and that as of that morning, no arrangements had been made to ensure that it was legally valid in Italy:

Bracciano Mayor Patrizia Riccioni said the celebrity couple would wed in a Scientology ceremony at the castle, 27 miles north of Rome.

Scientology ceremonies contain many elements of traditional weddings, including rings and vows. But they also include certain Scientology fundamentals, including vowing never to go to bed without communicating about any differences.

Scientology rites are not legally recognized in Italy, and would have to be preceded or followed by a civil union.

Riccioni’s office had not received a request to celebrate a civil wedding as of early Saturday.

Are Tom and Katie pulling a Britney? Are they having an elaborate ceremony just for show? They are said to have visited city hall, so it’s possible that they took care of the legal issues and made sure to keep the details private, but officials in Bracciano are reporting that they have no evidence of that. Will they marry again in a civil ceremony in the states or have they already done so?

There was a story that they were married at sea in a Scientology ceremony in 2005, but that seems like just a rumor. Now they’re set to hold this huge wedding with all the world watching, but they haven’t even made the preliminary arrangements needed to make it legal in Italy. Maybe that’s what they planned all along.

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise arrived in Rome separately and will soon head to Bracciano, where they are said to be having a lavish wedding at a 15th century castle. Even the elusive baby Suri will join them, and a bundle presumed to be the tot was photographed from afar getting out of Tom’s private jet.

Katie recently dropped $3,000 on honeymoon lingerie, including a crystal-studded bra and matching thong. Georgio Armani designed her wedding dress and all the outfits she’ll wear during the weekend-long festivities, so she’ll need some overpriced knickers underneath. Armani also designed Tom’s tuxedo along with the attire for the groomsmen and bridesmaids.

Celebrities who will attend Tom and Katie’s November 18th wedding include John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, and David and Victoria Beckham.

One celebrity who won’t be attending is Oprah. Chances are she was asked directly if she was invited, but her answer has a tinge of bitterness if I’m not mistaken. Maybe I just attribute bitterness to Oprah in general:

“It’s not that I’m not going,” Winfrey tells Extra’s AJ Calloway in a segment to air on Tuesday. “It’s that they had a limited number of people that they could invite. I was not one the invitees. That’s fine. I don’t get invited to everyone’s wedding. I don’t invite them to everything I do. But I wish them the best.”

She continues, “I have a great deal of regard for their relationship and so I’m trying to think of what to get them.”

Yes Oprah, we all have “a great deal of regard for their relationship.” It’s not like we distrust them for freaking out on TV about it or anything.

Thanks to Celebrity Puke for the header image of Tom and Katie at Isabella’s soccer game.

Update: More pictures of Tom and Katie that haven’t been seen anywhere else. Thanks to Celebrity Puke for sending them!

What happened to Tom Cruise? Did he gain those sympathy pounds when soon to be wife Katie Holmes was pregnant? It seems like he has really let himself go. He has a woman he clearly adores (who lost her baby weight) and a beautiful child, does that give him the right to get fat? TMZ reports that TomFat and Katie love to eat at steakhouses such as Mastro’s and Wolfgang Puck’s CUT. Is that the culprit? Who knows, what I do know is that Tom is fat and happy!

Source

Church and local officials are saying they won’t put their stamp of approval on Tom and Katie’s wedding, which is said to be taking place in the Italian town of Bracciano in just over a week. Tom and Katie haven’t filed the paperwork to make a civil marriage legal in Italy, and it sounds like they don’t have enough time left to do so:

The priest with jurisdiction over the dreamy lakeside castle tipped as the chosen location for the wedding says his parish won’t marry Cruise, and the mayor says she can’t because the couple haven’t done the official paperwork.

The small Italian town of Bracciano has been swimming with picture-snapping paparazzi since Il Messaggero newspaper reported that Castello Odescalchi in the town was chosen by the couple for their wedding later this month.

But rules of the local bureaucracy and the Roman Catholic Church appear to be a lot tougher than any of the macho super-secret spies Cruise’s character regularly defeats in the “Mission: Impossible” movies.

Mayor Patrizia Riccioni told Reuters she would like the wedding to take place, but that it was unlikely any celebration would be blessed with state recognition given that the couple have not provided the needed documents.

“I don’t think it will be legal,” she said. “On an Italian level, there are papers and documents that we certainly don’t have (for a wedding).”

But Cruise and Holmes’ Los Angeles-based publicist dismissed the notion that the American couple’s nuptials depended on official sanctioning by Italian authorities.

“They are making all the proper and necessary arrangements for their marriage to be legal,” said publicist Arnold Robinson.

Cruise and Holmes announced in October that they would marry on Nov. 18 in Italy, with Giorgio Armani designing Holmes’ gown.

Oops, it looks like Italy might not have been the best location for a wedding after all, if TomKat can’t get their act together enough to take care of all the red tape ahead of time.

Mike Walker of The National Enquirer offers a little more insight as to why the TomKat wedding might not be legal. A Roman Catholic official has to preside over a church wedding according to Italian law, but Tom wants to bend the rules of course and still have a Scientology-style church wedding instead of a civil one. He may have to get married to Katie in the states first to make it legal. Katie’s parents are not happy with that fucked-up Scientology-style mysoginistic wedding, and want a Catholic ceremony:

Despite reports that plans for how the ceremony will be conducted are set in stone, sources say Tom’s still pushing his people to cajole Italian authorities into bending the custom that a Catholic priest must “officiate,” or a big church wedding isn’t automatically legal! And it’s highly unlikely that a Catholic church would allow a Scientology minister to officiate. An Italian civil ceremony would legitimize the union, of course, but insiders say Tom’s okay with making it legal before a church wedding by having a prior U.S. civil ceremony. But Katie’s parents are NOT happy that he’s dead-set on a Scientology - officiated wedding, with a Catholic priest present only to “bless” the union. Mom and Dad keep repeating their heartfelt request: Let our daughter be married by a priest! Last-minute pleas are being beamed to CruiseControl… but so far, My Favorite Alien’s unbending.

Maybe Tom thinks that everyone will bend over backwards for him just like Madonna.

Here are Tom and Katie at the Black Ball in NYC yesterday. Iman and Alicia Keys hosted the event, and David Bowie performed. Anne Hathaway is also pictured. Proceeds went to the “Keep a Child Alive” foundation, which benefits AIDS victims.

Hopefully Tom will get his hair cut before the wedding. And is it just me, or does Katie look really annoyed like she’d rather be shopping? Pictures from KatieHolmes.com

All that frantic PR work by Tom and Katie seems to have paid off, because Tom has just been named head of United Artists film studio. He inked a deal that will gives him and partner Paul Wagner complete control over production at UA, along with giving him the freedom to star in films put out by other studios if they’ll have him:

The sweet deal gives the pair — whose film productions include the Mission:Impossible movies, War of the Worlds, and The Last Samurai — complete control of the studio’s production slate, expected to be about four films a year, and allows Cruise to appear in films from other studios. Wagner will rule the roost as chief executive of the storied company, owned since 1981 by MGM but founded in 1919 as a haven for artistes by D.W. Griffith and actors Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks.

Cruise and Wagner Cruise hit biz-bottom in August when his and Wagner’s 14-year producing deal with Paramount was not renewed by the studio. Sumner Redstone, chairman of Paramount parent company Viacom Inc., publicly blamed Cruise’s bizarre behavior — his unhinged love declarations for Katie Holmes on Oprah and elsewhere, his dogmatic defense of the more contentious aspects of Scientology, in particular the wholesale rejection of psychiatry and medication — for suppressing public enthusiasm for their Mission:Impossible III film, a “disappointment” at the box office, even though it generated over $390 million worldwide.

“As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal,” Redstone told the Wall Street Journal. “His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount.”

Putting it even more bluntly, Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall slammed Cruise’s behavior in an ‘05 Time magazine interview. “His whole behavior is so shocking. It’s inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but I think it’s kind of a sickness,” she said.

Cruise and Wagner 2 Apparently UA/MGM felt otherwise. “There is a complete alignment of interests in this deal,” MGM chief operating officer Rick Sands told the AP today. “They are equity owners in the company and they share with us in the upside.”

Good for him I guess. I’m going to mention this as an aside instead of running a separate story about it, but I spent a week e-mailing with a guy who claims to be “Big Red,” the male hooker that supposedly had a rather tame gay wrestling romp with Tom in the late 90s. The guy didn’t tell me his story and I kept e-mailing with him back and forth, hoping that he would write something I could publish.

He claimed that the story told by another guy, Barresi that we published here was inaccurate, and that it didn’t go down like it was claimed, but the guy wasted my time and didn’t give any details. Here’s the relevant part of our e-mail exchange. Again, I cannot verify that this is the person he claims to be or that this is anything more than a person who strung me along via e-mail for a week, but here’s what he said:

Segment of one e-mail toward the end of our exchange: I just do not think the story I have to tell is what you are looking for but I will think about it.

Another e-mail: I am actually looking to build Tom Cruise up not break him down

Last one I received: I’m not getting a good vibe from this at the moment - - I think I will wait and I may neveer publish the real story - - afterall, I believe in Karma and Barresi will have to deal with his.

It sounds like whatever happened, it was even less sensational than was claimed, at least according to this person who contacted me and got my hopes up about running this big exclusive. (I even contacted a lawyer and a cult expert about how to proceed, which may be why he got a bad vibe. You can’t be too careful with the c0s.) This guy claims to live in Europe now. The book by Barresi says that he left the states after the news of his supposed romp with Cruise got out, but I can’t be certain what’s true at this point. Tom Cruise is weird and is involved in a harmful freaky cult, but whether he actually had a gay wrestling session is up to question.

Gee, guess that absolves him of all the gay rumors so he’s definitely fit enough to run a studio. Look - he even reproduced and he’s getting married! There are photos of his baby in Vanity Fair and everything.

Here are Tom and Kate at Connor’s soccer game on 11/5. That’s what the photo credit says but it looks like they were taken on two separate days as Tom is wearing a different shirt and got a much-needed haircut in the interim. Katie is wearing the same outfit though so maybe it’s just the angle and Tom changed his shirt. Thanks to KatieHolmes.com for these pictures.

Tom and Katie are said to be tying the knot in November and perhaps in Italy. There was a rumor that they were going to use George Clooney’s Lake Como villa for their wedding, but that was also rumored about Brad and Angelina’s non-wedding. Clooney’s representative has said that Tom and Katie are definitely not getting married at his estate.

Victoria Beckham looked at locations in Italy on October 7th, fueling rumors that she was helping Katie finalize wedding plans.

Georgio Armani is said to be the designer Katie Holmes has chosen to create her fantasy wedding dress. It was thought that Katie would choose a Chanel dress by Karl Lagerfeld after she was photographed with him at a Paris fashion week party, but Women’s Wear Daily is reporting that Katie has gone with Armani instead.

All of this seems rather vague, and while Katie proclaimed “I have my dress!” and Tom and Katie’s publicist has said that they’ll be married within a few weeks, I’ll believe it when I see it. These two enjoy the publicity, but need to follow through on their plans soon if people are ever going to start taking them seriously.

Meanwhile Tom Cruise parody site Scientomogy.info is standing it’s ground against a threatened lawsuit by Scientology thugs. The cult regularly uses strongarm legal tactics to slience dissent and scare anyone that dares speak out against it. They sent a cease and desist letter to site owners over a year ago claiming that it infringes on their trademark, but they’re just trying to censor negative press. YouTube has removed most of the videos linked by Scientomogy.info after undoubtedly being threatened by Scientology as well.

Here are Tom and Katie at Isabella’s soccer game on 10/14. [via]

Tom Cruise got annoyed when he noticed that his son Connor’s team wasn’t doing that well during a recent football match. He marched up and gave them his own pep talk, no doubt thrilling 11 year-old Connor:

[From the PopBitch e-mail newsletter]

With pictures like these of Tom running across the field with Connor, that’s an easy story to believe. You can tell that Connor is not thrilled with the attention that’s paid his manic father, but he looks like he’s quietly putting up with it.

Katie Holmes has made it known that she’s found her wedding dress. She won’t tell the press which designer she’s picked, but speculation is that it could be Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld, who she was pictured with at a recent party he threw in Paris.

Tom and Katie are expected to get married next month.

Pictures from lime-light.org.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are in full-on PR offensive, according to sources. After spending months holed away with mysterious baby Suri, they released her to the public to great fanfare with a huge spread in Vanity Fair. Next they went out to dinner several times at paparrazi target restaurants, took in Tom’s daughter’s soccer game, and were seen out with both of their moms, suggesting they’re planning something.

Now it seems to be true, and their publicist has confirmed that they’re in the “planning stages”:

It seems rather suspect that this news comes out right at the same time that Tom’s “gay sex” scandal is getting press. What better way to distract the public from Tom’s interest in sweaty jerk-off sessions than to have a wedding? I’m not saying he’s not interested in Katie Holmes or that he’s not in love with her. People say she’s his beard or whatever, but maybe he likes to go both ways and is fond of young impressionable women.

Regardless he’s done too much damage to his career by defending his weird Scientology beliefs, and a high-profile wedding isn’t going to make him into a box office superhero again.

A new book about shady Hollywood attorney Anthony Pellicano is set to blow the lid on how Tom Cruise’s romp with a male prostitute was kept out of the tabloids. There’s an entire chapter online, and while it’s quite long it’s a trashy and worthwhile read.

Author Paul Barresi was working as a producer of gay porn films when he spoke to adult film star and prolific male hooker, “Big Red,” a buff readheaded guy who advertised in gay men’s magazines and websites. Big Red approached Barresi about selling his tales of hooking up with some of Hollywood’s hottest guys. Barresi was impressed with Red’s story, and found his claims both believable and verifiable. He arrange to have him speak with a contact at The National Enquirer in exchange for a cut of the profits.

Big Red went on to tell how he topped Garth brooks for over two hours with the help of some Viagra and a condom. He said he got paid about $500-$600 and was flown out to service Brooks, who he called a whale.

Compared to that encounter, his sporty jerk-off with Tom Cruise, who dressed up in a little wrestling suit for the occasion, sounds almost chaste. Cruise was in London filming “Eyes Wide Shut” at the time, and was in the last stages of his marriage to Nicole Kidman.

After The National Enquirer passed on publishing Red’s sordid wrestling story, they got a call from - you guessed it - celebrity lawyer Anthony Pellicano, who is currently under investigation by the feds for illegal wiretapping and racketeering.

Pellicano grilled Red on his encounter with Cruise for over an hour and a half, reducing him to a blubbering mess. At the end, though, Pellicano admitted to Barresi that Red’s story was believable and that he knew key details about Cruise to back it up:

Barresi says The Enquirer tipped off Pellicano on the story to get him to check out it’s veracity. Instead of admitting that he believed Red, Pellicano told The Enquirer that Red was making it up, and went back to Cruise for a hefty payoff.

Red’s phone was predictably tapped after his scary encounter with Pellicano, and he often saw an unmarked van outside of his place. He ended up moving to Europe for a while and servicing less dangerous rich people. Barresi only made a $5,000 payoff after all the work he put into grooming Red.

There’s so much dirt in this story it’s amazing. I haven’t even touched the news that this gay hooker claims to have been with Antonio Bandares, Jason Priestly, and Randy Travis. He also says opera singer Andrea Boccelli was a long term client.

I don’t know if it’s true, but it convinced me. If it’s made up, why would they make Tom Cruise’s sexcapade so tame? He wrestled with a guy, touched him, and then watched him jerk off. It doesn’t sound like that much of a scandal if you ask me.

I want to know why women like Angelina Jolie can have well known affairs with the same sex while it’s taboo and career-ending for the men of Hollywood. I only care that Tom Cruise likes the company of men because he denies it so much.