A sequence of VIP guests including Jennifer Lopez and Jim Carrey began arriving in Rome on Thursday ahead of Italy's most glamorous wedding of the year.
Details of the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes wedding bash, to take place at the lakeside Odescalchi castle at Bracciano near Rome, remain mysterious but the ceremony itself is reportedly scheduled for Saturday.
Until then it's unclear what the glittering collection of Hollywood names will be doing and where they will be. Some sources said there could be a warm-up party in Rome, where many guests are staying.
Lopez, sporting a black coat with fur collar and gittering earings peeping out from under her black hat, was the first to land at Rome's Ciampino airport where photographers were amassed in anticipation.
She was followed by Jim Carrey and his current partner former Playboy pin-up and Baywatch star Jenny McCarthy. Actress Brooke Shields was also seen arriving, as was Jada Pinkett Smith, the actress wife of Hollywood star Will Smith, and JJ Abrams, the film director and producer.
As the media watched the stars arrive in Rome, tension was rising in Bracciano where hundreds of journalists and film crews were camped out around the piazza in front of the castle. About 250 police officers were patrolling the area around the piazza, from which all traffic has been banned.
The local council has rented out the windows of the municipal archive, which look out onto the castle, to the media for 1,000 euros each.
Cruise and Holmes are not expected to arrive at the medieval Odescalchi castle until Saturday morning, when the wedding ceremony itself will take place. A representative of the Scientology sect to which Cruise belongs was expected to arrive from the United States to preside over the rite.
Meanwhile, the bride and groom have been mostly keeping to themselves, or at least away from reporters. The couple made a surprise appearance on Thursday afternoon at another Rome hotel, the St.Regis, where several of their VIP guests are staying.
A conference on Italian universities was under way at the time and the arrival of Cruise and Holmes, who were dressed casually, distracted journalists who jumped up hoping for a comment. But the pair said nothing to reporters and after being greeted by a young man who was expecting them, they disappeared off down a corridor.
Cruise and his bride had dinner at Rome city hall on Wednesday evening with Mayor Walter Veltroni. Also present were the couple's baby daughter Suri, the actor's two adopted children, his sister and Holmes' father.
To avoid photographers they were driven back to their hotel at about midnight in a traffic police car.
