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Wedding Eve: The Party Grows

It was a real life, Italian Job-style traffic jam in central Rome Friday night, as Team Cruise headed out for another night of dinner and celebrating. Amid the largest crowd of fans and paparazzi seen this week, a caravan of cars and vans was organized to ferry the stars from the Hassler hotel out to a private villa in southwest Rome.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer slipped out early in the evening virtually unnoticed, and he admitted to reporters he didn't know where dinner would be. Meanwhile, other stars made a more dramatic departure: Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.

Brooke Shields appeared soon after in a striking black outfit with a sheer split back. David Beckham and wife Victoria, who wore a stunningly short fitted dress, slipped into her Mercedes -- their first Roman outing -- amid the most intense screaming and camera flashes of the night.

The guests were driven to Villa Aurelia in Porta San Pancrazio and, once safely behind ornate iron-grille gates, were greeted by a candle-lined driveway curling up into the darkness of the villa grounds.

"It was great," Will Smith told reporters upon returning from the festivities.

Photo: Pete Norman

Link Here | Permalink | Nov 17, 06 07:51 PM

Posh Picks Valentino, Flirts with Valli

Victoria and David Beckham will wear a gown and tux by Valentino to Tom & Katie's wedding, the designer announced Friday, but that doesn't mean Posh will be exclusive. She's also expected to sport pieces by Giambattista Valli throughout the weekend, a source tells PEOPLE -- possible dresses include a fuchsia mini-dress, a beaded strapless and a hand-painted baby-doll dress. 

And if Katie (who visited the designer's Paris showroom with Victoria in October) changes her mind about wearing only Armani throughout her gala wedding, Valli has sent her pieces just in case.

Photo: GAMMA

Link Here | Permalink | Nov 17, 06 05:04 PM

VIDEO: Guess Who's Doing Katie's Hair?

Hint: Jessica Simpson swears by him! PEOPLE's own Galina Espinoza reports from Italy on the secrets of the Tom & Katie nuptials — check her out here on Access Hollywood and find out which stars flew in via private jet, what famous crooner will be among the guests (but won't be singing), and more! (via Access Hollywood)

Photo: Ramey

Link Here | Permalink | Nov 17, 06 04:22 PM

J.Lo & Crew Get the Pre-Party Started

Forget Hyde, Area or any other L.A. club: The bar at the Hassler hotel in the wee hours Friday was the place to catch the world's best star sightings. After midnight (and dinner with the Cruise family), Brooke Shields and husband Chris Henchy pulled up a couple of chairs alongside Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony and Leah Remini and her husband, Angelo Pagan. The group joined in a toast by Anthony that could be heard by everyone around: "To life, to the occasion, and to new friends," prompting J.Lo to ask, "What about me?"  "To you, too," Anthony assured her.

Photo: Bauer-Griffin

Link Here | Permalink | Nov 17, 06 03:10 PM

Pacey Witter No Match for Tom Cruise

"I'm glad (Katie) went for (Tom) over Pacey. I liked Pacey better than  Dawson, but I think Tom Cruise is the best."

-- Saturday Night Live’s Andy Samberg, to PEOPLE at the Museum of Natural History's Gala in New York City, on how Tom Cruise beat out Katie Holmes’s onscreen love interests on Dawson’s Creek for her hand in marriage

Photo: Everett Collection

Link Here | Permalink | Nov 17, 06 02:50 PM

Here Comes the ... Bridesmaids Dresses?

Spotted at the Hassler hotel: at least six matching dark-colored dresses (black? navy?) with diamante detailing on the front, on a luggage cart and zipped into Armani garment bags.

Link Here | Permalink | Nov 17, 06 01:29 PM

Tom & Katie, with a Twist

Though most of the Cruise-Holmes wedding party is luxuriously ensconced in Rome's Hotel Hassler, the festivities are spilling over into another deluxe inn in the Eternal City.

The Intercontinental Hotel's veteran bartender Vincenzo Giovinazzo has invented a drink to honor the happy couple. Its name? The "Cocktail" Cocktail, "in recognition of Tom's best movie," says Giovinazzo.

It takes a trained hand to concoct the libation, however. First, sliced cucumber, pineapple, orange and lemon are steeped and chilled in a bowl for two hours with champagne, soda, brown sugar, cognac and Angostura bitters. Afterward, the cucumber and cherries are removed and used as the garnish and the liquid decanted into champagne flutes. (The bar tab: $28.)

"My drink is the perfect marriage of ingredients," Giovinazzo says. "Just like Tom and Katie."

Photo: Pete Norman

Link Here | Permalink | Nov 17, 06 12:34 PM

Best Part of Getting Married in the Castle: It's Free

What does it cost to rent a castle these days? Nothing, if you're Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. The $50,000 fee to use the facility for their formal ceremony has been waived because Bracciano mayor Patrizia Riccioni wants to thank the couple for all the attention they've brought her town, Access Hollywood's Billy Bush reported. That news came on Friday as Riccioni made it official and confirmed what most already knew -- that the two will exchange vows inside the 15th-century fortress. To read our full report, click here.

Photo: Olycom/iPhoto

Link Here | Permalink | Nov 17, 06 11:12 AM

Scenes From an Italian Restaurant

The Cruise family and their celeb friends, including Brooke Shields, Jim Carrey, Jenny McCarthy, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, took over one of Tom's favorite restaurants, Nino, on Thursday night. The restaurant prepared a special off-menu, multi-course meal for the party, and Tom, Katie, Suri, Connor and Isabella stayed long after most of their celeb pals had taken off.

Afterward, Mission: Impossible 3 director J.J. Abrams was asked to describe the night. "Fantastic," he said as he walked from the decades-old diner. Minutes after Tom & Katie were driven away in a blacked out van, Brooke Shields exited the restaurant. Asked if she was enjoying Italy, Shields said, "Very much so."

Perhaps she spoke too soon -- moments later she was mobbed by a large swarm of fans and cameramen as bodyguards tried to protect her. Shields and husband Chris Henchy eventually inched their way to a van and took off for the Hassler Hotel.

Photo: Martina Cristofani/ANSA/Sipa

Link Here | Permalink | Nov 16, 06 07:54 PM