Oprah Winfrey arrived in Venice on Thursday, leading a star-studded guest list of celebrities descending on the lagoon city for the weekend wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez.
Winfrey’s private jet landed at Venice’s Marco Polo airport. Former American footballer Tom Brady arrived shortly afterwards.
The details of the nuptials have been a tightly kept secret, though the guest list has firmed up as have the reported locations for the three days of parties and receptions, including a cloister in the Cannaregio district, the San Giorgio island and the Arsenale district best known as the venue for the Biennale art fair.
Veneto governor Luca Zaia has said the extravaganza is costing between 40 million and 48 million euros (US$46.7 million to $56 million). He told reporters this week that it would bring 90 private jets to the Treviso and Venice airports and a celebrity quotient that would “bring visibility and promotion" to Venice that he said was worth more than five American Super Bowls.
Here's a look at the who's who of the Bezos-Sánchez nuptials.
The bride and groom pulled into the Aman Hotel dock on the Grand Canal on Wednesday, traveling via water taxi with security boats in tow. A few hours later they slipped out of the hotel, with Sánchez wearing a sleek black and white striped, one-shoulder gown.
Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and their three children arrived Wednesday.
Other celebrities on the guest list, according to two people close to the wedding who spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, include:
— Kim Kardashian
— Mick Jagger
— Leonardo DiCaprio
— Orlando Bloom
— Microsoft founder Bill Gates
— Diane von Furstenberg and her husband Barry Diller
— Katy Perry had originally been expected but the latest update had her as not attending.
The wedding has divided Venice, with some activists protesting it as an exploitation of the city by the billionaire Bezos while ordinary residents suffer from overtourism, high housing costs and the constant threat of climate-induced flooding.
One group called Extinction Rebellion staged a small protest in St. Mark's Square on Thursday featuring a masked bride and groom and people holding posters decrying climate change and income inequalities.
“The planet is burning but don’t worry, here's the list of the 27 dresses of Lauren Sanchez,” read one, a reference to the bride's reported wedding weekend wardrobe.
Protesters said that their plans to disrupt the arrivals of guests at one of the wedding venues forced organizers to move the event to the more secure Arsenale area beyond Venice’s congested center.
The city administration has strongly defended the nuptials as keeping with Venice’s tradition as an open city that has welcomed popes, emperors and ordinary visitors alike for centuries.
“We will always respect the right to speak out, but we reject every form of intolerance and prejudice,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in Thursday’s edition of Italian newspaper Il Foglio Quotidiano. “No one in Venice can claim the right of deciding who can enter, who can love, who can celebrate.”
Bezos donated 1 million euros each to three environmental research organizations working to preserve Venice, according to Corila, the Venetian environmental research association.
Picture Courtesy: AP Photo/Luca Bruno
