A-listers elbow out aristocrats as LA set flies in
OLD-WORLD aristocrats and minor royals step aside. The A-listers from Hollywood are coming.
Like no other royal wedding before it, the wedding will be sprinkled with stardust from the glittering La-set.
Friends from Ms Markle’s inner circle – including actors from her hit television show Suits – will give the wedding a touch of “LA cool”. Green smoothies as much as vintage champagne may just be the drink of choice.
George Clooney, perhaps the most handsome and one of the most bankable movie stars of the past two decades, and his wife Amal, the glamorous human rights lawyer, who now live down the road from Windsor in Sonning, Berks, are understood to be guests.
The names on the list are being closely guarded but some guests have already blurted out their attendance via the likes of Instagram. In the case of the Clooneys, Miguel Perez, Amal’s hairdresser, gave the game away, telling Hola!, the Spanish version of Hello! magazine: “I will be in charge of Amal’s hair that day.”
Mr Perez spent some of yesterday posting pictures of himself in Windsor, preparing for the big day. Mrs Clooney recommended Mr Perez to Ms Markle and he may do both hairdos on the day.
Tennis superstar Serena Williams arrived at Heathrow with her newborn daughter last night suggesting she is almost certainly on the guest list.
Sir Elton John – who memorably played his rewritten version of Candle
in the Wind at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 – and David Furnish, his husband, will also be there, a well-placed source confirmed. David Beckham and his wife Victoria, the former Spice Girl turned fashion designer, are said to be going. The stars of Suits, the law drama set in Manhattan but filmed in Toronto, have confirmed their presence by posting pictures of themselves in London on Instagram.
Patrick Adams, Meghan’s on-screen husband, posted an Instagram photo from a pub in nearby Beaconsfield, Bucks, writing: “I have historically ale’d.”
Sarah Rafferty, who describes herself as Ms Markle’s “sister-wife’” stopped off at Buckingham Palace with her two daughters for tourist photos, while co-stars Abigail Spencer, Gina Torres, Rick Hoffman, Jacinda Barrett and her husband Gabriel Macht have variously posted pictures and greetings from London. Priyanka Chopra, the Bollywood star and close friend of Ms Markle’s, confirmed she was attending, posting a photo from a plane heading from California to Heathrow.
Others in Ms Markle’s “LA cool” gang include Heather Dorak, her pilates teacher, Benita Litt, an entertainment lawyer whose daughters are bridesmaids and Lindsay Jill Roth, the Hollywood producer who met Ms Markle at university and even wrote a novel using her character as inspiration. Glamorous British friends include Misha Nonoo, a fashion designer, and Millie Mackintosh, a television presenter who made her name on Made in Chelsea. Others possible attendees include singers Ed Sheeran and Ellie Goulding and the model Cara Delevingne.
In contrast, aristocrats and royals who in a different age would have been guaranteed guests but have reportedly not received an invite include Lady Amelia Windsor, dubbed the “most beautiful” royal by Tatler, and her sister Marina, who are third cousins to Harry, Lady Gabriella and Lord Frederick Windsor, the children of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, and Lady Davina Lewis, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.