McKellen: I won’t be Lord of the Wedding Rings... even for £1m
SIR IAN McKellen was offered one million pounds to dress as his Lord Of The Rings character Gandalf and officiate at the wedding of a Facebook billionaire, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Sir Ian, 77, who qualified as a ‘celebrant’ to conduct the 2013 civil wedding of his best friend, Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart, and fiancee Sunny Ozell, described how he was made the extraordinary offer.
He said: ‘I was offered one-anda-half million dollars to marry a very famous couple in California, which I would perhaps have considered doing but I had to go dressed as Gandalf.
‘So I said, “I am sorry, Gandalf doesn’t do weddings.”’
The Mail on Sunday has learned that the offer was made via an intermediary on behalf of Silicon Valley tycoon Sean Parker, co-founder of the record-streaming service Napster and the first president of Facebook. Parker, 36, whose net worth is put at £1.8billion by Forbes magazine, spent a reported £7.5million on his Tolkien-themed wedding in June 2013 to singer Alexandra Lenas, in the spectacular redwood forest in Big Sur, California.
His lavish wedding bash saw guests, including Sting and Harry Potter star Emma Watson, don custom-made outfits by Lord Of The Rings costume designer Ngila Dickson and feast on suckling pigs at banquet tables draped in white fur.
Other extravagances included a wedding cake standing 9ft tall and a pen of white bunnies ‘for anyone who needs a cuddle’, while the wedding was conducted by a Unitarian Universalist minister after Sir Ian declined. A source told this newspaper: ‘The offer to Sir Ian to officiate was made through a mutual friend of Sir Ian’s and Sean Parker.’
Last night Sir Ian, who is appearing alongside friend and fellow knight Stewart in a sellout touring version of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land, admitted that he never knew Parker was behind the mega offer.
Explaining that he had never been directly approached, Sir Ian said: ‘He was a very rich man, that’s all I know.’
Speaking outside Newcastle’s Theatre Royal, where he played in front of a capacity crowd, he added: ‘I don’t go dressing up – except in plays and things at places like this.’