Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Clinton nuptials a no-fly zone
Today's Meredith Vieira declared it "the wedding of the decade."
The Daily News went grander, with a splashy headline, Wedding of the Millennium.
Did we mention the no-fly zone?
Chelsea Clinton, 30, the only daughter of former president Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, will wed 32-year-old investment banker Marc Mezvinsky on Saturday evening on a 20-hectare estate along the Hudson River in Rhinebeck, 145 kilometres north of New York City.
The Federal Aviation Administration says local airspace will be restricted for 12 hours starting Saturday afternoon and ending earlier Sunday.
Some of the roads have already been ordered closed. The New York State Police are handling the bulk of security, which is expected to cost more than $200,000, to be paid by the Clintons. Estimates of the wedding's total cost range from $2 million to $5 million.
As far as the tiny village of Rhinebeck is concerned, this weekend is a chance to celebrate what may be as close to a royal wedding as it gets in a country that lacks an aristocracy of its own.
For many there, words like historic and euphoric only begin to describe the event expected to pull in celebrities and politicians from around the world to tiny Rhinebeck, a village of 4,000.
"This is a big, big thing for Rhinebeck," Glen Markle, 60, a lumber salesman, said as he clutched a cup of coffee on Market Street. It's amazing they picked Rhinebeck... thank you very much, Chelsea."
There is an air of secrecy around the wedding the CIA can only hope to emulate. Merchants have been asked to sign confidentiality agreements that seem more effective in imposing secrecy than top-secret labels on war documents.
There has yet to be even an official confirmation the wedding will take place, prompting some very quiet mumbling among local conspiracy buffs that the hoopla is a ruse so the real wedding can take place elsewhere. But local officials, who have been negotiating with the wedding planners, quietly say they think they know some details.
The Clinton family has been mum about even the smallest details, prompting journalists to rely on rumour and speculation as they scramble for any tidbit they can garner.
The wedding will take place at Astor Courts, a mansion built a century ago on grassy rolling hillside by multimillionaire John Jacob Astor IV and his wife, Ava. The architect was Stanford White, responsible for an early version of Madison Square Garden, among other landmarks.
About 500 guests are expected, but the real issue is not the famous who are coming, but also those who were rejected.
To help ease any hard feelings, Hillary Clinton told NBC: "We love you all, but this is her wedding."
-- Los Angeles Times, with files from the news services
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 30, 2010 A19
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