With this pig Liz thee weds
There'll be glitz and glamour aplenty when the actress marries Arun Nayar next weekend, but the gift list is strictly farmyard
Sunday, 25 February 2007
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Most couples are happy with a toaster, some tableware or a couple of fluffy towels. But when the bride and groom already have everything, they are bound to want something just a little different. A Gloucestershire Old Spot pig, say, or even a Herdwick sheep.
The celebrities heading to actress Liz Hurley's wedding next weekend are being asked to buy livestock to build up her 400-acre farm in Gloucestershire. Sir Elton John, David and Victoria Beckham and Donatella Versace will be among invitees finding themselves in unfamiliar territory, digging deep for a chicken or a goat. Some will stretch to a Hereford cow. All organic, of course.
The farmyard gifts - lime trees are also welcome - will provide a fine counterpoint to the glitz that will immerse Ms Hurley and her Indian businessman fiancé, Arun Nayar, when they marry on Saturday.
Dressed in a £4,000 pink sari, created by designer Tarun Tahiliani, Hurley will walk down the aisle at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire watched by 200-plus guests said to include Kate Winslet, Kate Moss and Elle Macpherson.
The venue, the family seat of Hurley's old friend Henry Dent-Brocklehurst, who will attend with his wife Lili Maltese, will host a medieval-style banquet including smoked venison and guinea fowl - not "foul" as the castle's website menu has it - with sage. But it is the live foods, the feathered and furred gifts, that may provide the biggest talking point. The going price for a Gloucestershire Old Spot sow is 180 guineas (£189).
The 41-year-old's farm, and her "Elizabeth Hurley Beach" swimwear collection, is more of a career these days than her film work. Hurley has talked about her plans to build up a range of organic baby foods - inspired by her four-year-old son Damian, from a brief relationship with American film producer Steve Bing - and to expand her activities on the farm.
She said recently: "It's the best thing I've ever done. It's the only place I want to be. When we get our organic status we're going to farm properly and we're going to have a herd of cows and proper sheep and proper chickens, and we're going to have Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs. Arun thought I was joking when he first saw me slither into my Wellingtons."
Hurley, the £1m face of fashion chain Monsoon, has already had one animal gift in the run-up to the wedding. Former boyfriend Hugh Grant has sponsored a chimpanzee at London Zoo called Elizabeth - a reference to his apparent monkey-like appearance which prompted the couple to call their production company Simian Films. It was another gift to Hurley, an outrageously expensive Chopard necklace, that some suspect caused Grant's relationship with Jemima Khan to buckle recently.
Even for guests used to lavish affairs, it will be a time to remember. Co-ordinated by Bentley's, a party organiser which has handled events for the Beckhams, the wedding will have twin locations, in England and India, reflecting the couple's roots. After Sudeley Castle - within a few miles of Hurley's farm and the Barnsley House hotel where Sir Elton will stay for the weekend - and a spot of light pheasant shooting, the guests will on Sunday board a late-night Virgin flight to Bombay and then travel to Rajasthan.
There had been talk that traditional Indian celebrations would take place at the Devi Garh Palace, close to the lakeside town of Udaipur, but the smart money seems to be on the sandstone Umaid Bhawan Palace, near Jodhpur. The Umaid Bhawan, one of the largest private properties in India, took 5,000 people six years to complete and the 347-room Art Deco building is the home of the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Gaj Singh.
Guests must be appropriately dressed for the festivities in the subcontinent. An orientation pack tells them "please don't panic", explaining they can buy their outfits during their stopover in Bombay, from the happy couple's own wedding shop at the Hilton Towers Hotel.
Hurley's spokesman declined to comment on he wedding. But one guest said: "It is going to be a fantastic affair. They are two of the most wonderful people, and they really deserve it."
