BONDED AT LAST
The big day finally arrived for Malibu’s Pierce Brosnan and longtime love Keely Shaye Smith–120 friends and family members flew to Ireland’s County Mayo to watch the celebrated couple exchange vows at a fairy-tale wedding with a fairy-tale setting, right out of a Merchant Ivory movie.
The ceremony took place at the 785-year-old Ballintubber Abbey and the celebration continued into the wee hours at breathtaking Ashford Castle. The original May 2000 wedding date was postponed when Brosnan’s 17-year-old son, Sean, narrowly escaped death following a car crash in Malibu. Sean was back on his feet and joined other members of the Brosnan brood, including the couple’s 4-year-old son Dylan and 6-month-old Paris.
Following a full Catholic mass, guests gathered at the castle grounds, where they were greeted in true Irish fashion with bagpipers playing in the background. The wedding feast featured buckwheat bilinis, Beluga caviar, fresh lobster and a six-tier carrot cake covered with white crystallized blooms.
The festivities went out with a bang as a fireworks spectacular lit up the night sky. But before long, Brosnan will be back at work as Agent 007 in the upcoming Bond flick–the as yet untitled “Bond 20.”
PROMISES, PROMISES
It seems you’ll find more stars at Malibu Promises rehab facility these days than the Moomba Room on a Friday night. Promises is turning into the center of choice for celebs in recovery. Hot leading man Ben Affleck is the latest to check in, joining fellow A-listers Paula Poundstone and Robert Downey Jr., and all-star alums like Charlie Sheen, Matthew Perry and Christian Slater.
For $31,000 a month, Promises offers a 12-step approach program as well as gourmet meals and a state-of-the-art gym. Downey recently got a day pass out of Promises to take care of a little business. He’ll be featured in the upcoming Elton John video, “I Want Love.”
WALK ON THE WILD SIDE
Tippi Hedren was among the big cats holding court at this year’s Beastly Ball at the Los Angeles Zoo. Hedren was honored for her years of hard work on behalf of wildlife preservation and environmental causes. For the past two decades, she has headed up the Roar Foundation and the Shambala Preserve. The 31st annual celebration also honored LeVar Burton, host of public television’s “Reading Rainbow.”
A Mardi Gras-style band on stilts greeted about a thousand safari-clad guests who gathered on the zoo grounds. Yes, there were lions and tigers and bears as well as two-legged party animals who sampled everything from crab cakes with chili mango cream sauce to grilled lollipop of lamb with port wine dressing.
Actress and zoo commissioner Betty White Ludden presided over the live auction, which featured exotic travel packages to Bali as well as a unique hands-on experience you’d never find anywhere else–a chance to give the zoo’s elephant herd its daily bubble bath.
The place was still abuzz over another critter caper–the scandalous toe-biting incident involving Komo the Komodo dragon and Sharon Stone’s newspaper hubby, Phil Bronstein. Even so, most animal lovers were going ape over another matter–the $700,000 they helped raise to fund the zoo’s Campo Gorilla Reserve.