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American Morning

Famous Guests Gathering for McCartney Wedding

Aired June 11, 2002 - 07:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours from now wedding bells will be sounding for Sir Paul McCartney and his bride to be, model Heather Mills. The setting is a picture-perfect 17th century castle in the Irish countryside. The guests are on their way. Among them: Sting, Twiggy, even President Clinton.

And taking it all in is our own Richard Quest, who joins us now from Glaslough, Ireland -- good morning.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.

The rain is on and off. We've just got about a five-minute off at the moment. But of course that won't affect the guests, who will be not only in the church, which is on the Castle Leslie Estate, but they will also be able to walk from the castle to the church to the marquees down by the Green Lake (ph), because tented tunnels have been built for them.

We do know that the guests are on their way. Some of them have already arrived. We know that Linda McCartney's family -- Linda McCartney, of course, Paul McCartney's first wife -- they're already here. The Eastmans are here. Stella McCartney has arrived in Ireland we believe.

And we've had one glimpse of Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills. That was when they came out to do a photo call and to basically thank the people here in Glaslough and everybody for their good wishes. We also heard from Sir Paul, of course, because you'll remember it was the great leak -- Sir Jack Leslie, the former owner of the castle, who let the cat out of the bag when he said the wedding was going to be here.

Sir Jack had said it was a great secret, no one was supposed to know. And then, of course, he probably told everybody it was on Tuesday. Sir Paul said, well, he didn't mind too much.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL MCCARTNEY, FORMER BEATLE: Excited, yeah. So we're going to go back into the castle. And, as you know through Uncle Jack, it is tomorrow.

HEATHER MILLS: But it's a secret. MCCARTNEY: But it's a secret, all right? I'm not supposed to tell anybody anything. So what we're going to do is basically a family wedding. So we're going to have family and friends and we're just going to have a bit of fun. And we won't be out -- hello.

So there you are. Thank you very much for your support, and we'll see you. Thank you. All right. Now if you didn't get that, you didn't get it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now, of course, the kiss that everybody waited to get is on the front pages of all the national papers, and indeed has made enormous news. Interestingly, the question, Paula, of the photograph of the wedding, the couple did turn down an offer of over $2 million by one celebrity magazine. Instead, one picture will be made available in about five hours' time, and everybody who uses it is asked to make a donation of about $1,500 to their favorite charity, the land mine charity.

So the scene is set, the guests are on their way. The groom is entertaining people to lunch at the moment. The bride is getting ready. That's what we're told.

ZAHN: So, Richard, a little editorial comment. I would say this couple is handling this hoopla with a great deal of dignity. I thought it was quite generous that they come out and talk to you all yesterday.

QUEST: Oh, no question. The fact that they did, I mean, this is different to the Madonna wedding in Scotland, where there was an enormous amount of hoopla and very little to actually report. Here they knew they had to take the sting out of it, to some extent.

They gave us what we want. They gave us the pictures, they gave us a couple of comments and they went back inside. They even signed autographs for people who were outside. We'll have more later on, when we'll hopefully maybe even have the odd celebrity or two, or at least pictures of a celebrity or two. Just don't put money on it.

ZAHN: We're looking forward to whatever you get out there, Richard. Enjoy, stay out of the rain. Pop your head back under that umbrella.

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