LOS OLIVOS, CALIF., OCT. 6 -- The invitation was cream-colored, one folded sheet, black engraving, and here's what it said: "Mr. Michael Jackson requests the pleasure of your company at the marriage of his beloved friend, Miss Elizabeth Taylor, to Mr. Larry Fortensky, on Sunday, the sixth of October 1991 at 5 p.m."
The place: Neverland Valley, Jackson's sprawling ranch 100 miles north of Los Angeles.
The event: the Hollywood wedding of the year.
On this warm California afternoon, behind the estate's gates and with helicopters and balloons hovering overhead, Taylor and Fortensky said their "I do's" at the million-dollar ceremony.
Any jostling for a closer look of the private ceremony was taking place overhead as at least 12 helicopters incessantly circled the sky, most presumably full of photographers and cameramen. A lone parasailor who ventured over the property nearly got clipped by a copter as astonished bystanders looked on from the ground. Supposedly there was one security helicopter up there too, but it certainly wasn't discouraging the press helicopters. Nor did a dozen big purple and yellow balloons that floated lazily in the sky over the valley. In another midair spectacle, an intrepid parachutist jumped from a small plane smack into the festivities. He was promptly arrested.
Columnist Liz Smith, the only working reporter allowed at the ceremony and the only source of firsthand details, reported that the parachutist landed within 20 feet of the minister in the middle of the wedding, but added that he was hustled away so quickly that the disturbance lasted less than 30 seconds.
Among the fragments of the ceremony heard over the roar of helicopters, according to Smith, Williamson said to Fortensky: "Elizabeth is literally God's gift to you for your healing and her healing. Not only has God given her to you, but he has given you to her, so that both of you might show us more fully your love for one another." She asked Fortensky to repeat an informal litany that went, "With this ring, I make you a promise that from this day forward you shall not walk alone. My heart will be your shelter, and my arms will be your home." Taylor repeated these words when she gave Fortensky his ring. They both closed their promises with these words, "Through the grace of God we may love more deeply than we have ever loved before."
Taylor and Fortensky became husband and wife outdoors under a white gazebo, reported Smith. Guests sat uncovered, and there was a white grand piano nearby with four violinists. At the appointed time for the ceremony to begin, Taylor's mother, Sarah, was taken in a wheelchair to the front row, according to Smith. Forty-five minutes passed and then the designer Valentino sat down; he had just come from arranging his dress on the bride. Shortly afterward Fortensky, in white dinner jacket, appeared and the ushers and bridesmaids followed.
To some indescribable music, reported Smith, Taylor appeared in her vivid yellow princess floor-length dress, escorted by Michael Jackson on her right, and her son, actor Michael Wilding Jr., on her left. (Jackson was formally attired in a dinner jacket, with a large diamond pin at his throat instead of black tie. He wore another diamond medal on his chest and bright silver boots.)
At the end of the ceremony, Williamson said, "Through the power vested in me by the State of California and by the fact that I do believe in your love for one another, I pronounce you, Larry and Elizabeth, Mr. and Mrs. Larry Fortensky," according to Smith. And the bride and groom shared a tender kiss, to the wild applause of the guests.
It was Taylor's eighth trip down the aisle, to be exact, but this time she means it. "I always said I would get married one more time," the veteran bride has been quoted as saying this year. "And with God's blessings, this is it, forever."
Of course, in past years she has offered other pronouncements, such as: "I just want to be with Michael and be his wife." That was her second husband, Michael Wilding (she was 19), and she made the statement five years before she said this about Michael Todd: "I am far more interested in being Mrs. Michael Todd than in being an actress." And that was years before she said something about her and Richard Burton being stuck together like chicken feathers to tar.
At 59, Elizabeth Taylor has a marriage history as complicated and fantastic and attention-getting as that of any daytime TV soap diva. And with similar results -- a wedding always gets her great ratings. Everyone wants to know what she was wearing and who came and who didn't and who did who shouldn't have. Getting married is as much a part of perpetuating her legendary status as acting ever was. (And she hasn't done too much acting lately anyway.)
It's the personal drama she's so good at. First she's a child star, then a star-crossed adult star. She's touching, then she's comic. She's terribly sick, then she's terribly fat, then she's thin, then she's sick again. A couple of weeks ago in Houston, during a promotion tour for her new perfume, White Diamonds, she almost collapsed. "It was just dehydration and exhaustion," said Chen Sam, her longtime publicist.
Once John Belushi made merciless fun of her choking on a chicken bone. Friday night she had the honor of being the subject of David Letterman's Top 10 List -- as in the top 10 reasons why this Elizabeth Taylor marriage will last. Reason Number One: "She's married everybody else."
Said publicist Sam of the wedding: "They're just trying to make it as closed and quiet as possible."
The only thing quiet about this wedding was the guy. But isn't that the traditional role? The groom should simply show up on time?
The role of Elizabeth Taylor's husband is now being played by Larry Fortensky ...
The twice-married Fortensky is 39, a construction equipment operator by trade who "still works at a job at a large engine equipment company," Taylor was quoted saying last week in an interview with Liz Smith. Taylor and Fortensky met at the Betty Ford Center three years ago. It was her second visit. He was there after being involved in a drunk-driving incident. "You get to know someone real fast when you are in group therapy with them," Taylor told Smith. She added, "He knew I could see through him and I knew he could see through me, so it was elemental."
Exclaimed Taylor in the interview, "He's a real guy and, as hard as they've tried, he has not been castrated by the press!"
And she saw to it that her co-star looked the part tonight. His wedding tux was reportedly designed by Gianni Versace.
In fact, there were a few normal details about this wedding. A friend threw a shower. Jackson put up a big white tent outside his house for the festivities. And invitations to at least some out-of-towners came with a list of local hotels and inns where guests could stay, apparently at their own expense.
"I wouldn't let them pay," said one of them, Mathilde Krim, the president of the American Foundation for AIDS Research. "I always pay my own expenses."
Krim has worked often with Taylor in promoting and raising funds for AIDS research. "Elizabeth has been wonderful" to the foundation, said Krim.
What do you buy for the bride who already has everything?
"A nice silver object," Krim said. "I like old silver and I hope that she will too."
Taylor and Jackson sealed off the event from the press, but at the same time they turned it into a publicity spectacle. Aside from the extravagant location, there's the extravagant guest list. Taylor invited Ronald and Nancy Reagan -- who accepted, but only Nancy was able to make it -- as well as President and Mrs. Bush -- who regretted. Columnist Smith reported that other guests include producers Jerry Weintraub and David Geffen, actors Gregory Peck and Roddy McDowall, Merv Griffin (with Eva Gabor), the late Malcolm Forbes's son Christopher, musician Quincy Jones and designer Diane von Furstenberg, to name just a few. No official guest list was released.
Chen Sam was to be a guest. But Jackson's spokesman, Bob Jones, and publicist, Lee Solters, had to work the event.
"I don't know what I'll be doing there," Solters said last week. "I may be the babysitter for Bubbles." (That would be Michael Jackson's well-known chimp.)
Jackson's next-door neighbors were not invited.
"He's our nearest neighbor to the north," said Elizabeth Chamberlin, owner of Rancho Los Portreros, as she sat in the passenger seat of the brown and white Silverado truck that her son Willie was driving.
"I've never met him," said Willie Chamberlin, as he drove the winding, usually quiet Figueroa Mountain Road leading to the entrance to Jackson's estate. "It's hard to get through the shield. But everyone says he's a nice man."
Chamberlin paused in front of the entrance gate to the Jackson property -- he's been good-naturedly ferrying onlookers to the property -- and waved to a state trooper. "Looks like you're blockin' 'em up well."
Actually it was only about 100 well-behaved onlookers who gathered along this roadway, some with cameras in hand, to watch for a glimpse of any star arriving for the nuptials. From the roadway they had a view of the spectacular expanse of land that is Jackson's ranch. All around are rolling hills and on this warm summer day, the sweet smell of freshly mown hay filled the air. Only a low-slung ribbon of horse fence and some California Highway Patrol officers barred crossing onto the property. But they would never get a glimpse of the ceremony, which was taking place outside of Jackson's house on the other side of a hill.
Also reportedly on hand were representatives of Kentucky Fried Chicken who came armed with 75 buckets of chicken for Taylor's new in-laws. Members of the Fortensky family reportedly had told interviewers the chicken was their favorite dish. Apparently only three buckets made it inside; the rest were shared by the crowds outside.
Passersby were occasionally rewarded for their diligent trek to the entranceway. (Parking was forbidden within a mile of the entrance.) Nancy Reagan arrived at 3:30. McDowall drove himself in a red Cadillac convertible, and he cut it pretty close to the 5 p.m. wedding time.
Once the gate was electronically opened, guests were swept by uniformed private policemen and confronted with a giant white placard that read: "NO CAMERAS."
Back in the nearby town of Los Olivos, some stargazers did better. Fran and Steve Fogel, who came to check out the festivities, saw Franco Zeffirelli stop by the Grand Hotel for a quick change of clothes before heading off for the wedding. They also saw Taylor's daughters toting garment bags. "They looked as plain as plain could be," said Fran of the two women, "except for their eyes."
And to get guests in the mood, about a mile down the road young newlyweds Jeff and Jayn Parker stood outside their parked BMW and held up two signs, one of which gushed "Best wishes, Liz and Larry!" The other sign shamelessly exclaimed "Local Newlyweds Jeff and Jayn Would Love to Attend the Wedding!"
Security was being provided by Taylor's personal security company, whose guards are sometimes described in news reports as "Israeli-trained."
Well-known magazine photographer Herb Ritts was taking the wedding photos. (And only Herb Ritts. The Associated Press reported that a metal detector would screen guests for contraband cameras.)
And, of course, these photos will be sold worldwide. Proceeds will go to AIDS research.
Taylor's four bridal attendants included lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, and in the role of matron of honor, Norma Heyman, a film producer. Heyman, who lives in London and counts "Dangerous Liaisons" among her credits, has been a friend of Taylor's for more than 30 years, according to Sam.
Los Angeles hairdresser Jose Eber, famous for wearing a cowboy hat and a ponytail and going on talk shows to talk about celebrity hair, was chosen to be best man.
Like a number of other guests and participants, Eber wasn't talking about the wedding last week. "It's such a personal matter he can't comment," said his assistant, Nicole Leeds.
Among those who weren't on the guest list: Husband No. 7, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.). In fact, his weekend schedule had him accompanying frequent companion Barbara Walters to Richmond, where she was slated to give a speech. Ex-beau Carl Bernstein wasn't going either, though he and Taylor are friends and he called several weeks ago to wish her well.
The bride and groom may be Liz and Larry, but truly the couple of the hour are Liz and Michael. Each is a garish match for the other, what with her numerous husbands and dramatic ailments through the years and his numerous plastic surgeries and mysterious habits. Last year, when they found themselves hospitalized at the same time in the same place, they visited each other. (Why didn't she just marry Michael Jackson?)
However, it was Larry Fortensky who reportedly kept a constant vigil at Taylor's hospital bedside -- she was suffering gravely from pneumonia -- and it was during that time that Fortensky and Taylor sealed their relationship.
Taylor and Fortensky were planning a honeymoon night together at Jackson's estate. But by the end of the week she'll be back at work, making an appearance at a department store in a dreary giant mall outside L.A., then going up to Macy's in San Francisco, hustling perfume, plying the Liz Taylor legend.
