Hollywood lovebirds in late-night visit
Tom Cruise and fiancee Katie Holmes made a late-night visit to City Hall, sending paparazzi chasing after them on scooters through the streets of Rome.
Yesterday’s appearance was their first together in Rome in the days before their wedding on Saturday, reportedly to be held in a castle overlooking Lake Bracciano.
Cruise wore a dark grey pinstriped suit with matching vest and a striped lavender tie as he escorted Holmes, who was clutching what appeared to be a very sleepy baby girl dressed in a fuzzy-soft white sweater, white tights and print dress.
The couple, who became engaged in June 2005, are the parents of a daughter, Suri, who was born on April 18.
Holmes, 27, wore a dark jacket over what appeared to be a dark skirt or dress as she crossed a cobblestone square atop ancient Capitoline Hill.
Mayor Walter Veltroni is a big film fan and the driving force behind Rome’s first international film festival this year, and speculation quickly grew that the Hollywood couple were paying a courtesy visit.
Cruise and Holmes were first photographed together in Rome in April 2005. Two months later, the Mission: Impossible star announced that he had proposed to Holmes atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The 44-year-old actor had been spotted by photographers on Tuesday as he was being driven from his hotel atop the Spanish steps. Cruise had flown into Rome on Monday and airport officials said on Tuesday that Holmes was also in the city.
Residents around the imposing 15th-century Odescalchi Castle, which is rumoured to be the venue for the wedding, were rushing to rent out windows and terraces overlooking the mansion to the media, pouring into the location near Rome.
The Bracciano City Hall, which appears to be one of the better placed, is renting the windows of a nearby building with a view on the main entrance of the castle for £700. Prices for other homes conveniently placed near the castle include a bargain £140.
In one case, though, the prices were not so reasonable: A private terrace overlooking the likely route of the nuptial motorcade and the castle’s internal car park was offered to a TV news agency for £70,000.
