Rain fails to dampen Dill Douglas Darrid wedding celebration
Torrential rain poured down on Devonshire Old Church on Saturday for the wedding of Diana Dill Douglas Darrid, the mother of film star Michael Douglas.
But the wet weather didn't keep away the press photographers who were desperate for any shots they could get of Douglas, his actress wife Catherine Zeta Jones, and their two year-old son Dylan.
News agencies from New York and Edinburgh, the London-based Mail on Sunday newspaper, and People magazine joined the local press in a drenched huddle in the graveyard outside the church.
Mrs. Douglas Darrid, the former wife of both screen legend Kirk Douglas and author Bill Darrid, tied the knot for the third time at the family church to Donald Albert Webster, a former Chief of the Treasury Staff under former US President Richard Nixon.
Following the 5 p.m. wedding, in a church lit by candles and decorated by poinsettias, the 130 guests were ferried by taxis to the family-owned Ariel Sands resort.
The British press are fascinated by the idea of the Douglas's escaping the bright lights of Hollywood to the seclusion and glamour of Bermuda, explained the Mail on Sunday photographer.
"It's a new life in Bermuda basically and the two of them leaving Hollywood to live somewhere like here," he said.
"Elsewhere in the world, people basically want to see how the other half live."
The mass selling celebrity magazine People is featuring Michael and Catherine in an upcoming edition, including pictures from the wedding, and from a tree planting ceremony in Penhurst Park on Christmas Eve.
But the photographers, all of whom were English, couldn't believe it wasn't blazing with sunshine.
"I thought I'd be on the beach with my shorts on. I could have got this in England," joked one.
In another blow, the 5 p.m. wedding (9 p.m. in London) was thought too late to catch the Sunday newspapers in England.
At Penhurst Park on Christmas Eve, when Dylan helped his dad plant cedar trees, Mrs. Douglas Darrid said she would be asking guests to give cash rather than presents to replant native Bermuda species.