Cruise and Holmes tie the knot in Italy

Actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes arrived separately at a medieval castle near Rome for their star-studded wedding yesterday, braving hordes of paparazzi and rainy skies.

Celebrity guests also began trickling into the lakeside venue of Bracciano, a normally sleepy town, 40 km north of the Italian capital that is now swarming with thousands of journalists and onlookers.

Cruise, wearing sunglasses, waved to the crowd as he arrived in a black Mercedes minivan. Holmes earlier arrived clutching their baby daughter Suri in her arms, local media reported.

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, expected to sing Ave Maria during the celebrations, and Roberta Armani, niece of designer Giorgio Armani, were among the first of the guests to arrive, local media reported.

Details of the ceremony have been kept mostly secret, but it is expected to be in the early evening with some 150 celebrities in attendance.

Fans started gathering in the main square facing the Odescalchi castle early in the day, though a downpour deterred some in the afternoon. Residents looked out from their balconies, some of them decorated with the American flag.

Photographers with long lenses stood perilously on window ledges at the top of a building overlooking the castle, where the mayor is charging 1,000 euros for each position. A helicopter carrying a TV crew clattered overhead.

Guests included footballer David Beckham and his pop star wife Victoria, Jim Carrey, Jennifer Lopez, Will Smith, Brooke Shields, and Mission: Impossible III director J.J. Abrams.

John Travolta, who shares Cruise's belief in Scientology, was also expected to attend.

Reuters