NEW YORK: French President Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife is to marry her Moroccan-born lover at New York's glitzy Rainbow Room. Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, 50, and Richard Attias, 48, a multi-millionaire events organiser, tied the knot at a black tie ceremony attended by 150 guests, many of whom flew in from Europe for the nuptials. The 65th-floor Rainbow Room is one of the best-known establishments in New York, part of the Art Deco Rockefeller Centre dating from the 1930s. Rumours had earlier suggested the couple would hold a Jewish ceremony at a New York synagogue. Guests of the couple kicked off three days of celebrations on Friday with a party at Attias's Connecticut home. Guests have been told not to bring cameras or phones with cameras, to protect the couple's privacy. Reports said that French magazine Paris-Match had declined an offer of exclusive rights to cover the wedding, apparently over fears of upsetting Sarkozy, known to be friends with the magazine's owner, Arnaud Lagardere.
Begged to dance
LOS ANGELES: Marissa Jaret Winokur did not have to be swayed into being on Dancing with the Stars. "I banged on their doors. Please let me do this show. Please! Please! Please! It's lived up to all my expectations," Winokur said. The 35-year-old actress, who won a Tony Award in 2003 for playing Tracy Turnblad in Broadway's Hairspray, strained to speak during the panel because she said she's beginning to lose her voice. Winokur is partnered with professional dancer Tony Dovolani on the show.
Mambo pioneer Cachao dies
MIAMI: Cuban bassist and composer Israel Cachao Lopez, who is credited with pioneering the mambo style of music, died Saturday at age 89. Known simply as Cachao, the Grammy-winning musician had fallen ill in the past week and died, after complications from kidney failure. Cachao left Cuba and came to the US in the early 1960s. He continued to perform into his late 80s. Cachao was born in Havana in 1918 to a family of musicians. He wrote hundreds of songs in Cuba for bands and orchestras, many based on the classic Cuban music style known as son. He and his late brother, multi-instrumentalist Orestes Lopez, are known for the creation in the late 1930s of the mambo, an elegant musical style that lends itself to slow dancing in 1937. The mambo influenced the development of salsa music. Lopez received a Grammy Award in 2004 for his album Agora Si!
Bernadette awarded French honour
PARIS: France's former first lady Bernadette Chirac, star opera singer Roberto Alagna and US columnist John Vinocur were among the recipients of the country's highest distinction, the Legion of Honour. Chirac, who publicly backed President Nicolas Sarkozy's election bid last year despite his fraught relations with her husband Jacques Chirac, was named knight of the Legion of Honour. Head of the Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Robert Menard, was also decorated along with Vinocur, editorialist at the Paris-based US newspaper the International Herald Tribune. Other recipients include Tunisian fashion designer Azzedine Alaia and US charity campaigner Lee Radziwill, sister of Jacqueline Kennedy.
Celeb chef cooks up a French dish
PARIS: British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay adds a jewel to his crown with the launch of a restaurant in the royal city of Versailles, but an acid review by France's most feared food critic has threatened to sour the occasion. The Scottish-born Ramsay cut his chef's teeth in Paris, working three years in the kitchens of giants Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon. The 42-year-old footballer-turned-chef's guns-blazing approach fell foul of Francois Simon, food writer for Le Figaro newspaper, who savaged his project in an acerbic pre-launch review. And to help spread the word, Ramsay's high-voltage reality TV show Hell's Kitchen premiered this week on French cable television
