This Time the Gown Was for Real

By Amy Wilentz

Even the invitations were cryptic. Printed on shocking-pink paper, they read, "Please come to Madonna and Sean Penn's birthday party Aug. 16. Please be prompt or you'll miss the wedding." Those on the select mailing list understood the reference: the bride would turn 27 on her wedding day, and the bridegroom 25 the day after. The card instructed guests to phone a special number to find out where the supersecret event would take place. Not even the chic caterers knew where to deliver their delights (pizza and curried oysters, Madonna's culinary favorites) until the very last minute.

Yet despite all the cloak-and-dagger, it was impossible to keep the secret. At the appointed hour, 7 p.m. last Friday, a battalion of helicopters, chartered by enterprising reporters and photographers, hovered above the rambling $6.5 million Malibu home of Kurt Unger, a producer and friend of the bridegroom's parents. Some of the shutterbugs brought their choppers dangerously close to the ground during the ceremony. The whir of the copters' blades drowned out the vows of Rock Singer Madonna Louise Ciccone and Actor Sean Penn, the girl and boy idols of teen America. Said one guest: "No one knew they were married until they kissed."

Outside, on Wildlife Road, 100 more reporters and photographers waited, hoping to catch a glimpse of the bride and bridegroom, or at least of some of the 200 guests. They included Pop Artist Andy Warhol, Actress Rosanna Arquette (who co-starred with the bride in Desperately Seeking Susan) and Brat Pack Members Emilio Estevez and Judd Nelson. TV Talk Show Host David Letterman was also there, as were Cher (in purple hair), Diane Keaton, Record Producer David Geffen and Penn's friend Timothy Hutton. But the reporters never saw Madonna or Penn enter or leave.

The bride wore white--well, off-white. Not so white as the bare-midriff wedding gown of her 38-date rockconcert tour earlier this year. But to let people know she was the same old trend-setting Madonna who repopularized the crucifix and the corset, she topped her outfit with a humorous black chapeau, whose brim coyly held her long white veil.

To let people know that Penn was the same old Penn, there was his trademark publicity shyness. (He faces assault charges stemming from an alleged Nashville attack on two journalists.) Two nights before the wedding, he was photographed making his way into his bachelor party with a towel or blanket wrapped around his face. And few wondered who had scrawled an obscene greeting in the sand off Unger's house for photographers to read from the helicopters above.

Everything but Madonna's hat and her bridegroom's tuxedo was white--the tents, the bunting covering the tennis court, the tablecloths. At the center of each table sat a modern version of Cinderella's slipper: a gold-and-jewel-encrusted spike-heeled shoe on a brocaded cushion. The bride and bridegroom danced their wedding dance to Sarah Vaughan's I'm Crazy About the Boy, and later on, the Boy himself showed off some Saturday Night Fever steps for the enthusiastic crowd. As for the Boy Toy, she vetoed her own music, although one of the wedding's deejays, Terence Toy (yes, Toy), sneaked in the upbeat, romantic Lucky Star. Said Toy primly: "I didn't play Like a Virgin." --By Amy Wilentz. Reported by Barbara Kraft/Los Angeles

With reporting by Reported by Barbara Kraft/Los Angeles