How Tom Cruise managed to appear taller than Katie in wedding photos
When the groom is two inches shorter than the bride, it's difficult to see how a couple could carry off the cheek-to-cheek photograph.
But if the newlyweds are Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, anything is possible.
Maybe she was bending her knees or wearing flat pumps. Perhaps he was wearing lifts in his shoes. Because somehow, in their official wedding shots, the 5ft 7in actor became a touch taller than his 27-year-old wife.
However, it was not just the photographs that were other than they seemed.
Yesterday it emerged that the couple had already married in secret in America. Cruise's agent Arnold Robinson said they had 'officialised' the marriage in Los Angeles before travelling to Italy for the three-day Scientology wedding, said to have cost ￡5million.
For some, the announcement cast a shadow on the event at Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, near Rome. It was criticised for being a stunt to raise awareness of the Scientology religion.
Local priest Father Nicola Fiorentini said: 'It wasn't a wedding at all. It was just for publicity. I can't believe such an event was allowed to take place at all.'
The Church of Scientology's influence was explicit throughout the event.
Cruise's best man was the church's leader David Miscavige. A Scientology adviser was thought to have been at each table at the wedding banquet.
Miss Holmes, who wore an off-the-shoulder Giorgio Armani ivory gown with a silk Valenciennes lace train and Swarovski embroidered crystals, walked down the aisle with her father Martin.
Cruise, wearing a navy, single-breasted Armani tuxedo, and Miss Holmes then exchanged bizarre Scientology vows and swopped rings designed by Italian silversmith David Orgel.
The 45-minute service ended with red and white rose petals – the colours of Scientology – falling from nets held in the hall ceiling. As the flowers fell, the couple enjoyed a rather excruciating three-minute kiss – stopping only after embarrassed guests begged them to. Then a 15-minute, ￡100,000 firework display was set off in the grounds of the castle.
Guests, who included Jennifer Lopez, Jim Carrey, Will Smith, Brooke Shields and Victoria Beckham, were then led indoors for a three-course wedding breakfast and all-night dancing.
After a champagne toast, waiters served a parma ham, buffalo mozzarella and vine tomato platter, then an Italian beef dish. Guests left with ￡5,000 Armani goodie bags. The next morning the couple flew to the Maldives for their honeymoon.
