Money Talks At Wedding Of Year

5:49pm UK, Thursday November 16, 2006

It is £20,000 for an apartment facing the castle, £700 for the use of a window, £200 pounds to park a TV vehicle on the square.

Fans get ready for the wedding

For the people of Bracciano, the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes is priceless, writes Sky News' Europe Corresondent Greg Milam.

The tiny medieval town, clustered around the castle which will host the showbiz wedding of the year, is doing its best to cash in on the attention.

It is yet to be confirmed that the wedding WILL be on the shore of Lake Bracciano but Cruise, Holmes and baby Suri were pictured in Rome last - and everything points to a ceremony in a setting fit for a movie.

It is clear preparations for SOMETHING are on-going inside a 14th century castle - a new mattress even arrived, strapped to the top of a van.

This weekend a venue that has seen Popes and kings will host the royalty of Hollywood. Take your pick from a guest list that may include Pitt, Clooney, Spielberg, Will Smith, the Beckhams.

Plus anyone who is anyone in the Scientology movement. John Travolta is flying his Boeing 707 over packed with celebrity believers.

It all raises the question of how a twice-divorced Scientologist can have the Catholic wedding service his fiance desires. The exact details are yet to be confirmed but when you're talking about Hollywood's golden couple, a way WILL be found.

The rumours swirl: Andrea Bocelli will sing, Tom is "too heavy" for his Armani wedding suit, his adopted son Connor will be best man, Nicole Kidman has sent a £1,000 vase as a wedding present. The truth is in there somewhere.

The Mayor of Bracciano is enjoying her moment in the limelight. "Whether he's getting married here or not, for us the event has already started. That's why we have asked for a small contribution to cover the extra costs and make sure everybody in Bracciano can enjoy this," said Patrizia Riccioni.

There are more traffic police, teams of street cleaners, repairs to cobblestones, fresh flowers being planted, portable toilets and shuttle buses from makeshift out-of-town car parks.

And that is just OUTSIDE the castle. Its reported that Cruise has paid £1.5m to hire the family home of Princess Maria Odescalchi.

It is a different world for the residents of Bracciano.

As the TV helicopters clatter over head, journalists tuck into "Tom and Katie Truffle and Mushroom Risotto" at the Trattoria del Castello, they hope their town will, at least, see some financial benefit.

As one said: "This is normally a quiet place, but right now it's crazy,"