Which one do you most want to emulate on your big day?
Child Bride
"It's not the men in my life that count, it's the life in my men," quipped Mae West-which could be why 42-year-old actress Demi Moore is squiring web-toed Ashton Kutcher, 26, around town. Up until now, it's mainly men who marry much younger women, an extreme case being 52-year-old Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, who wed Lolita Mandy Smith, 19, after six years of courtship.
Celine Dion
When Québécois songbird Celine Dion was 12, her brother sent her demo tape to fledgling producer René Angélil, 38. Over the years, Angélil became Dion's Svengali, building her career and even transforming her Swan-style. When Dion was 25 -- after five years of secrecy -- she came clean to her fans. "I wrote a note behind my album," Dion said to CNN's Larry King. "René is my love, I can't keep this secret inside of me anymore." Her publicist, Mia Dumont, had carte blanche to plan the 1994 Montréal wedding. "I said to her, ‘What do you want?' And she said, ‘I want something I'll remember all my life.'" Dion had 532 guests, a 17-car motorcade, a hand-pearled dress with 20-foot train and a seven-pound crystal tiara.
Mia Farrow
After Frank Sinatra married Mia Farrow, his former wife Ava Gardner said, "I always knew he'd end up in bed with a boy." Linked with some of the world's most beautiful women -- Marlene Dietrich, Lauren Bacall, Lana Turner and Marilyn Monroe -- the 50-year-old crooner shocked fans and friends when he hooked up with 20-year-old Farrow. Even fellow Rat Packer Dean Martin got the claws out: "I've got Scotch older than Mia Farrow," he crowed. Two years later, in 1968, Sinatra served Farrow divorce papers in front of her fellow cast and crew members on the set of Rosemary's Baby.
Freaky Bride
Pandered to by hangers-on, the rich and famous find it hard to stay grounded. Which may be how Zsa Zsa Gabor whipped through nine husbands. ("I want a man who is kind and understanding. Is that too much to ask of a millionaire?")
Priscilla Presley
U.S. Air Force brat Priscilla Beaulieu was just 14 when she met the hip-swivelling rock 'n' roll star Elvis Presley in Germany. They dated for four months until he was shipped back to the States. Two years later, the 26-year-old Presley talked Priscilla's father into sending her to Graceland. Elvis' control-freak tendencies emerged as he forced Priscilla to dye her light-brown hair black, like his own, and made her wear heavy Elvira-like makeup and false lashes. In 1967, the couple married in Vegas. After their divorce five years later, Priscilla blamed the breakup on Elvis' stardom and addiction to prescription drugs.
Liza Minnelli
At Liza Minnelli's splashy 2002 New York wedding to producer David Gest, best man Michael Jackson carried the blushing bride's train. Bridesmaid and gossip columnist Cindy Adams dubbed it "the night of a thousand facelifts" before adding that Gest, 48, and Minnelli, 56, had left "no VIP unturned. If they could get Mae West from the grave, they'd pick her up and stuff her and sit her in the third row." Following rumours that Gest batted for the other team, Liza claimed their marriage was truly sexual. "He's a real tiger in the sack," she said. Just 16 months later, Minnelli and Gest separated, with Gest suing Minnelli for US$10 million for neurological damage and headaches caused by her alcohol-fuelled rages.
Photography courtesy of Marcos Townsend/Canadian Press
