Director/Writer Sofia Coppola Weds Rocker Thomas Mars In Italy
ROME (CBS/AP) — Filmmaker Sofia Coppola went back to her roots for her wedding Saturday, marrying rocker Thomas Mars in the remote, southern Italian town where her great-grandfather was born.
Coppola's famous filmmaker father, Francis Ford Coppola, escorted the 40-year-old Sofia down the aisle to a waiting Mars, 35-year-old lead singer of the French band Phoenix and the father of their two young daughters. (Romy Mars was born November 2006, Cosima Mars was born early summer 2010.)
The early evening ceremony took place in the garden of the palazzo that the elder Coppola renovated in the historic center of Bernalda, a city near the Gulf of Taranto in Italy's Basilicata region, according to Mayor Leonardo Chiruzzi who performed the ceremony.
"Everything went well," Chiruzzi told The Associated Press. "It was simple, calm, in the garden."
The bride wore a sheer, lavender tulle dress and Mars a gray suit with a flower in the lapel. The bride and her father were preceded down the aisle by the couple's older daughter and other children. After Coppola and Mars said their "si" in the civil service, she tossed her bouquet and a friend caught it, Chiruzzi said.
The newlyweds and the father of the bride, wearing a white linen suit and pink shirt, then popped out of the palazzo briefly to greet onlookers. She was holding a glass of bubbly.
Its her second marriage; she divorced fellow filmmaker Spike Jonze in 2003.
Chiruzzi said the wedding was simple by design.
He stressed the low-key nature of the event. The ANSA news agency said guests included Johnny Depp and Talia Shire, the bride's aunt, who is best known for her roles in her brother's "The Godfather" films and as Sylvester Stallone's girlfriend Adrian in "Rocky."
Other guests were reportedly to have included A-listers Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Coppola's cousin Nicholas Cage.
A dinner was planned to be followed by cake, made to serve about 100 people. It was a simple vanilla cake with chantilly cream, decorated with white flowers and prepared by the chef at the Magna Grecia hotel in Bernalda, said Biagio Loiudice, who runs the hotel.
"They came in last week and chose the cake," he said by telephone. "It's not high, very simple. They preferred simplicity."
Sofia Coppola's 2003 film "Lost in Translation" won the filmmaker an Academy Award for original screenplay and made her the third woman, and first American woman, ever nominated for a directing Oscar.
Her 2010 film "Somewhere," about an actor who sees the emptiness of his existence through the eyes of his child, won the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice film festival last year.
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