It's official.... Bill and Hillary Clinton 'so happy' as they see their daughter Chelsea marry in front of 500 guests

Idyllic setting: Chelsea Clinton and new husband Marc Mezvinsky pose for photographs after getting married at Astor Courts, in New York state.

Chelsea Clinton has finally become a married woman, saying her vows in an idyllic gazebo decked with white roses under the late afternoon summer sun.
The groom was ‘a bundle of nerves’ and the father of the bride ‘so emotional’ he considered just getting his daughter down the aisle was ‘a major accomplishment’. As for the bride, she had, she told friends jokingly, rather hoped for a small wedding.
But it’s hard to be low-key when your big day is hailed as America’s ‘Royal wedding’, and last-minute preparations include shutting down a chunk of federal airspace, with the secret service making sure access roads to the venue are secure.

Proud father: Bill Clinton leads his daughter down the aisle in front of 500 guests who had gathered in Rhinebeck for the occasion

Happy family: (left to right) Marc Mezvinsky with Hillary Clinton, his bride Chelsea and father-in-law Bill Clinton after the couple's wedding
Chelsea, 30, married childhood friend, financier Marc Mezvinsky, 32, in a ceremony that took place at 5pm local time in Astor Courts, the former home of millionaire businessman John Jacob Astor IV, set in 50 acres of land overlooking the Hudson River in Rhinebeck, New York state.
Shortly afterwards her proud parents released a statement saying: 'Today, we watched with great pride and overwhelming emotion as Chelsea and Marc wed in a beautiful ceremony at Astor Courts, surrounded by family and their close friends.
'We could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate the beginning of their life together, and we are so happy to welcome Marc into our family. On behalf of the newlyweds, we want to give special thanks to the people of Rhinebeck for welcoming us and to everyone for their well-wishes on this special day.

The couple had an interdenominational service as Marc is Jewish and Chelsea is a practising Methodist.

Chelsea and Marc's big day is said to have cost around £3.2million while her Vera Wang dress came in at around £20,000

When it came down to it, the ‘hoopla’, as Chelsea described it, that comes with being the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, was worth it.
President Obama had reportedly offered the White House as a venue, while actor Ted Danson, a family friend, suggested his home on Martha’s Vineyard. But the couple opted for a small town 90 miles north of Manhattan and the relative seclusion of the Astor estate.
Residents inconvenienced by the circus surrounding the wedding were given a bottle of wine from Clinton Vineyards – coincidentally the name of the wine producer that neighbours the Astor estate.
The bottle came with a hand­written note of apology from the couple’s wedding planner and offered a telephone number to call if there were any problems Glammed up: A wedding guest makes her way through to one of the buses in Rhinebeck which was ferrying the exclusive congregation to Chelsea's wedding

Guests wait for a bus to depart from the Delamater Inn to go to the wedding

So her one stipulation was that she and Marc had to have at least met everybody who was invited.’
Who received an invitation has been the subject of much speculation, but Steven Spielberg, producer Steve Bing, Barbra Streisand and Oprah Winfrey were expected to attend.
Tony Blair was believed to have been invited, but was unable to go.
Chelsea has been a vegan for more than ten years and instructed society caterer Olivier Cheng to provide vegetarian and vegan dishes for the wedding feast.
Her £7,000, five-tier wedding cake was gluten-free. But the meat-eaters among her guests would have been relieved to see that organic beef was also on the menu.

Protection: A team of security patrol the Rhinebeck streets ahead of the ceremony which took place at 5pm

Limousines wait outside a hotel in Rhinebeck before yesterday's service

'I've learnt that life is precious': Janet Jackson on the death of her brother Michael

'Every family has their issues, and my family is a lot closer than many people think,' says Janet

She’s battled through body hang-ups, two divorces and the death of her beloved brother Michael – but, Janet Jackson tells Daphne Lockyer, she’s finally found a ‘better space
Janet Jackson is sporting a radical new hairstyle. Short and sharp, it’s teamed today with a tailored beige jacket – all brass buttons and little-drummer-girl epaulettes. On a less feminine woman, the look would be almost butch. But Janet, 44, offsets it with big kohl-lined Bambi eyes, a little upturned nose and frosted sugar-pink lips.
‘People have been surprised by my haircut,’ she says. ‘But it’s not the first time I’ve had it this short. The last time was in 1995 when Michael and I were at the MTV awards. We’d won Best Dance Video for our work on the song “Scream”.’
Ah, Michael Jackson…the big brother who was possibly the most famous person on the planet until his mysterious and shocking death in June last year. But in fairness, Janet has sold millions of records worldwide in her own right, garnered Grammys galore and seen many of her albums go multi-platinum. Plus, of course, she has a burgeoning career as an actress, the reason for our interview today.
And while the new haircut has not attracted quite as much attention as 2004’s ‘Nipplegate’ (the ‘wardrobe malfunction’ that led to an exposed breast during a Super Bowl performance with Justin Timberlake), it’s been featured everywhere in the press during her stay in London to promote her new film, Why Did I Get Married Too? ‘I don’t know what the fuss is about,’ she says – apparently forgetting that ‘fuss’ has surrounded every aspect of the Jackson clan’s lives for as long as anyone can remember.
Not that mention of the clan – and specifically, Michael – is on the cards today. I’ve been told in advance that there’ll be no talk of ‘Michael’s passing’ or the family in which Janet grew up, and Janet’s manager is in the room to keep the conversation on message. But Michael’s ghost is ever present in the suite at London’s Dorchester where we meet. After all, his is the hotel he favoured when in London (apparently throwing an ice-cream-and-jelly party here in 2005, dressed as Mickey Mouse while his children Prince Michael, Paris and ‘Blanket’ were Peter Pan, Tinker Bell and Captain Hook).

Janet (front centre) with some of the Jackson clan in 1974

With the family at a memorial event for Michael in July 2009
Besides, the movie and the Michael topic aren’t exactly unrelated: Janet was just three days into filming when she learned of his death. Work on the movie, a sequel that picks up the story of four couples who’ve been friends for years and are now each experiencing marital problems, was halted so Janet could attend the funeral. When she returned to the role of Patricia, a psychologist and self-help guru whose seemingly perfect marriage is on the rocks, she turned in an emotionally raw performance that staggered her co-stars, including Tyler Perry, also the film’s writer and director. In one scene, she smashes up the marital home with a golf club, tears coursing down her face.
‘Some scenes really gave me the chance to release the emotions I was going through. It was very draining, but it helped me to get through,’ she has admitted. She adds, ‘For a scene like that you leave your vanity at the door and that wasn’t a problem for me, even though it might not be how people view me. I was ready to show that vulnerability.’
Janet was blessed, she says, by the support of an ensemble cast, including Jill Scott, Sharon Leal, Tasha Smith and Malik Yoba (who plays her husband, Gavin), who had already forged strong friendships during the making of the original 2007 movie Why Did I Get Married? ‘We really bonded on that set,’ says Janet. ‘And even after filming we stayed in touch. When Tyler told us he’d written the sequel we were genuinely excited to be working together again. It really felt like family.’
And they were all intrigued to learn where the sequel would take their characters. ‘At the end of the last film you can see some small flaws appearing in Patricia’s marriage,’ says Janet. ‘But this time we see the relationship going into meltdown.
‘I think maybe it helped that I’ve been through the pain of divorce myself twice,’ she admits. Her first marriage, to her childhood sweetheart, American soul singer James DeBarge, lasted only a few months and was annulled in 1985. Her second, to songwriter Rene Elizondo, lasted eight years but ended in divorce in 2000. ‘You use the experiences that you have to help you play the roles.

Oooh.....wow! I love Mrs Clinton's green outfit, really suits her shape. Very reminiscent of the African Bou-Bou maxi dresses...wonderful!

It's all for our Chelsea Former U.S. president Bill Clinton and his wife, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary arrive for the rehearsal dinner at the Beekman Arms Inn in Rhinebeck, New York
And last night the streets of Rhinebeck were lined with well-wishers as the young couple were the guests of honour at their rehearsal dinner.

How to pack light for a holiday... without leaving your style behind

Michael Jackson's doctor frolics with his ex-strippger girlfriend (as seven medics who treated the star escape criminal charges)

Beach daddy: Conrad Murray with his seventh child Che Giovanni Murray enjoys the sun and sea in Miami.

Michael Jackson's doctor looks like he hasn't a care in the world as he enjoyed a sunshine break in Miami with his ex-stripper girlfriend and their young son.
But the pressure is still very much on Conrad Murray despite the news that seven doctors who treated the star will not have charges brought against them.
The doctors were part of an investigation by California state attorney general Jerry Brown's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.
One doctor whose name was not released was referred to the California Medical Board for prescribing drugs to a Jackson alias, said spokeswoman Christine Gasparac.
Candis Cohen, a board spokeswoman, declined to confirm the action, saying complaints and investigations were not public record.
Murray, who was Jackson's personal doctor, pleaded not guilty to Jackson's involuntary manslaughter. He is due in court again on Monday August 23.
In the meantime, 57-year-old Murray took the chance to enjoy a break in Miami with his partner Nicole Alvarez, 27, and his seventh child Che Giovanni Murray, who was born in March last year.
Accompanying them was what appeared to be a burly minder, wearing a Lakers vest, who carrying Murray's bag for him as he left the poolside.

Bikini mum: Conrad Murray's girlfriend Nicole Alvarez with Che Giovanni Murray by the poolside
Authorities said Murray provided Jackson with a mix of sedatives, including a powerful anaesthetic that killed him in June 2009.
Murray was not among the seven doctors involved in the state investigation.
Los Angeles police who investigated the death had asked state and federal investigators to look into the prescribing practices of doctors who previously treated the 50-year-old pop star.
The US federal Drug Enforcement Agency also stopped investigating the actions of any other Jackson doctors, agency spokeswoman Sarah Pullen said.

Away from it all: Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray looking pensive by the poolside in Miami where he is on holiday with his girlfriend Nicole Alvarez and their baby
'I am very disappointed,' said attorney Brian Oxman, who represents Michael Jackson's father Joe Jackson in a wrongful death lawsuit against Murray.
'The misuse of medications by Michael Jackson in the last years of his life was excessive and to fail to bring that to the public eye is ignoring reality.'
Last month Michael Jackson's father filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Murray.
The suit, which seeks more than £50,000 damages, was filed in Los Angeles on the first anniversary of the singer’s death.
Joe Jackson accused Dr Conrad Murray of negligence for giving his son the Propofol that led to his death.
It also alleges the doctor gave false information about the drugs Jackson had taken and that he tried to clean up the scene.

America's Royal Wedding: (It's Chelsea Clinton's big day - just keep Dad away from the bridesmaids!)

We all remember her as the curly-haired girl who grew up in the White House. But tomorrow a very glamorous Chelsea Clinton marries her long-term boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky in a no-expense-spared ceremony that has America gripped — and will set Daddy back a cool £3 million. Here is our guide to the big occasion.

THE BRIDE Named after the Joni Mitchell song Chelsea Morning, Chelsea has sought a life away from the spotlight. She lives quietly in a Manhattan apartment and is described as casual, modest and friendly (though they are not the first words that spring to mind with her nuptials).
She has blossomed from the gawky corkscrew-curled 12-year-old who entered the White House in 1992 into an assured young woman who has a strong relationship with both parents, even in the storm of her father’s adultery with Monica Lewinsky.
Ferociously bright, Chelsea studied history at the Ivy League Stanford University before taking a masters in International Relations at Oxford — where she reinvented herself with a sleek makeover, being named by Tatler as one of the world’s most eligible females.
In 2003 she returned to New York to work for management consultancy McKinsey & Company, and later a small hedge fund run by one of her father’s major supporters. She’s now studying for a master’s degree in Public Health at New York’s Columbia University.
Despite hitting the campaign trail for her mother’s Presidential bid in 2008, Chelsea has made it clear she has no intention of following in her parents’ political footsteps.

Relations between Bill and Hillary Clinton and Edward Mezvinsky, who was jailed for fraud in 2001, are said to be cool.

THE VENUE
Chelsea and Marc certainly had no shortage of highly attractive offers when it came to choosing their venue.
President Obama offered the White House, while actor Ted Danson, a family friend, suggested his spectacular home and gardens on Martha’s Vineyard.
But the couple finally settled on Astor Courts, the 50-acre former estate of millionaire John Jacob Astor IV nestled on the Hudson river in Rhinebeck, about 90 miles north of New York City.
Around £400,000 has been spent on erecting the marquees, while a further £75,000 has been spent on the tables and crockery.

LET THEM EAT CAKE
Chelsea has ordered a £7,000, five-tier, gluten-free wedding cake.
Rumours abound, but flamboyant designer Ron Ben-Israel is hotly tipped to be the man tasked with the job.
He created the cake for the gay wedding in the film Sex And The City 2.

IF YOU THOUGHT BILL WAS BAD...
The Clintons, of course, barely need an introduction. He was the super cool saxophone-playing President — and she came within a whisker of the Oval Office.
Together they’re the biggest power couple in the world. Rumours of their earnings have hit an eye-popping £70 million.
Hillary — or ‘MOTB (mother-of-the-bride) as she has taken to signing emails to friends — is said to have micro-managed every last detail of the nuptials, and Chelsea has instructed Bill to lose 15lb in order to look the part when he walks her up the aisle.

The two adult daughters of a Frenchwoman who confessed to suffocating eight of her newborn babies and hiding their bodies have said they are in shock

Dominique Cottrez, 46, and her husband Pierre-Marie were arrested over what could be France's biggest infanticide case.
The woman from Villers-au-Tertre, about 125 miles north of Paris, has been charged by police and is accused of "murder of minors under the age of 15".
Her husband, a carpenter in his 40s, was freed because there was not enough evidence to charge him.
He denied knowing about the babies being born or killed.
The couple's daughters, who were in court earlier to support their parents, said: "We have been aware of this for days now and it's still hard to understand.
"It's incomprehensible, mother with secrets. We didn't notice anything. She had moments of fatigue it's true, but she worked almost 24 hours a day between her job as a care worker and household chores."
The daughters both have a son each. The eldest daughter said that when her child was born "mum was in the maternity wing with me when I gave birth.
"She held him and she dressed him. We both had tears in our eyes."
The daughters said Cottrez looked after her two grandchildren and they now want her to undergo psychological treatment and that she is cared for.
One added: "Now that this is known, she must feel relieved. She's got nothing to hide." They also hope their father will be left alone.
Cottrez initially confessed in custody to smothering two children at birth about 10 years ago, before admitting she killed the other six.
The killer said, after a bad experience with her first pregnancy, that she never wanted to see a doctor again.
Prosecutor Eric Vaillant said: "She explained that she didn't want any more children and that she didn't want to see a doctor to take contraceptives."
Police are not yet certain of the precise dates of each child's death, but "there were births between 1989 and 2006 or 2007," he said.
Cottrez, a nurse's aide by profession, admitted delivering the babies herself and placing the corpses in plastic bags.
She told police she buried two of the newborns in a garden and hid the rest of them in her garage.
Mr Vaillant added that the woman will remain in custody to undergo further psychiatric testing.
Police had used sniffer dogs to search an address in Villers-au-Tertre after the new owners of a home found the bones of two infants while digging in their garden.
Sky's Alex Rossi, reporting from the village, said the house previously belonged to Cottrez's parents.
Search teams then headed on to the couple's home in another part of the village, where six more sets of remains were found.
Neighbours were astonished at the couple's arrest. "They are normal people, who even have a role in the community. It's incredible," said one.
Another neighbour, a man in his 50s, added: "These are attractive, helpful, polite and courteous people, who did nothing to make you think them capable of anything abnormal."

Eight ways to wear... a nude jacket.....have a look.

Couple arrested after the bodies of EIGHT newborn babies found hidden in their home and garden

A couple have been arrested in northern France after eight newborn babies were discovered hidden in their house and buried in their garden.
Police in Villers-au-Tertre, near Douai, made the gruesome discovery using sniffer dogs.
All of the children are believed to have been born to the man and woman, who are aged around 45, said a source close to the inquiry.

Police used special sniffer dogs to make the gruesome discoveries after receiving information

‘We searched the premises and the garden following a tip-off,’ said a detective. ‘What is certain is that the new born babies all had the same parents.
‘They were stuffed inside plastic bags and then buried. Six babies were found very quickly around the house, and the other two were discovered in the garden.’
The detective said that the parents were being held in Douai on suspicion of failing to report a crime, and the concealment of corpses.
The Douai prosecutor has opened a judicial investigation, and bail has been refused. Charges were expected this week.

Neither of the parents has been named.
Three years ago a 35-year-old woman and her boyfriend were arrested in Rouen, north-west France, after five dead newborns were found in their cellar.
All appeared to have been strangled at birth before being placed in plastic bags and hidden.
Such cases were reminiscent of the so-called ‘Seoul freezer babies’ of 2006.
Frenchwoman Veronique Courjault was taken into custody on suspicion of killing her two babies and storing their corpses in a freezer in the family's apartment in Seoul, South Korea.
Courjault, who had two living children, also admitted to killing a third child. She explained her actions by saying the pregnancies were unwanted.
In June last year Courjault was found guilty of triple murder and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Psychologists have since argued that ‘denial’ is common among women who have had babies, and that the killing of a baby is caused by psychiatric problems rather than criminal intent.
Courjault’s husband, Jean Louis Courjault, was tried as an accomplice to the murders but found not guilty.
He said he never had any idea that his wife was pregnant because she kept the babies secret by wearing loose clothing.
Police are still digging up the garden of the house in Villers-au-Tertre, and a protective fence had been placed around the property.
‘The search is still going on – both inside and outside the house,’ said a police officer at the scene.
Villers-au-Tertre is a village in the far north of France, with a population of about 600.