Italian mayor told to remain on standby as Pitt-Jolie wedding rumors heat up

The main thing missing from the much-rumored wedding between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were the bride and groom.

Photo: Italian mayor told to remain on standby as Pitt-Jolie wedding rumors heat up

Still, officials held out hope that the couple would give a Hollywood ending to the weekend and show up to tie the knot in this Lake Como retreat.

Cernobbio Mayor Simona Saladini said she had been told Saturday to remain on standby for possible official functions into the evening, that police in the Lake Como area had been placed on alert and that a private security firm had increased security around George Clooney's nearby villa.

Speculation about an impending wedding at the lake was rife last year, but quickly fizzled after Clooney denied his friends were scheduled to marry at his villa.

Saladini declined to say who had told her to remain on standby for possible official duties, and similarly declined to identify the private security company that she said had reported increased security around Clooney's villa.

"I have been mayor since 2003 and they would be the most famous couple" to be married here, Saladini told The Associated Press as she had her hair done Saturday morning.

But by evening, with no wedding in view, the mayor and other town officials were calling it a very long day.

"We are at the end of our rope," said Giuseppe Salvioni, a spokesman for the town, referring to himself and the mayor. "Let's say we are packing it in" and heading home.

Saladini performed at least one wedding Saturday, the marriage of an older couple at city hall. But it was rumors of a Pitt-Jolie wedding that prompted journalists to run all over this romantic little tourist town on the shores of Lake Como in search of a scoop.

Residents seized the opportunity to have some fun, causing a mad stampede of laughing journalists as two men dressed up as the famous couple arrived on the main drag by the lake, calling each other "Brad" and "Angelina" and kissing passionately for the crowd.

The fracas also attracted people from nearby towns, including a Clooney lookalike who displayed a photo in his wallet of himself posing with the famous actor. Clooney is a friend of Pitt and Jolie.

"They were talking about it (on the news) this morning, so I came to take a look," said Giuseppe Gregorio, who said he stood in for Clooney for lighting tests during the filming of "Ocean's 12" in nearby Villa Erba.

The neoclassical villa, which had been home to the late Italian aristocrat and movie director Luchino Visconti, had been mentioned as one of the possible sites for the wedding. It is now owned by the municipality and the province of Como, and the mayor's spokesman happily spent Saturday morning showing journalists around the place, reports AP.

O.Ch.