All Eyes Down Under for a 'royal' Wedding

For Australia, it is the closest thing to a royal wedding. Oscar-winning Nicole Kidman marries country singer Keith Urban today, at a sunset ceremony in Sydney attended by the nation's showbusiness elite and an unprecedented media frenzy.

Sydney has usurped Hollywood as the capital of the entertainment world, for a weekend at least, as snappers fly in from London and Los Angeles for the £700,000 ceremony. The guest list is believed to include Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Naomi Watts and Renee Zellweger, as well as Rupert Murdoch.

The extraordinary secrecy has fuelled media speculation. There are reports that Kidman will sing a duet with a kilt-wearing Ewan McGregor, that Hollywood director Baz Luhrmann will shoot the wedding video and that guests will be summoned by text message to keep paparazzi guessing. It is believed the Australian couple have signed a pre-nuptial agreement and will follow Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's example by selling a wedding photo to the highest bidder and donating proceeds to a children's hospital.

Perhaps optimistically, Urban's manager, Keith Potts, said yesterday that the couple, who met in New York 18 months ago, want a 'normal wedding'. Urban - whose career was dogged by drugs and alcohol for much of the 1990s until he booked into a rehabilitation centre and found God - has been happy to be seen around Sydney, mingling with World Cup fans on Friday morning to watch TV coverage of Australia's showdown with Croatia.

Rumour has it the couple will marry at the Gothic-style Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel, in the grounds of a converted Roman Catholic seminary in the beachside suburb of Manly. For the dress, design house Balenciaga has reportedly produced a white gown with 'lots of high collars'. Kidman's adopted children, Isabella, 13, and 11-year-old Connor, are believed to be bridesmaid and usher.