Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez were the most visible couple on Oscars night — and I hear that they have finally put their plans for a wedding into place.
The pair got engaged back in May 2023, when Amazon founder Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, gave his girlfriend a $2.5 million pink diamond ring so enormous that she later said she ‘nearly blacked out’ when she saw it.
They threw an engagement party on his superyacht, Koru, that summer, inviting friends including Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner.
Reports circulated that there was to be a ‘winter wonderland wedding’ in Aspen on December 28 last year, but the date came and went with no nuptials. A source close to the couple tells me the wedding is very much still ‘on’ for this summer.
Plans have been ‘inked in’, with invitations imminent. In terms of details, all I am told is that it is going to be ‘big’. ‘You won’t miss this one when it happens,’ I’m assured.
Many believe it will be a destination wedding, somewhere in Europe, but my spy was feeling tight-lipped on that possibility.
Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez have finally put their wedding plans in place
A source close to the couple (pictured) says their wedding is very much still ‘on’ for this summer
Lauren shared this adorable throwback photo of her fiance Jeff Bezos in a gushing tribute for his 60th birthday last year
Sanchez has bought her wedding dress (Oscar de la Renta, apparently) and will take a space flight on her fiance’s rocket in May, surely the perfect prelude to a wedding.
She will blast off on the New Shepard — leading an all-female crew of six, including TV anchor Gayle King and pop star Katy Perry — for an 11-minute sub-orbital flight. Like a hen party in space.
Former TV host Sanchez told Vogue magazine in 2023 that she will be taking the last name Bezos, saying: ‘Uh, yes, 100 per cent. I am looking forward to being Mrs Bezos.’
Bezos told CNN: ‘Lauren is the most generous, most big-hearted person that you would ever meet…She never misses a birthday. The network of people that she gives birthday presents to is gigantic. And that’s just a small example.
‘We’re really great teammates, and we also have a lot of fun together. And we love each other.’
Bezos, 61, was previously married to novelist MacKenzie Scott. They split in 2019 and it then emerged he had been romancing Sanchez, 55.
Princeton graduate Bezos is estimated to be worth $240 billion. Some suggest the wedding was delayed by the need for a mega-prenup, but friends of Sanchez say that was not the case.
Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez pictured at Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony in January this year
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez arrive at the White House for a state dinner in April last year
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez pose for pictures at The 2024 Met Gala
Mikey Gets The Munchies
Mikey Madison – who beat Demi Moore to be named Best Actress at the Oscars – was out celebrating until the early hours after Sunday’s ceremony. She was at the Vanity Fair party, the Neon party and the Guy Oseary do.
But a friend in Laurel Canyon reports that when she got home she must have got the munchies – and then fallen asleep – because her takeaway was still in a paper bag on her doorstep late the following morning.
The 25-year-old told the Hollywood Reporter: ‘I love going to bed early, so it was very foreign to me. But, you know, ‘when in Rome’. I slept great. I had some interesting dreams.’
Mikey Madison beat Demi Moore to be named Best Actress at the Oscars
Bradley’s The Answer To Our Prayers
Movie titan Bradley Cooper – a 12-time Oscar nominee – is the surprise star of Series 4 of The Righteous Gemstones, a comedy drama about a televangelist family who most definitely do not practice what they preach, which is made by HBO and streams here on Sky.
No spoilers, but his arc is a prequel to the current-day story, and unfolds in Virginia in 1862.
Star and creator Danny McBride got to know Cooper (right) on the infamously bad movie Aloha, released in 2015. He said: ‘We kind of knew that we needed to have an actor that had charisma, had charm, and that the audience would be excited to see enter this world.
‘And so I think when we were having those discussions, it was: ‘Somebody like Bradley Cooper!’ And then it was like, well, why don’t you just ask him?
‘And so we sent him the script and he responded very quickly. Interestingly enough, he had never even seen the show before, and he didn’t want to watch it until he was done, because he didn’t want it to influence what he was going to do.
‘He wanted to make it his own thing, which I respect.’
Movie titan Bradley Cooper – a 12-time Oscar nominee – is the surprise star of Series 4 of The Righteous Gemstones
The prequel series staring Cooper (pictured) unfolds in Virginia in 1862
Sydney’s Scandalous New Project
Sydney Sweeney has been resisting efforts to co-opt her as a MAGA sweetheart after unfounded rumours that she supported Trump – and her next project ought to take her even further away from his far-Right hardcore supporters.
Sweeney is currently making the much-delayed series three of Euphoria. But when that finishes this spring she will play actress Kim Novak – best known as the star of Vertigo – in a film, Scandalous, about her doomed love affair with entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. Rising British star — and Bafta winner — David Jonsson (Rye Lane, Alien: Romulus) is playing Davis.
The pair fell head over heels in love, but in 1957 Hollywood wasn’t ready for a mixed race couple, and they broke up after Columbia pictures boss Harry Cohn – who was obsessed with Novak himself – threatened to have Davis’s legs broken.
The Rat Pack star swiftly married actress Loray White, although they divorced a year later.
The film is not authorised and Novak, now 92, has recently completed a documentary film about her life.
Sydney Sweeney has been resisting efforts to co-opt her as a MAGA sweetheart after unfounded rumours that she supported Trump
In her next project, Sweeney will play actress Kim Novak (pictured) – best known as the star of Vertigo – in a film, Scandalous, about her doomed love affair with entertainer Sammy Davis Jr
£1bn Bond Plot Twist That Nobody Saw Coming
The surprise decision to sell creative control of James Bond to Amazon-MGM created shockwaves which are still rippling through Hollywood.
It was the great topic of conversation during Oscars week – and everyone had a take on the deal, which is confidently said to have netted Barbara Broccoli and her stepbrother Michael G Wilson ‘at least $1 billion’; and possibly more if the forthcoming films and other spin-offs are a success.
One confidante of Broccoli’s told me that she and Wilson ‘just ran out of ideas’ and ‘reached the end of the road, creatively’. He added: ‘They didn’t know what to do with Bond and were struggling before No Time To Die.
‘Then they took the radical decision to have Daniel Craig die in No Time To Die – and simply couldn’t work out where to go from there. They had made zero progress since the film wrapped in 2019.’
One factor which didn’t help was that Wilson, who is 83, ‘pretty much retired’ after No Time To Die finished filming. ‘Barbara had to do it all herself,’ I’m told.
Another source says that Broccoli was ‘almost heartbroken’ once negotiations concluded. ‘It’s her father’s (Cubby’s) legacy. There was a big emotional wrench once the decision was taken.’
Others, though, are less sympathetic. Some feel that the deal amounted to a ‘betrayal of the fans’. One remarked bitterly: ‘She wasn’t smart enough to find a way out of the hole she dug.’
In the past 23 years, Broccoli and Wilson made only five films. Amazon/MGM are expected to move swiftly to hire a new Bond, produce the next film and probably greenlight some spin-offs.
Speaking last year, before he knew about the plans, director Sam Mendes who made Spectre and Skyfall said: ‘In a way, James Bond is an old-fashioned franchise, if such a thing exists.
‘It was the first franchise. There are no spin-offs. There’s a movie only every three or four years. There isn’t a universe; rather, just one person at the centre of a number of different stories.’
But those days have changed, Mendes noted. ‘We live in an era of content now where you’re going to have 15 hours of stuff from a multiverse every year.’
Some years ago, Naomie Harris was in the frame to play Miss Moneypenny in her own spin-off, but Barbara Broccoli declined to give the project the go-ahead.
Barbara Broccoli (right) is reported to have netted ‘at least $1 billion’ from selling creative control of the James Bond franchise
Despite pocketing an eyewatering sum for her creative rights, Broccoli was reportedly ‘almost heartbroken’ at giving them up
Bergeracs Form Fan Club
Don’t rule out a cameo appearance from John Nettles (left) if the reboot of Bergerac goes, as expected, to a second series.
He and the actor now playing the detective, Damien Molony (right), have become firm friends, dining together a short time ago.
Says Damien: ‘It would be lovely to have John do anything — he’s such a wonderful actor.
‘I would listen to a podcast of him talking about every episode of Bergerac that he filmed.
‘And I don’t listen to podcasts!’
The show is now available to stream for free on U.
John Nettles (left) and Damien Molony (right) have reportedly become firm friends
Prue Leith is an innocent among naughty schoolboys – or so she says – on the Great British Bake Off.
This week she said: ‘Mostly, I don’t understand the innuendo. Paul (Hollywood) and Noel (Fielding) laugh when I say ‘Sausage’.
It is not that funny, but they are schoolboys, really.
‘One lady made a beaver cake and I said: ‘Tell us all about your beaver.’ Paul said he could not believe I asked that question.’
In an interview last year, Hollywood said of his co-judge: ‘She’s embarrassing. That’s what she is. I mean, Prue will say it, and I’m sure she’s saying it deliberately.
‘We were doing sausage rolls, and she said to a guy: ‘I don’t think your sausage is big enough.’ And I just stopped and I said: ‘I’m sorry, I’ve got to leave for ten minutes,’ and I walked out the tent.’
Prue Leith is an innocent among naughty schoolboys – or so she says – on the Great British Bake Off
