The knighted ex-Beatle and 34-year-old bride-to-be Heather Mills on Monday met with reporters camped outside the 17th century Irish castle where the couple confirmed they'll say "Love Me Do" before 300 family and friends on Tuesday.
If McCartney was miffed to find media types on the castle grounds--a location so remote that the castle itself has no telephones or TVs--he didn't let on. He and the future missus smiled, joshed and even kissed on command for the shutterbugs.
"As you know there is going to be a wedding tomorrow, but it is a secret," the affable rock legend kidded, adding: "If [news of the wedding] had to leak, it leaked in the best way."
McCartney, who turns 60 next week, described the guest list as featuring "10 people...you have heard of, and the rest will be family and friends."
Speculation says that the 10 people we've heard of (aka, the celebs) will include guitar god Eric Clapton, Elton John, former President Clinton and Ringo Starr, the only other surviving Beatle.
Other details about the ceremony came from McCartney spokesman Geoff Baker, who noted wedding goers will dine on a vegetarian menu. (Veggie-ism being a cause McCartney championed for years with his first wife, the late Linda McCartney.)
And while there will be no mystery meat for McCartney-Mills guests, Baker assured the press that the event will be "very liquid and alcoholic."
"It's a rock 'n' roll wedding," Baker explained.
Other assorted details:
Mills, a former fashion model, designed her own dress (with an assist from a London fashion house); McCartney's four grown kids with Linda McCartney (designer daughter Stella, son James, daughter Mary and stepdaughter Heather) are expected to attend, despite their acknowledged reticence about seeing Dad remarry; One official photo of the wedding will be issued to news agencies that have agreed to donate 1,000 pounds (about $1,460 in U.S. dollars) to Adopt-a-Minefield UK, Mills' pet cause. The group is a United Nations-affiliated organization that seeks to rid the planet of landmines and help people who have been injured, or lost limbs, due to explosive booby traps. Mills herself had a leg amputated below the knee in 1993--although she lost her limb to a motorcycle accident, not a landmine.
"Pick the Date of Paul's Wedding" has been a popular game in the media of late. While Castle Leslie became the number one suspect over the weekend, other purported locations included the Hamptons, New York's famed playground for the mega-rich and famous.
The other big rumor swirling around the wedding was that it simply wasn't going to happen. Earlier this month, the London and New York tabs were hot for a story that had Mills' engagement ring tossed off the balcony at a Florida hotel where the couple was staying.
But by the time McCartney led rockers last week in a chorus of "Hey, Jude" at a Buckingham Palace bash marking the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's reign, Mills--and the ring--were present and accounted for.
McCartney and Mills announced their engagement last July. The two met for a good cause--Mills' self-titled foundation (devoted to landmine victims, natch) wanted to record a song for charity; McCartney helped record it. (Apparently, he's handy at such things.) They became an official item in March 2000--about two years after Linda McCartney lost her battle to breast cancer, at age 56.
Tuesday's wedding will be McCartney's second (he and Linda were together for 29 years), as well as Mills' second. She previously was briefly married in 1989.