After playing host to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' fairy-tale wedding, the town of Bracciano, Italy, has a bad case of the postnuptial blues.
In the wake of the so-called wedding of the year (see our Big Picture gallery for the photographic evidence), some residents of the town expressed bitter disappointment over the newlyweds' failure to acknowledge their hospitality, complaining that Cruise and Holmes did not appear before the public or even wave from a window of the Castle Odescalchi, where the event took place.
Bracciano Mayor Patrizia Riccioni, who waived the castle's customary $50,000 fee for the stars and had been considering making them honorary citizens of her town, no longer counts herself among their fans.
"Honorary citizenship? They do not deserve it," she told Britain's Telegraph.
"A whole town has sacrificed itself for them, volunteers worked all day, traffic was closed off. We greeted them with great enthusiasm and have put up patiently with all the small problems that the event has brought.
''After that, the couple did not appear to the public even for an instant."
Riccioni also said she was miffed not to receive an invitation to the ceremony, especially after she learned that Rome mayor Walter Veltroni was among the guests. Veltroni made the couple's acquaintance in the days they spent in Rome ahead of their wedding.
Nor did onlookers get the chance to lay eyes on the couple's famous guests. The celebrity attendees were swept into the grounds of the Castle Odescalchi in limos with blacked-out windows, much to the chagrin of fans who stood in the rain in the hopes of an A-list sighting.
While the uninvited may have been disappointed, Cruise and Holmes' guests certainly were not.
Jerry Bruckheimer told CBS' Early Show that the wedding was "amazing."
"The highlight was at the end of the whole ceremony. Everybody went outside this beautiful castle and all of a sudden these fireworks went off from all around the castle...just amazing," he said.
"They are both so happy and so into each other. It was a pleasure to be there."
The New York Post reported that go-karts and motocross bikes were provided for the couple's younger guests, while Suri was put up in a specially constructed nursery in the private apartment of Princess Maria Pace Odescalchi.
In addition to the fireworks display, guests were treated to a private performance by Andrea Bocelli as they dined on specialties including artichokes, prosciutto, mozzarella, sea bass, steak and the five-tier white chocolate wedding cake.
At one point, Cruise reportedly serenaded Holmes with the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," in a nod to his famous Top Gun performance.
"She was completely touched—laughing, loving him and enjoying him," Leah Remini told People magazine of the impromptu display.
Brooke Shields, who said she bought the couple a blender as a wedding gift, told reporters she wished the couple "happiness and peace, and that they can remember all of this."
After the celebration, the twosome reportedly boarded a private plane at 6 a.m., bound for their honeymoon in the Maldives.
Since their Scientology marriage was not recognized in Italy, Cruise and Holmes had "officialized" their union in Los Angeles before leaving the country, Cruise's rep said in a statement. According to the Insider, they will celebrate their marriage yet again in a Catholic ceremony once they return from their honeymoon.