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Meet Paul McCartney’s American Bride, Nancy Shevell

Every girl who was alive in 1964 just had her dreams crushed again, as The Cute One has removed himself from the market for a third time. Paul McCartney married his American bride, Nancy Shevell, on a London Sunday afternoon, partaking in a civil ceremony witnessed by only the closest of family and friends – in stark contrast to the lavishness of his previous wedding to Heather Mills at a castle.

Beatles fans who’ve wanted to see their man happily in love with an appropriate partner since Linda’s death in 1998 are hoping that yes, Nancy will still need him, and yes, she’ll still feed him, when he’s 74, and 84, and 94. The very fact that Shevell is so under-the-radar is seen as a positive sign.

But what do we really know about the woman who’s eclipsed any other Beatlemaniac’s lingering dreams of being Mrs. Macca? Here’s a catch-up on everything you need to know about the relatively mysterious New Jerseyite who’ll be wearing McCartney’s wedding band on the run:

THE SETUP

Shevell was introduced to McCartney at a series of dinner parties hosted by her second cousin, Barbara Walters, a protector and apparent matchmaker who has described Nancy as “like a second child to me.” Actually, the proper word should be re-introduced, since Shevell and her-then husband apparently met and befriended Paul and Linda 20 years ago, when both couples were enjoying their summer homes in the Hamptons.

THE COURTSHIP

McCartney and Shevell were first seen smooching in the Hamptons in 2007, when he was proceeding through music history’s messiest divorce and she was freshly legally separated. She proved much more spotlight-eschewing than Paul’s previous wife, which has endeared her to some fans. The downside of that press-shyness is how few photos exist to document the couple’s off-the-map adventures–like the famous Route 66 road trip they took through seven states in a borrowed Ford in 2008, occasionally posing with startled tourists at gas stops along the way.

THE AGE DIFFERENCE

Paul is 69, and Nancy 51, a gap that hardly counts as May/December nowadays. Still, the millions of girls who wanted to become Mrs. McCartney when the Beatles invaded America in 1964 can be forgiven for still jealously considering this a case of cradle-robbing.

THE PRENUP

There is none. Whaaaaaat, you say? Not to worry–Nancy’s family is loaded and, in the event of an eventual mishap, it’s highly unlikely she’d have much need for the kind of payout his previous wife, Heather, won. Since 1983, Shevell has worked for her father’s New Jersey-based trucking company, which does a reported $400-million-plus in business each year. Paul is said to have signed a simple form declaring that Nancy would have no right to the trust funds of his children and grandchildren. But that’s said to have been a legal obligation left over from his divorce from Heather Mills, to ensure no future ex could make a claim on the inheritance of their daughter, 7-year-old Beatrice.

THE CONVERSION

Yes, Shevell has reportedly converted to vegetarianism to please her famously flesh-avoidant husband, despite being a lifelong steak-lover.

THE ROCK

The art-deco artpiece adorning Nancy’s left hand since April–when McCartney proposed during a trip to California–is a 1925 Cartier solitaire diamond ring. It’s said to have set Paul back $650,000.

THE KIDS

Shevell brings one child to the marriage: Arlen, her 19-year-old son with her lawyer ex-husband, Bruce Blakeman. McCartney had five children at the ceremony–the youngest being Beatrice, 7, who’s grown up through a very contentious divorce. Then there were his three children from the marriage to Linda: Stella, Mary, and James. The eldest is Heather, Linda’s daughter from a previous marriage. Actually, Heather was a repeat attendee at this particular town hall: She was 6 and present when Paul wed her mother at the same venue in 1969. McCartney’s kids were famous for disapproving of his last choice of bride, so it may not strictly a case of good fashion sense that has Nancy wearing a lot of his daughter Stella’s designs.

HER FAMILY

Shevell is the middle child in a wealthy Jewish family in New Jersey. She’s the daughter of Myron “Mike” Shevell, who still runs the trucking firm Nancy works for, and his wife Arlene, who died of breast cancer 20 years ago. There have been other tragedies in her family: Her brother Jon died of a drug overdose a few years ago, and her uncle committed suicide after he and her father were charged with colluding with mob forces in the ‘80s. (The case never went to trial.) As mentioned above, second cousin Barbara Walters has been a close confidante.

HER JOBS

Besides helping run the family trucking business for nearly three decades, Shevell has also spent just over a decade on the board of New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. And, the New York Observer noted, she’s been known for taking the bus to their meetings, a tradition that probably won’t last. She’s agreed to live with McCartney in England but plans to come to America once a month to take care of business.

THEIR WEDDING VENUE

McCartney’s previous marriage got started with an elaborate church wedding in front of hundreds at an ancient Irish castle… so that may be one reason for opting for a simple civil service this time. But there’s plenty of personal history connecting the rocker to London’s Marylebone Town Hall, where the ceremony took place. It’s where Paul married his first wife, Linda, in 1968. He made a return visit last year when his daughter, Mary, got married there as well. Ringo Starr also exchanged vows at the century-old hall (as did a celebrated Beatle wannabe, Liam Gallagher). The smallest room in the town hall seats 20 and the largest only 100. That intimacy presumably have suited the McCartneys just fine, since their guest list reportedly consisted of fewer than 30 people.

DÉJÀ VU

The choice to marry in the same hall where Paul married Linda in 1969 suggests some other ways in which Nancy might echo McCartney’s first wife. She is a breast cancer survivor, but her mom died from the disease, as Linda tragically did in 1998. Both women also come from well-heeled Jewish-American families in the Northeast and were known for being unflashy and quietly supportive but strong. Of course, going back to his mid-‘60s days courting Jane Asher, Paul has seemed to prefer blondes, but his nearly $50 million divorce settlement might’ve cured him of that. Maybe the brunette time’s the charm?

THE HONEYMOON

That’s unknown, but rumor has it that McCartney and Shevell do plan to throw themselves a wedding party in New York in the coming week, where his ballet, Ocean’s Kingdom, is now playing. Where to, after that? You might want to be stationed with cameras along Route 66, just in case.

by Chris Willman in Stop The Presses!

This Room Needs "Newly Weds" Like You

A BARE CONDO ROOM WITH A VIEW OF THE GLOBAL CITY

This Room Needs “Newly Weds” Like You

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Paul McCartney gets married in London

LONDON (AP) – Former Beatle Paul McCartney and American heiress Nancy Shevell were married on Sunday, emerging joyously from a 45-minute civil marriage ceremony to be showered with confetti from fans.

The pop icon raised his bride’s arm in triumph as they blew kisses to the hundreds of fans and paparazzi waiting on the steps of the Old Marylebone Town Hall for the big event.

Shevell, with a white flower in her long dark hair, wore an elegant, understated above-the-knee gown designed by McCartney’s daughter, Stella. He wore a blue suit, a pale blue tie, and a gigantic grin.

The former moptop wore his tinted hair longish for the occasion, bringing back memories of the days when girls swooned as he sang “All My Loving” and other boy-meets-girl hits.

The loving couple, beaming and relaxed, drove off in a burgundy Lexus for a gala reception at their nearby home in the St. John’s Wood neighborhood. Champagne and cake awaited, along with guests like Ringo Starr, in a casual black t-shirt under his fitted suit, and his wife, the actress Barbara Bach.

There was a bit of deja vu for McCartney – he married his first wife, Linda Eastman, at the same place in 1969, breaking the hearts of teenage girls throughout much of the world.

Details of the ceremony have not been released. Press reports suggest McCartney’s younger brother Mike served as best man and his young daughter Beatrice as flower girl.

A tent had been set up at McCartney’s house nearby in the St. John’s Wood neighborhood, and party decorations were delivered for a reception after the ceremony.

McCartney’s traditional good luck seemed to hold – gloomy skies brightened as the events unfolded. Rain early in the day had stopped.

Shevell, 51, is McCartney’s third wife. They were engaged earlier this year. The couple met in the Hamptons in Long Island, New York, shortly after the singer’s divorce from Heather Mills in 2008.

It is Shevell’s second marriage. She seemed relaxed and radiant as she arrived for the ceremony, waving easily to the crowd.

Shevell, who is independently wealthy, was married for more than 20 years to attorney Bruce Blakeman and serves on the board of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. She also is a vice president of a lucrative New Jersey-based trucking company owned by her father.

McCartney married Eastman, a talented photographer who specialized in rock and roll portraits, at the height of the hippie era, when the Beatles were at the apex of their global fame.

The marriage of the Beatle known as “the cute one” caused young women and girls to burst into tears outside the registry office, and broke the hearts of uncounted fans throughout the world.

While many rock and roll marriages from that era broke down, the McCartneys enjoyed a long, happy marriage for many years, raising four children and spending virtually every night together except when McCartney was briefly jailed in Japan on marijuana charges.

Linda played and sang in his successful post-Beatles band Wings – even though critics thought she added little to the ensemble – and used her marriage to a Beatle to promote vegetarianism and other causes that were also backed by McCartney.

Her life was cut short by breast cancer in 1998, leaving McCartney adrift.

Mills then entered the picture. They married in 2002 at a gala affair at an Irish castle, and soon after had a daughter. But the marriage collapsed fairly quickly and ended with a bitter divorce in 2008.

Mills publicly accused McCartney of cruelty and sought a massive $250 million divorce settlement, but the judge sided with McCartney, calling her claims exorbitant.

The British public, enamored of the sunny Sir Paul since his early Beatle days, also sided with the singer.

The case offered a rare glimpse into the magnitude of McCartney’s fortune, which includes songwriting royalties from a raft of classic tunes, many co-written with the late John Lennon, who would have turned 71 on Sunday.

Court papers filed by McCartney at the time indicated he had a net worth of approximately $800 million, including a valuable collection of art works including paintings by Picasso and Renoir along with luxury real estate holdings and sound music investments going well beyond his own works.

The impending marriage of one of the most enduring figures in British cultural life sparked Britain’s fevered tabloid headline writers to try to come up with new puns on Sunday based on the Beatles’ memorable song titles.

The best was probably “Ticket to Bride”, a play on the 1965 chart topper “Ticket to Ride.”

By GREGORY KATZ – Associated Press | AP