And as a wedding gift from Dad, Egypt's presidency?

SHARM EL SHEIK, EGYPT — For weeks, Egyptians have been frantic with speculation: the dress, the diamond and, of course, the nickname.

After Bennifer, Tomkat and Brangelina, "now there is ... Gaga?" mused one blogger.

"Gaga" would be Gamal Mubarak, son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and Khadija Gamal, daughter of a well-known business tycoon. The couple held a wedding reception Friday at this exclusive Red Sea resort.

But as the chattering classes wondered what the bride would wear, opposition leaders and analysts were concerned with much darker designs. In Egypt, it is widely believed that the wedding is a ploy to make sure the younger Mubarak succeeds his father, who has ruled Egypt with an iron fist since 1981.

"There is definitely a link," said Ibrahim Eissa, a journalist and outspoken critic of Mubarak's regime. "The Egyptian people will not accept a bachelor president easily."

Although Gamal Mubarak has denied wanting to become president -- most recently in an interview this week with the Arabic satellite TV network Orbit -- some observers say the power grab has been carefully planned.

For one thing, the wedding comes on the heels of constitutional amendments made in late March, allegedly to ensure a smooth transition between father and son.

Though slow to mature, the younger Mubarak's political ambition has been in ample evidence lately, they say.

"The man denies [interest in] the presidency. However, everybody understands that this is not a serious denial. If he is serious about it, he should stay away from playing a political role," Eissa said.

Mubarak began his career as an investment banker in London but returned to Cairo in the mid-'90s, attempting to establish his own party. When that floundered, he joined his father's National Democratic Party, heading the important Policies Committee.

He soon began preaching a package of economic reform dubbed "the new thinking," and within a few years he had pushed aside the old guard of the ruling party and established himself and his retinue of businessmen as Egypt's new power brokers.

But in a country where millions of people live below the poverty line, Mubarak has been criticized for appearing aloof from the citizenry and its problems. He is described as an instrument of big business and is associated with "crony capitalism" in the Egyptian media.