Bride

London is swinging again thanks to bride and princess-to-be Kate Middleton. Millions are hanging on her every move — where she shops, where she primps, what she eats and drinks. Although the couple live (part of the time) in a rented farmhouse in North Wales, Middleton and Prince William will likely move to London's Kensington Palace at some point in the future. And Middleton certainly spends a lot of time in London — especially now that the wedding is a month away — mostly in the swish neighborhoods of South Kensington, Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Mayfair, all of which are in close proximity to Hyde Park and the Buckingham and Kensington palaces.

OAKLAND - Grief and disbelief reverberated from the Bay Area to the Central Valley on Monday as questions multiplied about a limousine fire that killed five women and injured four on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. Although officials said they had yet to review the limousine's maintenance record or examine its burned-out shell, California Highway Patrol Capt. Mike Maskarich said the 1999 Lincoln Town Car was licensed to carry only eight passengers, though nine were inside. The Saturday night inferno trapped the women as they headed for what was to be a celebratory bridal party at a hotel.

A typical bride-to-be, Katrina Macrae has bought a dress, browsed different varieties of flowers and settled on a date and location for her April nuptials. But her bridal gown is actually an ivory-colored prom dress that she picked up for $160. The flowers will be purchased wholesale from the flower district in downtown Los Angeles the day before the wedding. And she's getting married to her fiance, Scott Smith, on a Sunday, when location fees are usually cheaper. At a time when the average wedding costs about $30,000, Macrae, of Redondo Beach, plans to spend $8,000.

Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield can now settle down in their own little house on the prairie. The two are officially married.  Gilbert and Busfield became husband and wife "in a private ceremony at San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara on April 24," her rep confirmed to Us Weekly and People . And the bride wore: red! If you're interested, the groom wore ... a tux! So why the scarlet hue? Well, it's the third marriage for Gilbert, a "Little House on the Prairie" and "Dancing With the Stars" alum.

A Philadelphia wedding brawl that involved guests from more than one wedding and ended with one man dead of a heart attack was caught on video by a disgruntled hotel guest. Matt Schultz, a guest of the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel, took the video, posted Sunday on YouTube,  over a balcony looking down on the hotel bar. He complains about the noise on his birthday.  Then he asks, "Did they just deck the bride? ... They just decked the bride!" The scene is one of mass confusion and violence.

I knew her only as Amanda, and the more I learned about her life, the more surreal it seemed. Part of it read like a fairy tale: A smart, pretty girl flees her Alaska home, meets a Scottish aristocrat and falls in love. They marry, move into a manor house and have three children. But that was only one of the lives she'd led. Her incarnations were varied: Hollywood screenwriter. Concierge to the stars. Rental agent for exclusive Hawaiian vacation homes. Acquaintances say she had butter-smooth charm and uncanny powers of persuasion.

Nicole Kidman took on something a little different in "Birthday Girl." Her performance as a tempestuous Russian mail-order bride is the centerpiece of this black comedy directed and co-written by Jez Butterworth. It's available in video stores today.

The couple walked into a Norfolk courthouse on a spring day, exchanged a few words, and within 10 minutes, were seemingly husband and wife. Several weeks later, when one of the pair applied for a name change to Penelopsky Aaryonna Goldberry, officials realized the shapely bride might not have been a woman. Since same-sex marriages are illegal in the state, authorities are weighing whether to charge the couple, Antonio E. Blount, 31, and Justin L. McCain, 18. Activists say the case highlights the difficulty in trying to fit transgender individuals into rigid legal definitions of what makes one male or female.

The Bride's Farewell A Novel Meg Rosoff Viking: 214 pp., $24.95 Meg Rosoff, a London-based American, writes harrowing, psychologically complex novels for young adults. In "How I Live Now," 15-year-old Daisy leaves the United States for England to spend the summer with her cousin, and ends up on a perilous journey in the midst of war. An international bestseller, it was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and took the Printz Award and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

Shahbal Shabpareh and his band Black Cats — a premier Iranian American pop group — have performed American hits with a Persian twist at upper-crust Iranian celebrations almost weekly for years. They've seen lots of lavish weddings, but one stands out as the most over-the-top. As guests enjoyed hors d'oeuvres outside the banquet hall, the bride was placed in a glass coffin. The groom fitted on a white half-mask. Then, the carefully planned Phantom of the Opera theme devolved into chaos.

As housing prices soared, Bill McBride sensed a lie. In 2005, the retired technology executive saw signs of the bubble everywhere. He chatted up a woman at his gym who had bought a home priced at 10 times her annual income. He heard "spiky-haired" young mortgage peddlers preaching that "any equity in your home is dead money. " And he read the data: How could homeownership hit record highs as household incomes stagnated? McBride founded his finance blog, Calculated Risk, to warn the world about a looming housing market collapse.

A lot happened while we were ringing in the new year over the last few days. On Saturday, Kanye West announced during a concert that he and Kim Kardashian are expecting a child, and she later blogged of her joy. No marriage is pending, however, because she is still finalizing her divorce from Kris Humphries. [People] On New Year's Eve, the happy couple appeared together at a party in Las Vegas and Kim showed off her new little baby bump in a form-fitting, peekaboo, black lace Julien Macdonald evening gown.

Click here to download TV listings for the week Dec. 2 - 8 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SERIES My Crazy Obsession: This new episode features a woman who has more than 120 fully decorated Christmas trees, a man whose goal is to cover his property in 1 million lights, a couple with a houseful of nutcrackers and snowmen and a couple obsessed with holiday inflatables (9 p.m. TLC). SPECIALS 100 Greatest Kid Stars:  The countdown continues (9 p.m. VH1)

Experience the music, sacred shrines and tribal ceremonies of Morocco on a 12-day tour that visits Casablanca, Fez and Marrakesh. Participants meet tribal musicians and drummers playing Gnawa, Issawa and Hamadsha music, and women can take turns being the bride in a mock Gnawa wedding to learn about traditional ceremonies. Other highlights include a trip to the holy city of Moulay Idris, touring the Rif Mountains, shopping in the souks of Marrakesh and taking a guided camel caravan to dinner in a tent in the Sahara Desert.

Sometimes it's a subtle nudge to consider another designer. At other times, the voice is more matter of fact, explaining why a certain style doesn't pair with a venue. This Marchesa? The beading may be too much. Do you want to try Jenny Packham? Reem Acra? A beaded belt might not work with this gown. That other gown was pretty, but it was too old. This is better. Are you going to wear a veil? Maybe a hair clip instead? The advice comes to those brides-to-be who shop (and stop to listen)

"Magical. " "Unforgettable. " "Beautiful. " That's how Justin Timberlake, who reportedly once was a pop music star, described to People magazine his wedding to Jessica Biel on Friday at an Italian seaside resort. The bride, 30, and bridegroom, 31, partied outdoors following the nuptials, with guests including Andy Samberg and Jimmy Fallon. Also present was hip-hop producer Timbaland, who oversaw some of the tunes on Timberlake's solo disc "Justified. " These days, Timberlake's Wikipedia page describes him as an actor and businessman first and second, and a singer-songwriter third.

I don't think that Brent Wojahn should be proud of taking those pictures of Springsteen and bride, and the Los Angeles Times has even less to be proud of for printing them. MAX SAHBIN Glendale

A New York state man has been arrested for getting too close to his bride on their wedding day. Police say Timothy Cole quarreled with a wedding guest Friday after marrying his ex-wife in Batavia. Officers knew Cole, 45, from previous arrests and realized his bride had a protection order against him. He was charged with first-degree criminal contempt, a felony, and held without bail.

The crack of a sniper rifle and the boom of exploding shells seemed to take turns as Hanadi slipped out of the apartment and onto the dark street. Seconds later, a shell landed nearby and Hanadi groaned, worried that the Syrian army would storm the neighborhood that night -- before she got her camera back from the repairman, leaving her unable to record the fighting. Walking down the street, carefully planting her feet, she glanced left and right through open doors, concerned that her husband might see her. At the corner, a few young Free Syrian Army fighters manning a checkpoint recognized her immediately.

A Philadelphia wedding brawl that involved guests from more than one wedding and ended with one man dead of a heart attack was caught on video by a disgruntled hotel guest. Matt Schultz, a guest of the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel, took the video, posted Sunday on YouTube,  over a balcony looking down on the hotel bar. He complains about the noise on his birthday.  Then he asks, "Did they just deck the bride? ... They just decked the bride!" The scene is one of mass confusion and violence.