Madonna's wedding

Ms Ciccone is about to become Mrs Ritchie. We give you the lowdown on the last uber-celebrity nuptials of 2000

1. Who's that girl?, you may well be asking, getting married in the Scottish Highlands

2. Why it's Madonna and, as usual, she will be causing a commotion as she rounds off a year of celebrity weddings with her own, to British director Guy Ritchie.

3. Just like any other bride she will be hoping the ceremony goes like a prayer and, who knows, maybe a bit of hanky panky on the way to the reception.

4. But what marks Madonna out is her fame, which has never been borderline. Since the mid-1980s the pop star and sometime actress has been one of the most famous women in the world.

5. Not only has she made, and sold, a lot of music but cultural gurus are in awe of her appropriation of practices as diverse as Indian henna painting and vogueing from the New York drag scene.

6. Films include Evita, Dick Tracy and Desperately Seeking Susan.

7. With leading men Warren Beatty and first husband Sean Penn.

8. So when she set eyes on Ritchie, director of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, it was hardly a meeting of celebrity equals and, to Madonna's eyes at least, her future husband must just have been a beautiful stranger.

9. Madonna has reinvented herself a number of times - but moving to London, professing her love for stout and complaining about house prices was perhaps one of the least expected.

10. Still, now we know how to get Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow to fly to Inverness in December. You may even see them get into the groove on this webcam.