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Hugh Grant to gift Liz Hurley a monkey for wedding

PTI
Wednesday, February 21, 2007 9:31 IST
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LONDON: British actor Hugh Grant will not only be a guest at the wedding of his former girlfriend of 13 years Elizabeth Hurley to Indian millionaire businessman Arun Nayar but present her with an odd gift, a monkey.

Forty six-year-old Grant, who parted company with his girl friend Jemima Khan recently, will be an usher at March three wedding ceremony with special speech-making responsibilities, The Daily Mail reported.

The 41-year-old model will hold the first of her two nuptial celebrations over a country weekend in the Cotswolds.

Guests will also take part in a pheasant shoot on the 2.5 million pounds Gloucestershire estate near Ampney Knowle as part of the elaborate wedding weekend.

The location of the wedding party is believed to be at Sudely Castle, the home of close friends Henry Dent-Brocklehurst and Lili Maltese.

Elizabeth's son Damien, by American billionaire Steve Bing, is closely involved with the wedding arrangements.

The four-year-old who counts Grant as a godfather, will be ring bearer in the ceremony. He will be wearing an identical outfit to the groom.

The wedding to Arun Nayar, also 41, is rumoured to cost 2 million pounds while the ring itself cost just under 1 million pounds.

Organising the two weddings has been intensive since Nayar's divorce from Valentina Pedroni was finalised in November 2005.

The Indian leg of their nuptials will be held at Devi Garh, an eighteenth century palace and fort in Rajasthan later next month.

Quoting a friend, the tabloid said, "Hugh will be like a co-host alongside the best man on the day. He will be making a speech, but pointedly it will be clean. It will be a comedy turn, but there will be no smutty little asides of innuendoes about the relationship they had all those years."

"Hugh will joke about how Elizabeth carried on like a right little Hitler when she produced him on Mickey Blue Eyes. He'll be asking Arun whether he really knows what he's taking on. To conclude he will speak of his happiness that Elizabeth has finally found a man who makes her fantastically happy."

And to further bond his friendship with Nayar, Grant has also apparently been invited on his stag-do.

According to sources close to the bride the actor has also quite bizarrely sponsored a monkey as a wedding gift, the report said.

The primate in question, currently resident at a British zoo, will be named 'Elizabeth' in return for Grant paying for its upkeep.

The gift is apparently a reference to the nickname she used to give him when they were dating.

Indeed, Hurley has previously revealed in an interview that they named the production company they co-owned Simian due to Grant's apparent monkey-like looks.

She said, "We named our company that way because I think Hugh looks like a chimpanzee. His ears are too small and too high on his head. It gives him a very simian expression. It's humiliating to admit it but it's the truth."

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