Sir Ian McKellen refused to officiate Sean Parker's wedding as Gandalf
Gandalf is not available to officiate weddings, even if you offer him $1.5 million, says Sir Ian McKellen.
The actor turned down a request to dress as the “Lord of the Rings” wizard and officiate Napster co-founder Sean Parker’s wedding, reports the Mail on Sunday.
It’s not that McKellen was opposed to officiating a wedding -- it’s that he refused to officiate in character. The actor officiated his friend Patrick Stewart’s wedding to Sunny Ozell in 2013.
“I was offered one-and-a-half million dollars to marry a very famous couple in California, which I would perhaps have considered doing but I had to go dressed as Gandalf,” he said. “So I said, ‘I am sorry, Gandalf doesn’t do weddings.’”
Parker, who was the first president of Facebook and is a billionaire, threw a lavish J.R.R. Tolkien-themed wedding in Big Sur, California in 2013. Guests, including Emma Watson and Sting, wore custom-made “Lord of the Rings” outfits.
McKellen said he never knew the gig was for Parker’s wedding, as the request came through an intermediary.
“He was a very rich man, that’s all I know,” he said.
A source confirmed to the Mail that it was indeed Parker, who was famously portrayed by Justin Timberlake in “The Social Network.”
