Sir Ian McKellen was offered one million pounds to dress as his Lord Of The Rings character Gandalf and officiate at the wedding of a Facebook billionaire, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Sir Ian, 77, who qualified as a 'celebrant' to conduct the 2013 civil wedding of his best friend, Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart, and fiancee Sunny Ozell, described how he was made the extraordinary offer.
He said: '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.
'So I said, "I am sorry, Gandalf doesn't do weddings." '
The
Mail on Sunday
has learned that the offer was made via an intermediary on behalf of Silicon Valley tycoon Sean Parker, co-founder of the record-streaming service Napster and the first president of Facebook.
Parker, 36, whose net worth is put at £1.8 billion (NZ$3.2b) by
Forbes
magazine, spent a reported £7.5million (NZ$13.5m) on his Tolkien-themed wedding in June 2013 to singer Alexandra Lenas, in the spectacular redwood forest in Big Sur, California.