Source: usnews.com

10/20/2006

It's been a long five years for former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson. Sept. 11, 2001, was his 61st birthday, and a bad one: His wife, Barbara Olson, was on the 9/11 flight that slammed into the Pentagon. And while that's still in his mind, he's belatedly celebrating his 66th birthday this weekend in Napa Valley, where he's marrying his new love, Lady Booth, a fellow lawyer and businesswoman.

Word is the shindig is taking place at the elegant Meadowood in St. Helena, known for its pampering, fancy weddings, and wine list filled with hard-to-get local bottlings. And that's a good thing. Friends say the two share a passion for vino. Olson told Legal Times that they met at the 2002 Kentucky Derby, horse-race watching being another common hobby.

So who's going to be at the wedding? We hear about 300 of the couple's closest friends. Among the guests are Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Appeals Court Judge Laurence Silberman and his wife, Ricki, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and his wife, lawyers Robert Bennett and Brendan Sullivan, former Bushie and new Mitt Romney adviser Barbara Comstock, media legal pundits Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova, National Review's Kate O'Beirne, and current Solicitor General Paul Clement. Says one wedding-goer: "Most of the Washington legal establishment is trekking out here to toast the happy couple."