During a recent talk show interview, 73-year-old Magneto (Sir Ian McKellan) announced his plans to marry Professor Xavier (his X-Men co-star Patrick Stewart). Sadly, there’s a third party involved and it’s unlikely that McKellan will be asked to come along for the honeymoon. You see, the two men aren’t marrying each other, instead, Sir Ian will officiate at the wedding of 72-year-old Stewart and his bride-to-be, 35-year-old jazz singer Sunny Ozell.
“I’m going to marry Patrick. I am going to officiate at his wedding,” the actor told the host of the UK’s Jonathan Ross Show. And while it won’t be the first time McKellan has presided over a friend’s nuptials, he’s still a little foggy on all the legal details. “I don’t know [how it's legally permitted],” admitted the actor. “But in Massachusetts, in the middle of America somewhere, you get a friend along, and I read out the words, and Sunny and Patrick will then be married… I’ve done it once before with two guys having a civil partnership. I was crying my eyes out,” said McKellan.
The Hollywood Reporter explains: “Massachusetts’ Secretary of Commonwealth offers a service that allows a family friend or relative to perform a couple’s wedding ceremony for a one-time fee of $25,” says THR. Coincidentally, Massachusetts was the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage (way back in 2004), so if you happen to be writing some X-Men fan-fiction in which Magneto and Professor X do end up together, I think it would be nice to set the wedding there.
In case you’re wondering what one wears to officiate a wedding, McKellan has a few pointers (it’s not a wizard’s robe or a villain’s cape and it most certainly isn’t your favourite t-shirt, regardless of how cool everyone thinks it is). At this first wedding he presided over, McKellan wore “a rather fetching white gown which I bought in India,” which wasn’t a problem, since neither of the two grooms wore white dresses. But for the Stewart/Ozell wedding, McKellan says he’ll choose a different look. “You mustn’t upstage the bride,” he advises.
