Falcon Crest” star Simon MacCorkindale and actress Susan George shocked guests by showing up at their Hollywood wedding shower — and announcing they were already married!
The happy lovebirds had eloped several days earlier — jetting off to the romantic South Sea island of Fiji where they were wed October 5 by a local minister with only the island’s natives looking on.
But to keep their families and friends happy, 31-year-old MacCorkindale — who plays Greg Reardon — and 34-year-old Susan are planning a second, very formal wedding in their homeland, England, in the month of December.
“We ran off to Fiji because we wanted to have a really romantic wedding!
“We wanted to be alone, away from all the glitter that usually surrounds our lives,” MacCorkindale told a friend.
“I said to Susan, ‘Let’s do it twice, once for ourselves and then once for everyone else.’
“She said, ‘Choose the place but don’t tell me where it is until we’re on the way.’
“So I secretly bought tickets for Fiji and called ahead to a local minister, asking him to make our wedding arrangements.
“As Susan and I walked into Los Angeles Airport, she couldn’t hide her curiosity any longer.”
‘Where’s it going to be?’ she said.
“When I said ‘Fiji,’ she was overjoyed — and we stood there hugging.”
Taito Rarasea, an executive at Fiji’s plush Regent Hotel where the couple stayed, served as best man and the hotel’s public relations representative was maid of honor. The wedding was held in the tiny Anglican Church of Viseisei.
It was MacCorkindale’s second marriage and Susan’s first.
“It was a beautiful ceremony,” Rarasea recalled. “Susan wore a long cream colored chiffon gown and had beautiful island flowers arranged in her hair.
“She carried a bouquet of colorful fresh-cut flowers as she walked down the aisle. She was simply breathtaking.
“Simon wore a cream-colored suit with a flower in his lapel. As they exchanged I their vows, Susan began to cry.
“Tears of joy streamed down her face, and Simon held her hand. He later told me, ‘This is the happiest day of my life. I love Susan so much.'”
Simon, who also starred in the short-lived series “Manimal,” told his friend: “After the ceremony we had a wonderful Fijian feast — all sorts of tropical fruits, coconuts, pineapples and suckling pigs.
“Native maidens in grass skirts provided the entertainment.
“Covered in flowers, we joined in the dancing.
“I don’t think Susan and I ever felt so happy, so totally I free.”
Susan told the friend: “I wish we could have stayed in that tropical paradise forever!
“When we came back to Los Angeles and went to the wedding shower — given by Olivia Newton-John — no one knew we were married. People kept asking, ‘When’s the happy day?’ Finally we both burst out laughing and we shouted: ‘We’re already married!’
“It took a moment for the news to sink in, then everyone began toasting us with champagne and breaking up with laughter!”