Wedding without a date

The family of media mogul Rupert Murdoch has imposed a news blackout on the expected marriage on Saturday of his heir-apparent Lachlan an...

The family of media mogul Rupert Murdoch has imposed a news blackout on the expected marriage on Saturday of his heir-apparent Lachlan and supermodel Sarah O8217;Hare. The Murdoch empire is refusing to give details of the date or place of what will be one of the top society weddings of the year.

But many newspapers owned by rival media groups have said the two will tie the Knot on Saturday. Australian gossip page reports have said it will be at the country property in Victoria state owned by Rupert Murdoch8217;s mother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, or at another family property near Canberra.

Lachlan, the 28-year-old favourite to take over the Murdoch empire, and O8217;Hare, 26, have been dating for a little over a year. He proposed to the former Wonderbra model last November in a Melbourne restaurant. O8217;Hare and her husband-to-be, who is head of News Ltd, which encompasses Murdoch8217;s Australian operations, have kept quiet about the wedding date. They said early in their engagement that they wanted it to be an intimateaffair.

There are signs that the big day is imminent though. O8217;Hare held a hen8217; party last weekend. She was all smiles for the cameras but had little to say as she boarded a vintage bus with close friends, according to reports.

Lachlan Murdoch said nothing about wedding jitters during a news conference in Melbourne to announce the sale of News Corp8217;s 50 per cent stake in Ansett Australia to Singapore Airlines. But News Corp. has become involved in the wedding plans, sending a statement to media organisations offering pictures of the wedding in what was seen as an effort to keep the paparazzi away.

And a business columnist for Murdoch8217;s The Australian newspaper managed to slip in a reference to the wedding into a story on the sale of the Ansett stake. Writing of a lobby visit Lachlan Murdoch made to Prime Minister John Howard earlier this week to discuss Ansett, the columnist speculated that 8220;Murdoch may also have extended an invitation to Howard for his forthcoming marriage in an effort todemonstrate that the Murdochs are not all strange, alien creatures from another planet.8221;

There are also reports that Rupert Murdoch is expected back in Australia ahead of the wedding and that is causing more problems for the family.

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Questions have been asked about whether the magnate will be accompanied by his new love, Wendy Deng, the 31-year-old executive for Star TV. Lachlan is one of three children Murdoch had with Anna Murdoch, from whom he separated last year, and Anna has reportedly asked the family patriarch not to bring Deng to the wedding.