A hint of autumnal Beatlemania was in the air Sunday as Paul McCartney, for the second time in his improbable life, climbed the steps of venerable Old Marylebone Town Hall to take himself a bride.

True, thousands of heartbroken female fans crowded the columned building in 1969 when he married Linda Eastman, and only a few hundred showed up Sunday as he wed another American, Nancy Shevell, at the very same registry office.

But the feeling this time was not regret at the loss of a bachelor heartthrob. Instead there was joy that McCartney, regarded as a national treasure and revered the world over, seemed happy again.

The 69-year-old former Beatle appeared proud, content and eager to share his joy with the crowd, raising his bride’s hand in triumph as he walked down the steps after they became man and wife in a simple civil ceremony attended by close family and friends, including drummer Ringo Starr and Barbara Walters, a second cousin of the bride.

“I feel absolutely wonderful,” McCartney told fans as he arrived at his home after the ceremony. He was expected to sing a new song he had composed for his bride at the reception.

Gone was the memory of McCartney’s terribly unhappy marriage to Heather Mills, which ended in 2008 in an ugly public divorce. Remembered was his marriage to Eastman, a serene union that lasted nearly three decades until her life was cut short by breast cancer, leaving McCartney alone and adrift despite his fame and wealth.

The ceremony Sunday afternoon was everything his wedding to Mills was not: simple, understated, almost matter of fact. By contrast, McCartney and Mills married in an over-the-top lavish spectacle at a remote Irish castle that was disrupted several times by news helicopters flying overhead, hoping for a glimpse of the A-list guests.

This time, the smiles seemed genuine.

The affection – and rose petals and confetti – showered on McCartney and his bride captured his particular place in British life.

Long gone are the days when the Beatles divided Britain between young and old, or between hippies and straights. The band is revered as part of a glorious musical and cultural era when Britain seemed a more confident place. There was no controversy whatsoever when McCartney received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.

Today Sir Paul – or Macca, as he’s usually known – is celebrated as a musical legend who is still composing and releasing CDs, even if they no longer routinely shoot to No. 1 on the charts. His forays into opera, ballet, painting and poetry have not been critical successes, but none of these have tarnished his reputation.

Shevell, 51, appeared radiant and composed in an elegant, ivory gown cut just above the knee. She wore a white flower in her long dark hair, and only light makeup and lipstick.

The dress was designed by McCartney’s daughter, Stella, a star in the fashion world who also helped concoct the three-course vegetarian feast served to guests at the reception at McCartney’s home in St. John’s Wood, a property he bought in 1965, when the Beatles were topping the charts with metronomic regularity.

McCartney, who has long admitted to tinting his hair to keep out the gray, looked youthful in a well-cut blue suit and pale blue, skinny tie.

The couple married on what would have been band mate John Lennon’s 71st birthday. Some guests speculated that Lennon would have been among the guests had he lived, with the rift between them having healed.

The wedding party included Beatrice, McCartney’s young daughter with Mills, who had been expected to serve as flower girl.

McCartney is credited for having survived a number of tragedies – the 1980 murder of one-time songwriting partner Lennon, the loss of his beloved first wife Linda, the 2001 death of guitarist George Harrison and the public breakdown of his marriage to Mills – with his upbeat nature intact.

Mills, a much younger model who had lost part of her leg when she was hit by a motorcycle, tried to battle McCartney in the court of public opinion during their divorce. She accused him of cruelty and sought a gargantuan $250 million settlement.

But her charges against McCartney didn’t stick. Few if any fans turned against him, and the divorce court judge ruled against her, calling her demands exorbitant and unfair.

The very public spat opened McCartney’s vast fortune to unprecedented public scrutiny. Long rumored to be pop’s first billionaire, he was found to have assets worth about $800 million, including works by Picasso and Renoir and luxury real estate in the United States, Britain and elsewhere.

His wealth reflects in part his incredible global popularity – in recent years he has filled stadiums from Rio to Russia, producing tens of millions of dollar of revenue with each tour.

Shevell, who is independently wealthy and quite successful in her own right, is not seen by the British public as being interested in McCartney’s fortune.

The couple met four years ago in the Hamptons, a seaside playground for the rich and famous on the eastern tip of Long Island in New York.

Some reports say that Walters played matchmaker, inviting McCartney to a dinner she knew her second cousin Shevell would attend.

Walters said she cried during the ceremony, which she called “beautiful and wonderful.”

Shevell, who was married for more than 20 years to attorney Bruce Blakeman and serves on the board of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is also a vice president of a lucrative New Jersey-based trucking company owned by her father.

She has stayed out of the public eye since taking up with McCartney, refraining from commenting on her relationship with the man once known as “the cute one” in the world’s most popular band.

She has a few things in common with Eastman: like McCartney’s first wife, she is American and affluent.

Unlike Eastman, who performed with McCartney’s post-Beatles band Wings, Shevell is not expected to join her husband onstage on his extended world tours.

She joins a pantheon of “Beatle wives” – each band member married more than once, and many of the unions were troubled.

Lennon abruptly left his first wife for Yoko Ono, and Cynthia Lennon has complained in print about his abusive treatment of her and his neglect of their son, Julian.

His relationship with Ono was punctuated with occasional breakups, but is often portrayed as a happy marriage, and since his death she has curated his works and burnished his legend.

Starr’s first marriage also ended in divorce, but he has had a long, stable union with his second wife, the actress Barbara Bach, who joined him at Sunday’s ceremony.

The two even went through a recovery program together when Starr decided to confront his alcoholism.

Harrison’s first marriage – to the model Pattie Boyd – ended in divorce when she left him for guitarist Eric Clapton. He had a long happy marriage to Olivia Harrison, who plays an important role in the recently released Martin Scorsese film about Harrison.

If the mood Sunday is any indication, the man responsible for classics like “Penny Lane” and the angst-ridden “Eleanor Rigby” may find pleasure and contentment in the years ahead. That’s certainly what his fans are hoping.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney will wed for the third time on Sunday when he and New York heiress Nancy Shevell are married in a civil ceremony in London, British newspapers reported.

The Daily Mirror and The Sun tabloids said on Saturday that McCartney and Shevell, who posted wedding banns last month, would be married at London’s Marylebone Register Office before 30 invited guests.

It is the same venue where McCartney married his late first wife Linda in 1969, at the height of the Beatles’ fame. Linda died of breast cancer in 1998.

“They have been given special dispensation by the council to marry on Sunday and have chosen what would have been the groom’s former bandmate John Lennon’s 71st birthday for their big day,” the Daily Mirror said.

McCartney’s partnership with Lennon in The Beatles in 1960s Britain produced some of the most famous and enduring pop songs of the past 50 years.

The Daily Mirror quoted a source close to McCartney as saying: “The wedding is in keeping with the way Paul and Nancy have conducted their entire relationship — low-key, understated and fueled by goodwill.

“Neither of them want a huge fuss made and the main priority for both was family.”

The wedding will be followed by a reception held in McCartney’s back garden, the paper said.

Shevell, 51, who is divorced, and McCartney, 69, are believed to have begun dating after his bitter split with second wife, former model Heather Mills.

McCartney and Mills were wed in 2002 in a lavish ceremony at Castle Leslie in Ireland estimated by celebrity magazines to have cost around $3.2 million.

But four years later they confirmed they had separated, blaming media intrusion into their private lives, and in 2008 the couple divorced.

McCartney has a son, two daughters and a stepdaughter from his marriage to Linda and a daughter from his union with Mills.

The Beatles legend is reportedly planning to walk down the aisle for a third time with the New York socialite this weekend.

And in a poignant nod to his beloved first partner Linda – who died of cancer in 1998 – McCartney and Shevell will become man and wife at the Westminster Register Office in London, where he first wed the photographer in 1969.

The pair is shunning a lavish wedding in favor of a family party at his English countryside retreat, with a second bash to follow in the Big Apple, according to Britain’s The Sun.

MCCartney’s second marriage to Heather Mills ended in a messy divorce in 2008.

Paul McCartney Announces Ocean’s Kingdom
His first orchestral score for dance to be released October 4th 2011

Marking his first foray into the world of dance, Paul McCartney has announced the general release of Ocean’s Kingdom, commissioned by the New York City Ballet. The recording will be released by Hear Music/Telarc and is conducted by John Wilson, produced by John Fraser and performed by The London Classical Orchestra.

Ocean’s Kingdom is the first time Paul has written an original orchestral score or any kind of music for dance and is the result of a collaboration between Paul and New York City Ballet’s Master in Chief Peter Martins, who have worked together to present the world premiere of a new ballet for the company’s 2011/2012 season this September.

Though the work is Paul’s first ballet, he approached the project in the same way he writes all other music, driven by his heart rather than his head and inspired by feeling rather than specific technical knowledge. While this may have been another new turn for his staggeringly varied career to take, Paul knew it had to be influenced by his own personal experience and that he needed to create a story the audience would find equally compelling and moving.

Paul’s first step was to visit the Royal Opera House to see Adolphe Adam’s Giselle, danced by the Royal Ballet. Afterwards, Paul met the dancers and discussed the work with them, realising as he did so that he was still without a central theme to his work. Keen to tell a story through his music, Paul decided to focus on the purity of the ocean and within just two months, the first draft had been completed. He then went through the music again thinking specifically of the ballet itself, thereby creating a world featuring distinctive characters and a vibrant underworld kingdom. Finally Paul spent many more weeks working alongside Peter Martins to refine the work, before Peter created the choreography with the NYCB dancers.

An hour long score featuring four stunning movements – “Ocean’s Kingdom,” “Hall of Dance,” “Imprisonment” and “Moonrise” – the ballet tells of a love story within the story of an underwater world whose people are threatened by the humans of Earth. A potently expressive and richly varied work, the score is Paul’s most challenging and emotionally complex yet. As he explains: “What was interesting was writing music that meant something expressively rather than just writing a song. Trying to write something that expressed an emotion – so you have fear, love, anger, sadness to play with and I found that exciting and challenging.”

The premiere of the ballet Ocean’s Kingdom will take place at NYCB’s Fall Gala on Thursday 22nd September 2011 while the release of the orchestral score will follow on October 4th, available digitally, on CD and on vinyl. It was recorded in June in London.

The artwork that accompanies the release is equally striking and inventive. Though it seems to suggest a city skyline, it is actually a digital readout of the notes from the ballet score.

Although this is his first orchestral score for dance, Paul is already quite at home in the world of classical music. His back catalogue already carries four classical albums, the most recent of which was the Classical BRIT Award winning ‘Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart)’; a work for chorus and orchestra in four movements that was released in 2006.

TRACK LISTING

1. Movement 1 Ocean’s Kingdom (14:07)
2. Movement 2 Hall of Dance (16:19)
3. Movement 3 Imprisonment (13:36)
4. Movement 4 Moonrise (12:29)

Former Beatle Paul McCartney said on Thursday that he appears to be a victim of the newspaper phone hacking scandal in Britain and will be talking to police when he finishes a U.S. tour.

Speaking to journalists in Los Angeles via satellite from Ohio, McCartney said he did not have the full facts but called phone hacking by British newspaper journalists a “horrendous invasion of privacy.”

“When I go back (to Britain) after this (U.S.) tour, I am going to talk to the police because apparently I have been hacked,” McCartney said.

“I don’t know much about it because they won’t tell anyone except the person themselves. So I will be talking to them about that.

“I do think it’s horrendous violation of privacy. I do think it has been going on for a long time and I do think more people than we know knew about it. But I think I should just listen and hear what the facts are before I comment,” McCartney told reporters gathered in Los Angeles for a bi-annual meeting of television critics.

McCartney’s ex-wife British model Heather Mills told the BBC earlier this week that a journalist working for a British newspaper had confronted her with details of a message left by McCartney on her phone in early 2001 following an argument with the singer.

The claim by Mills appeared to widen the hacking scandal from News Corp-owned British newspapers to rival publications in the Daily Mirror group.

It also put pressure on Piers Morgan, who edited the Mirror from 1995-2004 and who is now a talk show host for CNN. Morgan has repeatedly denied any involvement in phone hacking.

British police are conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into claims that journalists and private detectives seeking gossip for stories illegally intercepted voicemail messages on the phone of people ranging from celebrities and politicians to murder victims.

Mills and the famously private McCartney were married from 2002 before their relationship ended in a bitter and messy divorce in 2008.

Paul Mccartney is seventeen years older than Shevell, and having been friends for years, the pair began dating four years ago. However People Magazine now reveal, that the ‘Beatles’ star had proposed in New York last weekend.

The source said: ‘Nancy and Paul are getting married. Ring and all – very exciting. They have the right chemistry. They’re both cool, chilled out and optimistic.’ The news was then further confirmed by McCartney’s spokesman Stuart Bell, giving a simple statement: ‘It’s true! We’re all thrilled for him.’ Paul’s children, from his first wife Linda, are all said to be very close to Shevell and that they have given their blessing.

Sir Paul’s first marriage, lasting nearly 30 years, ended when wife Linda died of breast cancer and his second marriage to Heather Mills lasted just four years, ending with a bitter court battle and $24m settlement. Nancy

Shevell was also previously married for more than 20 years to American lawyer Bruce Blakeman. She is a board member of New York’s transportation authority and a vice-president of her family business.

The Beatles legend has reportedly been approached to perform for the future king of Britain and his fiancee Kate Middleton at a Buckingham Palace reception after their April 29 nuptials because the couple believe his music has universal appeal.

A source said: “William and Kate have chosen their wedding list and Paul McCartney is their number one choice to perform.

“They can’t think of anyone more perfect to kick off proceedings.”

Paul, 68, is said to have confided in pals that he feels “privileged” after receiving the invitation a few weeks ago.

The source added to the Daily Star newspaper: “Prince William is following in his mother Princess Diana’s footsteps by inviting a host of famous friends to join him on his wedding day.

“Paul McCartney has been asked to do a few numbers and he said he feels very privileged.”

A royal spokesperson has so far refused to confirm that the ‘Get Back’ singer has been asked to play, only saying: “none of it has been finalized”.

Whatever your opinion of President Obama, there’s no question he has spectacularly revived the number and quality of musical performances in the White House.

Look no further than “Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in Performance at the White House,” taped early last month and screening on PBS on Wednesday, the fourth “In Performance” show thus far during his young administration.

Yes, Sir Paul is English. But the award is not restricted to U.S. citizens. Named in honor of brothers Ira and George Gershwin, the award is given to a composer or performer whose lifetime work exemplifies the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins. The first one, in 2007, was won by Paul Simon. The second was awarded last year to Stevie Wonder.

McCartney probably needs another award about as much as Jesse James needs another tattoo. However, in clips before the start of the concert in the East Room of the White House, he appears humbled and grateful for the recognition. After those introductory clips, mostly showing the artists meeting one another and rehearsing, the program moves into the actual concert.

One by one, some of today’s top musicians applied their personal style to songs by McCartney — and, in some cases, also by John Lennon. Performers include Wonder, the Jonas Brothers, Jack White, Faith Hill, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Lang Lang, Dave Grohl, and the duo of Herbie Hancock and Corinne Bailey Rae. There even is a short but hugely entertaining bit of stand-up by Jerry Seinfeld, who related McCartney’s lyrics to the stages of his personal life.

With each additional number, McCartney’s genius as a songwriter grows more evident. In fact, part of that genius is reflected in the fact that his music can be covered in such different styles, each showing new facets of the composition.

There were plenty of highlights: Wonder’s enthusiastic rendition of “We Can Work It Out,” Hancock and Rae’s delicate and haunting performance of “Blackbird,” Lang Lang’s classical finesse applied to “Celebrations,” and Costello’s sweetly sentimental version of “Penny Lane.”(Don’t bother looking for McCartney’s dig at former White House occupant George W. Bush: “After the last eight years, it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is,” he said. A PBS spokesperson reportedly said the comment occurred after the planned program had concluded and after President Obama left the room.)

In any case, the biggest highlight was the return of all the artists to the stage, along with the first family, for the long chorus that concluded McCartney’s delivery of “Hey Jude.” Hearing so many memorable songs performed so brilliantly almost can make you forget all the monumental issues facing White House occupants the rest of the time.

Heather Mills is constantly guarded when questioned about her divorce from Sir Paul McCartney – because the former model fears she will end up in jail if she reveals too much.

The couple separated in 2006 after four years of marriage, leading to an ugly public divorce battle.

The Beatles star was ordered to hand over $38.9 million of his fortune to Mills after their union was officially dissolved in 2008.

Mills was banned from talking about the divorce proceedings – and now she’s constantly wary of what she says as a result.

She says, “The judge decided to put it in the judgment that I would be gagged for my whole life and that I would go to prison if I talked about it.”

But the 42 year old is angry the ban was imposed – because she was unable to speak up when she read hurtful things about her in the media.

She adds, “I found that very unfair because of all the lies being said that I wasn’t allowed to defend myself. And because of the vilification in the press, my career was ruined completely.”

Sir Paul McCartney is reportedly making secret preparations to marry US heiress Nancy Shevell.

The Beatles legend is said to be keen to tie the knot for a third time with Nancy, his girlfriend of nearly two years, and organized a family meet up in the Caribbean earlier this month to discuss their future together with his children.

A friend of the 67-year-old musician told the Daily Express newspaper: “Paul and Nancy’s relationship is rock solid and there’s no mad hurry for a wedding.

“Next year has certainly been mentioned as the most likely time, but neither of them want some big deal made out of it.

“It’s almost certainly going to be done very discreetly over in the US and Paul would ideally like to do it without any publicity beforehand, but whether he could pull that off is another matter.”

Heather Mills – Paul’s second wife and mother to his youngest daughter, six-year-old Beatrice – has been informed of his plans to tie the knot with 48-year-old Nancy, according to friends.

Charity campaigner Heather was married to ‘Let It Be’ singer Paul from 2002 to 2008, when they went through a bitter divorce, in which she secured a £24.3 million payout for her and Beatrice.

Paul’s first marriage, to vegetarian frozen food pioneer Linda, was one of the most happy and successful in showbiz, lasting from 1968 until her death from cancer in 1997.

New York-based Nancy is a businesswoman of high standing, and holds the position of Vice President of Administration at her father’s company, New England Motor Freight.