PEOPLE

It’s true: Wedding is on for Brad, Jennifer

It’ll be a blond wedding for Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. After repeated denials of a planned wedding and despite Aniston’s lack of talent, the twosome will indeed marry this weekend at a ceremony on a Malibu ocean bluff. Publicist Cindy Guagenti said Thursday that 200 people were expected to attend. And approximately 4,000 helicopters. Entertainment reporters and paparazzi have been staking out the wedding site for days. A large white tent has mushroomed at the location to ensure privacy.

“The couple ask that people respect their privacy,” Guagenti said. Count on it, dear.

THE TAXMAN AND THE TENOR: Luciano Pavarotti milks operatic drama even from paying taxes. The tenor personally visited the Italian Finance Minister Ottaviano del Turco Thursday to deliver the finale of a four-year tax duel with Italian officials that nearly saw the opera star indicted. Pavarotti’s settlement Thursday calls for the tenor to belly up some $12.15 million in back taxes $5 million now and the rest in installments.

“My soul is free of a big burden,” Pavarotti told reporters. “It destroyed my private life, my thoughts, to be considered a bad person. I have taken a dagger from my heart.”‘ The singer claimed innocence throughout the four-year tussle, but said he now he just wants peace of mind. “I am smiling inside. This is something I haven’t done for the last four years,”‘ he said, beaming broadly.

Prosecutor Manfredi Luongo has alleged that Pavarotti tried to circumvent shelling out more liras by citing Monte Carlo as his primary residence, while he has been hanging out in his Modena estate and a luxurious holiday villa at Pesaro on the Adriatic coast.

CHELSEA SKIPPING FALL QUARTER AT STANFORD: Chelsea Clinton plans to skip the start of school at Stanford University this fall to get a real education stumping for her mom Hillary Rodham Clinton’s U.S. Senate campaign.

Chelsea, 20, is due to begin her senior year at Stanford. She plans to return to the Palo Alto campus at midyear, after her mother’s election race for the New York Senate seat being vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

She also wants to spend more time with her father as he closes his two terms in office, said Hillary Clinton’s spokeswoman, Lissa Muscatine.

Chelsea Clinton has accumulated additional credits while at Stanford and will still graduate on time in the spring of 2001, Muscatine said.

PLAYING TAPS: It never existed and now it’s back. Spinal Tap has resuscitated its nonbeing on the Internet, fittingly enough. The spoof British band who starred in Rob Reiner’s 1984 rockumentary, “This Is Spinal Tap,” has recorded a new song that can be downloaded starting from Tapster.com.

“Back From the Dead” features Michael McKean, a k a lead singer David St. Hubbins, Christopher Guest, a k a lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel, and Harry Shearer, a k a bass player Derek Smalls. “If you’re a Spinal Tap fan, and God knows there aren’t many of them, we wanted to lay it on you,” said McKean in his best Hubbins form during an interview with the Associated Press. He added that the band’s future lies in a “carefully regulated series of breakups and comebacks That’s what attracts the attention.” The movie is also being rereleased in theaters and on DVD and videotape in September, which will be required viewing for nihilists and students of Nietzsche.

X-TENDED: Gillian Anderson is determined to sign away her future to guest spots on science-fiction conventions. The redhead has negotiated to stay on with “The X-Files” through 2002, although no one has guarantees the show will go on that long. Speaking of conventions, creator Chris Carter promised drooling San Diego fans at an “X-Files” fest that the question of how Scully got pregnant will be answered with a bedroom scene. “We’re going to break all the barriers of what you can do on prime-time.” Like ending a show gracefully without trying to squeeze a franchise out of it.

SORRY, WE’RE COMMITMENT-SHY NOW: After the “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire” debacle, Fox now wants to celebrate singlehood with a search for “The Sexiest Bachelor in America.” The two-hour special, scheduled for Oct. 2, will have 50 men donning formal wear and bathing suit competition and being judged on “looks, style and personality.” With a winning formula like that, the network should be able to borrow Bob Barker and the tiara from “Miss America,” which has been a steady rating loser for years. Any male U.S. resident 21 and older and unattached can enter or get entered via www.sexiestbachelor.com.

Today’s People Column was compiled by Vera H-C Chan from staff and wire reports. Comments? Write to us c/o the Times, P.O. Box 8099, Walnut Creek, CA 94596-8099. Or call 925-943-8262, fax 925-943-8362, or e-mail spin@

cctimes.com.

Milestones

Birthdays: Movie director Andrew V. McLaglen (80), actor Darryl Hickman (69) Peru president Alberto Fujimori (62), former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., (57), “Garfield” creator Jim Davis (55), rock musician Rick Wright of Pink Floyd (55), singer Jonathan Edwards (54), actress Linda Kelsey (54), actress Sally Struthers (52), actress Georgia Engel (52), actor Michael Hayden (37), actress Elizabeth Berkley (28), actor Jonathan Osser (11).