Sarkozy's ex-wife set for Manhattan wedding

By Chris Michaud

NEW YORK (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz was set to wed on Sunday night in New York before some 150 guests, many of whom flew in from Europe for three days of celebrations.

Ciganer-Albeniz, 50, will marry Moroccan-born public relations executive Richard Attias, 48, less than two months after Sarkozy wed singer and former model Carla Bruni in Paris.

Media reports have referred to Sunday's event in Manhattan as a "revenge wedding" for the French president's remarrying so soon after his October divorce from Ciganer-Albeniz, which ended the couple's fractious 11-year marriage.

Ciganer-Albeniz left Paris with Attias on Tuesday for a full schedule of wedding events, starting with a party at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut on Friday.

The couple and many of their guests dined out in Manhattan on Saturday night and took in the hit Broadway musical "Mamma Mia," which is set to the music of the pop group Abba.

The plans, shrouded in secrecy in the weeks before the wedding, called for the couple to exchange vows in a civil ceremony at Rockefeller Center, home of the famous Rainbow Room, to be followed by a reception, according to guests leaving the Broadway show on Saturday.

Some guests said they had been told not to bring any cameras to the event.

Among guests expected are the couple's children from previous marriages, including Ciganer-Albeniz and Sarkozy's 11-year-old son Louis.