Rome - Celebrities began arriving in Rome on Thursday for Tom Cruise's wedding to actress Katie Holmes this weekend in Italy, feeding a media frenzy.

Actor Tom Cruise holds his daughter Suri as he arrives with his fiancee Katie Holmes (L) to a restaurant in Rome November 16, 2006. The couple are tipped to have chosen a 15th century castle just outside of Rome as the location for their celebrity wedding. [Reuters]

Jim Carrey, Jennifer Lopez, Jada Pinkett Smith and "Mission: Impossible III" director J.J. Abrams were among the first guests of the showbusiness wedding to land at Rome's Ciampino airport, Reuters witnesses said.

Cruise and Holmes later arrived at a central Rome restaurant for a party for some 130 guests, waving and acknowledging throngs of cheering fans for the first time since their arrival.

The couple and their guests were choosing from a menu featuring 12 dishes of mostly traditional Italian home-style cooking such as ravioli with meat sauce and artichokes prepared Roman-style.

Some 500 people, including David Beckham and his wife Victoria, are expected to attend the ceremony on Saturday at a medieval castle in the lakeside town of Bracciano, around 40 km (25 miles) north of the Italian capital.

"We are very excited for Tom and Katie," Martin Holmes, the bride's father, told Sky Italia television on arrival at the airport.

His wife Kathleen declined to give any details about her 27-year-old daughter's wedding dress, which has been designed by Giorgio Armani.

Actress Brooke Shields, who had a public spat with 44-year-old Cruise last year after he criticized her for taking medication to treat post-natal depression, also arrived in Rome on Thursday for the wedding.

Cruise and Holmes, stalked by paparazzi who are besieging their hotel in central Rome, made their first public appearance in the city late on Wednesday, when they sneaked out with their baby daughter Suri to attend a dinner with the mayor of Rome.