Is Italy wedding "Mission: Impossible" for Cruise?

A view of the Odescalchi castle at Bracciano, north of Rome, November 9, 2006.

A romantic Italian wedding for Hollywood hunk Tom Cruise and actress Katie Holmes might be a "Mission: Impossible", according to local officials. The priest with jurisdiction over the dreamy lakeside castle tipped as the chosen location for the wedding says his parish won't marry Cruise and the mayor says she can't because the couple haven't done the official paperwork.

The small Italian town of Bracciano has been swimming with picture-snapping paparazzi since Il Messaggero newspaper reported that Castello Odescalchi in the town was chosen by the couple for their wedding later this month.

But rules laid down by the local bureaucracy and the Roman Catholic Church appear to be a lot tougher than any of the macho super secret spies who Cruise's character regularly defeats in the "Mission: Impossible" movies.

Mayor Patrizia Riccioni told Reuters she would like the wedding to take place, but that it was unlikely any celebration would be blessed with state recognition given that the couple have not provided the official documentation needed.

"I don't think it will be legal," she said. "On an Italian level, there are papers and documents that we certainly don't have (for a wedding)."

Cruise and Holmes announced in October that they would marry on November 18 in Italy, with Giorgio Armani designing Holmes' gown.

Holmes' parents are both Roman Catholics and one Italian newspaper wrote that the twice-divorced Cruise, a devout Scientologist, wanted to have a legally binding Catholic ceremony in Bracciano's imposing castle.

An electrician in Bracciano fed the media-frenzy on Thursday, when he told Italian television that the princess whose family owns Castello Odescalchi had ordered him to rewire part of the castle ahead of the Cruise-Holmes ceremony.