The Independent: btw: “The royal wedding in Brunei was quite a spectacle”: “The Asian wing of Royal Dutch Shell allegedly bunged in 500,000 Brunei dollars (about pounds 160,000)” (ShellNews.net)

JOHN WALSH

Sep 11, 2004

The royal wedding in Brunei was quite a spectacle (the one-ton chandeliers each the size of the mother ship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind; the happy couple's matching his'n'hers blue brocade outfits; the bride's bouquet of diamonds and gold; the elderly, black-clad crones of honour), but what is really interesting is the rumour that the event was sponsored. Not by Hello! magazine (puh-lease - we are not Anthea Turner), but by local businesses.

The Asian wing of Royal Dutch Shell allegedly bunged in 500,000 Brunei dollars (about pounds 160,000), the gas company Brunei LNG a similar sum, and a firm called Goh Hock Kee also reportedly threw in a few quid. The last-named is a local car dealer. What would have been in it for them? Will they be official car salesmen to Asian royalty from now on? Were they responsible for the customised, canopied, gold Rolls-Royce that drove the happy couple five miles in the pouring rain? Can there be many other people in the world who'd want one of those?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=560054