TV's Messing, Feminist Steinem Tie the Knot

ByABC News
September 7, 2000, 1:56 PM

September 6 -- Will & Grace star Debra Messing, who's up for an Emmy this year for her role in the madcap NBC comedy, tied the knot Sunday with screenwriter Daniel Zelman.

The ceremony was held at a grove near Santa Barbara, Calif., according to the Associated Press, with the bride in Vera Wang and the groom in Hugo Boss. The couple spent their wedding night at Bacara Resort which had been incorrectly rumored to be the site of the upcoming nuptials of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas.

Messing, 32, and Zelman, 33, met nearly a decade ago at New York University and got engaged in 1998. It's the first marriage for both.

The newlyweds are honeymooning at an undisclosed location. It's not known whether Messing, who's competing for the Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy, will be back in time to attend Sunday's Emmy ceremony in Los Angeles.

Feminist Steinem Says 'I Do'Actor Christian Bale has a new stepmother: feminist icon Gloria Steinem. The 66-year-old founder of Ms. Magazine, who coined the phrase "a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle," married David Bale, 61, at a ceremony in rural Oklahoma on Sunday, People reports.

According to the New York Daily News, Wilma Mankiller, the former principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, hosted the sunrise ceremony at her home.

Actress Kathy Najimy, Steinem's pal, told the Daily News that the part-Cherokee, part-civil ceremony was "very spiritual, joyous, equal, and respectful, [just] what you would think Gloria's ceremony would be. A lot of blessings and burning things." Any bras in that bonfire, Gloria?

Steinem issued a statement explaining her marriage about-face: "Though I've worked many years to make marriage more equal, I never expected to take advantage of it myself. I'm happy, surprised, and one day will write about it, but for now, I hope this proves what feminists have always said: That feminism is about the ability to choose what's right at each time of our lives."

The South Africa-born Bale, whose activism against apartheid and for animal rights no doubt endeared him to the longtime feminist, met Steinem a year ago at a Los Angeles benefit for Voters for Choice, a political action committee she co-founded.