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Date and Issue: February 14, 1984.
RADIANT bride Lynda Carter, beaming misty-eyed through a shower of rose petals, said "I do" and quietly sang a love song to Robert Altman, the man who had won her heart. "It was such a quiet, tender moment I felt goose bumps and a lump in my throat," one wedding guest told the STAR. "Lynda simply turned to Robert and began to sing the love ballad Always."
After the ceremony, held on the grounds of the sprawling Bel Air Bay Club which overlooks the Pacific, Lynda said, "This is the day I have always dreamed of. I am surrounded by the people I love most, and I've just married the most Incredible man in the world. "I never dreamed I could be so happy. We are deeply in love."
Added the guest: "Robert seemed the most affected of all. You could see the love in his eyes as he listened to his new wife go over the lines 'I'll be loving you ... always.' "When Lynda had finished singing, he just went over and quietly held her. They were both laughing and choked up at the same time. It seemed for the moment neither of them could speak. Then everyone spontaneously burst into applause—it was like Linda's singing had cast a spell over everyone there."
Looking stunning in a Bob Mackie floor-length, peach-colored gown trimmed with lace, Lynda stood poised and confident before Rabbi Leonard Bierman who performed the ceremony as she promised to love, honor, and cherish her husband. "It only lasted a few minutes, maybe 10 at the most, but it was beautiful," added another guest. "Lynda never looked more...beautiful — even as a beauty queen — standing there with her five bridesmaids and bouquets of lillies, orchids, hyacinths, lilacs and roses." The 300 guests from the worlds of showbiz and politics said the quiet dignity of the wedding reflected businessman Altman's Washington, D.C., background as a partner in former defense secretary Clark M. Clifford's law firm. Business, in fact, brought Lynda, 32, and Altman, 38, together nearly two years ago while the former Wonder Woman star was awaiting her divorce from the husband and manager Ron Samuels. Describing the dinner party where they met, Lynda told the STAR: He set it up to sit next to me. And we hit it off right away.
After dinner, he offered to drive me home — we were both staying in the same hotel in Memphis. That night, we sat up talking till dawn. And after that, I knew that this was it. I just went crazy and never saw anyone but him."
Altman says he didn't fall in love with Lynda for her fame. Be-fore the fateful dinner party — which began a 3,000-mile dating shuttle — he had never even seen an episode of Wonder Woman.
Clark Clifford was Altman's best man at the wedding, with other political bigwigs — SALT negotiator Paul Warnke and former Kentucky' Governor John Brown and his sportscaster wife Phyllis George — looking on.
But it was Lynda's celebrity guests who got the champagne corks popping over a banquet catered by Wolfgang Puck, owner of Hollywood's hottest nightspot, Spago's. Beaming over the bubbly were Knots Landing's Michelle Lee, CBS executive Bud Grant and friend Linda Fernandez, Cagney and Lacey star Sharon Mess, country singer Barbara Mandrell, talk host Mike Douglas, Valerie (Rhoda) Harper, actress Deborah Baffin with husband Michael Viner, and stunning Loni Anderson, soon to star with Lynda in a new mystery series about ex-wives of a private detective.
Jean Carter, Lynda's mom, was thrilled with her daughter's marriage and hugged her throughoutthe evening. Lynda's brother and sister, Vincent and Pam, flew in from Phoenix. Altman's parents, Norman and Sophie, were there to toast the couple, together with his sisters Susan,, Janet and Nancy.
"Lynda even had her own Las Vegas showband come up and play for us," Said another delighted guest.
"Lynda was a ball of energy making sure everyone enjoyed themselves and thanking all her guests for coming."
After the wedding, the couple left for Lynda's 20-acre ranch in the canyons above Malibu. Said Lynda: "My life has changed since I met Robert. I feel a sense of security with him. "Some people spend an entire lifetime searching for the kind of happiness we've been lucky enough to find in each other."
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