Marc Anthony weds former Miss Universe in Las Vegas

Thursday, May 11, 2000 | 9:49 a.m.

Puerto Rican pop star Marc Anthony made an overnight stop in Las Vegas to marry former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres in a midnight ceremony at a Strip casino.

After the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards Tuesday in Los Angeles, Anthony, 31, and Torres, 25, hopped a private jet to Las Vegas for the ceremony in a suite at the Desert Inn hotel-casino.

"You could call it spur of the moment," Lilly Rosario, a receptionist at Marc Anthony Productions in New York City, said Wednesday. "We were working here, la, la, la, and get a call, 'Marc wants to get married.' We're still tired."

But Jennifer Nieman, Anthony's publicist, said the singer had secretly been planning the wedding for some time.

"It was a beautiful ceremoney," Nieman said. "They've been engaged seven months, and had joked about getting married this week. Meantime, he was planning this surprise for her."

Twelve friends and family members attended the ceremony.

Anthony and Torres, who was crowned Miss Universe in 1993, will live in Puerto Rico.

Anthony's first salsa album was released in 1993. His third album won a 1999 Grammy for best tropical Latin performance. This year he was nominated for best male pop vocal performance for "I Need to Know," but did not win.