No, it's not a scene from an Indiana Jones movie or some hip-hop music video.
The Oriental potentate in the pic is the real-life Crown Prince of Brunei with his Swiss-born wife, a commoner, at their wedding service. The pièce de résistance in the bling department is, you'll note, the "bouquet" of gold and diamonds.
And it was a beautiful wedding!
And why not, for the Crown Prince? His father, the Sultan of Brunei, a small moslem country on the island of Borneo, is one of the richest men in the world (up there with Warren Buffet and Bill Gates).
Although officially Moslem, the country includes 15% indigenous religions, 14% Buddhist, and 8% Christian. President Bush has praised Brunei's "long tradition of religious tolerance." These are good guys.
There's a couple of other good guy places where Islam is out of the 7th century....but only a few. Anybody seen Herb Meyer's "The Siege of Western Civilization"?
For a moment, I thought that was the Reverend and Mrs. Moon.
I think we should send Dan Rather a pair of those purple jammies for when he retires from the-network-too-evil-to-be-named.
The building where the ceremony took place looks like a mega-version of the EWTN chapel.
If I were holding a bouquet of gold and diamonds I could look a little more happy. Or at least be smirking at the absurdity of it all...