Joan's man to marry in a kilt

What Joan Collins will be wearing when she marries in London this weekend is a closely guarded secret known only to the actress and her dress designer.

What her husband-to-be, 36-year-old Percy Gibson, will be wearing was also a secret. Until now.

The theatre company manager from Peru has decided against Hollywood glitz or an English morning suit in favour of something rather surprising. "I do not have a tailor for the wedding because I will be wearing my kilt," he told the Evening Standard today. "I have my own tartan."

While Lima-born Mr Gibson is the son of a Latin American playboy, he is also half-Scottish, and will wear the tartan of the Monaghan clan when he takes Miss Collins as his wife.

Mr Gibson, or to give him his full name, Percy Jorge Gibson Miguel Monaghan Mueller Parra del Riego, has the right to wear the green, brown and mustard-coloured tartan, originally worn by the Irish Monaghans, thanks to his mother, Irish-Scottish teacher Bridget Monaghan.

Miss Monaghan, the daughter of a railway worker, spent the first 42 years of her life in Glasgow, living with her mother and railway worker father. But her life changed dramatically when she moved to Peru to teach and fell in love with an aristocratic Peruvian eight years her senior. The swarthily handsome Jorge quickly swept her off her feet and she became pregnant soon after they began an affair.

"They married to give Percy a name," said Cynthia Bauer, the first wife of Mr Gibson Jnr, who is bitter about being replaced by the 68-yearold multi-millionaire actress. "But they weren't happy at all."

Mr Gibson Snr, an alcoholic chain smoker, died in 1990, leaving his wife virtually penniless. The younger Mr Gibson transferred the deeds of the ancestral home to his name and sold it for £150,000. Half the money went to the lawyer and half to his mother, but the move left him unpopular with the rest of his family.

Mr Gibson Jnr, his mother, and his young bride Cynthia moved to New York, taking out US citizenship. It was in America nearly two years ago that he met and wooed Miss Collins, after working on a play that she was starring in.

Mrs Gibson, who at 76 is eight years older than Miss Collins, is expected to fly from Glasgow, where she again lives, for the wedding.

As well as sporting his ancestral tartan, Mr Gibson has also asked the Queen's piper, Glaswegian Jim Motherwell, to provide the music.