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At a party celebrating the 75th anniversary of Maxim's in Paris, Diva Maria Callas was reported to have remarked: "She did well, Jacqueline, to give a grandfather to her children." A Boston matron icily charged that "Jackie has made the Gabor sisters look like ladies." A few commentators were still disproportionately distressed, like the Italian columnist for L'Espresso who painted Onassis as "this grizzled satrap, with his liver-colored skin, thick hair, fleshy nose, the wide horsy grin, who buys an island and then has it removed from all the maps to prevent the landing of castaways." It was left to Novelist Gore Vidal, no admirer of the Kennedys, to deliver the week's most understated attack on the marriage: "I can only give you two words: Highly suitable."
Aristotle Onassis, who is vain about his public image, came in for a great deal of vitriol. But Hughes Rudd, commenting on CBS News' 60 Minutes, defended him. "The question of his being a Greek had nothing to do with it at all, of course: Prince Philip is actually of Greek descent, but as London cabbies are fond of saying, 'He's not one of your restaurant Greeks.' Well, neither is Mr. Onassis one of your restaurant Greeks. He's one of your shipping-millionaire Greeks, and he sounds a lot more fun than Prince Philip." In Paris, Liz Taylor agreed. "Have you ever met him?" she challenged critics of the match. "Well, then stop all this nonsense. He is the most charming, the most appealing, the kindest man around. He is one of the most considerate people I know."
Of course, he is even richer than he is considerate. Some observers suggested, neither unkindly nor jokingly, that even a woman as comfortably fixed as Jackie Kennedy might more easily continue to live in her accustomed style as the wife of one of the world's richest men. Though Jackie obviously opted out of U.S. politics by her marriage to Onassis, the Kennedy name refused to leave the chapel when the wedding vows were made; her two children will continue to bear John Kennedy's name. Said a foreign ambassador in Athens: "I am convinced that she married him to secure the financing of John-John's presidential campaign in 1983."
The ceremony that joined the pair was almost self-consciously modest. Rain, considered a blessing by the Greeks, had descended like a grey benediction across the Onassis-owned island of Skorpios. In the tiny chapel, Jackie stood quietly—almost in a daze—in her beige chiffon-and-lace dress, Ari in his dark blue business suit. John and Car oline, each carrying a single tall white candle, flanked them. As Archimandrite Polykarpos Athanassion intoned the solemn Greek of the nuptial liturgy, Jackie and Ari exchanged rings and wreaths of lemon blossoms, and drank wine from a single chalice. Then the priest led them round a table three times in the ritual dance of Isaiah. Traditionally in the dance, one of the newlyweds steps on his (or her) partner's foot to signify who will command in the marriage. None of the 25 guests admitted seeing such one-foot-upmanship.