Sajak to Solve Marriage Puzzle With ‘I’ and ‘DO’

“Wheel” watchers, break out the rice. This is the weekend that game show and talk show host Pat Sajak exchanges vowels--whoops, we meant vows--with fiancee Lesly Brown.

Brown, a former Miss Georgetown who appeared in Playboy magazine’s “Women of Washington” feature last year, isn’t revealing too many details about the New Year’s Eve nuptials at St. Mary’s Church in Annapolis, Md.

“We want it to come out when it comes out,” says the 24-year-old bride-to-be, who met the “Wheel of Fortune” host last year at the celebrity opening of Champions Sports Bar and Restaurant in Irvine.

Where it will all come out is in People magazine, granted exclusive rights to the whole shebang--night church service and all.

Yes, letter-turner extraordinaire Vanna White, one of Sajak’s closest friends, is scheduled to be there. But don’t look for any other celebrities. “There won’t be a whole Hollywood entourage,” said Paula Askanas, a publicist for CBS.

Still, those invited to the wedding and the reception to follow at Brown’s parents’ home in Gambrills, Md., are wondering who they might be sipping champagne next to. “We’re all dying!” says Nance Hauswald, owner of a casting agency in Baltimore and one of Brown’s longtime friends. She noted that the wedding invitations requested “no cameras, please.”

Even at St. Mary’s Church, where Redskins quarterback Mark Rypien was married two years ago and where stars such as Ann Jillian and Olivia de Havilland have paid visits, folks are abuzz about the celebrity wedding. “But we probably won’t be able to see anything; there will be so much security,” a church receptionist said.

Indeed, if the 42-year-old wheel-spinner isn’t bringing an entourage of celebs, he’s said to be bringing a large contingent of West Coast security to stand guard along with off-duty Annapolis police. Only those who present invitations--and People magazine, of course--will be admitted.

The service is scheduled to be performed by the Rev. John Murray, who has met with the couple several times, according to a parish employee. It will be a short wedding ceremony rather than a full nuptial Mass.

“It’s going to be a fun New Year’s,” says Michael O’Harro, owner of the Washington-based Champions restaurant chain who’s credited with getting the couple together and is invited to the festivities. “I was looking for a good party.”