Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sanchez Wedding: Protests Erupt in Venice Ahead of ‘I Dos’

The final countdown is on to Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s epic Italian wedding! 

The nuptials are set for later this week, and nothing’s too lavish for Amazon CEO Bezos, who’s worth $224 billion! 

But the “I dos” don’t come without a bit of controversy. Green Peace demonstrators unfurled a giant banner in Venice’s St. Mark’s Square with a photo of Jeff laughing that reads, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax.”

Other posters have also gone up that say, “No space for Bezos.”

Today, the wedding planners sent “Extra” a statement that said, in part, “From the outset, instructions from our client and our own guiding principles were abundantly clear: the minimising of any disruption to the city, the respect for its residents and institutions and the overwhelming employment of locals in the crafting of the events. Rumours of ‘taking over’ the city are entirely false and diametrically opposed to our goals and to reality. No exaggerated quantity of water taxis or gondolas have ever been booked, the number of taxis reserved being proportionate for the number of guests. Before the recent news of protests arose, we had worked for there to be minimal negative impact or disruption to the lives of Venetians and the city’s visitors.”

While tourists are already flocking to the area in hopes of getting a glimpse of the couple and their famous guests the mayor of Venice spoke out saying he is welcoming Jeff and Lauren with open arms.

Those famous guests include stars like Oprah, Gayle King, Leonardo Di Caprio, Eva Longoria, Kim Kardashian and others.

“Extra’s” Billy Bush caught up with Lauren, a former correspondent for our show, in September, while she was promoting her children’s book “The Fly Who Flew to Space”

She said at the time, “I'm really excited about [the wedding]. I’ve been focusing on the book, obviously. Get to the wedding soon.”