Clintons at Chelsea guests' pre-wed bash

RHINEBECK, N.Y., July 31 (UPI) -- Bill and Hillary Clinton appeared at a Rhinebeck, N.Y., hotel hosting many of their daughter Chelsea Clinton's wedding guests late Friday night.

The Clintons arrived in a black GMC van around 10:45 p.m. EDT, waved arm-in-arm to cameras and cheering crowds kept behind wooden police barricades, and then went quickly into the 244-year-old Beekman Arms through a side door.

The former U.S. first lady wore a long-sleeve, full-length, green-and-black chiffon gown. The former U.S. president wore a dark-blue sport coat, gray pants and a light-blue shirt.

They left the hotel about 50 minutes later, their van leading a motorcade of black Chevrolet Suburban and Range Rover sport utility vehicles.

Among the guests seen outside the Beekman Arms walking past security were Madeleine Albright, U.S. secretary of state during President Clinton's second term, longtime Clinton adviser Vernon Jordan and Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

Chelsea Clinton, 30 -- set to wed investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, 32, at Rhinebeck's palatial Astor Courts estate overlooking the Hudson River 6 p.m. Saturday -- was not spotted by United Press International outside the hotel.

A wedding party source told UPI the bride-to-be spent the night with friends after her rehearsal dinner for a smaller group of guests at Rhinebeck's avant-garde inland Grasmere Estate.

The press, like the public, was kept across the street from the hotel.

Few details about the wedding have been made public, other than that as many as 500 guests, including TV talk show magnate Oprah Winfrey, were expected to attend.