Opinion: Yee-haw, SF Mayor Newsom treks to Montana ranch for next wedding

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Wait, you can’t go to bed without knowing this!

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who’s seriously pondering a run to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger as California’s governor in 2011, got married again today.

The 40-year-old Newsom traveled all the way to Montana, where straight marriages are still legal, to marry actress Jennifer Siebel on her family’s ranchland near Stevensville in the scenic Bitterroot Valley.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and ex-San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown were among the guests who also traveled to Big Sky country for the ceremony by a river on the Siebel family ranch, according to the AP.

It’s the first marriage for Siebel, who is 34 and has appeared in the NBC series ‘Life,’ and the next wedding for Newsom, who divorced Kimberly Guilfoyle 28 months ago.

The newlyweds met around the same time, and Siebel, a Bay Area native who prefers the country setting of Montana, stood by Newsom when he publicly admitted being an alcoholic and having had an affair with a mayoral staff member’s wife. She was also by his side when he was sworn in for a second term last January (see photo).

(UPDATE: Nathan Ballard, Newsom’s communications director, sends the following correction: ‘You wrote that Mayor Newsom ‘publicly admitted being an alcoholic.’ That is not accurate. It is true that in February 2007, the Mayor quit drinking and sought counseling.’)

Because Montana isn’t far enough away from City Hall in San Francisco, the couple will honeymoon in Africa, which is often sunnier.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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