"The wedding party took over a highly regarded island restaurant, the Chanticleer Inn, where every place setting was decorated with a tiny bottle of Heinz ketchup," the paper revealed.

According to a witness interviewed by the Times, Heinz Kerry's son Chris opened one of the ketchup bottles and "daubed Mr. Kerry on the forehead with ketchup, to welcome him into the family and its tomato-based fortune."

In another bizarre twist that would foreshadow some of presidential candidate Kerry's image problems nine years later, the entertainment for the evening featured a band called "The French Millionaires."

In its Sunday report, the Times explored other never-before-reported aspects of Kerry's opulent lifestyle.

The walls of the Heinz Kerrys' mansions in Boston and Washington, for instance, feature a collection of paintings from the 17th century that are "so precious that the insurance company asks that the artwork not be photographed."

At least two of the would-be first family's homes were decorated by Mark Hampton, designer to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Estée Lauder and the late Democrat doyenne Pamela Harriman.

When the Heinz Kerrys reside at their Idaho mansion - one of five the two can choose from - they count as their next door neighbor fellow billionaire George Soros, who has helped bankroll Kerry's presidential campaign with a $15 million donation to the pro-Kerry 527 group MoveOn.org.

His wife's fortune has enabled the presidential candidate to indulge his jet-set tastes, buying "a number of boats over the years," including a 42-foot Little Harbor power yacht, purchased for about $500,000.

The Times says the Kerry cruiser sleeps only two, though cabin cruisers half that size routinely sleep four.

When he's on the water, Kerry sometimes likes to relive his days as a Swift Boat commander in Vietnam.

According to a guest on one Kerry cruise, the Massachusetts Democrat "took the throttle up to full speed" and turned up the boat's stereo system, shouting, "Check it out!"

Suddenly Richard Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries" was blasting from the boat's speakers - the same sequence played by Robert Duvall's character in the Vietnam War movie "Apocalypse Now."

"A broad grin" lit up Kerry's face as he relived the wartime scene, the guest said.

The Heinz Kerrys have taken great pains to keep revelations like that one out of the press, going so far as to require the household staffs at their five homes to promise in writing to stay silent.

The Times reports:

"Some of the people who work for Ms. Heinz Kerry, including a caterer who often cooks for her and the caretaker of her Idaho house, said they had signed confidentiality agreements barring them from disclosing details about their employer."

The media ban apparently extends to family friends, who, the Times said, "declined to answer questions about the way Ms. Heinz Kerry and her husband live, saying they feared the details could give the wrong impression."

Editor's note: