Forty years ago, the talk of the town in Hollywood was all about Madonna and Sean Penn’s wild beach wedding in Malibu. In August 1985, PEOPLE did a cover story on the Aug. 16 event (Madonna’s 27th birthday; Penn had just turned 25), including details about who was there, what the guests ate and what the bride and groom wore.
Despite a sea of helicopters overhead, security was tight leading up to the ceremony. At the huge wooden gates at real-estate developer Dan Unger’s $6.5 million home, guards oversaw an I.D. check of all who entered, while other security guards armed themselves with infrared binoculars to scan the perimeter for intruders. (They found one interloper, an Italian photographer, who had been hiding in the shrubbery since 1:30 a.m.)
