Sarah:
I see your point about the post-Diana yearning for sellable cover photos, although in fairness I suspect People magazine yearns for her at least as much as any British publication. My sense of the Blue Peter story was that the British are not yet as jaded about cocaine use among prominent people as we are–but obviously you’re right, that a minor celebrity is better than none.
I’ve been watching with some interest (not great interest) the puffing up of Prince Charles in the press even the once-hostile press. I’ve always felt a little sorry for him–perhaps because he’s only a year older than me so I watched him grow up as a contemporary. He’s a strange but not unintelligent man trapped in a life that gives him no acceptable outlet for any but the most trivial interests. Granted, there is plenty of reason to feel sorry for Diana too and for the kind of marriage she found herself trapped in. But, as the Telegraph and the Mail rather too smugly point out, she’s gone now and he doesn’t have to worry about her making a fuss about his relationship with Camilla. The rehabilitation effort is quite amazing, very transparent, and apparently successful. Which I guess reverses the usual order of living by the media and dying by it.
Speaking of creative use of pictures, I saw this morning a group of cheesecake pictures of Prince Andrew’s current girlfriend–taken in 1988 when she was competing in a beauty contest.
More tomorrow.
Alan
