August Annotations

‘Fergie’

The band ‘Massive Attack’ apparently embarassed the life out of Our Lady of The Chat at the MTV Europe Awards.

Sarah Ferguson, former Duchess of York, presented an award to ‘Massive Attack’ as she blundered her way through her lines. At the end, the band apparently refused point blank to shake her hand, leaving poor Fergie flabbergasted. And according to reports, one of the band said ‘F*** you very much,’ as they departed from the stage.

Now, call me obvious, but I don’t believe that was a fun moment for Sarah.
Going back through her track record, however, it seems that she has proven time and again that she is someone who is completely unembarassed by just about everything. This situation might have been a little rough though. It would have been for anyone!

This raises the questions: is Sarah Ferguson that desparate to look hip and contemporary and ‘common’? Or is it the money she needs? After all, ‘The Duchess of York’ is quite a lofty title and can generate much money if the need arises. Fergie is a master at this; watching her in action over the years puts Donald Trump to shame.

Her title also gathers her a little bit of deference from people, especially if she is here in America. It can get her whatever she wants. But if you are an American like me, a staunch monarchist, you are unimpressed by her and are certainly quite disgusted by the blatant lack of respect shown this title by its holder. Although stripped of ‘HRH’, she still does far too much damage to ‘Duchess of York’. Just because you can sometimes get what you want doesn’t mean you should actually go ahead and do it. If this title is Fergie’s calling card, then she needs to tone down her actions and chosen activities. A LOT. I can see a little society life, her Budgie books, and maybe promoting charities. This is something that would befit her status as a duchess who is still within the royal world by way of her ex-husband and daughters. But television commercials for cranberry juice?? And now a chat show?? As with the MTV Europe Awards, Fergie is just making a bigger and bigger embarassment out of herself. Activities such as these should be declared off-limits.

Sarah is doing much the same thing Diana did. A member of Diana’s household tried to justify her post-marriage lifestyle by saying that ‘She [Diana] is now a divorced woman and it’s her life.’ As in, she can do what she wants, leave her alone. This would be true if speaking about a regular woman, but when your son is to be the future King and you still hold the courtesy of being Princess of Wales, you need to think twice.

Diana was stripped of ‘HRH’ like Fergie, and was referred to thereafter as ‘Diana, Princess of Wales’. If her mother-in-law is gracious enough to allow her that, I would like to think she would show more respect to the position. She didn’t. And Miss Ferguson is still following the path of disrespect, carrying on where Diana left off. Divorce means some semblance of freedom, but if you are still allowed a title and a home within royal grounds, then you need to respect that. You still have a position to maintain. If you cannot restrain yourself, then you must accept the fact that your title should go.

Now there’s a scary thought for someone who has built herself entirely on that one thing. Can she not go on as regular Sarah Margaret Ferguson? Her chat show is called ‘Fergie’, so perhaps the lack of her royal name-dropping in the title is a sign that she may leave her ‘calling card’ behind. We can only hope.

©2002 Mandy’s British Royalty”