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Where were you when….?

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Come with us as we take a look back over the years at the sudden and tragic deaths of iconic individuals and life altering-events that changed the shape of our popular culture.

Tonight at 10:00pm (UK time) on The History Channel – Diana: The Night She Died

Royal Updates for July 2010.

Prince Albert gets engaged to Charlene Wittstock, and Princess Victoria of Sweden marries her Daniel. What the heck would Diana be like today, had she lived? What’s up with Crown Princess Letizia of Spain? Welcome to the latest edition of RoyaltyNow! Click here to view the latest!

Arriving on Kapiti Island

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The official Maori greeting

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Holding a Kiwi (weka) bird
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Wearing the traditional Kiwi feather cape
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Opening the Supreme Court Building in Wellington
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Flashback: Maoris greet the Queen in 1954 on her first foreign royal tour
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Flashback: 12–30 March 1970: The Queen participated in the James Cook bicentenary celebrations and introduced The Prince of Wales and The Princess Anne to New Zealand. This tour marked the first ‘walk-about’ in a Royal visit.

Her Majesty wears the traditional Kiwi cape
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Prince Philip talking to Maoris

Flashback: April 1983 – Diana visits Gisborne, New Zealand

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It has been reported that Paul Burrell is about to speak out on the Queen Mother’s relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales.

Burrell, the Princess’ former butler, was said to have been disappointed that Diana was barely mentioned in William Shawcross’ official biography ‘Queen Elizabeth: The Queen Mother’.

A so-called ‘insider’ said: “To be fair, if anyone knows what really went on between Diana and the Queen Mother, it’s Paul. The Shawcross book may just force him finally to tell it how it was, as he can’t stand the idea of Diana being ignored in such a way.”

Steve Dennis, however, says otherwise.

Dennis, the ghost writer for Paul Burrell’s books “Remembering Diana” and “A Royal Duty”, has set the record straight.

“FYI, Paul Burrell’s not spilling the beans at all. Don’t so readily trust everything you read,” Dennis told me via Twitter. “I’m his media advisor. Trust me, these articles are inventions.”

So will Burrell be coming out with another yarn to earn a buck, or is he staying silent like Steve Dennis claims? I guess time will tell…

Steve Dennis is also the author of the book Britney: Inside the Dream and has been an on-air contributor on the Fox News Channel.

Love is in the heir for Sweden’s Princess Victoria AND her sister Princess Madeleine. Now Britons are really getting impatient for their own future sovereign to walk down the aisle. Thankfully, they may not have to wait too much longer.

Word on the street is that Kate Middleton has climbed another rung on the royal ladder. The 27-year-old girlfriend of Prince William of Wales is reportedly being taught how to be a “fully-fledged” princess and member of the royal family. This means Kate has moved up a level from “in waiting” to “in training”, indicating that a British royal wedding may not be far away.

We all remember the issues William’s mother Diana, Princess of Wales had when she married into the royal family. Even though she came from an old aristocratic English family, Lady Di could not cope with the pressure. The prince’s aunt, Sarah Ferguson, also struggled to cope when she married Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Sarah could not spend money nor get embroiled in a passionate affair fast enough. The marriage imploded after 6 years.

With these two previous women in mind, the Palace has made darn sure that Kate Middleton will make a smooth transition from commoner to a true princess. She will be the next Queen of England, barring any unforseen tragedies or abdications. Kate needs to be a capable consort, able to fill the Queen Mother’s perfect shoes.

via Monsters and Critics

Nothing screams unnecessary like a photo of a princess being groped.

The Sun newspaper trailed Princess Eugenie of York while she was on her gap year holiday in Thailand. She was wearing a bikini while out on the beaches of Phuket, and the photographers went crazy snapping photo after photo. The result was a Sun headline entitled “They’re Euge!” over a photo of the Queen’s granddaughter having her breasts squeezed by a companion.

It never fails to amaze me how much the media intrudes into private royal life. Yes, being royal means you are a public figure, but sometimes people need some breathing room. A person can’t be “on” at all hours of the day and don’t want a photographer breathing down their necks when taking a rest.

As a feminine version of Robin Hood

Not only do the media show disrespect to royal privacy, but they’re crude about it, too. Are we to blame for the intrusion because of our need for royal news and scandal, or is it the media’s responsibility to walk a reasonable middle ground?

I recently obtained a copy of Kitty Kelley’s book “The Royals” on audio cassette. I’m currently listening to it in the car as I drive, and though some may think me a bit mad to listen to Kelley’s fulmination, I find many things insightful.

Kelley discusses a time when biographer Anthony Holden was writing a book about Prince Charles’ earliest years. Holden’s biography of the prince stated that Princess Elizabeth decided to breast-feed her new baby son rather than let a wet nurse do it. The Prince’s press secretary (at the time of the writing) was aghast when he read this in the manuscript and called Holden at once to admonish him.

“The sentence about breast-feeding must be deleted. Absolutely and at once.” When Holden asked why, the press secretary adamantly stated that “One never mentions the royal breasts,” and that “[...] the royal breasts must never be exposed.”

Both Anthony Holden and Kitty Kelley chuckled about the man being ‘prudish’. So what do the two authors make of The Sun newspaper trailing Princess Eugenie while she frolics in a bikini? Exposing the royal breasts, indeed.

So the press secretary was probably a little too restricted, but people like The Sun’s staff are far too crude and invasive. Will we ever have a middle ground? At this moment, Dutch Prince Willem-Alexander and his Argentine-born wife Princess Maxima are taking The Associated Press to court. They claim the news agency breached the Dutch Mediacode by distributing photos of their recent vacation in Argentina. The Dutch Royals decided to take advantage of the Argentine winter to go on a skiing holiday and catch up with Princess Maxima’s family. They gave the media their time by posing on a beach in Holland with their three daughters. In exchange, the press would leave them alone during their South American trip.

Not pleased

Suffice it to say, that didn’t happen. Now the royal family is in an uproar and there are legal proceedings. The photographers didn’t snap anything risque like the bikini-clad Eugenie, but the invasion was just as unnecessary and disrespectful.

Why can’t a compromise be honored? Think of all the aggravation that  could have been avoided for all parties had the media acquiesced to the simple royal request: take these photos now, then let us have our private time.

Since the days of Diana in the 1980s, the dynamic between photographer and royal subject has become kill or be killed; hunter and hunted. The respect is almost nil, replaced instead by an in-your-face attitude. When will it end?