REUTERS AND sapa-afp
Los Angeles
Princess Diana has returned from the grave on the front cover of Newsweek in a picture that imagines her, and her life, as it might have been had she lived to mark her 50th birthday tomorrow.
But the picture and story – which speculates that Diana would have twice remarried, used Botox, and been slightly jealous of new daughter-in-law Kate Middleton – provoked mostly howls of disgust as they arrived on US newsstands the same week that Prince William and his new bride begin an official visit to North America.
“Shocking, brilliant or just plain cheap?” asked the Los Angeles Times. News blog Mediaite.com called it “disrespectful on so many levels”, while The Atlantic Wire ran the headline “How creepy is Princess Diana’s ghost?”.
Newsweek editor-in-chief Tina Brown, a Briton who wrote a gossipy 2007 biography about the late princess, imagines that if Diana had not died in a 1997 Paris car crash, she would have moved to New York, remained “great-looking”, been friends with her ex-husband Prince Charles and his new wife (and Diana’s old nemesis) Camilla, and have 10 million followers on Twitter.
But it’s the digitally enhanced front page photo of Diana – imagining her as still slim and chic, if a little wrinkled – that has caused the biggest outrage. Diana is shown walking alongside a smiling, and admiring, Kate Middleton.
“This is beyond tacky,” commented one writer on the New York Magazine website.
“Ugh this is SO tasteless… let the poor woman RIP… if i were any of her family members i’d be so offended and upset by this,” wrote a woman on the Newsweek comments page. Some others said they were cancelling their subscriptions to the weekly news magazine.
The Newsweek feature also fantasises about Diana’s Facebook page, imagining her “liking” the movie The King’s Speech and the TV series The Real Housewives of New York, hanging out with David and Victoria Beckham, and sending supportive messages to spiritual physician Deepak Chopra and Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei.
But it is her supposed relationship with the new bride of her eldest son, Prince William, where Brown is perhaps most controversial.
“The rising public adoration of Kate would have afforded Diana some tricky moments. Pleased, yes.
“But Diana would have had to adjust to a broadening of the limelight,” Brown writes.
She also speculates that Diana would have been a defender against royal snobbery of Middleton’s non-aristocratic upbringing, “and ostentatiously made Carole Middleton, Kate’s dynamic mother, her new BFF.”
Middleton, now formally known as the Duchess of Cambridge, and William were expected to arrive in Canada today for their first official visit overseas as a married couple.
Travelling by landau coach, frigate and seaplane, William and Catherine’s first official foreign trip will be casual and action-packed with military displays, a cooking class, tribal games and a rodeo.
But it will also mark a first real test for the newest member of Britain’s royal family, a sort of initiation for the Duchess of Cambridge, and training for both a future king and queen of England.
The young couple, whose April 29 wedding was watched on television by 2 billion people around the world, were expected to arrive in Ottawa today for the start of the nine-day tour of Canada.
Thousands of cameras are expected to follow their every move in the country until July 7.
William, second in line of succession to the British throne, already has plenty of experience carrying out royal duties. But his wife, the duchess, is still a rookie in the public eye.
William is scheduled to give at least four speeches during his visit, but Catherine is only to be seen, not heard – in accordance with protocol.
Modest, the duchess will not be accompanied by a wardrobe assistant on the trip, only a hairdresser, and she will pack nearly 40 gowns for public events, according to British media.
Given the couple’s age – 29 years – the Canadian government tried to organise a schedule that “balances” official events with fun, and of course includes a bit of alone time for the newlyweds, said organisers and their private secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton.
Quebec anti-monarchists have also added their own event to the royal itinerary, calling for protests when the couple stop in Quebec City on Sunday.
William and Catherine are very likable, the anti-monarchists said, but are being used by Ottawa to give the world a false impression that Quebec’s separatist movement has faded away and its members accept being part of a Canadian federation dominated by Anglo-Saxons.
But the protesters are unlikely to succeed in disrupting the trip like they did in Montreal in 2009 when William’s father, Prince Charles, last visited, as security has been stepped up for the upcoming royal visit.
Rather, officials hope Quebecers will join William and Catherine in “having fun”, starting with a celebration of Canada’s national holiday in Ottawa tomorrow with musical guests, and capping their visit with a rodeo in Calgary.
The Canadian military will also be taking part in festivities.
After taking a cooking class in Montreal, William and Catherine will travel aboard a navy frigate to Quebec City, and meet members of the largest regiment in the Canadian Forces, the francophone Royal 22nd Regiment.
William will also take part in coast guard rescue exercises from a Sea King helicopter, which he trained on during his military service in Britain.
Finally, the couple will travel to Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories for aboriginal sports and traditional dancing, before heading to Calgary for the Stampede rodeo.
Just prior to this last stop in Canada, they are also expected to sneak away on a romantic getaway to a secluded (and undisclosed) location in the Rocky Mountains for a day and night. After wrapping up their tour to Canada, where Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is head of state, the couple will travel to California for three days, from July 8-10.
The highlight will be a black-tie celebrity reception for British filmmakers in Los Angeles.
l Brown, 57, also carries the title Lady Evans. She was born in Britain and moved to the US in 1984 to edit Vanity Fair. She had previously been editor-in-chief of Tatler magazine, but rose to prominence in the media industry in America, leaving Vanity Fair in 1992 to edit The New Yorker for six years.
– Additional reporting by a staff reporter