> For a while this year the British Royal Family was forgiven for all >of its misdeeds. Prince Charles went public with his consort, introducing >Camilla to the Queen after a summer where she was his constant companion. >She also spent much time with the princes-along with Charles who was >working PR to be portrayed as a good father, from disciplining Harry for >smoking dope, to giving William polo lessons, to attending parents days at >Eton and taking them fishing in Scotland.>>There were other indications that Charles and Company were recovering well from >the death of the popular blonde at the hands of drunken chauffeurs. For >example, for the first time in years, the Italian gutter press no longer >calls Charles Tamponcino and the London dailies take his organic gardening >and jeremiads against contemporary architecture seriously. This is a shame >really because offering to be Lady Parker Bowles tampon was among the most >romantic things a member of the Royal Family had uttered ever, and his >pronouncements about buildings resembling carbuncles need to be mocked, >mostly because he used the word carbuncles.>> That said, it wasn¡¯t only Charles who got the media love, the Queen did >not suffer the indignity of punk anarchy during her jubilee, like she >suffered for her twenty-fifth. What she did get was a series of concerts, >including one featuring "hard rockers", including a drug addled Ozzy >Osbourne. There was also the wonder sons, the most English monarchs in >line for the throne for centuries, who are threatening to date Pop Stars >and going to London clubs with cocaine on the table- all around, the >Windsor¡¯s seem to have loosened up and become popular. The scandals under control, and the queen being treated as the great colonial nana was refreshing for her, but truly dull for the rest of us. >Which is why it was so refreshing to have Paul Burrell start talking, this was the man who was >Diana¡¯s servant and "rock", who cried loyally at her funeral. He was charged >recently for stealing dozens of items ranging from the banal to the intensely >personal. Between being forced to testify by the courts and being >encouraged with a six-figure pay off to spill by the Tabloid Daily Mirror- >whole epics of scandal have been unearthed.>>The Oprahfied therapeutic confessions of victim hood that Diana specialized >in, the moping and weeping and gnashing of teeth, the awkward confessions >of adultery, bulimia and self-harm have been extended way past the operatic into camp. What Mr. Burrell told about the royal family is brilliant because it¡¯s new, and because it shows how hermetic those who lead us is. For example, Diana pretended to be an American with the name Ms. Armani so that she could date a prominent Anglo-Arab heart surgeon. These dates included having the gentleman smuggled into Kensington Palace and meeting him while clad only in furs and diamonds. The discussion of this Arab in British papers concentrated heavily on his race, as did the discussion of Dodi al-Fayed. Diana was good at photo-ops with the worlds disenfranchised, concentrating on them as an effective tool to win her battle against the Windsor¡¯s. It seemed ok to use Arabs as tools in an extensive campaign of her public image, but not okay to use them in bed. To make sure that it is not only a racial other included; there are other >stories of what the butler saw, mostly about what he saw about himself. >Apparently he and most of the staff enjoyed buggery greatly. Which isn¡¯t a surprise, really, it¡¯s been the most popular sport among upper class boarding schools- though cricket comes a close second. Depending on whose reports you believe, the incidents of homosex in and some shenanigans in Burrell¡¯s native Australia. And Burrell awkwardly portioning a prominent just out of the closet television presenter, There are also things that he told second hand, or gossip that has arisen from this new crisis just because it seems to be the right time. For example the he crew and some servants watching queer porn on the royal yacht, Britannia the anal rape of a servant by another servant- a rape that apparently everybody in the Court new from the queen on down to Scotland Yard. And then there is the fun stuff to do with the royals themselves For example Prince Andrew being caught receiving oral favours from a footman.So the Butler was apparently insatiable, the princess fucked outside her >race and station, and some of the Windsor¡¯s and their hangers on like to fuck ass, sometimes with out consent. What is the point of us caring about this? Aside from the >pleasures of schadenfreude, there are archetypal elements- the unhappy >princess is a required element in every fairy tale, and we expect racism >and exoticism from the ruling classes. There is the hope in the heart of >every Republican that this may be the latest scandal to break the royal >family but they¡¯ve lived through Oliver Cromwell and they will survive >this. Perhaps the fascination is just a fascination with scandal, a proof >that those in power are more insane and inbreeds then your average trailer >trash.