Royal sells wedding pics
2008-05-16 11:35
London - There are certain rules of conduct for a British monarch. Do your duty, wave and smile graciously - and don't get too close to the press.
In more than five decades as Britain's sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II has never given an interview.
Not so for her eldest grandson, who not only spoke to a reporter but sold the story of his upcoming nuptials to a celebrity magazine for a sum reported at up to £500 000.
The 20-page spread in Hello! magazine featuring 11th in line to the throne Peter Phillips and his fiancée, Autumn Kelly, reflects a generational sea change in relations between the royal family and the media.
"The older generation largely took the line that the media was to be dealt with at arm's length," said Patrick Jephson, former private secretary to Princess Diana.
"The younger generation of royals has grown up with the media, regards it as an asset to be tapped when it wants and a nuisance to be shooed away when it doesn't," he added, "Of course, that's an impossible task."
In the past two decades, relations between the monarchy and the media have evolved from simple deference to complex symbiosis.
The popular and photogenic Diana was a pioneer at courting the press, largely as a way of fighting back against a family she believed was victimising her.
The 1995 television interview in which she discussed intimate details of her faltering marriage caused a sensation.
Spin doctors
Her ex, Prince Charles, later hired spin doctors to help him wage a media campaign to win approval for his new wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles.
The youngest generation of royals, led by Prince William and Prince Harry, appear regularly in tabloid newspapers and celebrity magazines.
The latest issue of Hello! features an interview with 19-year-old Princess Beatrice, as well as pictures of Harry receiving a medal for his military service in Afghanistan.
But Phillips, who is due to marry Montreal-born Kelly on Saturday in a private ceremony at Windsor Castle, has gone even farther by accepting money for allowing Hello! to photograph him and his betrothed at their country cottage.
Phillips and his sister, Zara, have always seemed the least royal of the royals. They have careers - Zara is a world-class equestrian; Peter works for the Royal Bank of Scotland - and are the only ones among the queen's eight grandchildren not to hold royal titles.
Their mother, Princess Anne, turned down the queen's offer of the honours for her children. Anne and their father, commoner Mark Phillips, divorced in 1992.
'Self-promotion is tacky'
Zara became the first royal paid to appear in an advertisement when she starred in a 2006 campaign for Land Rover, and recently appeared in GQ magazine holding a diamond-studded whip.
Some royal watchers consider this level of self-promotion tacky. But others say it is a canny move that has boosted the royal family's popularity.
"The new commercialism may leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth of some traditional monarchists," wrote Andrew Pierce in the Daily Telegraph.
But, he added, "by and large, the new faces have manipulated the worlds of media and commerce with a degree of restraint - and success - that some of their elders could learn from."
Media coverage is a double-edged sword, however.
Just ask Prince Harry, who recently basked in the tabloids' patriotic glow after serving on the front lines in Afghanistan. The positive coverage made a change from past stories, which saw the "party prince" scuffling with photographers outside a nightclub, consorting with strippers and dressing as a Nazi for a costume party.
Phillips and Kelly, both 30, have had a mild dose of that media attention since they announced their engagement last year.
Digging for scandals
A few columnists criticised Kelly for giving up her Roman Catholic faith and joining the Anglican church before the wedding.
Under Britain's 1701 Act of Settlement, heirs to the throne who marry Catholics cannot become sovereigns.
Britain's tabloids did a bit of digging into the bride's background, although the closest they could come to scandal is an uncle who once ran a strip club in Moncton, New Brunswick.
So far, so good. But Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine, said that media interest, once awakened, might be hard to shake off.
"Peter Phillips has always been very circumspect about publicity," she said. "He has had a very low profile and it has always suited him. But now he has put his head above the parapet."
- AP