Duke and Duchess visit Royal Marsden Hospital (official video)
Film-maker plans Princess Diana biopic
Note: This article is from the Guardian.
This article titled “Film-maker plans Diana biopic” was written by Andrew Pulver, for The Guardian on Tuesday 4th October 2011 19.18 UTCSince her death in 1997, there have been a string of forgettable biopics, but now the first big-budget film telling the story of Diana, Princess of Wales is on the way, according to a report in Screen Daily.
Producer Stephen Evans, whose previous credits include The Madness of King George and The Wings of the Dove, is planning a m film about the princess, and has hired Ken Wharfe, Diana’s former head of private security, and her former private secretary, Commander Patrick Jephson, to provide authenticity. No one has yet been cast in the lead role, nor has a director been attached, but Evans has commissioned a script from crime novelist Philip Kerr.
Evans describes Diana as “a wagonload of monkeys but she was also an amazing, fascinating, ballsy woman”. He goes on to say: “You don’t often get a movie like this where you know, that if you can make it work, it is bomb proof.”
The project has been in development for two years, and apparently will focus on the difficult period of her life during her marriage to Prince Charles and their subsequent divorce in 1996 – but will not tackle her relationship with Dodi al-Fayed.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
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Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress draws record visitors to palace
Note: This article is from the Guardian.
Royal wedding fever brought record numbers of visitors to the summer opening of Buckingham Palace. When the doors closed on Monday night, 600,000 people – an increase of almost 50% on the previous year – had queued for hours to see the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress.
The numbers smashed the previous record of 420,000 visitors in 1994, the year Buckingham Palace first opened to the public to help pay for restoration work after the fire at Windsor Castle. The money – £18 a head for adults with many buying the £31.95 ticket covering the royal mews and Queen’s gallery – now goes towards maintaining the Royal Collection buildings and works of art. The palace was open for longer – 73 days rather than 67 – but extra timeslots had to be added to cope with the demand.
A display of the royal Fabergé collection had been intended to be the star attraction this year, but as soon as the wedding was announced and worldwide media hysteria broke out, it was clear what the real draw would be. In the event, visitors shuffled politely past Queen Alexandra’s sapphire-eyed model dormouse and King Edward’s jasper and gold Chelsea pensioner to give them plenty of time to study every intricate flounce and embroidery of the dress designed by Sarah Burtonof Alexander McQueen.
The special exhibitions for the summer opening are usually mounted in one of the more modest of the state rooms: the dress needed its own enormous dais in the centre of the vast ballroom while giant reproductions of wedding photographs of the family groups and the happy couple dominated the throne room.
The other royal palaces open to visitors also benefited from the effect: Windsor had 680,000 visitors between April and September, the highest number in five years, and Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh 152,000.
“We’ve enjoyed welcoming visitors from all over the world to Buckingham Palace in record numbers this summer – it has been an incredibly busy few months and we’re delighted that it’s been such a huge success,” a spokeswoman for the Royal Collection said.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
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Wootton Bassett asks for public help to pay for royal naming ceremony
NOTE: This article is from the Guardian.
Wootton Bassett has appealed for help in funding an event that will bestow royal status on the town for the manner in which it has honoured fallen service personnel.
It will cost the Wiltshire town about £65,000 to host ceremony and celebrations that Princess Anne is due to attend on Sunday October 16. The town council is reluctant to pass the cost on to council taxpayers so is asking members of the public throughout Britain for financial aid.
North Wiltshire MP James Gray said he believed the event would be a “dignified and enjoyable day”. He added: “I very much applaud the town council’s determination to try to break even and to avoid additional costs to council taxpayers for the day but, at the same time, I feel that the day has to be one which the town, and indeed the nation as a whole, will remember with pride for years to come.
“I understand that the costs on the day for such things as temporary park and rides, crowd control and television screens will be in the order of £65,000 and I very much hope that there may be people from across Britain who would want to make a contribution towards such costs so that the efforts of the people of Wootton Bassett can be recognised in a fitting way.”
Wootton Bassett became a focus for the nation’s grief at the height of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Crowds lined the high street, often joining families of the men and women who had been killed, to bear witness to the return of the bodies after they were repatriated through nearby RAF Lyneham. Repatriations have now switched to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
Earlier this year, the prime minister announced that Bassett, as the locals call it, would be the first town in more than a century to be granted the “royal” title.
David Cameron said the Queen had agreed to the tribute “as an enduring symbol of the nation’s admiration and our gratitude to the people of that town”.
Residents have expressed delight at the honour but the town council is keen not to force them to pay for it.Town crier Owen Collier said: “It’s a lasting tribute to the town and any donations towards the event will be gladly received by the townspeople.”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
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World of Royalty Blog- Banqueting with British royalty
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