Duchess

"One can never be too rich or too thin," the late Duchess of Windsor had needlepointed onto a pillow. She might well have added the caveat: "Nor can one have too many jewels. " To be sure, the exceedingly rich, thin, chic duchess, whose obsessive interest in fashion reportedly infuriated the British royal family, possessed a spectacular collection of jewels, most of them given to her by her husband, the Duke of Windsor. Now, more than half a century after the duke - then King Edward VIII of England - abdicated his throne to marry Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson, "the woman I love," the duchess' magnificent collection of diamonds, rubies, sapphires and other precious gems will be sold by Sotheby's in Geneva on April 2 and 3. Before the sale, the jewels will be exhibited for the first time to the public March 17-22 at Sotheby's New York galleries.

Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson said Sunday that she was "very sorry" for her "lapse of judgment" after she was recorded apparently offering to sell access to her ex-husband Prince Andrew in return for 500,000 pounds ($724,000). The duchess said in a statement that she had financial problems. "I very deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused," she said. On a video posted on the tabloid News of the World's website, Ferguson is heard to say "500,000 pounds when you can, to me, open doors.

The Duchess of York returned to London yesterday after a six-week Australian holiday, clutching a fluffy toy koala, presumably for her daughter, Princess Beatrice, who has not seen her mother for half her life. The duchess flashed smiles at waiting photographers at Heathrow Airport but said nothing. She hopped into a waiting Jaguar and drove it off. British newspapers reported that while Down Under, Sarah comforted her sister Jane, whose marriage to Australian farmer Alex Makim is apparently on the rocks.

Sarah, the Duchess of York returned to Britain yesterday after a night of Broadway glitter that ended when her security men pounced on a man who tried to attack her with a six-foot flagpole. The attack occurred about 11:15 p.m. Thursday outside the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, as the duchess returned from a performance of The Phantom of the Opera. A man identified as Michael Shanley, 22, allegedly bolted from a group of about 25 people protesting British rule of Northern Ireland and shouted, "Murderer!

Our "grand" opera and "classic" ballet often derive their plots from very humble or meager materials. To see a simple toy soldier spring to life and animate a spectacle, like The Nutcracker, only reinforces how lush costumes, colorful music, and a sure sense of theater can transform and create. In Bad Plumbing and Other Stories, Paule Turner, Duchess (a title he's bestowed on himself) has filled the modest Community Education Center with dance-theater that has a sure sense of the fantastic.

Today, after two years of separation, the Duchess of York is legally free to get a no-hassle divorce from Prince Andrew. But a London TV interview revealed yesterday that she doesn't seem so inclined. When the interviewer addressed her as Sarah Ferguson, Fergie sharply corrected: "I'm married. I'm the Duchess of York. " She also wore her ruby engagement and gold wedding rings. The duchess indicated that while a reconciliation wasn't in the cards, the couple wanted to keep a close association because of their daughters, Beatrice, 5, and Eugenie, who turned 4 Wednesday.

Eugene Shank is amused when the occasional visitor asks him to point out a corner of his expansive back yard. Back in the '40s, a historical marker stood there. Now, the spot's most remarkable aspect is a small shrub Shank has planted. In Shank's back yard once stood the house where Wallis Warfield was born in 1896 during her parents' summer vacation. Forty years later, Life magazine would call her "Mrs. Simpson of Blue Ridge Summit," and juxtapose a photo of the ramshackle two-story cottage with one of Buckingham Palace, which King Edward VIII left to marry Simpson, the woman he loved.

Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York landed in Los Angeles yesterday for 10 days of Southern California fun and frolic in connection with a three-month festival there, UK/LA 88. Sarah, three months pregnant and traveling with her gynecologist, left London's Heathrow Airport on an 11-hour commercial flight wearing a belted black dress that merely hinted that she was expecting. The royal couple will spend the first two nights aboard the Royal yacht Britannia, which is moored off Long Beach, and then will be guests at Walter Annenberg's Palm Springs digs.

In The Duchess Malfi, Greg Giovanni has reworked the Jacobean drama The Duchess of Malfi into what he calls two "near" plays whose sum is not greater than the one whole John Webster wrote nearly four centuries ago. Indeed, the deficiencies of plot and motivation that mar Webster's play are simply magnified in Giovanni's gimmicky treatment. In The Duchess of Malfi, the duchess, a young widow, secretly marries and has children by her steward, thereby incurring the murderous wrath of her brothers, a duke and an influential cardinal.

Nancy Gustafson has canceled her performance as the Duchess of Argyll in Opera Philadelphia's June production of Thomas Adès' Powder Her Face . The singer has been sidelined while recovering from emergency dental surgery, the opera company said. Soprano/mezzo-soprano Patricia Schuman will take the part. She has sung Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Contessa Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera, Ilia in Idomeneno at La Scala, Alice Ford in Falstaff at Covent Garden, and Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito at the Salzburg and Glyndebourne festivals.

A French pastry of a play, To Fool the Eye is the latest production in 1812 Productions' season. Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of Jean Anouilh's 1940 romantic farce, called Leocadia in its original French, is directed by Jennifer Childs and produced in partnership with Drexel University's Mandell Professionals in Residence Project at the Mandell Theater. The title, "to fool the eye," is, more or less, a translation of trompe l'oeil , the technique in visual art that creates illusions that trick the viewer, making it hard to tell what's real and what's illusion.

Makes 10 servings 3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks 1 cup milk, hot but not boiling 1/2 pound unsalted butter Salt and white pepper, to taste 3 egg yolks 1. For potato puree: Warm oven to 300 degrees. Add potatoes to large pot of cold, salted water. Bring to a boil and cook until just tender, about 8-10 minutes. Potatoes should just break apart against side of the pot when pressed with a wooden spoon. 2. Drain and place potatoes on sheet tray, then place in warmed oven for 5 minutes to allow excess liquid to evaporate (this allows potatoes to absorb more milk and butter)

The princess is pregnant! While the news is tinged with some anxiety, given that poor Kate has this form of extreme morning sickness, we'll all keep that stiff British upper lip and hope for the best. Pregnancy is the great female leveler. It's an experience only half of humankind can know firsthand. Modern science and social leaps aside, it's women's work. For princesses and for paupers. Among those of us who have birthed babies, there's a sisterhood that's wide and vast and deep and humbling - and somehow still impossible to explain.

THE DUCHESS of Cambridge (a/k/a Kate Middleton) left a London hospital Thursday after being treated for four days for acute morning sickness related to her pregnancy. Clutching a small bouquet of yellow roses, the duchess smiled and posed briefly for a photograph alongside her husband, Prince William , before leaving King Edward VII Hospital. She stepped delicately, as she does everything, into a waiting car. The couple's office said she would head to Kensington Palace in London to rest.

It's official! The cosmos buckles! The time-space continuum, um, continues! The very handsome Prince William , Duke of Cambridge , and his gorgeous wife, Catherine, Duchess Also, Not Coincidentally, of the Aforesaid Cambridge , are officially pregnant. So said Buckingham Palace in a palatial announcement Monday. And it went on!: " The Queen , The Duke of Edinburgh , The Prince of Wales , The Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry and members of both families are delighted with the news.

ROME - The British royal family faced a multinational battle to contain the spread of topless photos of Prince William's wife, Kate, as an Irish tabloid published them Saturday and an Italian gossip magazine planned to do the same despite the threat of legal action. The royal couple's St. James's Palace office condemned the moves as unjustifiable and evidence of pure greed, and said it was considering "all proportionate responses. " The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge sued French magazine Closer on Friday after it ran the photos, taken while Kate and William were on vacation at a relative's private estate in southern France last month.

THE KILLING. 10 p.m. Sunday, AMC. I NO LONGER much care who killed Rosie Larsen. There - I've said it. For those who've watched AMC's "The Killing," which has just two episodes to go before we presumably learn whodunit, not caring (much) makes me: a) an idiot, incapable of appreciating complex theories regarding potential suspects; b) impatient with prolonged displays of grief (a position advanced by Meghan O'Rourke in a recent piece for Slate ); or c) a person who doesn't like being jerked around.

NEW YORK (AP) - Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson is coming to the Oprah Winfrey Network next year. The network announced yesterday that Ferguson will star in a six-part reality series called "Finding Sarah. " On the series, Ferguson plans to open up about her lifelong battles with weight, relationships and finances as she shares with viewers her struggle to rebuild her life. "Finding Sarah" is scheduled to premiere in early 2011. The cable network will launch on Jan. 1. Its full name is OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.

Emma Thompson (of the upcoming "Nanny McPhee Returns") is bringing a new sense and sensibility to her rewrite of "My Fair Lady," which, in interviews with the Hollywood Reporter and Variety , she described as being about Eliza being "sold into sexual slavery" by her father. That jaunty "Get Me to the Church on Time" dude? She added: "I suppose my cheekiness is in saying: 'This is a very serious story about the usage of women at a particular time in our history.