Monarchy

In 1932, when George V gave the first Royal Christmas Broadcast, he coughed, and Britain sighed contentedly. "A king who coughs is a fellow human being," reported The Spectator for any readers in doubt about that. Today a mesmerized world sees enough of the Windsors' divorces, extravagances, assignations, embarrassing photographs, suicide attempts, press leaks, paternity suits, etc. to know that royalty are just like the rest of us. Swell. This batch of lumpenroyalty - Faulkner's Snopeses gussied up for a pageant - are cruel to each other and contemptuous of the public that is footing the bill for their coarse lives.

The man who would be king was back on the front page this morning, regaling his rapt audience with tales of his multi-decade love affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, the married woman who apparently won his heart by sharing his obsession with slapstick British humor. This is the new Sunday ritual around here - watching Prince Charles drop his proverbial pants and beg for sympathy, in a public relations move that, whether intended or not, is also stripping the embattled British monarchy of its vestiges of respectability.

Soon after Iraqi tanks rumbled into Kuwait on Aug. 2, Kuwaitis who had demonstrated last summer for more democracy buried their differences with the royal family to form a united front to liberate the emirate. Now that front is crumbling because of a suddenly public dispute over just how democratic the conservative Islamic monarchy should be if Iraqi troops are driven out. Until August, the ruling Al-Sabah family governed by decree and cracked down on dissidents and the press after dissolving parliament in 1986.

The old woman's eyes turned glassy, her voice fell to a whisper when she spoke of the man they still call "His Majesty. " "I would like very, very much for His Majesty to come back here," said 73-year-old Angela Lehenhno. Like everyone here with a memory of happier times, Lehenhno talked about how much more beautiful Alba Iulia was, how much better the food was in the days when kings ruled Romania. Michaela Maerescu, 20, a university student, is too young to remember, but shares the same opinions.

If he were in the United States, Jaber Ahmad al Rabai would sound like a disgruntled voter. He is angry about high unemployment, angry about the rubbish that clutters his inner-city neighborhood, angry about the thieves who prowl the streets at night. Under the monarchy that has ruled this Islamic nation since its founding in 1932, the young shop clerk and part-time college student cannot vent his grievances at the ballot box. But that opportunity is gradually emerging as part of a package of changes the Saudi government is implementing to soothe a restive population.

Queen Elizabeth II (I speak here of the titular regent of the United Kingdom and not of the ocean liner) is celebrating her 50th year on the throne. To mark the occasion, it would be good . . . to give thanks for the British monarchy, which Elizabeth has done so much to make both irrelevant and entertaining. Which is precisely what a monarchy should be. - Bill Tammeus, column, Kansas City Star, Feb. 5

THROW THE ROYAL TWITS OUT The monarchy's time has passed. . . . That is why a referendum on the monarchy would be wise. . . . When asked whether Britain will still have a monarchy in 50 years time . . . those sure that it will still exist have fallen from 70 percent in 1990 to a range between 35 percent and 50 percent in more recent polls. This uncertainty may arise from a view that kings and queens belong to the past, not the future; more likely it also arises from those turbulent royal lives.

When the British monarchy failed to grasp the impact of Princess Diana's death last week, it was Prime Minister Tony Blair who immediately caught the national mood. It was Mr. Blair who called Diana "the people's princess," and it was he who convinced the monarchy to play a more visible role in the nation's grieving. Key Blair staff members helped produce Saturday's moving ceremony in Westminster Abbey, to which the prime minister contributed a powerful reading from Corinthians.

Our initial reaction to the news that Charles and Diana were splitsville was, no doubt, typically American: They have every right as human beings to go their separate ways, but how can they continue to reserve the right to become England's future king and queen? A king and a queen, whatever else is asked of them, should share the same palace. Otherwise, what's the point? This notion, we've since been told, is hopelessly starry-eyed. On this side of the Atlantic, the British monarchy may seem like something out of a fairy tale - or a soap opera - but over there it's very real.

It would be a mistake to suppose that the princess of Wales' decision to make a TV broadcast was a simple act of marital revenge, even if you suppose she was provoked beyond endurance to get her own against Prince Charles. This was a skillfully organized attack on the institution of the monarchy. Her interview had the nation reeling. No one had quite guessed how indiscreet she was going to be. Nor had anyone supposed she would be so self-confident and so well-groomed in her answers.

TODAY'S CELEBRITY tell-all book - every day there seems to be a new one - comes from former TV tell-all Pat O'Brien , whom the New York Post 's Page Six calls the disgraced ex-anchor of "The Insider. " But can anyone really be disgraced anymore? Isn't the whole concept of shame so last-century? Page Six says that O'Brien, also a former CBS sportscaster and "Access Hollywood" cohost, is working on the book with writer Andrew Morton . It will deal with his divorce in 2004 from wife Linda , his 2005 "Insider" scandal, rehab, marriage, his 2008 "Insider" firing, and more.

Dino Kelly-Cataldi had his eye on the house long before he and his partner bought it. It was occupied, yet it had an abandoned look. Far from being a deterrent, that actually appealed to him and partner Michael Kelly-Cataldi. They had been looking for a single home with enough space to live comfortably and entertain well, but not a McMansion with gymnasium-sized rooms. They wanted one they could restore to its original beauty, in their own style. "Visually, it was a disaster - every room had cobwebs - but we had vision," Dino says of the couple's now-refurbished, three-bedroom Tudor Revival house on almost an acre in Wyndmoor.

Manouchehr Talieh, 83, of King of Prussia, a judge on the Iranian Supreme Court before the Islamic Revolution, died of cancer Sept. 9 at Riddle Memorial Hospital. Mr. Talieh was born in northern Iran. His father, Bahger, was a scholar, jurist, and publisher of two newspapers who played an important role in the fight for a constitutional monarchy in Iran in the early 20th century. Mr. Talieh received a law degree from the University of Tehran and a master's degree in comparative law from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

When Prince Charles emerged from the Windsor town hall yesterday, newly wedded to the woman who has bewitched him since 1972, he stood for a moment on the cobblestones and glanced at the street tableau. He looked characteristically pained. This is what he saw: Hundreds of cameras whirring, blinking and flashing from the balconies of pubs and hotels. Thousands of British monarchy fans and gawking foreign tourists, standing 10 deep at the barricades, most of whom had weathered the three-hour wait with coffee, water and Mars bars.

If he were in the United States, Jaber Ahmad al Rabai would sound like a disgruntled voter. He is angry about high unemployment, angry about the rubbish that clutters his inner-city neighborhood, angry about the thieves who prowl the streets at night. Under the monarchy that has ruled this Islamic nation since its founding in 1932, the young shop clerk and part-time college student cannot vent his grievances at the ballot box. But that opportunity is gradually emerging as part of a package of changes the Saudi government is implementing to soothe a restive population.

Just when Britain's royal family had begun to feel accepted again by its public, new scandal has erupted all around it. In the last few days, a close aide to Prince Charles has been accused of the 1989 rape of a male staff member after a drunken lunch at the aide's home, and of attempting a second attack in 1995. The prince has been accused of fending off the police with a 1996 internal investigation that covered up the episode, and of obtaining counsel for the aide, still one of his most trusted advisers, while also paying off the alleged victim.

Queen Elizabeth II (I speak here of the titular regent of the United Kingdom and not of the ocean liner) is celebrating her 50th year on the throne. To mark the occasion, it would be good . . . to give thanks for the British monarchy, which Elizabeth has done so much to make both irrelevant and entertaining. Which is precisely what a monarchy should be. - Bill Tammeus, column, Kansas City Star, Feb. 5

It wasn't the fact that Bheki Makhubu published a bare-breasted photograph of the king's fiancee that got him into trouble. After all, the monarch's first seven wives have all appeared topless in public. What got Makhubu arrested and fired as editor of the Sunday Times of Swaziland was that he dared to report that King Mswati III's new 18-year-old fiancee had been kicked out of two high schools for skipping classes. Although the article did not come right out and say Sentini Masango slept around, it contained an unmistakable message that most people in this small kingdom of one million people could read between the lines.

Corey Guenot, every muscle in his 125-pound body strained to the breaking point, is locked head-to-head with defending-state-champion Anthony Rivera and the clock is ticking down so slowly it seems to have stopped dead. "I looked up and I thought there would be five or 10 seconds on the clock and there were 40," Guenot, a 17-year-old wrestler for Bald Eagle Area High School, would say after the match. "It seemed like those last 40 seconds took forever. " As those seconds wind down and it becomes certain Guenot, who has been in organized wrestling since he was 4, will defeat Rivera, the Shikellamy High wrestler who entered the match ranked first in the state, the 800-or-so fans in the Bald Eagle gym are on their feet, cheering lustily, applauding, raising a ruckus loud enough to make one wonder if the fans listening over the live radio broadcast can hear anything.

When the British monarchy failed to grasp the impact of Princess Diana's death last week, it was Prime Minister Tony Blair who immediately caught the national mood. It was Mr. Blair who called Diana "the people's princess," and it was he who convinced the monarchy to play a more visible role in the nation's grieving. Key Blair staff members helped produce Saturday's moving ceremony in Westminster Abbey, to which the prime minister contributed a powerful reading from Corinthians.