Prince Albert

Turns out when His Serene Highness Crown Prince Albert of Monaco comes to Philadelphia, he does what most folks do when they visit idyllic, seaside Monaco: Party. Play a little tennis. Spend some time on the water. The 40-year-old heir to the Monagasque throne, son of Philadelphia's own Grace Kelly, dropped into town Wednesday for a quick, two-day visit. He stayed at the home of cousin D. Christopher Le Vine. And? Did the prince, a onetime denizen of the Manhattan disco scene, and the occasional escort of supermodels, demand a tour of Philadelphia hot spots?

Prince Albert hints of finding true love Here's a story of sexual intrigue we're even less inclined to believe than Monica Lewinsky's: Prince Albert of Monaco says he has a serious girlfriend, and he'd like to marry her, but he just can't reveal her name. "It is a little premature to say if she will share my life, and even too soon to talk about it," the 40-year-old heir to the throne told Paris Match magazine. "It is not solely up to me. " Speaking in the vaguest of vagaries, he added: "If things evolve as I hope they do with this woman, there is a real possibility that this is a serious relationship.

WITH ALL THE hullabaloo about William and Kate 's wedding behind us, we can now focus on other royal nuptials, such as the July wedding of Prince Albert of Monaco to Charlene Wittstock . Albert, son of East Falls screen siren-turned-princess Grace Kelly , has invited his Philly family to mark the occasion. A cousin, PNC Bank executive John B. Kelly III , son of Grace's brother, Jack Kelly , a former city councilman, (no relation to the current one)

Prince Rainier has put ruler-in-training Prince Albert in charge of Monaco's 700th birthday celebration, which will begin Jan. 8 and run for 10 months. Albert told a Paris news conference yesterday that the bash'll include sports events, art shows, plays, fireworks, car races, and a meeting of the International Whaling Commission. "We are certainly going to celebrate this, our rich history," said the prince, 38. The principality will add $200 mil to $400 mil to its annual cultural budget of $600 mil for the party.

Pranksters take note: A Philadelphia-area company now has Prince Albert in a can, along with three other pipe-tobacco brands purchased yesterday from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. John Middleton Inc., a family-owned company in King of Prussia, bought Reynolds' Carter Hall, Apple and Royal pipe-tobacco brands, in addition to Prince Albert, for an undisclosed amount. Together, the brands account for 16 percent of total U.S. pipe tobacco sales. Reynolds - a unit of RJR Nabisco Inc. - had announced in January that it was seeking a buyer for its pipe tobaccos and its roll-your-own cigarette tobaccos so that it could concentrate on high-volume cigarette sales.

His Serene Highness Prince Albert of Monaco is hosting dinner. To his left sits Goldie Hawn in form-fitting black lace, burbling on about Hollywood nothingness. A few seats more to the left is Hawn's lover boy, Kurt Russell, throwing back whiskeys and getting louder and redder with each slug. On Albert's right is a pretty French starlet, tossing her brown mane as she chatters. And then there's Albert, at the center of the table in the center of the room of the Monte Carlo Yacht Club, of which he is president.

It's Albert this. It's Albert that. It was Albert all winter. Now it's Albert all spring. And frankly, the Cleveland Indians have had enough. Albert Belle left those Indians last November. He got enough money ($55 million for five years) from the Chicago White Sox to buy his own Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. So Albert Belle should be a very happy man. Instead, he has spent the last four months accusing the Cleveland Indians of everything but pushing President Clinton down a flight of steps.

There's only room for eight Kelly cousins and a coxswain as Philadelphia's first family prepares for today's Thomas Eakins Head of the Schuylkill Regatta. "It's hard fitting people in," said J.B. Kelly 3d, who will stroke the family's entry in the Masters Eights at noon. But it doesn't matter too much that the man rowing fourth seat for the Kelly boat won't be one of the family's more experienced rowers. Prince Albert of Monaco, J.B. Kelly's first cousin, didn't even have to pull royal rank to gain a spot.

For some odd reason, the sport of bobsledding attracts athletes from countries that lack two things - namely, winter sports and winter. There is a Jamaican team here at the Winter Olympics, the bob(Marley) sledders. And a Mexican team, the Four Amigos, who practiced on the streets of Dallas by pushing a wooden cart weighted with buckets. And then there is the athlete whose Olympic bloodlines pulse through three generations - Prince Albert of Monaco, son of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace.

Ryan Parent 77 Defenseman, 6-3, 198, age 23, from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Singer Taylor Swift would be his choice for a dinner date.   Darroll Powe 36 Center, 5-11, 212, age 24, from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When it comes to food, nachos are his guilty pleasure.   Chris Pronger 20 Defenseman, 6-6, 220, age 35, from Dryden, Ontario. His first car was a 1983 Ford Ranger that was "held together by rust. "   Mike Richards 18 Center, 5-11, 195, age 25, from Kenora, Ontario.

MONACO - After waiting for nearly 30 years, the glitzy principality of Monaco has a new princess. Charlene Wittstock, a onetime Olympic swimmer from South Africa, married Prince Albert II in an intimate civil ceremony Friday. A more elaborate religious ceremony will be held Saturday. Wittstock follows in the steps of Grace Kelly, the Hollywood beauty and Philadelphian who wed Albert's father, Prince Rainier III, in 1956 and had three children with him. Grace died in a car crash in 1982; Rainier died in 2005.

PARIS - With three triple-star Michelin restaurants and more than 20 other temples of haute gastronomy scattered around the globe, celebrity chef Alain Ducasse is used to catering to the rich and famous. But the veteran cook admitted his blood pressure is rising ahead of next month's royal wedding in Monaco, where he will prepare a multicourse gala dinner for Prince Albert, bride-to-be Charlene Wittstock, and their 500 A-list guests. "I've done gala dinners before, but never an official meal for a head of state.

SOME DAYS the National Enquirer lets you down. When a politician fathers a love child, isn't it the duty of the Enquirer to hide in the hospital waiting room and provide salacious details? And when the babydaddy is not only a politician, but a movie star and married to a TV personality who's also a member of the Kennedy clan? How did the Enquirer miss this? That serial groper Arnold Schwarzenegger (a/k/a "Predator") was able to hide the existence of a love child for a decade in this 24-hour news-cycle age is astounding.

WITH ALL THE hullabaloo about William and Kate 's wedding behind us, we can now focus on other royal nuptials, such as the July wedding of Prince Albert of Monaco to Charlene Wittstock . Albert, son of East Falls screen siren-turned-princess Grace Kelly , has invited his Philly family to mark the occasion. A cousin, PNC Bank executive John B. Kelly III , son of Grace's brother, Jack Kelly , a former city councilman, (no relation to the current one)

IF YOU'RE AN average Joe and you're caught soliciting a prostitute, you may get arrested, the prostitute may get arrested, the pimp (or madam) may get arrested and, depending on the circumstances and the local laws, all of you may end up in jail. If, however, you're the law-and-order governor of New York and you're caught paying thousands of dollars to a prostitute, you get a prime-time talk show on CNN. If Lady Justice is blind it could be because some well-connected politician has tied her wrists to the bedpost and put a bag over her head.

Ryan Parent 77 Defenseman, 6-3, 198, age 23, from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Singer Taylor Swift would be his choice for a dinner date.   Darroll Powe 36 Center, 5-11, 212, age 24, from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When it comes to food, nachos are his guilty pleasure.   Chris Pronger 20 Defenseman, 6-6, 220, age 35, from Dryden, Ontario. His first car was a 1983 Ford Ranger that was "held together by rust. "   Mike Richards 18 Center, 5-11, 195, age 25, from Kenora, Ontario.

"I'm the luckiest woman you'll ever meet!" exclaims Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. "I married a prince, I have the two loveliest daughters, and now I'm a Hollywood producer. " Yesterday, the woman the tabloids dubbed Fergie held casual court in Philadelphia at the Four Seasons, dishing about herself and Young Victoria, the sparkling biopic of a certain "steadfast and courageous" ancestor of her daughters. Fifteen years ago, the robust redhead initiated the film about the monarch and the teenager who, at 18, ascended to England's throne and then ruled her empire for 63 years, longer than any other British monarch.

Former anchor Alycia Lane returned to court yesterday, taking direct aim for the first time in a lawsuit against former CBS3 colleague Larry Mendte, accusing him of ruining her by invading her privacy and leaking personal details to the media. The Common Pleas Court suit spells out about two years of gossip fodder provided by Mendte, including new details of the notorious bikini-photo incident, her relationship with a married New York news anchor, and the aftermath of her Dec. 17 arrest in New York, when she was ridiculed for reaching out to Gov. Rendell.

HERE'S the perfect May sweeps story you won't see on CBS 3. Anchor Alycia Lane issued a statement yesterday pooh-poohing a New York Post report that she was coming on to married NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen . "Rich Eisen and I have been good friends for almost 10 years and our relationship has always been purely platonic," Lane's statement said. "We regularly exchange e-mails and photos. It's unfortunate that there was a misunderstanding over some harmless pictures of myself and my friends on vacation that I shared with him. " One person who didn't find the photos harmless was Eisen's wife, Suzy Shuster . The Post's Page Six reported yesterday that Shuster e-mailed Lane after intercepting "saucy snapshots" Lane had sent to Eisen.

THIS JUST IN for Father's Day: Prince Albert of Monaco has done it again. The only son of Prince Ranier III and Princess Grace (Philadelphia's Grace Kelly) recently acknowledged through his lawyer that he is the father of a 14-year-old California girl named Jazmin Grace Grimaldi. The young lady is welcome in Monaco but cannot take the throne, and the royal family does not recognize her use of the Grimaldi name. Media reports say Albert, 48, had a brief affair with the girl's mother, Tamara Rotolo, in 1991 when she vacationed on the Cote d'Azur.