Princess Anne

Princess Anne and Mark Phillips filed yesterday for an uncontested divorce, and a decree is expected soon, Buckingham Palace said in London. It declined to give details, such as financial settlements or whether the princess planned to remarry, noting that it was a personal and private matter. Anne, 41, has long been rumored to be carrying on a romance with navy Cmdr. Timothy Laurence, who, British gossip columnists report, is eager to marry her. The princess married Phillips - after being drawn together over their love of horses - before a worldwide TV audience in November 1973.

Princess Anne will dump Capt. Mark Phillips once and for all next year, a British newspaper reported yesterday. The Daily Express, citing a source close to the princess, said that despite Buckingham Palace denials, divorce preparations are under way and lawyers have been told to draw up papers for a court hearing in September 1992. The couple, married in 1973, announced their separation two years ago. The two years apart entitles them to a quick, no- fuss, no-muss divorce. The Express said the two agreed to wait until next year after a plea by Queen Elizabeth that they consider their children, Peter, 13, and Zara, 10. If they divorce it will be only the second divorce within the royal family core since King Henry VIII shed Anne of Cleves in the 1500s.

Princess Anne has been suggested for a Nobel Peace Prize by Zambia President Kenneth Kaunda in recognition of her work on behalf of the world's destitute children. "She loves people," Kaunda said Wednesday. "She has extended that love to working for helpless children in many parts of the world. That is love in action. " A $1.4 million gift has been given to Connecticut College to establish a chair in Judaic Studies in the name of Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. The gift, the largest in the school's 79-year history, was made by Jo Ann Hess Myers, a 1967 alumna, who runs a private school in Birmingham, Ala., and heads the Big Tree Foundation, a private philanthropy.

Queen Elizabeth II's daughter, Anne, known as the Princess Royal, will travel to the Soviet Union this week for the first official visit by a member of the British royal family since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The princess, a distant relative of Imperial Russia's last czar, Nicholas II, will leave Britain Wednesday and is expected to meet Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev Thursday at the start of a 13-day trip. She also will address students at Moscow's State University, speak to religious leaders and attend a performance of the Bolshoi Ballet.

The Duchess of York gave birth to a 7-pound, 1 1/2-ounce daughter, her second, last night at London's Portland Hospital. As sixth in succession to the British throne, the unnamed princess - delivered by caesarean section in the presense of Prince Andrew - will rank right behind her sister, Princess Bertrice, 1 1/2. "Both are doing very well," a royal spokesman said of mother and new daughter. The birth announcement was greeted with cheers and the popping of champagne corks by a crowd outside the hospital.

Mary Carolou, 83, a Philadelphia native who served as lady-in-waiting for the late Queen Frederica of Greece and her royal family, died New Year's Day in Athens. "She was the epitome of a grand dame," said Mrs. Carolou's nephew, Constantine Stephano, 57, of New Hope. "Her house in Athens had signed photographs from Eisenhower and other presidents and kings. Her house was like a museum," he said. Mrs. Carolou was the daughter of Constantine Stephano, the founder of Stephano Bros.

Timothy Laurence, the British Royal Navy commander whose stolen love letters to the married Princess Anne were grist for many a gossip column in spring when their existence became known, is leaving his duty post at Buckingham Palace, it was announced yesterday. Laurence, 35, will split next month and on Jan. 30 assume command of the frigate HMS Boxer. He has been an aide to Queen Elizabeth the last three years. Some thought that the letters had been taken by Anne's personal maid, Linda Joyce, who had a falling-out with the princess.

Scotland Yard sleuths are hot on the trail of the rapscallion who stole four letters that had been written to Queen Elizabeth's daughter, Princess Anne, according to Buckingham Palace officials. The letters, described by British tabloids as "too hot to handle," were written by Cmdr. Timothy Laurence, a dashing 34-year-old aide to the queen. Last February, Laurence, who has an apartment at Kensington Palace, was seen escorting Princess Diana while her husband, Prince Charles, heir to the throne, was abroad.

DIANE SAWYER PLAYS THE FIELD There is Somebody Else in Diane Sawyer's life besides Richard Holbrooke, that eminence of Foggy Bottom (the State Department, in government employee jive). That somebody is said to be director Mike Nichols, who is separated from his wife, Annabel. He and Sawyer were a couple at a birthday party last night for socialite Lady Nancy "Slim" Keith and Keith's stepdaughter, Brooke Hayward, and Hayward's husband, Peter Duchin. STRANGER THAN FICTION Princess Anne the Grim likes country music, of all things, and plans to take in the Grand Ole Opry when she's in Nashville for a steeplechase ball late this month.