...for July 2002
July 27, 2002 - - Prince Edward has infuriated the Royal Family after it emerged that a
film made by his company Ardent makes damaging claims about Prince
William.
The comments about William - made in the series The A-Z of Royalty -
are likely to re-open the rift between Edward and Prince Charles, who
rowed furiously last year when an Ardent camera crew harassed William
during his first days at university.
The latest revelations about Edward's debt-ridden company come just a
week after news that he used an all-expenses-paid charity trip to
hold film talks in the US.
Now the Sunday Mirror can reveal that in the Ardent film it is
claimed that:
William has told his father he never wants to be king and is skipping
lessons preparing him for the throne.
The Prince has secret girlfriends and spent his charity trip to
Chile "tent-hopping" between girls.
He and his brother Harry are so different in character they wouldn't
be friends unless they were siblings.
William shot animals while big-game hunting on a safari trip to
Africa.
He is a loner who finds it difficult to make friends.
Last night a royal insider said: "Edward was fully involved in this
project from the outset. He was the guiding hand who suggested how
the film about his nephew would work."
In the show royal biographer Nicholas Davies says: "William is being
very naughty. He is meant to be having lessons each week on the
British constitution. He doesn't even turn up half the time.
"At the moment the Royal Family have a very serious problem with
William. He has told his father categorically that he never, never
wants to be king. The Queen is worried."
But senior St James' Palace aides wearily played down the claims.
They expressed surprise that Edward had granted so much airtime to
Davies, who is regarded as a maverick by royal officials.
A source said: "Prince William, like his father, is entirely
committed to his duties.
"I am not aware of any royalty lessons that Prince William is due to
be attending."
During the show Davies claims that on a trip to Botswana during his
gap year last summer William enjoyed big-game hunting. Davies
says: "He adores shooting and that was the principal reason, in fact,
why he went to Africa. I mean, he went there shooting wild animals."
This has always been strenuously denied by Palace officials who say
William only shot pellet darts. Davies also claims that William
distrusts others and believes that people are trying to "use" him.
The show exposes Edward to charges of hypocrisy by focusing on
William's private life - an area off-limits to all other media under
a deal brokered by Prince Charles and Press watchdogs.
Also interviewed on the hour-long show is Ellen Kunes, editor of US
gossip magazine Redbook. She says William spent time on his Operation
Raleigh charity trip to Chile with girls.
"According to some of our sources there he was known for some tent-
hopping," she says.
"It's not 100 per cent clear that he did that, but it sounds like he
had a lot of fun there."
And Judy Wade, of Hello! magazine, adds: "He has a few girlfriends
tucked away and he is very protective of them."
The show also claims that William has a frosty relationship with his
younger brother Harry. Kunes says: "After Diana died the two were
bonded in their sorrow, but what we've heard is that they probably
wouldn't choose each other if they weren't brothers. They are very
different characters."
The A-Z of Royalty will be screened next month on little-known US
cable channel E! Entertainment. The 11 programmes will be shown over
a week from August 18.
The series has been dogged by criticism since Ardent secured the
£250,000 contract to make the series in December 2000.
Last October the show was embroiled in controversy when it was
revealed that a film crew from Ardent had followed William during his
first days at St Andrews University. In the wake of that, Edward
agreed Ardent would no longer make royal programmes.
And in March he announced he was stepping down from commercial life
in return for a £250,000-a-year handout from the Queen. But earlier
this month the Sunday Mirror revealed he is to work for a new film
company, Winding Road.
And last week we told how Edward used an all-expenses paid charity
trip to the US on behalf of the Duke of Edinburgh's International
Award Foundation to discuss film projects with his Los Angeles-based
agents. From The Sunday Mirror.
- Prince William is on a royal roll after having a breakfast named in
his honour.
The teenage prince has started a new morning craze in St Andrews -
for two bacon rolls and a cup of coffee.
The young royal has become a regular customer at one of the town's
top hotels since he started at university last year.
And each time he goes in, he places the same order.
Now staff at the Rusacks Hotel have dubbed the £5.15 breakfast
platter a "Prince William".
And word has spread around the town that the hotel's bacon rolls have
a royal seal of approval.
A hotel insider said: "He first came into the hotel not long after he
arrived in St Andrews. He ordered two bacon rolls and a cup of coffee.
"He must have liked his breakfast because he was soon a regular. By
his fourth visit, staff knew exactly what he would order."
"Now we have people come in and ask for a 'Prince William'."
Sunday Mail and TV chef John Quigley says the key to the
perfect "Prince William" is quality.
He said: "You need a well-fired Scottish morning roll, with a good
unsalted butter. But the key is good quality bacon - dry cured back
bacon, preferably Ayrshire."
From The Sunday Mail.
July 22, 2002 - - Prince Harry and a group of his friends left just £2.10 as a tip after running up a bill of more than £200 for a drink-laden meal at a country restaurant, it emerged today.
The party of nine drank a bottle of Moet and Chandon champagne, two jugs of Pimm's and several Jack Daniels and colas while at The Med restaurant in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. However, when it came to paying the bill, which did not include a service charge, the 17-year-old Prince and his friends searched in their pockets for loose change.
Sarah Lewis, who owns the restaurant with Chris Longbottom, said: "Some of the waitresses were thinking that with Harry here and having had the service, it was going to be a good night for tips.
"It was funny because here were some of the richest kids in England and they all had their coppers out. I think the waitresses were a little disappointed."
While the royal party were seated upstairs, Prince Harry's minder was downstairs to keep "a careful eye on what drinks were going up to make sure they weren't triple whiskies or anything", according to an unnamed restaurant insider.
But a fellow diner added: "They were drinking so much that the restaurant had to send somebody to Threshers (off licence) to restock."
The Prince, who is third in line to the throne, has promised to behave after admitting smoking cannabis and drinking to excess at the Rattlebone Inn in Sherston, Wiltshire, last year.
Last week it emerged he recently spent an evening drinking lager through a straw and downing half a dozen alcopops at a private polo club party.
The Prince's father became so concerned last year that he took Harry to a London addiction clinic to see the dangers of drink and drugs first hand. From thisislondon.co.uk.
- As the sun sets over the bay at Polzeath, The Oystercatcher pub up on the hill reverberates with the shrill clamour of cutglass accents fighting to be heard over the music. The young men are tall and handsome and share a languid, almost arrogant demeanour - and a passion for hair gel.
Chatting animatedly to them are groups of slim, pretty girls carefully dressed down in jeans and trainers.
The conversation rarely varies. 'Where do you go to school? Which house are you in? Do you know so and so?'
Everyone is being introduced to everyone else; a Mexican wave of air kissing continues through the night.
The few locals in the pub look on in wry amusement. A clue as to the young people's identity can be found in the striped school ties that are worn instead of belts around the waists of the young men - a statement of both fashion and allegiance.
For these beautiful young people at The Oystercatcher are Britain's public school èlite, the sons and daughters of some of the most wealthy, influential and powerful people in the land. They are here in Polzeath on their annual pilgrimage to the West Country to unwind and party after the stresses of GCSEs and A-levels. The chaps are from august establishments such as Eton and Harrow. The girls come from, among others, Marlborough and Canford.
The influx of these well-connected young people has led the locals to dub Polzeath, along with nearby Rock, Kensington-by-the-Sea, or Fulham-Sur-Mer.
These towns along the gloriously rugged northern coastline of Cornwall are even frequented by royalty.
Prince William and Prince Harry, who have been on a number of visits in previous years to enjoy the excellent surfing, are said to have been somewhere among the throng of revellers in Polzeath last week, enjoying the surfing and the sunshine.
Their uncle, Earl Spencer, was here a few weeks ago. And the area also attracts celebrities. Hugh Grant was seen a couple of weeks ago driving his new Aston Martin and comedian Harry Enfield was spotted strolling through Rock.
But Prince Harry, for one, whose drinking antics are once again the subject of public scrutiny, is not in The Oystercatcher pub.
Rumour has it that last week he was turned away from the door by one of the burly doormen who now block the entrance demanding to see ID before allowing anyone in.
'It appears the doorman asked to see his ID and because he was underage he was turned away,' says a source. 'It's not clear whether the doorman knew who he was.
'In the past there have been quite a few complaints about under-age drinking and there's a bit of a clampdown going on. If you're under 18, you don't get in, it's as simple as that.'
Harry, then, misses the most entertaining spectacle of the evening. At 11pm, as the pub empties, a young blonde with a strong exhibitionist streak climbs on to the bonnet of her friends' Land Rover - there are more pristine 4x4s here than anywhere outside Badminton Horse Trials - sprawls herself across it and lifts up her top to the cheers of some admiring Harrovians.
It is just the kind of goings-on that the locals are determined not to see after bad behaviour tarnished the name of nearby Rock two years ago.
Then, Paul Tyler, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, branded the young holidaymakers 'rich, spoilt brats with more money than sense'.
He went on: 'Under-age drinking and drug use would appear to be widespread. When one gentleman complained that a rowdy gang had invaded his garden at 4am, all his car tyres were slashed.
'Another typical response has been: "You can't touch me, my father is a barrister," among other boasts.'
Some felt Mr Tyler was guilty of class envy, but it is fair to say that the locals were getting a bit fed up.
After the MP's outburst, the police responded by writing to the headteachers of public schools Winchester and Marlborough complaining about their pupils' behaviour.
As a result, an alcohol ban was introduced in the streets of Rock, where groups of youngsters would previously stroll along drinking beer. Drinking is permissible only in the village's two pubs.
Now, in the area, there is a more visible police presence than there used to be. Officers regularly patrol the small beach at Rock and Daymer Bay, close to Polzeath, where hundreds of youngsters go every night to party, to ensure that nobody behaves too badly.
The 'crimes' of these by and large well-mannered young people are not the stuff of the inner-city, but they do irk the locals.
Their habit of pulling down wood from fences, as well as garden gates, to light their fires on Daymer Bay is frowned upon.
So is the fashion for sitting in bunkers on the golf course at Rock in the middle of the night and holding meaningful conversations, then leaving the beer bottles and detritus of their evening behind.
Nor do the locals like being disturbed by boisterous groups of youngsters who carry on drinking beer, wine and champagne in the streets after closing time.
Certainly, in the two weeks in which these hordes of well-heeled youths prefer to descend upon Polzeath, they claim it for their own.
Which other Spar supermarket in the country, one wonders, sells quails eggs as well as other gourmet foods and fine wine? And where else do young men throw packs of sausages at each other as a 'joke' as they make their purchases?
Next door, in the Post Office and Costcutter supermarket, there is an excellent selection of champagne. While over in Rock, the fishmonger sells about 40 lobsters a day.
In this area of Cornwall, small bungalows rent out for £1,000 a week. The air is thick with money.
Young men dressed in baggy shorts or combat trousers drive brand-new Land Rovers. In the passenger seats are girls with model looks and figures.
Down on the Polzeath sea front, many of the holidaymakers spend the day surfing.
According to one local, Prince William and Prince Harry were enjoying the atmosphere there during the past week.
'They were here with a detective,' says the source. 'They spent the day on the beach and in the town.'
Some of the teenagers come here with their parents, but hundreds of others rent cottages, stay with friends or book into campsites.
On the sand today are Rosie Reid, 16, and Georgina Clarke, 15, who are boarders at Godolphin School in Winchester.
'It's great because everyone knows each other here,' says Rosie. ' Practically everyone from every public school in the country descends on Polzeath.
'The boys are all from Eton, Harrow and Sherborne, and the girls are from Marlborough and Canford.
'One finds that people know one another's families and at the end of the week having been introduced to lots of people, one knows everyone. It's as though the whole of Surrey has been transported here.'
Most of the invaders to this town are aware that they are seen as something of an oddity by the locals.
Amy Gilliam, 16, who attends Guildford High School, says: 'They think we're very posh and take the mickey out of us, but not in a horrible way.'
Police admit that Polzeath is 'like anywhere else' in that it is possible to obtain drugs. The trend here is not for 'hard' drugs such as Ecstasy or cocaine; rather the preferred entertainment among some is to 'chill out' with cannabis.
Freya Slipper, the 16-year-old daughter of a chartered surveyor, is soon to start sixth form at St Edward's School in Oxford. She and her girlfriends visited a campsite in the hills above Polzeath this week and, she says, found 'lots of people out of it on dope'.
'They seem to spend all day smoking dope,' she says. 'A lot of them are so stoned they don't even make it down to the town. But my friends and I aren't interested in taking drugs.'
While the locals mingle on the beach with the young visitors during the day, after nightfall the teenagers head for Daymer Bay.
It's midnight there, and about 200 young people are sitting around camp fires and lighted candles which illuminate the sea beyond.
Many of them are smoking. Occasionally one detects what appears to be a whiff of cannabis.
Police say there is evidence of drug taking in Polzeath, but those who indulge are certainly not going to own up to it.
'Some of the schools have warned pupils who are under-age that if they are caught on camera drinking, smoking drugs or doing anything they shouldn't they will be expelled,' says one dark-haired young man. 'People don't want to risk that.'
Among the crowd there are a number of youngsters boasting titles, and, according to a young Etonian, William and Harry were at Daymer Bay a couple of nights ago. 'They were here and enjoyed themselves along with everyone else,' says the young man.
Indeed, Lucie Cadd, 16, who attends Canford School in Dorset, and is on the beach soaking up the atmosphere with Cat Wickins, 16, and Lauren Souness, 15, claims they are staying with friends of hers.
'They're staying at the house with some girlfriends of mine but I can't say any more than that,' she giggles, although one gets the impression she is dying to spill the beans.
For now, however, the identity of these mysterious young women remains a secret.
Certainly, the Princes enjoy a far greater freedom than their father did when he was their age, spending his summer holidays cooped up at Balmoral.
The beach parties at Daymer Bay go on until about 3am before revellers finally tire and go to bed.
Keeping a watchful eye close by is a police officer, looking out for their behaviour becoming too boisterous.
According to Sergeant Martin Taylor, crime reduction officer for North Cornwall district, the locals 'don't mind a bit of guitar playing but they do draw the line at singing and chanting'.
A couple of years ago, when it became apparent that the influx of hundreds of public-school educated teenagers to Polzeath and Rock was not just a passing fad, residents and local businesses decided to act to ensure the goings-on didn't get too raucous.
They set up a scheme, paid for between themselves, for a police officer to patrol the area until 3am every night.
So what do the locals think of the 'toffs' who invade every year?
Andi Tuck, 19, is a chef at a restaurant in Polzeath. 'Some of them are really nice and polite but you get the odd one or two who are very arrogant and superior and throw their weight around, which tends to put people's backs up,' he says.
One long-time resident of Rock, a lady in her 70s, is not amused at the goings-on.
'There is an alcohol ban in the areas beyond the pubs but you still get beer bottles littering the side of the road,' she says.
'Last night someone was sick over my fence and I've got to clean it up, which I do not appreciate.'
She adds: 'It's got a bit better in Rock now that Polzeath is the trendy place to be, but there was a time when I used to have to put my earplugs in at night because it was so noisy.'
By and large, hoi polloi and the landed gentry co-exist fairly happily - Indeed, in The Oystercatcher pub, the spectacle of the young Etonians and Harrovians with their tousled hair and refined manners chatting over a pint with a couple of the local 'heavies' - big muscular men with tattoos and shaved heads - is an amusing sight.
However, a 17-year-old Harrovian says he was beaten up last Wednesday by a couple of locals while he was down at Daymer Bay with friends. It seems to have been an isolated incident.
So for now at least, despite the watchful eyes of the police, the hostility of the MP and several locals, for the annual visitors to 'Kensingtonby-the-Sea', the party goes on unabated. From thisislondon.co.uk.
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