Tunnel Of Hate

‘GIVEN what happened to her, the Mirror’s question “Are you brave enough to have the Diana flick?” should not be answered lightly.

The risks and ramifications of adopting the flicked-back blonde bob and so being mistaken for Princess Diana are not to be dismissed lightly.

Paris Hilton has already Dianafied her hair, and we ask her to tread carefully, and drive even more so.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking Diana is dead. She lives not only on Harvey Nichols fabled sixth floor but on the Sun’s front page, too.

“Fayed in new attack over Di,” says the headline. In an interview in the United States, Egyptian-born shopkeeper and father of Diana’s beau Dodi, Mohamed al-Fayed talks of murder.

Speaking in that idiosyncratic way of his, Fayed says of Prince Philip, “he is the evil…he is a Nazi.”

Fayed claims to have seen letters in which Philip says he will kill Diana. Fayed says the Queen is “a nice woman”. But: “It’s Philip who is behind everything, she has a gangster for a husband.” As Fayed says: “The person responsible for this crime is Prince Philip.”

Fayed plans to take the Duke of Edinburgh to court over the matter. “I am going to sue the son of a b****,” he says.

But hold on a mo, Mo. The Express wants to get a word in. As its front page claims: “We can reveal the truth after paparazzi photographers are found guilty in landmark case.” As the paper’s front-paqe headline says: “DIANA: HOW SPY STARTED CAR DEATH CHASE.”

Before we go on, we quickly turn to the Star and hear that three photographers who followed Diana’s car on the night she died have each been fined one euro.

In taking pictures of Diana before and after the crash, Jacques Langevin, Fabrice Chassery and Christian Martinez have been found guilty in a French court of invading Di’s privacy.

Taking what the Express terms “ghoulish” pictures of Diana’s injured body and then trying to flog the shots invites discussion.

But the Express’s claim that finding them guilty “blows apart French claims that Diana’s death was the result of a simple accident caused by her driver Henri Paul being high on drink and drugs” is surely based more on hope than fact.

In what way does the trial of three snappers of questionable principals refute the French and exonerate the chauffeur?

Oh, and in case you’re interested, the paper’s headline-making spy might not have been a spy.

Detectives investigating the death have traced everybody who was standing outside the Ritz Hotel in Paris on the night Diana died – save one. And there are “fears” he was working for the British security services.

So much for the Express’s front-page claim of this being the “truth”. And so much for allowing Diana to rest in peace…’

Posted: 23rd, February 2006 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink