When It Comes to Royal P.R., Harry's a Handful
Aug. 15, 2006 — -- The headline calls them the "Booze Brothers." Photographers snapped a photo of William and Harry on a night out in a London night club. Of course, that's all very normal for young fun-loving guys letting their hair down, but one of the shots is just a little candid -- the Brits would call it saucy.
On the cover of The Sun, Prince Harry is seen, as the paper puts it, "canoodling … and saucily groping … a pretty blonde." Apparently, she's an old friend. Prince William, in the background, looks a little drunk, but is behaving himself. Other shots show William chatting to a so-called "grinning beauty." Prince Harry is more hands on with his friendliness. His hand is shown on a young woman's breast.
The royal family has demanded that the newspaper correct the story printed alongside the photo, claiming the image was more than three years old, according to The Australian's Web site.
This isn't Harry's first brush with tabloid ignominy. He's been photographed at a costume party wearing a Nazi uniform, been "outed" for smoking pot and been snapped fighting with a photographer outside a London night spot in the early hours.
Harry and William's playboy lifestyles have raised some eyebrows, but also made the boys popular among many other Brits. They are trying to be as "normal" as possible and normal in Britain for good-looking young chaps does involve heavy drinking and night clubbing.
The Sun's royal correspondent Duncan Larcombe summed up the mood. "Why shouldn't they unwind from Army duties with a night on the tiles?" he asks in his column this morning. "The alternative is to lock themselves away in castles as they become aloof from the outside world."
The Sun, which published the shots of the partying princes, is owned by the same company as the even more down-market News of the World. Its royal correspondent was arrested recently: he allegedly was involved in listening in on messages left on royal staffers cell phones.
Prince Harry has tried to clean up his act recently. He's now an army officer, having graduated from military academy in April. And he's taken on the mantle of his late mother Princess Diana, getting involved in charity work.
"He's said his party days will always be with him, and good on him," Larcombe told me recently. "But he has calmed down."
You can take the boy out of the nightclub, but you can't take the nightclub out of the boy.
While the royal family claims the photo was taken long before Prince Harry was dating current girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, who's currently at college in Cape Town, South Africa, she's endured quite a few tabloid revelations in recent months from women claiming to have "canoodled" with Harry. And what will Harry's grandmother, the queen, think? She rarely looks happy and the sight of her flame-haired grandson groping a young lady is unlikely to make her crack a smile.
Prince William will, if all goes according to plan, become king. Poor old Harry is just the spare to the heir, as they call him. He'll have plenty more time to get himself into trouble as the years go by.