+ Princess Ragnhild of Norway (1930-2012)

Princess Ragnhild of Norway, Mrs Lorentzen, eldest sister of King Harald V, passed away in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 16 September.

http://www.kongehuset.no/c26939/nyhet/vis.html?tid=100179

CNN) -- A French magazine has been fined for publishing topless photographs of Britain's likely future queen, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and ordered not to distribute the magazine in print or online, a French court ruled Tuesday.

The court ordered Closer magazine to hand over the original photos to the royal family within 24 hours of the ruling and to pay them 2,000 euros (about $2,600).

The magazine must pay a further 10,000 euros a day if it is late in handing over the photos.

And a French prosecutor opened a preliminary criminal investigation into the incident, the Nanterre prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

Catherine and her husband, Prince William, the second in line to the throne, "welcome the injunction that's been granted. They always believed the law was broken and that they were entitled to their privacy," the palace said.

Continue reading...http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/18/world/europe/uk-royals-photo-controversy/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Berlusconi Smack in the Middle of it!

What I fin amazing is the utter level of hypocrisy...Silvio Berlusconi who claimed that photos of his private alcohol, drug and prostitute-filled parties were a violation of his privacy...now does not respect the privacy of others...what a stronzo!

----

ROME (AP) — An Italian gossip magazine owned by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi published a 26-page spread of topless photos of Prince William's wife Kate on Monday despite legal action inFrance against the French magazine that published them first.

Chi hit newsstands on Monday, featuring a montage of photos taken while the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were on vacation at a relative's home in the south of France last month. They included the 14 pictures published by the popular French magazine Closer, which like Chi is owned by Berlusconi's Mondadori publishing house.

But the Chi spread ran the whole sequence of photos as the couple sunbathed on a terrace, including one shot of the princess putting sun cream on her backside that didn't appear in Closer.

The couple is hitting back hard against the publication of the images, which William's St. James's Palace called a "grotesque" invasion of their privacy.

http://news.yahoo.com/italy-magazine-goes-ahead-topless-kate-pics-095520335.html

UK – Royal Photo Scandal Widens

ROME -- An Italian gossip magazine owned by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi published a 26-page spread of topless photos of Prince William's wife Kate on Monday despite legal action in France against the French magazine that published them first.

Chi hit newsstands on Monday, featuring a montage of photos taken while the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were on vacation at a relative's home in the south of France last month. They included the 14 pictures published by the popular French magazine Closer, which like Chi is owned by Berlusconi's Mondadori publishing house.

But the Chi spread ran the whole sequence of photos as the couple sunbathed on a terrace, including one shot of the princess putting sun cream on her backside that didn't appear in Closer.

Continue reading...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/17/kate-middleton-chi-magazine_n_1889655.html?utm_hp_ref=world&ir=World

Murdoch's Revenge – The Prince Harry Excuse

LONDON -- By letting his top-selling U.K. tabloid run photos of a naked Prince Harry cavorting in a Las Vegas hotel room, some say media mogul Rupert Murdoch was warning Britain's establishment that he could still shake things up.

British officialdom has largely turned its back on Murdoch because of the phone-hacking scandal that has badly tainted his media empire over the past year. So even though Murdoch's The Sun newspaper framed its decision to publish the nude pictures as a defense of press freedom, some observers saw the move as a feisty message from the tycoon.

"Not only was The Sun showing Harry's bottom, Murdoch was mooning the Establishment," said journalist Jane Merrick, whose article in The Independent on Sunday alleged that Murdoch personally ordered the paper to run the photos in a phone call with Tom Mockridge, the chief of his British newspaper unit, News International.

Murdoch, once assiduously courted by lawmakers across the British political spectrum, has seen his clout wither after his company was exposed as having hacked into the phones of hundreds of people to score scoops.

Allegations of bribery, corruption, computer hacking, and obstruction of justice are being investigated, and the scandal has prompted a judge-led media ethics inquiry that could propose sweeping changes to how Britain's press is policed – potentially subjecting newspapers to government regulation.

If The Sun was cowed, it didn't show it Friday, when it published the pictures of Harry along with a lengthy public interest justification claiming that the "the photos have potential implications for the Prince's image representing Britain around the world."

Continue reading...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/26/rupert-murdoch-prince-harry-naked-pictures-sun_n_1831244.html?utm_hp_ref=media

The Vegas Escapade – Prince Harry's Reckoning

Now it's getting creepy: Prince Harry has gotten a porn offer.

Harry is set to meet with his exasperated father, Prince Charles, for a heart-to-heart this weekend about his naked romp in a Las Vegas hotel last week, according to British media reports.

Sin City, perturbed that its reputation as a confidential bacchanal spot has been damaged, took out a full-page ad in USA TODAY newspaper on Friday criticizing those who exploited Harry by selling pictures of him naked. "For shame!" the ad shouted. "We deplore you."

But it won't be much help to Harry as he prepares to meet his father.The Daily Mail, citing its royal sources, reports that Harry will not be taken to the woodshed for a "dressing down," but that the Dad wants to talk "father to son." Maybe ask the question, "What were you thinking?"

Meanwhile, TMZ, the U.S. gossip website that helped lay Harry bare before the world by publishing the cellphone snaps, is reporting today that a California porn purveyor offered Harry $10 million to appear in an adult film. Only that's not how TMZ put it.

http://www.theadvertiser.com/usatoday/article/831080?odyssey=obinsite

Those pesky Photos Kids Post – The Norway Case

Mette-Marit’s son in security ‘scandal’

August 22, 2012  

Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s eldest son, Marius Borg Høiby, has been eagerly releasing private photos of family holidays and other information about the royal family’s whereabouts for months, reported newspaper VG on Wednesday. No one seemed to realize that the use of such popular social media could harm the family’s security.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit and her son, Marius Borg Høiby, on a family vacation in Asia last year. This is not one of the photos found on Høiby's Instagram account, but rather on the royal family's official web site. PHOTO: kongehuset.no

“It’s not Marius’ mistake,” claimed one of Europe’s top terror experts Magnus Ranstorp to VG. “It’s the police, who have made an erroneous evaluation about security.”

The now-15-year-old son of Mette-Marit and an earlier partner has no royal title himself, since he was born before his then-single mother married Crown Prince Haakon. He’s in practice, though, a full member of the family and elder half-brother to Mette-Marit’s and Haakon’s children and royal heirs, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus. He’s also a natural part of family holidays and special events, and apparently has enjoyed sharing his experiences via social media.

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2012/08/22/mette-marits-son-in-security-scandal/

Oh That Boy – Prince Harry's Naked Escapade

Just the other day I was watching a video of Prince Harry's Las Vegas visit. He seemed to be having quite a bit of fun in the midst of an adoring group of girls.

Hey...who wouldn't want to party with a Prince!

And then I thought...Lord Jesus...this will lead to something else...

Et voilá le scandale!

I pass zero judgment on the Young Prince. I have no issue whatsoever with nudity and our American fixation obsession perhaps) with prudishness.

However...I thought that what happened in Vegas, "stayed in Vegas..." Unless you are Prince Harry!

http://www.tmz.com/

Royal Life Saver – Prince William

He’s already a real-life prince, but Britain’s Prince William is now also a knight in shining armor after saving a 16-year-old schoolgirl from drowning.

While on duty as a search and rescue pilot on the Royal Air Force, he was alerted by radio last Thursday to a sighting of the girl being dragged under by a rip current off the coast of Wales.

William had already landed his Sea King helicopter when the call came, yet he and his crew managed to reach the scene in an impressively speedy 38 seconds, just as the girl began to slip underwater. The team’s paramedic, Master Aircrew Harry Harrison, was then lowered down to assist the girl.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/20/prince-william-real-life-knight-in-shining-armor-rescues-girl-from-drowning/#ixzz2476qohPC

©Getty

Royal Gatherings – A Work in Progress

Suggested by our reader, Larry Russell, Ilana Miller and I put our thinking hats to work and came up with a new book idea: Royal Gatherings.

Currently, here at Eurohistory we are busy getting envelopes labeled and readied to mail ERHJ LXXXVII to subscribers. Our printer is located in Berkeley and they supply UC Berkeley with large quantities of class materials. As they are at the beginning of the school year, they are a bit overwhelmed. They apologized for delaying printing of our latest issue, but promised to have it ready by Wednesday. In the meantime, we are busy with ERHJ LXXXVIII (August 2012), as well as with The Other Grand Dukes – Sons and Grandsons of Russia's Grand Dukes and my newest contribution, Victorian Legacy – Queen Victoria, Her Descendants and the Princes of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. I expect these two books out right after the other, the Russian book coming out in September.

Meanwhile, both Ilana Miller and I have started working on Royal Gatherings. We have selected a healthy number of such royal events. These catalogue European royal gatherings from 1859-1917 and range from the wedding of King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies and Duchess Marie in Bavaria and the alliance formed by Prince Heinrich of Prussia and his first cousin Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine, to the wedding of Archduke Karl of Austria and Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma.

The wedding of Heinrich of Prussia and Irene of Hesse is incredibly unique in many ways. Firstly, it was the first wedding between descendants of Queen Victoria as both bride and groom were her grandchildren. Secondly, and perhaps more interestingly, it was among the first royal weddings ever photographed from inside the chapel, thus providing us with a historical document of unique importance.

We trust readers will enjoy this book, which we hope will start a series!

The wedding of Prince Heinrich of Prussia and
Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine.