Twenty years ago, a tall young woman with a shy smile flubbed her lines before millions of people and became a superstar.  | | On July 29, 1981, Lady Diana Spencer married Prince Charles and became the Princess of Wales - and an international superstar.[AP] |
On July 29, 1981, Lady Diana Spencer took "Philip Charles Arthur George" - she mangled the order of Prince Charles' names during her vows - as her lawful wedded husband and entered a family hidebound by practices no outsider could fathom.
It turned out to be much more than she bargained for. It also turned out to be much more than they bargained for. But for the media, it was a golden bonanza. The Media Maelstrom "The media changed dramatically in that decade of the 1980s," says Bob Houston, publisher of Royalty Monthly magazine. "Diana was the spearhead of the American invasion of Britain, the celebrity culture," says Houston. "The British media is changing. It is becoming much more celebrity-driven. And we had this No. 1 celebrity." Diana, with her photogenic good looks, her sympathetic gestures and an air of vulnerability, seemed much more relaxed than the other royals, and much more accessible. She instantly clicked with the public, who couldn't get enough of her. "From the time she entered public life, Diana conveyed her vulnerability with her eyes, her gestures, her speech, and her touch," Sally Bedell Smith wrote in her book Diana in Search of Herself. "Alongside her beauty, this evident fragility made her a star." Newspaper editors found the public was eager to lap up articles about Diana, her clothes, her style, her public engagements, how she was raising her two young sons. The '80s, says Houston, were "the Decade of Diana." Fairy Princess and Everywoman Then, in June 1992, the carefully constructed fa?ade imploded with the publication of Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story. The book - written with Diana's cooperation - exposed the princess's battles with bulimia and depression, and reviled Charles as an unfaithful husband. The revelations of Charles' relationship with a married woman, Camilla Parker Bowles, sent the Prince of Wales' popularity plummeting. But the revelations of Diana's problems did not decrease the public's affection for her. It only increased their appetite to know more. "Once the breadth and depth of her emotional struggle became known," wrote Smith, "she struck an even deeper chord: She became the fairy-princess version of the troubled everywoman." The tabloid fodder kept coming: There was the royal separation, the two camps' attempts to woo the public, the televised admissions by both Charles and Diana of adultery. After the divorce became final, in 1996, the media continued to follow Diana's every move. And then, on Aug. 31, 1997, came the car crash in a Paris tunnel that claimed her life. The massive outpouring of public grief made the Windsors sit up and take notice. "The amazing eruption of emotion over her death got through to them that their world has had to change," says Houston. Charles Gets the Message The person who really got the message was Prince Charles, who witnessed not only the public reaction but the grief of his own sons, William and Harry. "One of the great discussions, especially since Diana's death, is, How does the House of Windsor modernize itself?" says Houston. "They certainly learned the lessons from the decade of Diana in terms of accessibility, shedding some of the more pompous aspects of formality." He says, "One of the greatest challenges the royal family faces is to overcome the apathy, however, the future looks bright for the royals. I think they've got a trump card in William." (Agencies) | 20年前，一個帶著羞澀笑容，身材高挑的少女，在數百萬觀看她的婚禮的人群面前居然說錯了話,鬧了個笑話，而她從此成為了一顆耀眼的巨星。 1981年7月29日，戴安娜-斯潘賽在婚禮宣誓時竟把自己丈夫查爾斯王子的全名順序搞錯了，成了"菲力浦-查爾斯-阿瑟-喬治"的合法妻子（查爾斯王子的全名順序應該是"查爾斯-菲力浦-阿瑟-喬治"）。從此戴安娜走進了一個任何局外人都無法了解的被各種清規戒律所桎梏的家庭。 事實上，戴安娜的婚姻遠比她預想的要復雜，對于王室成員來說也是如此。但是對于媒體來說，這樁王室婚姻卻成了他們的致富之源。 媒體的旋渦 《皇室月刊》雜志的出版商鮑勃-休斯頓說："媒體在20世紀80年代發生了巨大的變化。有關戴安娜的報道成為美國名人文化打進英國的第一炮。于是英國媒體開始發生變化，變得越來越為名人效應所驅動。他們竟然自豪的發現 '我們擁有世界上的頭號名人'。"  | | 戴安娜與修道院院長泰瑞莎在一起 |
戴安娜有著一副上鏡的姣好容貌，她那能讓人產生共鳴的手勢和毫不設防的表情，讓她看上去遠比王室其他成員平易近人。因此她很快贏得了公眾的喜愛，人們自然也就想知道她的一切。 薩莉-比德爾-史密斯在《探尋自我的戴安娜》一書中寫道："進入公眾生活以來，戴安娜的眼神、手勢、演講和觸摸處處顯示出她那溫柔的性格。舉世公認的美貌，加之這種柔弱的天性讓她成為一顆明星。" 報紙編輯們發現，讀者們熱衷于所有關于戴安娜的報道，無論是有關她的服裝、她的風格、她的社交活動，以及她如何撫養她的兩個孩子，公眾對于這些都饒有興趣。休斯敦稱 "整個80年代是戴安娜的時代"。 公主與平民 然而，1992年6月，安德魯-莫頓《戴安娜：她真實的故事》一書的面世，撕破了十多年來精心構筑的假象。此書（在戴安娜本人的幫助下完成）揭開了戴安娜王妃如何與易餓癥和精神抑郁癥斗爭的過程，同時斥責了查爾斯作為丈夫不忠的一面。 此書曝光了查爾斯和另一位已婚女人--卡米拉的曖昧關系，使得這位威爾士王子的公眾支持率急劇下降。但是，戴安娜婚姻危機的曝光并沒有影響公眾對這位王妃的喜愛程度。相反，人們想要了解更多的詳情。 史密斯在書中寫道："當她的心靈深處的情感斗爭為大眾所知后，她在公眾中產生了巨大的共鳴，她不僅僅是個高高在上的公主,也是一個面臨家庭問題的普通女人。" 小報始終進行著追蹤報道：先是夫婦二人的分居，隨后是雙方竟相努力贏得公眾的支持，接下來是戴安娜和查爾斯雙雙在電視上對婚外戀供認不諱。1996年兩人正式離婚以后，媒體仍舊繼續關注戴安娜的一舉一動，直到1997年8月31日，戴安娜在巴黎隧道的那場車禍中喪命。 公眾迸發了對戴妃的巨大的哀悼，這引起了英國皇室的注意。休斯敦說："公眾的感情強烈迸發，讓他們（皇室成員們）意識到自己的世界也應該改變一下了。" 王子接收教訓 事實上，真正從戴妃的死中得到教訓的人是查爾斯王子，因為他不但目睹了公眾對于戴妃去世的反應，而且還見到了自己的兒子--威廉和哈利王子--對于他們母親過世所表現出的巨大悲痛。 休斯頓說："戴妃去世后王室成員談論的主要話題之一就是皇室如何跟上時代的步伐。顯然，王室成員們已經從'戴安娜時代'中認識到他們必須樹立平易近人的形象，擺脫那些華而不實的儀式和禮節。" 休斯頓說："現在王室的最大問題就是改變他們冷漠的形象，當然，皇室的前景是光明的，我認為他們手中的王牌就是威廉王子。" (中國日報網站譯) |
Updated: 2001-08-06 01:00
