Butler in Right Royal Ruckus!

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First you're accused of stealing from the People's Princess. Then the Queen speaks up and you're cleared of all charges — but that's when your reputation really starts to take a pounding. For Paul Burrell, the former butler to Princess Diana, life has been like that ever since six of London's tabloids began hounding him mercilessly. Burell's real crime: selling his story to another paper.

Two weeks ago Burrell was riding a wave of public sympathy. His trial for stealing 310 of Diana's items, from handbags to photos to a ceremonial sword, collapsed when Queen Elizabeth recalled that shortly after Diana's death, Burrell had confided to her that he would hold some of Diana's things for safekeeping — proving he had no criminal intent. As commentators picked over the carcass of the case, Burrell was portrayed mostly as the victim of police and prosecutors, who jumped to the wrong conclusion on flimsy evidence, egged on by Diana's mother and sister — who supposedly resented that the son of a coal deliveryman had supplanted them in Diana's affections. Newspapers called Burrell "Diana's Rock."

Well — that was then. Queen Blasts Barmy Butler, screamed the Sun last week. Outcast, said the Daily Mail. The Evening Standard informed its readers that burrell has betrayed us all says [Prince] William. Why? Just maybe because these papers lost the bidding war for Burrell's story — and hell, at least the British variety, hath no fury like a tabloid scorned.

What The Butler Knows became the great obsession of Fleet Street last week. Certainly Burrell does know juicy secrets about Diana. And maybe, editors dared to hope, he could be induced to uncork royal-roiling revelations that the Queen — as conspiracy theorists were convinced — had stopped the trial to suppress.

The official victor was the Mirror (circ.: 2.1 million). It paid Burrell $450,000 for his story, beating papers that had offered him much more because it agreed not to pressure him to tell more than he wanted to. Burrell's agent, David Warwick, says another paper was willing to pay $1.5 million — and after being scooped by the Mirror doubled its offer, even dangling a separate payment at Warwick as well.

The papers that had their checks returned found exquisite ways to exact revenge. As the Mirror focused on What The Butler Is Willing To Say, its competitors went after The Shocking Secrets He Wants to Keep — with a good dose of What a Rotten Guy He Is Anyway (Maybe Crazy Too). "I warned Paul that the losers would go for his jugular," says Warwick.