A Royal Star Shines On Her Own: DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES

• Share

Black skies, rain squalls, a cutting wind. June in Wales. On a bald hill outside Cardiff sits the Polytechnic of Wales, a scruffy institute that aspires to university status. Along its main drive hundreds of people have gathered -- local dignitaries, students, faculty, many humbler school employees. So have several members of the press.

Presently, a convoy of black cars purrs up, and out of one appear sensational legs, feet shod in high purple pumps, and a blur of bright pink cheerful enough to part the clouds. The tall young woman who alights smiles radiantly, her carriage plumb line but her head tilted slightly down so that you see the whites setting off huge blue eyes -- a far more effective beauty tactic than any cosmetic. Diana, Princess of Wales, the woman who will be Queen of England and is already the world's reigning celebrity, has come to Pontypridd.

Although the official reason for the visit is the unveiling of a plaque, most of Diana's time is spent on a walkabout and chitchat with random members of the crowd. As the student orchestra saws out reverent tunes, she helps a boy with a speech impediment through the arduous business of telling her he loves her and hopes to see her soon again. To a handsome student who sports a box cut despite his straight hair, she says, "I think we should exchange hairdos." Nice, and just naughty enough. He and his post-Mod buddies preen like princelings.

There are a few disgruntled people around: the press. "Damn!" bellows a photographer. "The old pink again. I'm not staying here." The press is as much a part of the princess's life as her exercise regimen. The vivid dress that seems an inspired choice for a nasty day has in fact been photographed many times over at least two years. Has she forgotten how to play this game?

"She's wearing her old clothes to try to shift the spotlight onto him," ; gripes another cameraman, "and it won't work." Him, of course, is the problematic Prince Charles, whose dilatory connubial ways have the brazen British tabloids -- and increasingly the world press -- in a feeding frenzy.

Diana's enduring allure has surprised everyone, including the lady herself. The public obsession with the smallest details of her smart clothes, her hair, her sons and her chums has made royal family life far more compelling and financially exploitable than any TV saga. What did they do without her a mere 10 years ago -- the media, the publishers, the tourist and fashion industries, the gewgawmakers? What did the royals themselves do?

This hands-on princess loves picking up babies, whether or not they have AIDS. In her endless hospital rounds, she ignores the doctors and holds hands with the patients. If she visits a center for the aged during ballroom-dancing class, she finds an elderly partner and does a turn on the floor. By way of contrast, Princess Anne's work with children has been unstinting and effective, but she will not cuddle on camera.