Fifth Anniversary
Princess Diana
2002
By ELLEN TUMPOSKY
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
LONDON - Five years after Princess Diana's death, her name is still in the headlines, but there are signs the public is beginning to forget the woman once called the world's biggest star.
"I think that her memory is fading. It's very sad, and I find it very difficult to understand. I think it shows the British public is very fickle," said Judy Wade, who writes about the British royal family.
Wade noted only a small number of people now leave bouquets at Kensington Palace on Diana's birthday and on the anniversary of her death in a Paris car crash on Aug. 31, 1997.
"Maybe people are cherishing her in their hearts, but there's no outward evidence of it," Wade said.
Those who do leave bouquets tend to be unbalanced fanatics, in the view of royal biographer Robert Lacey. "The inscriptions are clearly the work of disturbed people. There's something necrophilic about it," he said.
During the elaborate public celebrations in June of Queen Elizabeth's 50 years on the throne, Diana was never mentioned - though she did appear briefly as a cardboard cutout on one parade float. Still, Lacey said, the jubilee events reflected Diana's impact on the royal family.
"You would not have seen a pop concert in the grounds of Buckingham Palace had it not been for Diana," he said.
The public's anger at the royals' apparent indifference in the days after her death led to a sea change in the way the royal family presents itself to the public.
In the last five years, Diana's former in-laws have aped her common touch, with the queen having tea in a housing project and visiting the set of a popular soap opera. And when the 101-year-old queen mother died on March 30, Prince Charles spoke emotionally on TV about his grandmother.
"The royal family is immensely the better for what they learned from Diana," Lacey said. Visitors continue to stream to the museum at Althorp, the ancestral home of Diana's family, the Spencers, but donations to the Princess of Wales Memorial Fund are down - though the fund has pledged $75 million in charitable donations since her death. Only last month, an official committee finally agreed on a public memorial to the princess, choosing an oval stone ring filled with water, designed by American Kathryn Gustafson, to be built in Hyde Park in London.
Vivienne Parry, a former trustee of the Memorial Fund, called it "a puddle," adding, "It does absolutely look like one of those show gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show, not a national monument at all."
Parry believes the British establishment has encouraged the dimming of Diana's memory for its own reasons - partly to promote Charles' paramour who is more and more of a public presence, appearing this summer with the prince at a royal garden party and at the jubilee concerts.
"It feels, among ordinary people in Britain, that Diana has been airbrushed out," Parry said.
The princess - who would be 41 if she had lived - still holds sway with the media, which have given big coverage to the latest tell-all book by former royal bodyguard Ken Wharfe. "Diana: Closely Guarded Secret" dishes the dirt on Diana's affairs with army officer James Hewitt and upper-class art dealer Oliver Hoare. It tells how Diana filled a briefcase with $24,000 in cash for Hewitt to buy a sports car, and how Hoare was the first lover to ever please her physically.
Wharfe also reveals that the princess once jumped 20 feet off a hotel balcony in Austria while on vacation with her sons, William and Harry, then returned in the early morning hours demanding to be let in.
Despite such tacky revelations, many believe Diana's real legacy is her work for charity. "The work she did for AIDS, leprosy and [amputee victims of] land mines did more to destroy prejudice and ignorance than any other human being of the 20th century," Wade said.
As for Diana's iconic status, Parry predicted the princess' luster will endure. "She'll be like a Marilyn Monroe. There will be a time when her memory fades a bit, then she'll come back stronger than ever."
By Kate Kelland
LONDON (Reuters) - It is five years since Princess Diana, the queen of Britons' hearts, died in a bizarre and brutal accident in a Paris road tunnel.
But the legacy of change her death forced onto Britain's until now aloof royal family, and a continuing media obsession with her, her handsome prince sons, her ex-husband's lover and revelations by her staff, ensure she is far from forgotten.
Just as September 11, 2001 is a date permanently branded on the memories of people the world over, so August 31, 1997 is one Britons define as the most memorable in British history, according to a poll released last week.
And while this year's anniversary has no official ceremonies to mark it, Diana's former staff and friends are -- as so often before -- making sure it does not pass unnoticed.
The latest revelations about a princess who dominated tabloid headlines in life and continues to do so in death come in a tell-all book by a former bodyguard Ken Wharfe.
His book was well timed to hit the shops this week and provide Diana-hungry newspaper editors with tales.
Wharfe's book is reported to have made the young princes William and Harry "incandescent" with rage.
But since Wharfe is only the latest in a string of former Diana staff to spill her private details into the public arena, intrusion into their family's affairs is something the boys are getting used to.
ROYALS LEARN TO SHOW HUMAN SIDE
For some it is in the uncanny resemblance of Prince William, who is second in line to the throne after his father Charles, and in the shyness of his younger brother Harry that Diana's legacy is so strong.
But for the majority of the British public, it is the eye-opening shift she prompted in the public behavior of the royal family.
"One of Diana's greater legacies to her sons and their successors is that she has made many things more acceptable in a royal context, and shown the old guard at Buckingham Palace that in fact a lot of stuff is wanted by the people as a whole," Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, said in a recent interview.
And this year more than any other since the "People's Princess" died, Britain's royals have had the chance to show the human face they seemed so drastically to lack when news first broke of Diana's fatal car crash in Paris.
In 1997, it took five days of an unprecedented outpouring of public grief before Queen Elizabeth, Diana's ex-mother-in-law, was apparently reluctantly persuaded to make a public address about the death, and praise the princess herself.
The difference could not have been greater when the queen's sister Princess Margaret died in February this year and when the Queen Mother -- long adored by the nation -- died at the grand age of 101 the following month.
Charles, having learned the lessons from a public which saw him, his mother and the rest of his family as cruel and uncaring when Diana died, immediately went public with heartfelt tributes to his "vibrant darling aunt" and his "magical grandmother."
The queen too showed that she had heard the voice of the a people so angry and disappointed at her in 1997. Far from being described as distant and cold, the queen even earned the reputation for being "trendy" in her Golden Jubilee year.
Celebrating 50 years on the throne, she opened her garden to the public for a pop concert in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, partied with her subjects in the working-class East End district of London and traveled the length of the land to meet as many people from as many different backgrounds as possible.
Both the queen and Prince Charles have reaped immediate rewards for opening up their human side.
Opinion polls show most Britons now think Charles, whose doomed marriage to Diana ended in 1996 with admissions of adultery on both sides, should be allowed to marry his long-term lover -- a 55-year-old divorcee once nicknamed "The Rottweiler" by Diana.
And in an ironic twist for a family that so exasperated and rejected
Diana, it is thanks to the lessons of the princess's death that
only 12 percent of Britons now want the monarchy scrapped, compared
to an all-time high of 34 percent a year ago.
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Kathryn Gustafson's design
incorporates ring of water
An American landscape artist has won the
competition to design a £3m fountain in memory of Diana,
Princess of Wales.
Kathryn Gustafson's design, described as "restrained and elegant", incorporates a 50 x 80 metre oval stone ring filled with water to be built next to the Serpentine in Hyde Park, London. Work on the final design will begin almost immediately, with the fountain expected to be in place by the sixth anniversary of Diana's death in August 2003. Her sons, Princes William and Harry, said: "We are glad that a decision has been taken on the design of the commemorative fountain to our mother and we are grateful to Rosa Monckton and the committee for all their hard work."
But the design has not found favour with everyone and there was some criticism expressed at Wednesday's unveiling. Vivienne Parry, a friend of Diana's, said it was "disappointing". "Here we have a woman who was one of the most celebrated Britons for the last quarter century and we have remembered her with a puddle," she said. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell stepped in earlier this month to make the final choice, after a committee of eight set up to oversee the project split 50-50 on the final shortlist of two, from more than 100 ideas. Ms Jowell picked Miss Gustafson's work, said to be more traditional, over Bombay-based designer and former Turner Prize winner Anish Kapoor's 16ft dome of water. Miss Gustafson is best known in Britain for her glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. The original committee, chaired by Diana's friend Rosa Monckton, had descended into bitter wrangling. On announcing her decision, Ms Jowell said it had been "the judgment of Solomon". The finalists were judged against an agreed set of five quality criteria, said a spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
He said the final decision was based on the committee's views of which team best met all the relevant criteria and Ms Jowell had not made a personal judgment about the quality of the bids. Ms Jowell paid tribute to Rosa Monckton and her committee, saying they had performed "an enormously difficult task" with "great dedication". Paddling pool "I pay tribute to both the two leading designs. This was the judgment of Solomon. "But there had to be just one winner. And now that we have one, we can move on to build a worthy memorial to Diana's life." Miss Gustafson's design involves water pouring into the stone ring from the top of a hill at the Serpentine Bridge and running down in two directions.
Both end in a pool in a dished hollow. At night the shape, which can be planted with plants and trees, would be lit up. The water will be shallow enough for children to paddle and play in. Ms Monckton described it as an "appropriate memorial" to Diana. "We were privileged as a committee to be asked to pass judgment on such a large number of outstanding entries," she said. Miss Gustafson said: "The ability to affect those with whom one comes into contact, while being affected by those around one - these were both attributes associated with Princess Diana. "We have endeavoured to create a water feature that can be associated with these features." The designers describe it as a place to find "serenity, a time and space to reflect". 
Comment
A splishy-splashy water feature: inoffensive and forgettable Jonathan Glancey Thursday August 1, 2002 The Guardian Aha, the old water feature trick, eh? The long awaited and much bitched about £3m Treasury-funded memorial to Princess Diana turns out to be not a fountain, as expected, but a splishy-splashy water feature. At least, this is what its designers, the American landscape designer, Kathryn Gustafson and London architect Neil Porter, call it. So, it is farewell then to old-fashioned bronze horses galloping through giant water drenched scallop shells or muscle bound tritons blowing skybound jets of H<->20 through wreathed horns; what every self-respecting "urban landscape" project has to have these days is a nice water feature. Not so very long ago the death of a famous person, say, or the opening of a glum corporate headquarters, gimcrack shopping mall or even a new park called for nowt less than a couple of tons of Henry Moore bronze, whether dripping in water or not. Classy stuff, mind. Artistic. Today, what we like is a nice water feature. Inoffensive. Accessible. Something for the kiddies. Princess Diana was famously good with children. Did not patronise them. The water feature designed in her name is both a little dull and rather patronising. It is, it has to be said, unlike - very unlike - the people's princess, a bit of a non-event. And, it also has to be said, not as good as the rival design by artist Anish Kapoor and Future Systems architects for a rather beautiful fountain formed almost entirely from flowing water. Nor even a patch on the unashamedly populist children's playground dedicated to Diana's memory elsewhere in Kensington Gardens. Quite why we find the design of appropriate and inspiring memorials so very difficult today is a bit of a mystery. They seem to be quite beyond us, so much water under the bridge. At least we have not splashed out on some grim Lady Thatcher-style statue. That would have put a dampener on Diana's memory.
As for the £3m water feature, it might be
a bit of a shower, but it is so low key that we will have forgotten
about it as quick as you can say "it's raining, it's pouring, the
art world's snoring". Monday, 15 July, 2002, 09:47 GMT 10:47 UK 
Defining moment: Earl Spencer's
moving funeral oration
Princess Diana's brother Earl Spencer believes
that princes William and Harry "may not be encouraged to
stay in touch with their mother's side of the family".
Earl Spencer also revealed that Prince Charles has spoken to him just once since Diana was killed in a Paris car crash five years ago.
At Princess Diana's funeral, Earl Spencer pledged that the princes' "blood family" would continue the "imaginative, loving way" in which his sister was "steering" them through life. "What I can say is that they may not be encouraged to stay in touch with their mother's side of the family," he told the Guardian. Protection The earl said he had met Prince Charles at a reception in South Africa, the only time the pair had met since Diana's funeral. Earl Spencer, who was named by Diana in her will as her children's guardian, declined to say how often he saw the boys although he added: "I haven't seen William for a while."
"I've seen the prime minister about their privacy. I've dealt with newspaper stories that were going to come out that I thought were particularly unfair on them behind the scenes. "They are two young men who have very full social diaries and an active life with their father's family and I understand all that. I was not saying I was going to nanny them, I was just there to protect them and give them a different direction if they needed it." 'A private matter' Another aspect of Diana's legacy was that William would be allowed to marry who he chooses, which Earl Spencer believes will be allowed to happen. He said: "I think he's got it in him to choose who he wants to marry. I don't think he'll be told." Earl Spencer - who said the interview would be the last he would give on the subject of his moving speech at Diana's funeral - also said he was tricked into letting the princes walk behind their mother's coffin along the funeral route. Prince William and Prince Harry were just 15 and 12 at the time. "I was told that they wanted to do it and that they would like it if I were there. I now know that's not true," he said. "I thought that was where tradition and duty went too far against human nature." St James's Palace press office would not be drawn on Earl Spencer's comments, saying: "This is a private family matter."
There were rumours the couple would
marry
The inquest into the death of Diana,
Princess of Wales could be held next year, it is claimed.
The inquest has been delayed by a lengthy police investigation and legalities. Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997. British law insists an inquest must happen when a body is returned to Britain following a death abroad.
The breakthrough follows the appointment of a new coroner for the Royal Household, Michael Burgess. He would head Diana's inquest and that of Dodi Fayed, who was also killed in the Paris crash. A source close to the case told the Press Association: "It will obviously take Mr Burgess time to familiarise himself with such a complicated case, which means an inquest this year is out of the question. "But it does mean an inquest at some point next year is a real possibility." 'Ludicrous' law The aim of an inquest is to identify the causes of a person's death. The hearing would allow the events leading up to the crash to be explored in detail.
It would be the first inquest into
a fatal accident involving a member of the Royal Family
to be held since 1972, when Prince William of Gloucester was
killed in an air crash.
Dodi's father, Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, at the time suggested Diana's death was a conspiracy. On hearing the latest developments, he said: "Mr Al Fayed has always wanted the full circumstances of the crash to be put before a jury in a situation where witnesses can be called and the accident examined. "Mr Burgess seems to be taking things forward, which is very much to be welcomed." Speaking from his home in Middlesex on Sunday, Mr Burgess said he was unable to comment on the case. Mr Burgess replaced Dr John Burton as coroner for the Royal Household. Dr Burton last year said he considered the law compelling an inquest to be "ludicrous". 
People's princess - or just a fast-fading fairytale?
Five years after an endless carpet of flowers was laid in her memory, what difference did Diana's death make? The Observer asks how do we remember that tumultuous week in 1997? Did it change Britain? Does Diana still have a legacy? Ben Summerskill and Nicholas Randall Sunday August 11, 2002 The Observer An endless carpet of flowers was laid outside royal palaces after the Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash on 31 August 1997. As the people mourned on the streets and the Queen remained closeted at Balmoral, Tony Blair rose to the occasion, describing Diana as 'The People's Princess'. He had found his moment. Three months after the Tories were swept from power, the attention of 'New Britain' turned to a monarchy decried as out of touch and out of time. The fury was fuelled at Diana's funeral when her brother Earl Spencer announced: 'She needed no royal title to generate her particular brand of magic.' Applause rippled into Westminster Abbey from the crowds listening outside. Then the congregation clapped too. Only the Windsors were left, tight-lipped, in an oasis of silence. Critics said the Queen's days were numbered. If anyone succeeded her, it would be Diana's son, Prince William. Many commentators claimed Britain had finally become 'emotionally literate', able to share public grief without embarrassment and to articulate Diana's special concern for the disadvantaged. Five years later, the Queen is enjoying a triumphant golden jubilee year and Charles is still preparing to succeed her, with his paramour at his side. So, as we approach the anniversary of Diana's death, The Observer asks how do we remember that tumultuous week in 1997? Did it change Britain? Does Diana still have a legacy? Mohamed
al-Fayed 'I have very
vague memories of that awful day because the shock was so terrible and I
was numb with grief. I couldn't believe it had happened for several days
and even now I find it hard. 'It is very difficult for me as a father who
has lost his son to come to terms with my loss - especially as I am certain
he was murdered by order of the highest in the land. Five years on my feelings
of desolation and grief have not subsided. There is not a day goes by without
my thinking of Dodi and remembering little things about him.
'As time goes on, I am more than ever convinced that Dodi and Diana,
a lovely young couple, so much in love, had their lives cruelly and
deliberately shortened by evil, racist influences within the establishment.
I will never rest until I have brought to justice those responsible
for their murder. 'As for the legacy of Diana, I think in her short
life she left an indelible mark on the world. She was a great human
being with the biggest capacity for love that you could ever find in
a person. The whole world will miss her. Her warmth and compassion and
particularly the common touch she had with the sick and with children
was unforgettable to anyone who had the privilege of meeting her.'
Princess's fountain lacks grandeur,
says mother
The mother of Diana, Princess of Wales yesterday criticised plans to put up a memorial to her daughter and claimed that she had not been consulted. Frances Shand Kydd said the £3 million water feature planned for Hyde Park near Diana's London home at Kensington Palace lacked "grandeur". Speaking to a French magazine, VSD, almost five years to the day since Diana's death, the Mrs Shand Kydd, 66, said she had learned about it only through newspapers and television. "No one's ever taken the trouble to ask me my thoughts, either when Diana died or now." Mrs Shand Kydd, who lives on the Isle of Seil, near Oban, said she was dismayed at the way both her daughter's life and now her memory had been appropriated by others. She said: "I ended up writing to the Culture Secretary to remind her that I exist." Mrs Shand Kydd also criticised the Royal Family, some newspapers and those who continued to put forward conspiracy theories about Diana's death, especially suggestions that she was pregnant at the time of her death. Joanna Lumley is lobbying for a tree-lined bridge to be built across the Thames in memory of the Princess. The actress, who played Patsy Stone in the BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, has met Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, urging him to back the £19 million project.
Press Release 
13 August 2002 Five Years On - The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund September 2002 marks the fifth anniversary of The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, established just days after the Princess's death. In the spirit of the Princess, the Fund continues to reach out to some of the most vulnerable groups in society. By the end of 2002 it will have pledged more than £50 million in grants to help people change their lives. Marking the anniversary 'Everyone needs to feel valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back.' Building on these words of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Fund has identified ten Young Voices who represent just some of the ways in which the Fund in its first five years has been trying to make a difference. They are young people who, through their involvement with projects funded by the Memorial Fund, have been helped to overcome severe disadvantage and discover their full potential. The young people will be given centre stage at a press event at the Fund on Wednesday 28 August to speak out about their experiences and aspirations. "These Young Voices belong to marginalised young people whom the Fund has helped to overcome stigma and take their place in society. They symbolise the fact that, five years on from the Princess's death, her inspiration continues to change people's lives," said Dr Andrew Purkis, OBE, Chief Executive of the Fund. To commemorate its fifth anniversary, the Fund has also been working with commercial partners on creating a small range of products. These include special edition commemorative coins, enamel boxes and a bone china plate. Money from all these items will come to the Fund to help continue the Princess's humanitarian work. All products have been approved by the Princess's Estate and carry the hallmark and the Fund's signature logo. A remarkable five years
Dr Andrew Purkis, Chief Executive of the Fund was awarded an OBE in June for services to The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. He says: "With our inspiring name, we can make a unique contribution to changing the lives of some of the most disadvantaged people in the UK and overseas. We feel this is the best possible memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales."
Notes:
Diana's Funeral: Five Years On - 8:00pm Channel 5By Radio TimesWhen Diana, Princess of Wales died five years ago, there were many voices, raised in public and in private, which predicted the end of the British monarchy. This documentary looks at that period, juxtaposed with the recent Jubilee celebrations, which if anything proved that the Queen is as secure as she has ever been, and how, oddly, Diana has faded from our national conciousness.
Mon Aug 26, 6:43 AM ET
By VIRGINIA FENTON, Associated Press Writer PARIS - Paris' official memorial to Princess Diana is tucked away in a quiet corner of the city, a classic French garden where basil, rosemary and thyme thrive alongside roses and marigolds that spill onto paths and climb the walls of surrounding buildings. But not many fans wishing to pay tribute to the "people's princess" have visited the garden since it opened in February 2001. Not many of them even know it's there. Instead, the hordes head to the French capital's de facto shrine to the princess — the gleaming "Flame of Liberty" monument that stands above the Pont de l'Alma tunnel where Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, and chauffeur Henri Paul died in a high-speed car crash on Aug. 31, 1997. The flame — a copper replica of the Statue of Liberty's torch — was spontaneously transformed into an altar to Diana after the accident. Mourners piled mounds of flowers, glued photographs on it and even wrote on it. Eventually, the gold-plated flame and its black and gray marble pedestal — presented to the city by the International Herald Tribune newspaper in 1987 as a token of French-American friendship — took on a messy appearance. As the fifth anniversary of Diana's death approached, however, the city decided to clean up the monument. The anniversary is Saturday. City Hall removed the flame last December, returned it to its pedestal in April in pristine condition and surrounded it with steel barricades to keep people at arm's length. "We saw the monument was dirty all the time, so after the cleanup, we put barriers around it to stop people from writing graffiti on it," said Yolande Taurel, spokeswoman for Paris City Hall. The city had considered placing a memorial to the princess at the place of her death, Taurel said, but Diana's love of children persuaded them to dedicate an educational garden to her instead. But hundreds of sightseers continue to flock every day to the Flame of Liberty instead of the garden in the chic Marais district. The garden is open to the public on weekends but used as a children's nature center during the week. Frank Masterpasqua, professor at the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, said the Pont de l'Alma monument is popular because people like to return to the place where tragic events happened. "It gives them a sense of control," he said. "It's kind of magical — if they'd been there, they might have been able to do something." Masterpasqua said this kind of informal memorial also gives people a feeling of community. "People bond around the deceased," he said. "It's a sort of meeting place where everyone understands what the others are feeling." Some fans at the flame are disappointed to find no official monument to the princess, others come expecting to find a stack of tributes and are startled to find they have been removed. "I'm surprised — I expected to see flowers, graffiti, an informal memorial," said James Croll, 41, a travel agent on holiday in Paris from Ryegate, near London. "It would be nice to see a little something here." Not everyone agrees. "It's a tragic scene," said Croll's wife Clair, 36, a longtime Diana fan. "I always find it a bit morbid to see flowers at the side of the street where someone's died." Masterpasqua said the flame is likely to remain a place of pilgrimage for Diana devotees for some time to come. "People have created myths around the grassy knoll and Graceland," he said. "These things take on a life of their own." Britons believe the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, is the
most significant date in British history for the past 100
years. The date was nominated
by a majority of people in a survey of 1,000 people by the
History Channel.
Multimedia Available: Remembering Diana, The Princess of Wales, and Continuing Her Work Wednesday August 28, 9:24 am ET August 31, 2002
will mark the fifth anniversary of the tragic accident that
took the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. The Diana, Princess
of Wales, Memorial Fund (US) is releasing a public service announcement
featuring actress Jamie Lee Curtis. This PSA reminds people of the
Princess' life and legacy and invites them to make a contribution
to her organization. You can reach
the story directly by going to
http://www.newstream.com/cgi-bin/display_story.cgi?6896
This multimedia
news story is for free and unrestricted use on your news information
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Diana: her death topped the UK poll