HSH Prince Albert Current Events 14 : Dec.2005 - Jan.2006

[paca]

It would be very nice if Prince Albert find someone and get married before he's 50.. Monaco is in crisis for a new princess!! What do you think?

It certainly would be nice for him, but I don't think that MC needs a princess at all costs. There is no crisis here, though some female influence wouldn't hurt. And who cares how old he is going to be once he finds someone to be happy with. I don't think we need a Charles and Di drama here, we need a couple more like Charles and Camilla, more calm and settled. And since he is under no pressure to find just a birthmachine to secure the line, I'd rather have him look a little longer and find his diamond, then grab the next best circonia.

 

[Donna]

Well my beautiful darlings

There seems to be a demand for one of my discriptions of Albert's future wife, the next Princess of Monaco.

She has arms that reach all the way down to the floor. That is why he will fall for her, since she is the only woman on earth who will be able to put his arms around him. Her legs are long and go all the way up to the neck. Her fingers are allt crooked and intertweened so she never knows which finger is which. She has a big hole through her torso so you can see the food as it is digested and sometimes it falls out of the hole. She has feet like a hobit and can't find shoes anywhere that fit. That is why she walks barefoot. She is furry all over, not with soft black hair, but with coarse linen type hair, like horse hair. When she takes a bath the tub is full of hair which is great because since she is such an odd shape she can't get a job anywhere and she earns money for food by braiding baskets from the leftover hair in the tub and selling them.

Her tongue is split into ten parts which is excellent because since her fingers are all crooked and no good, she uses the tongue to do everything.

All though she looks a bit weird, she is beautiful inside and that is all that counts. She is able to move things around with her mind power and our darling prince will frequently suddenly find himself somewhere completely different than he was a second ago. Can be handy!

Her name is Gretchen Haagendaz and she is from Austria.

Enjoy my darlings and have a wonderful New Years Eve. I am sure our beloved prince will spend his evening in the long arms of his dearest Gretchen.

Donna

 

[LadyMacAlpine]

Donna all I can say is that doesn't describe me at all.

 

[pinklady1991]

It doesn't describe me either...or too many women that I know...

 

[paca]

Another link to PAs visit in South Africa
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20051230120148329C563142

 

[Freedom]

Well my beautiful darlings

There seems to be a demand for one of my discriptions of Albert's future wife, the next Princess of Monaco.

She has arms that reach all the way down to the floor. That is why he will fall for her, since she is the only woman on earth who will be able to put his arms around him. Her legs are long and go all the way up to the neck. Her fingers are allt crooked and intertweened so she never knows which finger is which. She has a big hole through her torso so you can see the food as it is digested and sometimes it falls out of the hole. She has feet like a hobit and can't find shoes anywhere that fit. That is why she walks barefoot. She is furry all over, not with soft black hair, but with coarse linen type hair, like horse hair. When she takes a bath the tub is full of hair which is great because since she is such an odd shape she can't get a job anywhere and she earns money for food by braiding baskets from the leftover hair in the tub and selling them.

Her tongue is split into ten parts which is excellent because since her fingers are all crooked and no good, she uses the tongue to do everything.

All though she looks a bit weird, she is beautiful inside and that is all that counts. She is able to move things around with her mind power and our darling prince will frequently suddenly find himself somewhere completely different than he was a second ago. Can be handy!

Her name is Gretchen Haagendaz and she is from Austria.

Donna, how did you know just what I look like!

 

[Bunkycat]

Donna, sweetheart, why did you spill the beans? Now poor Gretch will be harrassed within an inch of her hirsute existance. Such a cruel thing to do! Maybe we can all be supportive of her in this most difficult time. She will need us. If you would like to send you cards and letters of support, her addres is...

Gretchen Haagendaz
c/o Vienna Zoo
Maxingstrasse 13B
A-1130 Vienna
Austria

Baahahahahahahahaha!

 

[Donna]

You are right my darlings. Our beloved prince doesn't go for beautiful women anymore. He has had enough of them. When you have had overload of prettyness you become disgusted with it and that's what has happened to him. He lost his heart many years ago, so now he is pretending to be this super soft guy who doesn't care about looks.

Personally I think it is the benefit of being able to disappear from an awqward situation that really turns him on. Let's hope that she doesn't misuse it too much. Let's hope they won't become enemies and she will send him to the North pole in his tiny tuxedo.
D

 

[suPeRgiRL!]

I know this is kind of off topic, but I was just curious since Monaco is a very tiny principality, is there any airport there? How do the Prince and the royal family travel overseas? If I'm not mistaken, Albert met Nicole in an Air France plane on his way to France? So does that means that when he travel to for example France, he has to take regular plane just like every body else?

Btw, I just saw the Swarovski Fashion Rocks 2005 held in Monte Carlo.. I LOVE the show!! I noticed that they shoot Albert's reactions after every artists' performances.. He looks CHARMING when he laughs. Does anybody have pictures of Albert from the event?

 

[semisquare]

He lost his heart many years ago, so now he is pretending to be this super soft guy who doesn't care about looks.

donna to whom did he loose his heart? why didnt they marry?

 

[Bunkycat]

I know this is kind of off topic, but I was just curious since Monaco is a very tiny principality, is there any airport there?

They don't have an airport of their own, instead using a heliport which runs a shuttle service between the international airport at Nice, France, and Fontvieille. From what I recall it was on a Nice flight that Albert might have met NC.

Bunky

 

[paca]

I know this is kind of off topic, but I was just curious since Monaco is a very tiny principality, is there any airport there? How do the Prince and the royal family travel overseas? If I'm not mistaken, Albert met Nicole in an Air France plane on his way to France? So does that means that when he travel to for example France, he has to take regular plane just like every body else?

Btw, I just saw the Swarovski Fashion Rocks 2005 held in Monte Carlo.. I LOVE the show!! I noticed that they shoot Albert's reactions after every artists' performances.. He looks CHARMING when he laughs. Does anybody have pictures of Albert from the event?

There used to be an airport way way back in Fontvielle for small planes only (I saw some old pics), but now it is only the heliport. He owns a private jet though. But they don't use it for short distances when regular flights are so much cheaper and just as convenient. I think they only use it for long distance, when they travel with lots of other people from MC or when he needs to be in different places within a few hours where regular flights take too much time (i.e. recently Rome and sicily and return to mc same day). Or of course places where regular flights aren't as frequent etc. Don't forget he is the "green" prince and planes are not very friendly to the environment, so just going by himself somewhere in a plane would go against what he would like to stand for.

 

[LadyMacAlpine]

Albert
May this be a brighter year for you your family and all of Monaco

 

[Donna]

donna to whom did he loose his heart? why didnt they marry?

He didn't loose his heart to one particular woman. But after years of meeting thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of women, of all sorts he became discouraged. You see, he had this image of his wife in his mind, a woman who would understand him without words, a woman that would touch him without touching, a woman who's smile would warm him up like a hot spring, someone strong enough like a vulcano and soft like mohair yarn, someone who would love him more than anything in the world and someone he could love more than anything in the world. Nowhere did he find this woman and he had started to think that she didn't exist. He thought that maybe he was looking for a perfect woman and everyone knows perfect women don't exist.

Then one night when he sat alone in his humble palace just before his 47th birthday, it had become dark but he hadn't turned on the lights. He just sat there with his eyes closed and thought about his. Suddenly he felt that someone stroked his chin so softly and so lovingly. He opened his eyes, but saw nothing. He closed them again and again came the loving touch. Oh my God. What is happening? Was this his mother or his guardian angel?

More later ...
Donna

 

[semisquare]

thx and i cant wait for the ending.
i dont think he is looking for someone that dosent exist rather what he wants will only happen over time. i've been married for 10 yrs now and at this point i can tell what my husband is thinking by his looks and vice versa.
does he lose interest in women very fast? or does he read romance books which paint an unrealistic view of finding your soul mate?

 

[Bunkycat]

does he lose interest in women very fast?

That's probably not hard to do when he finds out they're TWINKIES....and their heads are full of nothing but whipped beef fat and icing sugar. Try having a meaningful conversation with someone like that, eh? It gets old fast. I think he moves on as soon as he realizes that he misjudged the potential.

or does he read romance books which paint an unrealistic view of finding your soul mate?

I don't know that he would read something like that, but I do believe that he has someone specific in mind. Maybe not a face, or a body, but a way of being. A spirit, for lack of a better word. In short, he's looking for his mother. No...I'm not talking in some perverted sense. He's looking for someone who makes him feel the way his mother did.....accepted no matter what, warmed, adored, that he can be playful at times and be himself all the time, someone who will make him feel special.

In his life, he probably doesn't feel special. He feels separated from everyone else, in an odd sort of way. It can't be an easy way to live....we were feeling like odd little duckies in public school until we toughed up and developed some friendships....Albert has never had that opportunity. He's always been on the outside.

Easy to see why he's not married yet, I suppose. No one has honestly given him what he's looking for. They've faked it pretty well for a time but in the end it wasn't real and it fell apart. We have a good example of that now....she's living in Monaco with her son.

 

[semisquare]

well said, bunkycat and you speakth the truth.
i feel sorry for him if he has such feelings.

 

[AquaMarine]

Happy New Year 2006!!!

Well, yesterday by TV I heard the horoscope forecast 2006 for all signs of zodiac including Pisces. The astrologer said that this year will be very good for Pisces in respect of marriage, very well-thought (!) marriage. But if this year they will refuse to do that, most likely, they will marry NEVER! This year will be the gold time for Pisces in all aspects, but especially they will get a good chance to find true love

 

[paca]

Happy New Year 2006!!!

Well, yesterday by TV I heard the horoscope forecast 2006 for all signs of zodiac including Pisces. The astrologer said that this year will be very good for Pisces in respect of marriage, very well-thought (!) marriage. But if this year they will refuse to do that, most likely, they will marry NEVER! This year will be the gold time for Pisces in all aspects, but especially they will get a good chance to find true love

hew, I am lucky that my kids were born 4 hours before pisces, thus I might still have a chance of becoming grandma some day

Happy New Year to you too.

 

[paca]

Here is a link to some more predictions for Al for 2006. scroll to Europe http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2006/01/03/hall.shtml

 

[rarotonga]

Here is a link to some more predictions for Al for 2006. scroll to Europe http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2006/01/03/hall.shtml

That is hysterically funny! By the way, a good friend of fine is a Pisces and she's getting married in June. Her fiance proposed 11 months after they first met.

 

[teense]

The January issue of Paris Match magazine Features a cover of PA with black bands above and below it...It says something like--Truth condemed,Paris Match punished for Announcing PA has a son, which he acknowledged days later...
I can't read French-but I believe this was the gist of the cover. Can someone translate the article?

 

[paca]

it is about the judgement about the publishing of an article in PM, which revealed NC and her son. PA sued PM and Bunte, in France the judge agreed with him, in Germany they refused it. From what I hear PM will try and drag to EU courts, since they did not spread rumours, but reported the truth and had valid proof. And they claim that since his fathers death he is head of state of a heriditery monarchy and thus an illigitemate child is not part of his privat life, but of public interest.

I haven't read the article, only the bit on the net, but basically what you said was correct. They only added that other countries are shocked and worried by the judges ruling.

Personally I will never understand why he sued in the first place, since whatever the outcome, it gives them and all other journals, mags etc a reason to reprint the whole story. So what's the point. It doesn't go away and the only winners are the lawyers involved. Might as well live with it and try not to do things that you don't want to read about the next day in the first place.

 

[rarotonga]

it is about the judgement about the publishing of an article in PM, which revealed NC and her son. PA sued PM and Bunte, in France the judge agreed with him, in Germany they refused it. From what I hear PM will try and drag to EU courts, since they did not spread rumours, but reported the truth and had valid proof. And they claim that since his fathers death he is head of state of a heriditery monarchy and thus an illigitemate child is not part of his privat life, but of public interest.

I haven't read the article, only the bit on the net, but basically what you said was correct. They only added that other countries are shocked and worried by the judges ruling.

Personally I will never understand why he sued in the first place, since whatever the outcome, it gives them and all other journals, mags etc a reason to reprint the whole story. So what's the point. It doesn't go away and the only winners are the lawyers involved. Might as well live with it and try not to do things that you don't want to read about the next day in the first place.

From what I've heard, had PA more clout/influence/respected, he could have "bought off" PM and the story might not have been published. But I think that if NC really wanted the story out, there's always someone who will publish it for the "exclusive" story.

I guess the public and media interest in the illegitimate son comes into play when succession rules are in question. Here, there's no doubt that the late Prince Rainier clearly and ambiguously established the line of succession. Period. End of story as to that issue. Of course, there's always the insatiable appetite for scandals such as this and, hence, some will argue that is "in the public interest".

 

[paca]

Rainier changed the constitution to protect his son from any claims that were already circlating way before this. PA could change it again, if he wanted to. Sure he needs the approval of the conseil national, but honestly I don't think he would have to fight hard for it. At present he would have it very easy: Stephane Valerie (leader of the majority party) is an old buddy of PA ad as far as I know PA actually owns part of his company. At present he doesn't want to change it, because he might still produce a legitimate heir, but as he gets older, he might change his mind about this, if he doesn't.

 

[pinklady1991]

I thought I had read that the courts had set specific rules about how PM had to post that they had lost the lawsuit? I believe the article said there had to be a banner headline and it had to cover at least 2/3 of the front page. I can't get a copy of the magazine in the States until next week and I can't access anything other than the summary online so I'll have to wait to make a judgment. The legal reasoning about why the courts ruled this as an invasion of privacy still alludes me...I would have thought PA would have censored NC (of course that would be punishing the child) for breach of promise. I wonder why PA's atty's didn't have her sign a legally binding confidentiality agreement or at least some sort of contract that kept him in control of the announcement. Does anyone else sense something is amiss there?

 

[paca]

I saw the cover today at my news agent. It actually does cover 1/3 of the page. I always thought it was a silly suit (as all the others like when EA sue that a paper was not allowed to print that he had been condamned for speeding in France (with 230 km/h which exceeds the speed limit by 100). I think it is entirely stupid to sue the papers for reasons I have given above. And if PA thought that she shouldn't talk to the press, there are ways to stop her. Of course he will always have to pay for the child, but not for her and he could easily ( if he wanted to) threaten her to take custody of the child (which is brought up by a nanny ayways, so why not by a nanny in the palace) and (I doubt that if he insisted he wouldn't win the case) in that case he would not have to pay her a single cent or give her a villa etc etc. I think he has been far too nice to her andhas totally underestimated the situation. To sue PM was another sign to me that TL his lawyer either did not advise him properly or he wouldn't listen. I am sure with Rainier she wouldn't have said a peep. Which is probably why she couldn't wait for the mourning period to finish. I can understand his fury about her lack of tact, but still he was raving against the wrong people. He should have been angry with himself and those who advised him in the matter, but what happened was not the papers fault. They only did their job. And if you consider that Mitterands daughter has been known to the press for years and was allowed to grow up and was only made public when he decided that she could handle it (and what a scoop that would have been), then I really don't understand, why this all went so wrong. I imagine that there were far too many lawyers involved instead of the 2 of them sitting down together as parents and making a decision that would be first of all best for the child and secondly good for all of them.

 

[Lillia]

From what I've heard, had PA more clout/influence/respected, he could have "bought off" PM and the story might not have been published. But I think that if NC really wanted the story out, there's always someone who will publish it for the "exclusive" story.

I guess the public and media interest in the illegitimate son comes into play when succession rules are in question. Here, there's no doubt that the late Prince Rainier clearly and ambiguously established the line of succession. Period. End of story as to that issue. Of course, there's always the insatiable appetite for scandals such as this and, hence, some will argue that is "in the public interest".

Interesting...I though he sued PM for invasion of privacy (kind of like a- 'true or not, you should have respected my privacy' thing). And, imho, it didn't have any teeth to it, that settlement was sooo small.

And I was also under the impression that Prince Albert was totally and completely caught off guard by that sudden blast of exposure from the magazine (but I could be wrong). Any guesses?

 

[Lillia]

... I think it is entirely stupid to sue the papers for reasons I have given above. And if PA thought that she shouldn't talk to the press, there are ways to stop her... I think he has been far too nice to her andhas totally underestimated the situation. To sue PM was another sign to me that TL his lawyer either did not advise him properly or he wouldn't listen. I am sure with Rainier she wouldn't have said a peep. Which is probably why she couldn't wait for the mourning period to finish. I can understand his fury about her lack of tact, but still he was raving against the wrong people. He should have been angry with himself and those who advised him in the matter...

I agree with that statement 110%, paca. His people are probably fatcats that are used to things going their way because they sit so close to the inner circle. Even though certain matters are better handled in private because it's really scandalous and tacky to hang out your laundry in public, I guess maybe those guys won't take things for granted and be more assertive when it comes to minding the ole' store. Especially my dear PA - perhaps he's been keeping better guard over the family 'jewels' - 1B euro is an expensive 'indiscretion', enough to make anyone pay attention, I would think.

 

[paca]

I don't think he was caught in surprise. He should have known that, if he didn't handle things properly, she would talk - and she did when she felt ignored and only got to talk to his lawyer. Mourning or not he should have talked to her face to face and sort things out. As much as I dislike her, I can understand her frustration when she couldn't talk to him or wouldn't get a clear answer. A mother should be able to talk to the father of her child about what is important for her child. And being legally recognized is important to a child. Even if he could have gone after PA at the age of 18, IMO that would have been too late to repair any psychological damage. Mitterand publicly revealed his daughter when she was an adult, but meantime he was always there for her and she knew her daddy. SHe knew that he loved her, even though she was not allowed to tell her friends that she had a dad and who he was.

The way it has been done here was surely not correct and being dragged this way into the limelight is probably not good for a child either, but he is still very small and doesn't understand. So by the time he will understand, they will hopefully have found a way to make the best out of this situation for the child. And the media interest will eventually peter out as well. Let's all hope that his parents are adults.

As to PA, I wonder sometimes whether he didn't want it to come out. Maybe not at this particular point, but not too much after. I just think that he should have let his press people handle the way it should have been brought to the public (they are trained for this -thierry Lacoste isn't), but at that point, there was no communication between the press office and the palace (they had less information then the papers).

He was informed before the publication and was given a chance to comment this (the press always does this if they have stories like this - if they are decent that is). His answer was that he wouldn't comment on anything before the mourning period was over. If he would have been smarter, he would have gotten his press people together and talked to PM to not publish anything, and at the same time granting them an exclusive story with interview etc. There used to be good relations between MC and PM so I think with some coaxing and promissing, he could have had much less noise and as parents they now wouldn't sit in different corners.

knowing that this would occur sooner or later, it would have been much smarter to get with NC asap after the funeral and work on a strategy and maybe invite PM for a joint interview. Instead they decided to fight. I can understand that as a friend and as a lawyer TL wanted to fight and protect PA, but sometimes it is not the smart strategy to do this. It is a terrible disease nowadays to immediately get lawyers involved before you have talked to each other. That is aggressive and sends the wrong signals. I think at that point all of them just panicked instead of keeping a cool and level head. and the chaos management just didn't work. At least not for PA and his son. It did work for TL though: Great publicity and lots of new clients. Those who didn't know yet that he was PAs lawyer will all know now. (same btw with Caros German lawyer Prinz - without her no one would have known him).

Probably a good thing he hired a woman to do his press work now. She might have handled things much better.