Entertainment In Brief

The Duchess plays up Princess Diana connections; Nights in Rodanthe inn is yours to rent

DIANA, IS THAT YOU?

Considering it took less than five years to make the first 9/11 movie, it’s surprising that there has yet to be a feature film about Princess Diana. TV movies, sure. Documentaries? Enough to fill a 24-hour specialty channel. But never a big Hollywood movie.

Yes, any Diana bio-pic would be touchy stuff in the U.K., where the royal family’s power and influence cast a large shadow.

But after the success of 2006’s The Queen it seemed like the time was right. In May 2007 there were reports of a bidding war over the film rights to the book Diana and the Paparazzi, with Paramount apparently interested, and Keira Knightley the actor they were trying to woo for the lead.

But since then, nothing. As far as we can tell the production is in limbo and Knightley has accepted no such role. Unless you count her part in The Duchess.

Knightley plays young Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire, a notorious 18th-century socialite, a powerful political figure and, it just so happens, a distant relative of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales.

And the filmmakers have been anything but shy about playing up the similarities between the distant relations.

The plot synopsis reads, “Like her direct ancestor Princess Diana, [Georgiana] was ravishing, glamorous and adored by an entire country.... But even as her power and popularity grew, she was haunted by the fact that the only man in England she seemingly could not seduce was her very own husband, the Duke.”

Ralph Fiennes plays the Duke, who had a long-standing affair with Georgiana’s friend, Lady Elizabeth Foster, and married her when Georgiana died in 1806. Georgiana also had an affair, but with an Earl, not her riding coach.

The trailer, too, evokes Diana, specifically her influence on the fashion world, as the Duchess is introduced to a crowd with, “What we see her wearing tonight, I look forward to seeing the rest of you wearing tomorrow. The empress of fashion herself, the Duchess of Devonshire.”