Tale of two iconic princesses

THE LATE Princess Grace.

When England’s Prince William married Kate Middleton in appropriately regal rites months ago, over a billion viewers worldwide empathetically thrilled to their attendant rush of ravishing royal romance.

But, it now turns out that the royal rush isn’t over – far from it. Because elsewhere in Europe another royal wedding has just taken place, with the Principality of Monaco’s Prince Albert pledging his troth to another “commoner” bride, Charlene Wittstock.

The much more modest event was seen by fewer viewers, but they still gave the event due importance, because the prince’s mother, Princess Grace, like Prince William’s celebrated mother, Princess Diana, was an iconic personage in her own right.

Similarities

Now that coincidental circumstances have “superimposed” recollections of Princess Diana and Princess Grace psychically together for the first time, their lives turn out to have had more striking similarities and congruencies than previously perceived.

Diana wasn’t a big Hollywood star like Grace Kelly before she became Princess Grace, but she became equally celebrated for her beauty, which emanated from within. Both princesses were deeply involved in charitable endeavors, and were admired worldwide for their innate goodness and selflessness.

Many celebrated beauties are so wrapped up in themselves that they can’t think of others. But Grace and Diana were able to avoid that trap with an inspiring clarity of purpose and value – which is why they are loved and cherished to this day, many years after their deaths, while other famous beauties have gone the way of all flesh – and flash.

Affinity

The mention of their deaths reveals another affinity that Diana and Grace have with each other: They both died in sudden and most untimely car accidents. Thus, in both instances, their fabled lives were snuffed out in an instant – which indubitably added to the pain so many people felt – a psychic sadness that is palpable to this day.

PRINCESS Diana

Given such iconic resonances, it’s likely that both Prince William and Prince Albert had a hard time choosing their own brides – after all, Grace and Diana are the hardest possible acts to follow!

To his credit, William didn’t look for his mother’s junior version, but Kate’s spirit is similar to Diana’s, as verified and vivified by the zest with which she has launched into her own charitable endeavors.

Choice

But, Prince Albert’s choice is another story entirely: His bride, Charlene, is a blonde beauty very much like his mother. An achiever in her own right as a former swimmer in the Olympics, Charlene has more obviously subsumed her personality to suit Grace’s ethereal ethos.

In terms of “projection,” in fact, she looks like Albert ordered her from Central Casting – (“Get me my mother’s most perfect clone, please!”) – and Central Casting delivered.

Let’s hope that, a few years from now, Charlene doesn’t act against type, and cracks the perfect veneer and mystique that has made her embody Princess Grace so perfectly for the delectation of a new generation of viewers.