Word: duchess
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...hand in bringing down Tory ministers--had left him embittered. In Diana he picked up the jewel both prized and tossed aside by the English elite, a diamond with an edge that could cut. Snaring her, and perhaps even installing her in the former residence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (which al Fayed holds), would simultaneously concoct an alternative monarchy and remind the real one of a time when it had faltered...
Despite these ingratiating efforts, and his considerable commitments to various charities, acceptance within the British elite has eluded al Fayed. In France his restoration of two fabled Paris properties, the Ritz Hotel and the Bois de Boulogne villa of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, earned him La Legion d'Honneur. But in Britain al Fayed could recite--and often did--a list of the many slights directed at him by the Establishment. After he poured $50 million into restoring the Windsor villa, he grumbled to the New York Times, "Not one single official said, 'Mohammed al Fayed, thank...
...addition to London's fashionable Harrods department store, he owns the Ritz Hotel of Paris, the British humor magazine Punch, the Fulham soccer club and a $32 million, 190-ft. yacht. The senior Al Fayed also holds a long-term lease on the Paris villa that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor lived in after the duke abdicated the British throne to marry a commoner. Al Fayed has spent $40 million restoring the villa and its contents, although he announced that Sotheby's auction house will be selling 40,000 items from it. Al Fayed's brother owns the elite...
...Fayed's decision to auction off the contents of the Windsor villa set off speculation that he was cleaning it out so that Dodi and Di could marry and move in. There would have been rich symbolism in the two of them living together in the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's former home, proving to a new generation that there can be life, and love, after royalty. Alas...
...Meanwhile, Sarah Ferguson won't debut in her new job as TV spokeswoman for Weight Watchers. The company has pulled a commercial for a new weight-loss program, in which the Duchess of York said that losing wieght was harder than dodging paparazzi...