Shame-Sophie's Nude Pictures Sold to Sun
herodotu...@my-deja.com
way your 'friends' can betray you. The double-standard still exists -
no pictures are ever allowed to appear of Princess Anne, Pr Charles or
their brothers' indiscretions, but the Sun has published photos of
Sophie Rhys-Jones topless. And just 3 weeks before the wedding.
Sophie, Sophie, it's still not too late to back out. My feeling is
that if you refuse to obey like a puppet the Palace this is just a
sample of the kind of treatment you can expect. By telling them that
you will refuse to carry out official duties or be patroness of
charities, you have set yourself against them. Are not the examples of
Diana and Sarah unknown to you? Get some sense, girl, and remember,
the Windsors are the best actors of all. Just because the Queen
herself may seem the soul of kindness to you, and smile, and agree to
your wishes, doesn't mean that's what she really thinks or feels.
Here's the article, from the Daily Mirror:
Fury as Sun smears bride-to-be Sophie with topless photograph
ROYAL bride-to-be Sophie Rhys-Jones felt "utterly betrayed" last night
over a topless picture of her published in a newspaper.
Prince Edward's fiancée told a friend of her anguish after turncoat
friend Kara Noble sold a set of photographs to The Sun for a five-
figure sum.
The Queen was said to be horrified at 34-year-old Sophie's humiliation
just three weeks before her wedding.
The decision to print the pictures, which were taken more than 10 years
ago, was condemned as a disgrace.
One shows TV star Chris Tarrant pulling her bikini top up in the back
of a car and exposing her right breast.
In others they are cuddling and relaxing outside a café At the time,
Sophie was a PR assistant at London's Capital Radio, where Tarrant
worked.
They were close friends, but were not romantically involved.
A pal of Sophie's said: "It is a huge, huge betrayal. She feels
extremely let down."
Noble, 40, a former weather girl on Tarrant's show, was accused by his
aides of treacherously cashing in.
Now a DJ with rival radio station Heart FM, she fell out with the Who
Wants To Be A Millionaire? host four years ago.
A spokesman for Tarrant, 52, who has been invited to Sophie's wedding
on June 19, said: "I just can't believe Kara's done this. It's
sickening.
"In normal times it would be a rotten thing to do to two people you
used to call friends. But with Sophie's marriage only three weeks away
it defies belief.
"Chris had his differences with Kara, but believed decency would
prevail over these photos. It's not as though they reveal some sort of
secret affair. They're just of a couple of mates mucking around."
MPs from all sides voiced their anger last night. One minister fumed:
"It's sick."
Tory Michael Fabricant added: "It's an opportunistic invasion of the
worst kind. How callous can a newspaper be? Talk about saving it for
the most insensitive moment."
--== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==--
---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.---
rach...@my-deja.com
SHAME OF BRITAIN
Queen forces Sun to grovel over Sophie photo
THE outraged Queen won a grovelling apology from The Sun last night
over its photo of topless Sophie Rhys-Jones.
Editor David Yelland said in a statement: "We clearly upset Miss Rhys-
Jones. We have caused her great distress. I have therefore decided to
apologise to her and to the Palace."
Earlier, the Palace accused the downmarket paper of "premeditated
cruelty" and "gross invasion of privacy," and made an official protest
to the Press Complaints Commission.
Last night Sophie, 34 - who is due to marry Prince Edward in three
weeks - was "delighted and relieved" at The Sun's climbdown. She told a
friend: "I'm vindicated. I can hold my head up again."
rach...@my-deja.com
PREMEDITATED CRUELTY
SOPHIE TOPLESS PICTURE OUTRAGE Palace lays into shameful Sun as it
lodges official protest over snap
PALACE fury at yesterday's publication by The Sun of a picture of
topless Sophie Rhys-Jones was unprecedented.
In an astonishing public rebuke, a spokesman declared: "This is an act
of premeditated cruelty. It is a gross invasion of privacy and not in
the public interest."
An official statement added that the picture - published on the day the
Queen opened the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff and three weeks before
Sophie's wedding to Prince Edward - had caused "considerable distress."
The Palace, whose switchboard was flooded by hundreds of calls of
support, then followed up its strongest ever condemnation to a single
organisation by lodging an official complaint with the Press Complaints
Commission.
Downing Street said Tony Blair agreed with its comments. A spokesman
said: "The palace have said what they have said and, yes, we agree with
that. With press freedom comes responsibility."
Asked to comment on reports that The Sun's editor David Yelland had
been summoned to the Palace, a royal spokesman said: "We wouldn't stoop
that low. He is a victim of his own self importance. Who wants to see
him anyway?"
Finally realising the depth of his blunder Yelland, who had planned
publishing more pictures today, apologised in a statement issued at
6pm.
He said: "We clearly upset Miss Rhys-Jones. It's clear to me that we
have caused her great distress. I have therefore decided to apologise
to her and to the Palace.
"I believe this is the right thing to do. No more topless pictures of
Miss Rhys-Jones will appear in The Sun. I wish her and Prince Edward
the very best, although I don't expect to be invited to the wedding."
Yelland also sent an e-mail to staff who were shocked that their paper
could score such an own goal.
As he was attacked on all sides for a "colossal error of judgment," he
told them: "It has been one of those days."
After detailing the contents of his apology, he ended flippantly: "The
rumours in the Lobby of me being fired are not true - you can't get rid
of me that easily. Now let's get on with it. And I hope Man Utd win the
cup." PR girl Sophie, who was devastated by publication of the
photograph, said she was "delighted and relieved" at the climbdown.
She told a friend: "I'm absolutely thrilled. I feel I can hold my head
up again. I've been vindicated. Now let's move on."
The friend said: "She's delighted, but she's still very hurt the whole
turmoil happened in the first place."
Radio presenter Kara Noble - who took the picture and welshed on a
pledge not to sell it for a rumoured pounds 100,000 - was sacked by her
station, Heart FM. Chairman Chris Wright said her action
was "indefensible." Sophie, 34 - who weds Edward in 24 days time - was
pictured sitting in the back of a car with Capital Radio host Chris
Tarrant on a business trip to Malaga in 1988.
At the time, she was working as a PR girl for the radio station.
Tarrant is seen jokily lifting up Sophie's bikini, revealing one
breast.
Sophie learned The Sun planned to print the picture and other candid
shots, including one of Tarrant kissing her on the neck, while eating
with friends on Tuesday evening.
She went immediately to Buckingham Palace and rang Edward, who spent
the night at their apartment before going to work at his production
company in Bagshot Park, Surrey.
Sophie also rang Tarrant, host of the hit TV show, Who Wants To Be A
Millionaire? Typically, she reassured the DJ over the unwelcome
attention it had brought him.
Tarrant, 52, apologised for the embarrassment he had caused her. Last,
night he was said to be planning legal action.
The DJ, who was forced to deny having an affair with Sophie while they
worked together, said last night: "The country knows The Sun got it
completely and totally wrong.
"It's just a terrible shame they didn't think of the consequences and
hurt their actions would cause."
Publication of the picture was the one thing Sophie feared. But only
three months ago DJ Noble - who worked with Tarrant at Capital -
pledged it would remain secret.
PR boss Brian MacLaurin, who introduced Sophie to Edward, then entered
into negotiations with Noble to switch copyright of the pictures from
her to Sophie.
Mr MacLaurin, who was acting on behalf of Heart FM, said: "The station
was prepared to donate a sum to a charity nominated by Miss Noble in
return for the copyright which would pass to Sophie."
But within weeks of the negotiations taking place, a solicitor acting
for Noble began touting the snaps for pounds 100,000. PR supremo Max
Clifford turned the offer down. The blundering Sun took it up.
Mr MacLaurin said yesterday: "Sophie told Edward about the picture four
years ago. She said it was the one thing that could cause her
embarrassment. It has been at the back of her mind. Kara gave her word
to Heart, and to me on behalf of Sophie, that she would never sell the
picture. Sophie was prepared to take her word. History tells us that
was the wrong decision.
"Sophie is deeply upset, furious and feels betrayed."
Murray Harkin, Sophie's business partner at RJH Public Relations, in
Central London, said: "She was deeply distressed. It was the last thing
she wanted.
"The backlash against Kara is going to be huge. She has let us down
terribly." Sophie spent most of yesterday with Edward at Buckingham
Palace. Today, she is due to attend the Chelsea marriage of her wedding
dress designer Samantha Shaw.
Malcolm Cochrane, a close friend of Edward, said: "He and Sophie are
absolutely devastated. It is so unfair and humiliating."
One of Sophie's closest friends, Lesley Ronaldson, burst into tears.
She said: "It's so cruel. How could anyone do that to her, especially
so close to her wedding? Poor Sophie. I just hope this stops a lot of
people buying The Sun."
rach...@my-deja.com
I'M SICK AND SAD ..THIS IS GARBAGE
SOPHIE TOPLESS PICTURE OUTRAGE
TELEVISION star Chris Tarrant was last night still seething over the
topless picture of Sophie Rhys-Jones.
He went on air to launch a double attack on Kara Noble and The Sun
newspaper.
Tarrant, 52, savaged his ex-radio partner for the pounds 100,000 sale
of the snaps.
And he vowed never to deal with The Sun again. "That's it. I'll never
talk to that rag again," he told friends.
His pledge is likely pose problems for the newspaper's sponsorship of
his hit TV quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Millions of listeners to his breakfast show on London's Capital Radio
heard his impassioned statement. Within seconds, the switchboard was
jammed with calls of support.
This is what he said:
AS a journalist myself, I am so sad this morning. I am just horrified
that this sort of garbage, this sort of vindictive, completely dreamed
up nonsense is still being bought and allowed to be printed in our
newspapers in this country.
Okay, there was a picture of Sophie Rhys-Jones taken with me I think at
least, I think it was actually nine years ago - it might have been 10 -
topless, when we were all mucking about, as loads of young guys do, as
loads of young girls do, in the Spanish sunshine on a Capital outside
broadcast. So what? So what?
Is this a moralistic judgment? This is from the paper that first
introduced the topless model to all our news stands every morning.
These are the people who invented Page 3.
Sophie is, and was, a great laugh. Really good fun. A great expert.
Full stop.
She was always a totally moral, really decent girl. Nothing immoral
happened between us before or after this picture. This picture has been
hawked around Fleet Street now to the highest bidder for months.
This picture is just a bit of a giggle. There must be thousands of
girls in this country, genuinely just young British girls away on
holiday, who have got pictures like this in their private collection.
And that's all it was. It was in somebody's private collection who
suddenly decided to sell it for the maximum amount of money they could
get, no matter who they hurt. That's what they decided to do to top up
their bank account.
There will not be some parade of men coming out of the woodwork over
the next few weeks saying they all had affairs with Sophie.
She absolutely is not, nor ever was, that kind of a girl. She's just a
lot of fun.
I'll repeat this. There never, ever was the slightest hint of romance
between Sophie and myself, let along these snide insinuations.
Nobody dares actually stand up and say the facts because they know it's
actionable but they snidely insinuate there might have been an affair.
There wasn't, I'll tell you that for free. There wasn't.
Leave Sophie alone. Stop trying to dig dirt up. You won't find any.
Nothing happened. There was never any dirt there.
Edward and Sophie are getting married in a couple of weeks. This is a
happy young couple in love. They haven't done any harm to anybody.
There are no skeletons in the cupboard. Give them a chance. Give them a
break.
Stop trying to destroy them before they even start their lives
together.
Have you learned nothing from the death of Princess Diana?
I am of course taking legal action later on this morning. I've already
been with my solicitors before I came on the air for the Capital
breakfast show.
But for the person who stole this picture and made up - and you know
you did make up this completely fabricated story that you sold for as
much money as you could possibly get from a tabloid newspaper - I feel
only, I don't even feel anger, I don't feel disgust, I think I felt
slightly betrayed at first and I am sure Sophie does, but above all I
just feel a deep sadness.
Kara, how far down have you gone?
How will you live with yourself? How will you ever, ever face any of us
at Capital and how will you ever face Sophie again?
I am totally sickened and above all deeply saddened by everything
that's happened in the last 24 hours and the world is not as nice a
place as it was yesterday. And there is a nasty taste of dirt in my
mouth.
Kara, 40, was Tarrant's side-kick on the breakfast show from 1987 until
their acrimonious and public "divorce" four years ago.
She left Capital for rival station Heart FM, claiming she could not
take any more of Tarrant.
She was initially appointed as his weather and traffic girl, but their
spoof love-hate relationship grew into one of the most successful radio
pairings.
Listeners loved the sparring between them, but Kara was always the
junior partner.
On air, Tarrant once likened her face to King Kong's backside and said
she would qualify for pond life is only she had one more brain cell.
After she quit for Heart, Kara said: "It is only teasing. Occasionally
I have been stung, but he makes me laugh."
But in private, she had grown to hate Tarrant and was desperate to get
her own back.
The pair were thought to have buried the hatchet last year when they
hugged for the cameras at the Brit Awards.
But friends say the dislike still ran deep.
Yesterday Kara, who lives with her 21-year-old son, Nick, in a plush
house in London's trendy Ladbroke Grove, was told by her radio bosses
that she was fired from her pounds 100,000 a year job. Her breakfast
show co-host Jono Coleman, 43, spoke of his disbelief at Kara's
decision to sell the snaps.
"It was a great shock learning she had sold those pictures and seeing
the lurid nature of the story," he said.
"I'm amazed, I'm gobsmacked by it, I can't work out whether its purely
a financial motive.
"But she's not hard up, she drives a nice car, has a nice house.
"Or whether she is simply trying to get back at Tarrant or Sophie.
"I don't know where she goes now as far as her career goes.
"This won't have done her any favours with the people on the street and
it has certainly not done her any favours with people in the
communications industry. Radio and TV stations are not going to be
offering her a job.
"I'm as shocked as anyone else and disappointed in Kara - we had a
successful radio show and now she has just gone and shot herself in the
foot."
Australian Jono, who presented yesterday's breakfast show with stand-in
Erica North, added: "Kara's supposed to be friends with Sophie, it's
not the sort of thing you do to a friend who's getting married."
And Chris Wright, chairman of Heart FM, described Kara's actions
as "totally indefensible".
"It brings Heart 106.2 into disrepute as a radio station to be
associated with someone like that," he said.
rach...@my-deja.com
'TACKY' PIC APPALS BRITAIN
THE people of Britain yesterday condemned The Sun for printing the
topless picture of Sophie Rhys-Jones and her "friend" Kara Noble for
selling the snap.
Chef TIM MARRIOTT, 27, from London, said: "How can she betray Sophie?
It is sick and unfair."
Banker KERSTIN DUNMALL, 21, of Kent, called the snaps "a load of
rubbish and a waste of time. Why don't they leave her alone?"
Company director GARY LINIERES, 31, of Oxford, said: "I'm appalled. I
would not buy a copy of the paper. They are doing their best to ruin
her life."
Cabbie PAUL SILVERMAN, 47, of Essex, said: "It's tasteless. What Kara
did was mercenary - but many people would do the same if offered
enough."
Contractor CAROL SLADE, 42, of London, said: "I don't want to see
things like that in a paper. It's sad."
Firefighter LEE VAN-DYKE, 30, of Essex, said: "It does not surprise me
the Sun did this just before the wedding. They are tacky."
New Zealander STEVEN RASMUSSEN, 27, a chef in London, said: "It's
cruel." DANIELLE BOWYER, 18, from Brentford, said: "Kara sold Sophie
out. How can anyone be that desperate for money?"
KELLY PARKES, 22, from Birmingham, agreed: "It's humiliating for
Sophie. A horrible thing to do."
LIZ GRAYLING, 33, of east London, said: "The Sun should apologise, but
the damage has been done."
rach...@my-deja.com
PR GURU TURNED DOWN PHOTOS
I WAS offered the pictures two months ago but refused to handle them.
A solicitor acting for Kara Noble said they wanted pounds 100,000 for
them, but I said "no, they're not for me."
Later, I was talking to Mirror Editor Piers Morgan about something else
and mentioned the pictures.
I said he could contact the solicitior if he wanted. But his response
was "no, not in a million years." I looked at the pictures, but I just
didn't feel comfortable about using them.
The wedding was coming up in a few weeks and my thoughts were that it
was going to be hard enough for her as it is, without the publication
of these pictures.
And I certainly don't believe anything happened between Sophie and
Chris Tarrant.
I got the impression that even though I wasn't interested, Kara was set
on selling the pictures.
rach...@my-deja.com
IS THIS THE MOST STUPID MAN IN BRITAIN?
IT took just 26 days for The Sun's editor David Yelland to perform the
most spectacular U-turn of his year-long reign.
On April 30 he pompously declared: "The Sun will not succeed post-Diana
if it is perceived to be nasty and vindictive. I have forged a new
relationship with the Palace and pledged not to invade their privacy."
Yesterday he gave the Palace their first taste of that new
relationship, the one which won't invade their privacy. After two days
of nasty and vindictive attacks on Lenny Henry and Ian Botham, he
published intimate pictures of royal bride-to-be Sophie Rhys-Jones.
It exposed Yelland and his henchmen as chancers out of touch with
today's Britain. The rank hypocrisy was breathtaking - even by The
Sun's standards - and revealed Yelland to be totally out of his depth.
Furious Buckingham Palace officials later described him as "a victim of
his own self-importance''. But that's only part of the story.
In a gaffe-laden reign - he celebrates his first anniversary as editor
in nine days' time - Yelland, 35, has shown his only consistency is his
inconsistency.
U-turn has followed U-turn in an extraordinary catalogue of ham-fisted
indecision-making.
Yelland - and his cronies - asked whether Tony Blair was the "most
dangerous man in Britain" in The Sun's xenophobic anti-Europe campaign.
He then spent days toadying to the Prime Minister's office saying it
had all been in jest.
He laughably suggested the government was being run by a gay mafia,
then insisted 24 hours later that The Sun wasn't about gay bashing.
He said The Sun would never back a government who sent in ground troops
to solve the Kosovo crisis, then promptly said they shouldn't rule it
out.
Yelland was out on Tuesday night toasting his latest "scoop" with
deputies Rebekah Wade and Andy Coulson.
The trio celebrated in Joe Allen's trendy Covent Garden restaurant
unaware it was about to become their biggest disaster.
Another diner said: "Yelland looked on top of the world, like the cat
who'd got the cream. Now the bubble has burst I bet the champagne is
flat." Yelland's pitiful reign has lurched from crisis to crisis, but
what quickly became known as one of the great joke editorships of all
time has now taken on a more sinister tone.
This week's outrages are far from funny and illustrate the poisonous
motives behind the headlines.
One member of the public who telephoned The Sun yesterday to complain
was told to "f*** off".
Colleagues reveal Yelland now spends most of his days alone in his
office. "The atmosphere is rather like the Bunker in the last days of
the Third Reich," said one demoralised staffer yesterday.
Yelland was previously deputy editor of the New York Post, but he was
never a natural for journalism.
He boasts of the 48 rejection letters he received when he first applied
for jobs on newspapers after gaining an economics degree.
His days as a hard-nosed reporter were disastrous, but he found a more
comfortable berth in business journalism where he made a point of
cultivating a friendship with Sun proprietor Rupert Murdoch.
In the same Hello-style interview with The Times in which he declared
that The Sun was now a caring and sharing newspaper, he vowed that he
wanted to cause "a right old rumpus''.
Yesterday he achieved his aim and yet again it was for all the wrong
reasons.
rach...@my-deja.com
THE MIRROR'S ROYAL EXPERT IS SICKENED BY SOPHIE'S TREATMENT IN
A 'NASTY' STORY
THERE'S something particularly unpleasant about the photograph and
story of Sophie Rhys-Jones.
Let me just say she looks great and she's clearly having a lot of fun.
But that's not the point, is it?
Why shouldn't she fool around - as she is clearly doing - with no
ulterior motive?
No, what I don't like is the insinuation, the nasty way the newspaper
has tried to suggest there was naughtiness going on between Chris
Tarrant and Sophie. The printing of the snap is tacky enough but the
words around it are a great deal more offensive.
Personally, I was against the Palace making any comment at all.
I thought that to say anything would be demeaning to Sophie, to the
Royal Family, even us.
But their statement, which was quickly released at breakfast time
yesterday, was spot on.
To describe the Sun's decision to publish as "cruel" was perfect.
Sophie has loved her engagement. She's enjoyed the shopping, the
preparation, the anticipation of her marriage at Windsor.
That has now been spoiled for her.
Yesterday's betrayal by Kara Noble was a savage kick. Particularly as
Kara promised she would never release the topless shot.
Interestingly, the one person who will be rock solid throughout this
hoo hah is HM herself. She can be formidable at such times.
And if you have HER on side you really don't need anybody else.
iris...@my-deja.com
> And if you have HER on side you really don't need anybody else.
>
And if she's against you...... Watch out for the daggers!!!!
It's amazing this story is getting so much press.... and support from
the palace...
Let's see... don't write ANYTHING nasty.. show photo's etc.....
Remember Diana saying that things were allowed to happen to her when
she was out of "THE NET"????
Where was the RF when that pig wrote his book.... HEWITT?????
Where were the RF when the photo's were being auctioned of Diana
topless???? (At least she had someone willing to put up the money to
not let those pictures get out!!!!!!!!!))))))
And the RF was behind trying to humiliate her as much as humanly
possible... AS MUCH!!!!!!!!!
LOL
Val..
BTW... glad SRJ is getting a "taste" of it.... The person who
probably endeared herself to QEII because She DIDN"T like Diana...
etc.. oh... and interestingly enough was working in PR!!!!!!
Therefore having personal connections.... with friends so things could
get printed without the palace having to lift a finger.... other than
to just point for the dog to fetch and run with it....
rach...@my-deja.com
SOPHIE'S BRAVE FACE
She smiles as The Sun sells topless snaps to Germans
SOPHIE Rhys-Jones put on a brave, smiling face yesterday as she faced
the world for the first time after being cruelly pictured topless in
The Sun newspaper.
Despite her distress, 34-year-old Sophie - due to wed Prince Edward in
three weeks - kept her promise to attend the marriage of her own
wedding dress designer Samantha Shaw.
But as she stepped out it was learned The Sun had made her the butt of
more humiliation by hawking their topless snap round the world AFTER
the Palace had complained. Germany's mass circulation newspaper Bild
paid pounds 35,000 so 12million readers could gloat at the pic.
European TV stations coughed up one-off fees of thousands of pounds to
flash the photo on their screens.
And in another shocking move, the 11-year-old shot of Sophie with one
breast exposed was placed on a porn website by sick Internet nerds.
Sophie arrived at pal Samantha's ceremony in London's Chelsea looking
stunning in a lilac coat-dress and wide-brimmed navy blue hat.
She turned briefly towards the cameras, but offered only a fleeting
smile. Minutes later onlookers were stunned by the arrival of Prince
Charles's mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles.
Camilla is close friend of groom David Keswick's parents, Sir "Chips"
Keswick and Lady Sarah. It was the first time PR girl Sophie and
Camilla have been seen at the same public event. Neither woman appeared
to greet each other.
But the biggest test was for Sophie who was devastated by The Sun's
publication of a picture of DJ Chris Tarrant pulling down her bikini
top while on a jaunt in southern Spain.
Buckingham Palace called publication of the pictures "premeditated
cruelty" and a "gross invasion of privacy." It lodged a protest with
the Press Complaints Commission.
But yesterday it was learned that in the six hours between the Palace
protesting and The Sun publicly apologising, the downmarket paper
cynically continued to flog the snap around the world.
For unprincipled Sun bosses selling the picture meant they could recoup
the pounds 100,000 they paid for it. For Sophie, it meant more
humiliation and distress.
Shamed by the outcry, the paper last night ordered that all profits
from syndication should go to charity.
In a statement it said Sophie had nominated the breast cancer charity,
The Haven Trust, and the Tuberous Sclerosis Association to receive the
cash.
But the paper FAILED to comment on the 25 per cent cut promised to DJ
Kara Noble, who took the topless pic and broke her pledge not to sell
it.
It also FAILED to say whether "profits" meant anything above the pounds
100,000 believed to be paid to Noble, or every penny from syndication.
A spokeswoman said: "All I can say is that profits means profits."
The Sun cravenly admitted it had blundered yesterday by printing a full-
page apology under the headline Sorry, Sophie.
It said: "The topless picture we published yesterday caused Sophie
great distress. For that we are sorry." But the so-called "apology" was
littered with crude jokes and snide remarks.
Penned by editor David Yelland, it said: "We heard at one point that
one of our rivals rang the POPE for a comment!"
Suggesting that the Pope enjoys studying pictures of topless girls
every day, it added: "Sadly, the Pontiff's copy of The Sun had not
arrived."
Tory MP Michael Fabricant called the apology "cynical and two-faced."
Labour MP Martin Linton accused the paper of "rank hypocrisy."
Even the Sun's sister newspaper, The Times - flagship of Rupert
Murdoch's publishing empire - joined the attack.
In a leader article, it said The Sun picture and story of Sophie was
one of the most tasteless ever. The leader continued: "The Sun's claim
that its photograph of future royal flesh proved Sophie Rhys-Jones to
be a "right royal" asset showed empty folly of a formidable kind.
"By even the flexible rules of modern times, a bride may hope for her
day when she can prepare in a kind of peace for married life."
The "balancing" of the relationship between the Royals and the Press
had been "recklessly put at hazard", said the paper.
But the damage had already been done. European newspapers piled on the
heartbreak for Sophie by reproducing The Sun front page shocker.
BELGIUM'S biggest French-language tabloid, La Derniere, Heure spread
the picture across its front page with a snide headline questioning
Edward and Sophie's future marriage.
ITALY'S middle-market daily, Corriere della Sera, suggested Sophie
herself was in some way involved in a murky affair. "Sophie in topless
scandal in London," it read.
HOLLAND'S biggest daily De Telegraaf said: "England in uproar over
Sophie's breast."
Disgracefully, the picture was offered to Spain's grubbiest magazine,
Interviu, before The Sun published it themselves.
But negotiations broke down when The Sun realised it had gone too far.
Tragically, the topless shot found its way on to the Internet where it
appeared on the same site as crude shots of scantily-clad porn queens.
One man from the US city of Chicago said: "Glad the Royals will have a
new beauty the rest of us can look forward to seeing more of!"What The
Sun's sister
paper said about it:There have been tasteless decisions by newspaper
editors before; but Page Three of The Sun yesterday, showing the future
wife of Prince Edward topless in the arms of a radio presenter, was
certainly one of the most tasteless.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
rach...@my-deja.com
I FORGIVE YOU KARA
Sophie message over photo
SOPHIE Rhys-Jones and Prince Edward have forgiven Kara Noble for
selling a topless picture of the royal bride-to-be.
Sophie told a friend last night: "I forgive her." Brian McLaurin, who
introduced Sophie to Edward in 1993, added: "They are both very upset
that she did it but they want to move on and look to the future.
"Sophie doesn't want to spend the next year harbouring a grudge. They
have forgiven her but not forgotten what she did.
"Kara was stupid and silly and misguided, but she is not a traitor."
The royal couple's move came as Kara was savaged by Ingrid Tarrant,
wife of DJ Chris, for selling the picture in a sleazy pounds 100,000
deal with The Sun.
The photograph of Tarrant lifting up Sophie's bikini to reveal a breast
was taken in 1988 when Kara worked with the DJ at Capital Radio.
Ingrid said: "Kara has sold her soul to the devil by doing this.
"She will never work again. She's immediately been sacked from Heart FM
and I think that says an awful lot about how they think about her.
"So that's it, her professional life is completely ruined in this
country. Nobody will touch her for the next 40 years of her life.
"Is it worth it, pounds 2,500 a year? And to be so hated by everyone in
the country - it doesn't equate, does it?
"It is total betrayal. If you can't trust your friends, who can you
trust? She obviously has no scruples."
Ingrid also told Ross King of Talk Radio's OK To Talk show that Kara
deliberately held on to the photograph until close to the royal wedding
to get the maximum price.
She said: "Kara must have been happier almost than Sophie herself that
Edward had proposed because look at the timing of it.
"This is maximum hurt at the most crucial time of their relationship."
Kara was reported to be jealous when Sophie invited Chris, 52, and
Ingrid to the June 19 wedding in Windsor.
But Ingrid revealed that she will be visiting her mother in Norway and
Tarrant will be in Canada at the time anyway.
rach...@my-deja.com
IF THE HAT FITS, SOPHIE..
WHY NOT WEAR IT AGAIN?
THE Queen would be amused - and impressed.
Princess-in-waiting Sophie Rhys-Jones adopted the monarch's thrifty
habits yesterday by wearing the same hat to two weddings in a row.
The designer creation - a wide-brimmed lattice straw job decorated with
tropical flowers - didn't come cheap, mind.
It's believed to have set Sophie back more than pounds 250.
And she clearly made her mind up to get the most out of it.
The royal bride-to-be picked up the exotic hat from Chelsea milliner
Cozmo Jenks hours before it made its public debut last Thursday when
Sophie watched her wedding dress designer, Samantha Shaw, marry.
And yesterday Sophie was wearing it again in London as she saw
colleague Tania Wossmann go down the aisle.
Her outfits were strikingly different, though.
For Samantha's wedding Sophie twinned the hat with a flattering lilac
ensemble, designed by the bride. Yesterday it was a short cream dress
with purple knee-length coat and stylish matching handbag.
In a sign of the times another accessory was on view.
A royal protection officer assigned to Sophie last month accompanied
her to the Grosvenor Chapel in Mayfair, conveniently situated opposite
her public relations firm.
In 17 days' time she'll join the royal family as Prince Edward's wife.
And The Firm will be heartened that she is already starting to follow
in their frugal footsteps. The good-housekeeping Queen regularly re-
cycles her clothes.
Princess Diana used to do the same, while Princess Anne wore a 17-year-
old outfit to Royal Ascot last year.
And neither Prince Philip nor son Charles is averse to stepping out in
well-used suits.
The sun shone brightly yesterday as 28-year-old bride Tania, an
accounts executive at Sophie's RJ-H firm, married 34-year-old Martin
Chisholm. And, unlike that shameful photograph of Sophie which the
dismal Sun chose to publish, the pictures of the nuptials brought
pleasure to all.
After the 45-minute ceremony, which is to be followed by a bash in
France, the bride's mother Marlene Wossmann said: "It has been a
wonderful wedding and the weather is beautiful.
"It's lovely to have so many photographers and journalists here to
record my daughter's wedding."
They'll be out in force again on June 19, when Sophie marries Edward at
Windsor.
Just to see whether she's wearing that hat again, of course.