Another blemish on her memory?
Princess Diana denied any intention of marrying Dodi Fayed just a few days before she died, a friend testified Monday.
Lady Annabel Goldsmith, testifying at the British inquest into the couple’s deaths in a 1997 auto accident, said Diana had remarked that she needed another marriage “like a rash on my face.”
Goldsmith, 73, said she would never forget those words because they were the last she had heard from Diana.
Fayed’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed, has claimed the couple was the target of a plot directed by Queen Elizabeth II‘s husband, Prince Philip – partly motivated by a desire to prevent Diana from marrying a Muslim.
Diana’s friend Rosa Monckton last week testified that it was “difficult to judge” the intensity of the princess’ romance with Fayed.
But Monckton said “it was clear to me that she was really missing Hasnat (Khan),” a heart surgeon with whom Diana had an affair.
Monckton also disputed Al Fayed’s claim that Diana was pregnant. saying she had her period during a holiday the two women shared in Greece 10 days before the princess died.
Their sweet lord
Britain’s royal family welcomed the birth of its newest member Monday, a son born to Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie.
Edward is the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II. The baby is the eighth grandchild of the monarch and her husband, Prince Philip.
The couple’s daughter, Lady Louise, was born in November 2003.
She joins their little shaver
Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton have welcomed their second child, a girl, in London.
The 49-year-old “Sweeney Todd” director and his 41-year-old wife, a co-star in the film opening Friday, also have a 4-year-old boy.
Joking before the birth that the child might be getting tired of musical rehearsals, Bonham Carter said: “Maybe the baby’s going to come out with his hands on his ears: ‘Shut up!’ “
Test-driving a new model
French President Nicolas Sarkozy‘s new love interest is supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni, according to reports Monday after the two were photographed at Disneyland Paris.
The president’s office declined comment on their status. But the daily Le Figaro, seen as close to the conservative Sarkozy – newly divorced from his former model wife – ran a front-page photo Monday with the headline: “Carla Bruni: The President’s Girlfriend.”
Now you see her …
Pamela Anderson, meanwhile, has filed for divorce from third husband Rick Salomon after just two months of marriage.
The former “Baywatch” star and Salomon – best known for his sex tape with Paris Hilton – were wed Oct. 6 during a break between the 7 and 10 p.m. shows of “Hans Klok’s The Beauty of Magic” at Planet Hollywood resort in Las Vegas, where Anderson was starring as a magician’s assistant.
The birthday bunch
Guitarist Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) is 64. Director Steven Spielberg is 61. Actor Ray Liotta is 52. Actor Brad Pitt is 44. Country singer Tracy Byrd is 41. Actress Rachel Griffiths is 39. Rapper DMX is 37. Actress Katie Holmes is 29. Singer Christina Aguilera is 27.