Reel vs. Reality

Okay, blogger is really giving me fits today with uploading pictures. I had planned on comparing a picture of the real Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark with their fictional counterparts in The Prince and Me 2: Royal Wedding.

I love reading about Royalty. I know that as a citizen of a democratic country where we threw off the shackles of the monarchy over 200 years ago, I should poo-poo the idea of an antiquated system in a modern world, but I can't help it. I love the pomp and circumstance, the palaces, the weddings, the whole shebang. I devour Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series and both Nicole Burnham's category series and her YA books. I have a collection of books on contemporary royalty and the past. I've read every book written about Princess Diana, Princess Grace and Monaco. I used to subscribe to Royalty and Majesty.

So when I saw The Prince and Me on DVD at the library, I had to check it out. The premise is as old as time, young, modern American woman falls in love with a guy, and then finds out he's the heir to the throne of Denmark. Just up my alley. They even added the twist of having Paige not wanting to give up her ambition of being a doctor, and having Prince Edvard be incredibly understanding. Unfortunately the execution fell far short of the idea. For one thing, Julia Stiles has got to be one of the most charmless actresses on the planet, and the actor who played the Prince was not exactly Prince Charming. There were some things that I did like, they delved into how hard it was to suddenly find yourself having to deal with traditions that didn't seem to make sense, the tabloids, and feeling constrained by the role Paige was having to take on.

To top it all off, Denmark actually does have a monarchy. While I was watching the movie, I had to wonder if the screenwriter was aware of that fact. It would have made more sense to create a fictional country the way Meg Cabot did with Genovia instead of using a real country. Maybe the screenwriter figured no one in America would realize that Denmark indeed has a Queen (no King at this moment, although her husband Prince Henrik is the royal consort like Prince Philip is to Queen Elizabeth). In fact Europe has three reigning Queens at the moment, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Margarethe II of Denmark, and Queen Elizabeth.

What was really funny about this movie was at the time it came out the real heir to the Danish throne, Prince Frederik was about to marry an Australian commoner, Mary Donaldson. His brother Joachim had already been married and seperated from a British commoner, HH Princess Alexandra. 20/20 even interviewed the Crown Prince and asked him what he thought of the movie (for the record he thought it was amusing).

So, why did I rent The Prince and Me 2: Royal Wedding? Well, who isn't a sucker for weddings. Even though Julia Stiles wasn't in this one, nor really anyone from the first movie, apart from the actor playing the Prince, I watched it. God, it was bad. The plot involved a Prince of Norway trying to get the Prince to marry his daughter using some obscure law from the 13th century. Again, the screenwriters were blowing smoke out of their arse. For one thing, Denmark has the oldest monarchy in Europe, and it's one of the more modern monarchies.

Of course, it all became about how Princess Kirsten of Norway, who used to be fat, but now was slim and gorgeous, tries to undermine Paige, so that she gives up and dumps Edvard. Frankly she should have dumped Edvard for being dull, like this movie. But don't you know I watched it till the bitter end! Even though I wanted to take Kam Heskins (who played Paige and also played Elizabeth in the Mormon version of Pride and Prejudice) to a salon to get rid of those god awful spaniel curls she was wearing.

So if you're a royalty loving freak like me, watch Roman Holiday (the Audrey Hepburn version) or The Princess Diaries (the first one) and avoid the Prince and Me like the plague.