BY MARCELLA FITZGERALD AND JIM SPAUL
LONDON - Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales; Harrods heir Emad Mohammed al-Fayed; and Henri Paul, a security officer from the Ritz hotel who was driving the car, were killed in Paris in a high-speed car crash in the early hours of August 31. Spencer's bodyguard, the fourth person in the car, was seriously injured.

Six photographers and a motorcycle driver who were following the car are under investigation for "involuntary homicide" in the case.

Before the bodies were cold, the saturation press coverage of the princess's death began.

Fayed was buried the following day. There have been no reports of when Paul's body will be released to his family for burial. Investigators say they found high level's of alcohol in the driver's blood.

The day of the crash, regular television and radio programs were replaced with hour after hour coverage of the accident and commentary hailing Spencer as "the people's princess." Political events such as the street festival for the 100th anniversary of the Scottish Trades Union Council were called off and campaigning around the referendum on Scottish and Welsh devolution was suspended.

Throughout the week the press has persistently promoted signing books of condolence throughout the country, including mobile libraries taking books to sign to small villages.

Much of the coverage has praised the high profile activity of the princess with charities and in opposition to land mines.

Pundit after pundit has expressed concern over the loss of a woman who was the popular face of the royal family - despite her divorce from Prince Charles of Wales - and concern over the need to rehabilitate the monarchy. "Her legacy should help to protect the monarchy" the London Times stated, and warned, "The sense of a family which only reclaimed her when she was safely dead could be disastrous. Not since the Abdication has the Palace needed sound heads as it does today. The nation will want a state funeral. There should be no impediment to this least of all from the Palace itself."

The "fact that many in the British establishment hated Diana is what makes the outpouring of grief so politically interesting," wrote author A.N. Wilson in a New York Times column September 3. "In recent years, the popularity of the monarchy has declined dramatically... None of us know whether the actual institution of monarchy - which is the very fabric of the British constitution -will survive."

As of September 3 neither Elizabeth Windsor the Queen nor her son Charles the Prince of Wales, have made public statements.  
 
 
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