The Modern Cult of Diana

Cal Thomas | Syndicated Columnist | Updated: Oct 09, 2007

The Modern Cult of Diana


August 28, 2007

It’s Diana week in the UK. The media are full of the unending soap opera. Prince Charles’ current wife, the former Camilla Parker Bowles, at first said she would attend Friday’s ceremony, commemorating the tenth anniversary of her death. She said she was going because Princes Harry and William had asked her. But the queen and better judgment intervened and she has withdrawn.

What amazes me is how so many people continue to worship Diana. She’s become part of the cult of beauty. If she was plain looking, like Camilla, does anyone think she would enjoy continued celebrity a decade after her death?

Germaine Greer wrote a devastating article for London’s Sunday Times. She calls Diana an unhappy child who turned into a manipulative woman. Greer writes: “when Diana presented herself to her adoring public as a guileless girl who fell in love with a chap who just happened to be heir to the English throne, only to have her innocent young life spurned, she was acting a lie.

So was Prince Charles. Both cheated on the other, Diana many times. We worship beauty as a substitute for God. And that worship will continue Friday in London.


Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.

The Modern Cult of Diana