Monaco

If you can identify the five smallest countries in Continental Europe you get a gold star. If you know where they are on the map, you should be on "Jeopardy." And if you have visited them you don't get anything else; you have already been rewarded. The tiniest, Vatican City, is undeniably the most influential. The next smallest, Monaco, gets very noisy in May. The third most diminutive, San Marino, was the hilltop hide-out of an escaped slave.

TWENTY-FIVE years after her death, at a time when much of the royal glamour and scandal that once fueled Monaco has faded, Grace Kelly is back to give the tiny principality a chic shot in the arm. An enormous exhibit, "The Grace Kelly Years," opened this month at the Grimaldi Forum, providing an unusually detailed snapshot of the bricklayer's daughter who grew up to be a movie star and a princess in what is inevitably referred to as a fairy-tale life.

Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi, His Serene Highness, Sovereign Prince of Monaco, confirmed Thursday that he had partaken in a centuries-old tradition among European monarchs: He has fathered a second child out of wedlock, this one the ponytailed daughter of a former waitress who lives in this upscale enclave near Palm Springs.

Monaco's Prince Rainier III appeared to be losing his fight against heart, lung and kidney failure, with his doctors increasingly pessimistic about the chances of survival. As the prince, 81, who has ruled the tiny Mediterranean principality since 1949, spent a fifth straight day in intensive care, the palace issued its most pessimistic statement yet on his prospects, saying his prognosis was "extremely reserved." A similar news release Friday did not use the word "extremely."

Prince Albert assumed Monaco's royal powers Thursday after a royal commission decided his critically ill father was too sick to perform his duties. Prince Rainier III remains on the throne, however. The announcement by the royal palace marked the first time since 1949 that Rainier, Europe's longest-serving ruler, has not been in control of the Mediterranean realm, a playground for the rich and famous that is smaller than New York's Central Park.

Prince Albert of Monaco, son of Prince Rainier III and actress Grace Kelly, ascended the throne, promising to continue efforts to clean up Monaco's image as a center for money laundering and loose financial controls. Albert, a 47-year-old bachelor, recently acknowledged that he had a son, news that threatened to overshadow his enthronement after a three-month mourning period for Rainier.

At last weekend's presentation here of the third Nijinsky Awards, named after legendary dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, the male dancer and female dancer statuettes went to members of two of the world's leading dance institutions, Nicolas Le Riche of the Paris Opera Ballet and Alina Cojocaru of the Royal Ballet in London. In addition, an homage celebrated U.S. choreographer George Balanchine and his great muse Suzanne Farrell.

Monaco had a headache only a princedom could gripe about: Its postcard-perfect harbor was too small to host huge yachts and cruise liners. So the wealthy Riviera enclave came up with a princely solution -- a $328-million floating breakwater longer than a football field. The project may seem grandiose for a country smaller than New York's Central Park. But this enclave of wealth, wedged between the mountains and the Mediterranean, has been on a building craze for half a century. Since Prince Rainier III assumed the throne in 1949, Monaco has expanded its territory by 20% with land reclamation.