News Media England

British newspapers printed allegations that Princess Diana tried to commit suicide five times in despair over her marriage to Prince Charles, and Buckingham Palace on Sunday blamed a newspaper circulation war for the media frenzy. Diana was said to have flung herself down stairs, cut her wrists with a razor, cut her chest and thighs with a knife, thrown herself at a glass cabinet and cut herself with a lemon slicer in tormented cries for help.

Four sets of parents, two sets of names, screaming headlines in the British tabloids and on "Geraldo." Life has been eventful for twins Kiara and Keyara--and they're not even a year old. Where, and with whom, the infant girls will wind up has occupied several judges and even more talk-show hosts. The field of parental claimants thinned a bit last week when a California couple withdrew, but the transatlantic battle over the babies continues.

The widespread publication of an intimate telephone conversation reportedly between Britain's Prince Charles and a married woman friend raised doubts in political and editorial circles Wednesday that he will ever be king.

Today's travel tip: Next time you're in a beach bungalow in Hawaii enjoying a quiet dinner with a handsome English prince, draw the blinds. Melissa M. Lincoln may well wish she had. The Newport Beach socialite, 40, has sued her estranged husband for allegedly invading her privacy and making her the subject of British scandal sheets, which are calling her the "hottest woman in England," according to a Daily Mirror editor. She contends in the suit filed this week that husband J.D.

Four sets of parents, two sets of names, screaming headlines in the British tabloids and on "Geraldo." Life has been eventful for twins Kiara and Keyara--and they're not even a year old. Where, and with whom, the infant girls will wind up has occupied several judges and even more talk-show hosts. The field of parental claimants thinned a bit last week when a California couple withdrew, but the transatlantic battle over the babies continues.

Britain's royal media frenzy has been fed by some unlikely tipsters: Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Both recruited national newspapers to run their side of the story of their now-failed marriage, it was revealed Tuesday. That disclosure came as part of the growing debate over whether greater restrictions should be placed on the British press, especially this country's oft-outrageous tabloid newspapers.

Today's travel tip: Next time you're in a beach bungalow in Hawaii enjoying a quiet dinner with a handsome English prince, draw the blinds. Melissa M. Lincoln may well wish she had. The Newport Beach socialite, 40, has sued her estranged husband for allegedly invading her privacy and making her the subject of British scandal sheets, which are calling her the "hottest woman in England," according to a Daily Mirror editor. She contends in the suit filed this week that husband J.D.

Princess Diana, Britain's attractive, blond, future queen and the most photographed woman in the world, has an image problem. It's not that she's too thin, or too fat, needs a nose job, is drinking too much, or has any of the alleged ailments Britain's tabloids delight in reporting as fact. The 26-year-old mother of two is having too much fun.

On the 40th anniversary of her accession to the throne, Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday branded 1992 a "horrible year" and, adopting a rare personal tone, called for a less savage treatment of the embattled Royal Family by the British media.

When Great Britain's Minister of National Heritage was caught having an extramarital affair with aspiring actress Antonia de Sancha two years ago, Max Clifford was there to help De Sancha convert her sudden fame into a small fortune. Last year, when the owner of a London gym created an international uproar by installing a hidden camera and selling pictures of Princess Diana working out, Clifford surfaced as the gym's PR man.

First, the prince of Wales posed with the Spice Girls and Nelson Mandela during a trip to South Africa, looking so happy and relaxed that the Sunday Times called the once-dour king-in-waiting "Cheerful Charlie." Then, on the eve of his 16th birthday, shy Prince William offered the world a peek into his private life with a few tidbits that portrayed him as an average teenager who enjoys techno music, action-adventure books and his black Labrador, Widgeon.

Britain's press watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission, on Thursday outlined a new code of practice and urged the nation's media to adopt the tougher voluntary guidelines. The revisions, prompted by the death of Princess Diana, cover the following five main points: HARASSMENT * Ban publication of pictures obtained through "persistent pursuit" or "unlawful behavior." * Make editors check how freelance material was obtained. * Encourage photo agencies to follow the code of practice.

Stiff as starch, as traditional as a tea cart and as formal as evening attire . . . yes, that's the image the British Open likes the best. It's almost as though history doesn't count unless it happened on one of those links courses, where the only thing separating a golf ball in flight from a large body of water is a spit of land with so many humps and bumps it seems that farm animals or small cars must be buried in there.

Here on the Lancashire Coast, the news moved quickly, like a runaway tea cart. Shaquille O'Neal, whoever that is, had signed with the Lakers, whoever they are. From Great Plumpton to Woodplumpton, from Freckleton to Treales, from Staining to Catforth, the news was on everyone's lips. Either that, or a pint of Tennant's Extra lager.

Fiona Maazel of Brentwood became a casualty of O.J. Simpson's image-polishing trip to Britain on Tuesday night when she stood on a bench in front of 1,500 people and heckled him for violence against women. When Maazel, a 21-year-old English literature major, was escorted from the august precincts of the Oxford Union, a debating society at Oxford University, she left caring a great deal more about Simpson than most other students here and most of the British people.

There was golf in the morning and dinner with a movie director in the evening. But a barrage of reporters' questions about his murder trial Sunday handicapped O.J. Simpson's second day in Britain. "I don't have very good form at the moment, and you guys being here doesn't help," a smiling Simpson told more than 100 journalists and photographers watching him tee off at a south London golf course. Aiming to please, Simpson teed off a second time for the photographers.

There was golf in the morning and dinner with a movie director in the evening. But a barrage of reporters' questions about his murder trial Sunday handicapped O.J. Simpson's second day in Britain. "I don't have very good form at the moment, and you guys being here doesn't help," a smiling Simpson told more than 100 journalists and photographers watching him tee off at a south London golf course. Aiming to please, Simpson teed off a second time for the photographers.

Britain's press watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission, on Thursday outlined a new code of practice and urged the nation's media to adopt the tougher voluntary guidelines. The revisions, prompted by the death of Princess Diana, cover the following five main points: HARASSMENT * Ban publication of pictures obtained through "persistent pursuit" or "unlawful behavior." * Make editors check how freelance material was obtained. * Encourage photo agencies to follow the code of practice.

You've seen all the Simpson experts, haven't you? Wrong. You've only seen the American ones. Here's the European O.J. authority: a Pepperdine University law professor who, while spending a year at the college's London campus, inadvertently became a hit with Brits and the Continent by offering his expertise on the trial. Jim McGoldrick, 51, does five-minute TV spots on Sky News, the CNN of Europe, five or six mornings each week.

* "The only reason to beli e ve in rock 'n' roll in 1994 . . . ." * "What the world has been waiting for . . . ." * From those quotes, you'd think the British music press was writing about a band that's changing the face of rock, right? Not really. It's just Oasis, another perfectly gratifying but fairly mediocre pop outfit with fab sunglasses and mod hairdos. This kind of hype is a tradition.