The royals - Kitty Kelley [164]
“Well then, sir,” said the reporter, looking at Charles, “did the Princess enjoy the White House dinner?”
“I think you enjoyed it, didn’t you, darling?” said Charles. “She would be an idiot if she did not enjoy dancing with John Travolta, wouldn’t she?”
Days before the Reagans’ dinner dance for the royal couple, the President’s wife had instructed the Marine Band to rehearse the music from Saturday Night Fever so that its star, John Travolta, could twirl the Princess around the Grand Foyer of the White House. Knowing that Diana once dreamed of becoming a ballerina, Mrs. Reagan had seated her next to Mikhail Baryshnikov, director of the American Ballet Theater. The First Lady also invited Diana’s favorite stars: Neil Diamond, Tom Selleck, and Clint Eastwood. Much as the Republican First Lady loved Prince Charles, she did not invite his favorite movie star—Barbra Streisand—because Streisand was a liberal Democrat. By happy coincidence, all of Diana’s favorite stars were conservative male Republicans who had supported Ronald Reagan.
Still, the Princess was not impressed by the President and the First Lady. Diana privately referred to Reagan as “Horlicks,” her slang for a boring old person, and she told Andrew Neil (editor of the London Sunday Times) that she considered Nancy Reagan a vulgar American. She said the only reason the First Lady had come to London the year before was to get her picture taken with the royal couple and Prince William.
At the White House the President claimed the first dance of the evening with the Princess, who had to bite her lip to keep from laughing when he flubbed her name during his after-dinner remarks. Standing up to welcome the couple, Reagan offered a toast to Prince Charles and “his lovely lady, Princess David.” He quickly corrected himself and called her “Princess Diane.”
“What did he say?” whispered ballerina Suzanne Farrell. “Did he call her Princess David?”
“Don’t worry,” replied actor Peter Ustinov. “He’s just thinking of next weekend at Camp Diana.”
The White House dinner in honor of the royal couple was touted as the most glittering party of the year. But the British press corps was unimpressed. They sniped at the Reagans and their tireless efforts to mingle with royalty and criticized the White House press corps as lazy. “They don’t even know how to doorstep,” said James Whitaker of the Daily Mirror. Whitaker and his colleagues prided themselves on dogging reluctant targets to their doorstep. Mrs. Reagan had barred press coverage of the dinner dance, so the British reporters followed the movie stars to their hotels. “We ambushed them to find out what went on,” Whitaker said proudly. “The American reporters didn’t care. They went home to bed. They were indescribably indolent.” For their part, the American reporters said the British might sound cultivated but behaved like animals.
The BBC correspondent had set the scornful tone of British media coverage when he reported the royal couple’s arrival at the White House: “President Reagan greeted the Prince and Princess wearing a plaid jacket that was remarkably similar to the carpet at Balmoral Castle.”
That evening, after the royals and the Reagans had danced the first dance, the First Lady approached Travolta. “It’s time now, John,” she said. The movie star walked over to the Princess’s table and asked her to dance. “I was thrilled,” Diana said. Everyone stopped talking to watch them and completely ignored the Prince of Wales, who was dancing with the ballerina Suzanne Farrell.
“The Princess got wind that it was a special moment,” recalled Travolta, “and she really seemed to take off. She had great rhythm. We did spins and turns. We did a kind of modern fox-trot, and she followed me very well. She’s a good little mover.”
The guests applauded wildly when the music stopped and Travolta escorted Diana back to her seat. The willowy Princess, flushed with excitement, wanted to dance again. She whispered to Clint Eastwood how much she would enjoy dancing with a man taller than she was. She confided