Entertainment Briefs May 31, 2010

Diana's daring black dress goes on the block

LONDON - It was black and strapless, with a sassy sequined flounce at the bodice and a gloriously full, swishy skirt.The dress was, Lady Diana Spencer thought, so grown-up, just right for her first official engagement after the announcement she was to marry Prince Charles.

But when photographs emerged of the then 19-year-old Diana emerging from a limousine at a March, 1981 charity event - all creamy shoulders and ample decolletage - there was a minor scandal over the revealing cut. According to Elizabeth Emanuel, who designed the ball gown with her husband David, they didn't realize the furor the dress would cause."She just looked fantastic. At that time, she was curvy. Not fat in any way, but she had cleavage - we love cleavage. And she looked great in this dress," Emanuel said in an interview Friday. "We in no way expected there to be such a reaction. And I think from that moment on, Diana became a fashion icon."

The dress had been missing for years until David Emanuel recently discovered it in a plastic bag at his home. Along with other garments worn by Diana and designed by the Emanuels, it is to be auctioned off June 8 in a sale that includes the silk chiffon blouse chosen for the Princess of Wales' official engagement portrait by Lord Snowdon, and the calico prototype used to fit her famous ivory wedding gown.Prince Charles reportedly didn't like the ballgown she wore to the charity event, because he thought black was for people in mourning. Diana thought it was tres chic, and anyway, she had nothing else to wear.

"She was unsophisticated at that point, and when I look at the wedding dress and the black ballgown I can see a young girl's dream of the ultimate party dress or romantic dress," said auctioneer Kerry Taylor, whose eponymous firm is handling the sale. "So there's an innocence about these early pieces."Later on she became very svelte, very sophisticated, very elegant," Taylor said. "But here we see just a very beautiful, innocent young girl, and the clothes reflect that."

For the editors of Britain's voracious press, the dress - and the snaps of Diana in it - would kick off a long love affair with the princess."Up until that point, they'd seen her as a floppy-haired puppy," said Christopher Wilson, a seasoned observer who has written extensively on the royals. "And that's the moment Fleet Street fell in love with her.

"It all stretches back to that one picture."Taylor and Elizabeth Emanuel are hopeful the collection will go to a museum - the black dress is expected to fetch between 30,000 and 50,000 pounds ($44,000 to $73,000) and the prototype of the wedding dress between 8,000 and 12,000 pounds ($12,000 to $17,000) - but understand that Diana's legacy means there's a strong chance a private collector may snap up the garments.

Despite the reaction to her ballgown, Diana liked it enough to ask the Emanuels to take it in when it became too large for her, as she was constantly losing weight. In the months leading up to her wedding, Diana's waist dropped from 26 to 24 inches, and the Emanuels decided it would be easier to just make her a new, smaller version of the dress. Elizabeth Emanuel said she doesn't know what happened to the second version.The collection up for sale includes sketches, notes, invoices - one shows Diana's mother paid 1,000 guineas for the wedding party's dresses, which was the equivalent of 1,050 pounds - and even the handbag that Elizabeth Emanuel carried to the wedding at St. Paul's Cathedral on July 29, 1981. It still has the smelling salts the designer brought along in case her famous client felt faint. (She didn't, Emanuel said, describing Diana as the epitome of calm.)

"Diana was just fantastic. From the moment we first met her, she was just like a regular client. She was lovely, down-to-earth, very sweet, very calm, very friendly. She made a point of meeting everybody in the work room and she was just so easy to get on with," Emanuel said. "We had so much fun."

Europeans vie for pop dominance at song contest

OSLO, Norway - A 17-year-old singer from Azerbaijan opened the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest final on Saturday as musicians from 25 countries vied for pop supremacy and offered Europe a brief escape from the continent's financial woes.Bookmakers had favored Safura and her song "Drip Drop," though Eurovision experts suggested her chances were hurt by performing first because the opening song rarely wins. Meanwhile, a Google Eurovision predictor program has projected that Germany's Lena Meyer-Landrut will win.

Organizers expect some 125 million TV viewers to watch Saturday's final - the 55th anniversary of Europe's largest song competition.Oil-rich Norway spent 200 million kroner ($31 million) to host the elaborate songfest, which led off with a performance by last year's winner, Alexander Rybak, a Norwegian fiddler who won in Moscow. Spain's Daniel Diges, who performed second, was allowed to sing his song again after an overzealous fan in a red stocking cap appeared onstage amid his backup dancers.

This year several countries have pulled out of the extravaganza citing financial strains, including the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Andorra and Hungary.Observers also feared that the voting for the winner - a political consideration even in the best of times - will be affected by the continent's simmering financial tensions. The Greek government debt crisis and a subsequent European Union-led bailout has strained relations within the 27-nation bloc.

"It may be the Germans won't vote for the Greeks this year because they are not so popular in Germany right now," said Inge Solmo, a Norwegian Eurovision expert.The competition is decided by a panel of judges and telephone voting by the participating countries. Fans cannot vote for their own nation's entry.

The contest is known for over-the-top exuberance in costumes, lighting and set design. One notable semifinal outfit - tight silver sparkly shorts - was worn by the male singers in Lithuania's InCulto group, and contestants from Romania had plumes of fire in the background.Earlier this week, 34 contestants were whittled down to 20 in two semifinals. They are competing in the final with five pre-qualified countries - last year's winner, Norway, and the contest's four perennials: Britain, Germany, France and Spain.

Politically motivated voting, as well as bloc voting, has been fairly common in Eurovision. Former Soviet bloc countries have tended to support one another, helping the region win five of the last nine contests.The victorious nation wins the right to host the next year's event - an honor that austerity-minded governments may decide to refuse.

"If Azerbaijan wins, I don't know how they could finance the show next year," Solmo said.If the winning country can't or won't host the show, Eurovision officials have in the past turned to Britain's BBC or the national broadcaster of another wealthy country to be the host, he said.

- The Associated Press