Friday, August 26th 2005

4:11 PM

PRINCESS DIANA'S DEATH ACCIDENTAL - CASE CLOSED: POLICE

Was This Lady a Tramp?

This weekend, British newspapers will be filled with the news I'm breaking for my readers today - Princess Di 's death was an accident. Nothing more.

Conspiracy buffs won't be convinced, but I think most everybody else will.

Yet what most people will find hard to swallow is the growing evidence that perhaps lovely Di was actually a spoiled, vindictive, egotistical tart.

Personally, I don't hob-nob with the really in-the-know, fox-and-hounds crowd - the Upper Crust of Britain's multi-layered societal pie. But I do read the Brit papers. And for most of the summer they've been filled with sordid details and tell-alls about The Real Princess Diana. The Diana only intimate friends and lovers knew. And it ain't a pretty picture.

Then again, those so willing to assassinate her character may simply be trying to ingratiate themselves with, or help grease the skids for, the newest Royal Tart - Camilla, Bride of Chucky and Future Queen of England.

But now that Di is no longer around to defend herself, her detractors are free to say almost anything about her they wish - especially if there's a few quid in it for them. The eager British media is only too keen and willing to oblige.

However, one thing's for sure in Britain these days - The Cult of Diana is definitely on the wane. And the bloom is fast fading from England's Once Favorite Rose.

Here's just a sample, included within the final police report that her death was merely the result of a tragic drunk driving accident.

By DOUG SAUNDERS

LONDON -- The bloom, it seems, has begun to fade from England's rose.

After eight years during which Diana, Princess of Wales, was an untouchable idol here, Britons have spent the summer owning up to her less savoury traits -- the spoiled hard-partying lifestyle, the ego, the promiscuity.

And this morning, the dethroning will be accelerated, as British papers report what counts for conspiracy theorists as a stunning revelation: that her death in 1997 was the simple result of the drunk and reckless driving of their chauffeur, Henri Paul, after she had spent a night on the town in Paris with a fleeting boyfriend, Dodi Fayed.

After years of detailed forensic investigations in France and Britain, police have concluded beyond a doubt that her death was not the result of a plot; that she was not being pursued by spies, mobs of photographers or agents of Prince Charles; and that nobody was out to get her, according to detailed accounts provided to The Evening Standard and Telegraph newspapers by police, who aren't due to officially release their report until tomorrow.

The notion of Diana as an innocent victim of forces beyond her control has fallen apart. And with it has some of the romance of the "people's princess," a term coined by Prime Minister Tony Blair shortly after her death. Recent polls show that the British public has instead warmed somewhat to Prince Charles and his new wife, the former Camilla Parker Bowles.

The investigators, who have already spent $5-million and used advanced new forensic techniques that were not available to earlier investigators, were following a detailed French inquiry that concluded that Diana was the victim of an extremely drunk driver, and that no other factors were involved.

But the widespread belief that she must have been the victim of a conspiracy, fuelled by the families of the unfortunate couple, had taken on such a dramatic public life in Britain that the government felt it necessary to launch two separate investigations.

Police scientists have reportedly concluded with some certainty that her Mercedes-Benz was travelling alone, not pursued by a black Fiat as held in many reports; that there was no bright light flashed in the face of the driver; that the brake cables had not been cut; that Diana was chatting leisurely on her cellphone at the moment of the accident, not engaged in a panicked chase; that she was definitely not pregnant at the time of her death; and that she had no intention of marrying millionaire playboy Dodi Fayed.

Many of the theories stemmed from Diana's own belief that someone, probably Charles, was out to get her. During the height of their divorce, she wrote an infamous note that read, in full:

"This particular phase of my life is the most dangerous -- my husband is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry."

With the new police revelations, it looks like this note will become part of another, increasingly popular Diana narrative in Britain, one that involves her mental instability and her mercurial lifestyle.

This summer saw the publication of a tell-all memoir by Diana's therapist and friend Simone Simmons, full of sordid accounts of multiple affairs with married men and political celebrities, use of hard drugs and acts of petty vengeance.

Nine months ago, an actor friend of Diana's released a series of videotapes of private conversations from the early 1990s in which the Princess comes off as a shallow, cynical opportunist with few interests beyond self-promotion.

When asked why she did so much charity work, she answered, "I've got nothing else to do." and shrieked with girlish laughter.

To add a certain piquancy to these reports, the memoir by Ms. Simmons revealed that Diana, shortly before her death, had urged the Queen to allow Charles to marry Ms. Parker Bowles.