Today is Victoria Day in Canada, it’s Queen Victoria’s Birthday.  Happy Victoria Day to both of all my Canadian readers.  I could have done a post about that, but I’m going another route since I figured you all were royaltied out, so here goes…

One of the most colorful characters in politics when I was a disco hanging out in young man in my 20s was Wilbur Mills, US Congressman from Arkansas.

He kinda led the way for naughty boys everywhere.

He was a Democrat, so Larry Flynt didn’t out him, Wilbur kinda did that himself.

Wilbur was born on May 24, 1902 – so he’s dead now –  to a progressive and financially comfortable family in Kensett, Arkansas.  His daddy was a banker, school superintendant, and ran the first school system in Arkansas to be integrated.

Wilbur was smart.  He was the valedictorian of his high school class, the salutatorian of his college class at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and studied Constitutional Law at Harvard. 

He pretty much had a lot going on. 

He was judge back in Arkansas, and began a county-funded program to pay medical bills, prescription drugs, and hospital treatment for the indigent.  He was a bit ahead of his time.

He went to congress in 1939, served until 1977, and for 18 of those years was the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.  He was a powerful man.

He was instrumental in creation of Medicare.  He was considered the primary tax expert in the Congress.  He was a fiscal conservative and a semi-social liberal. 

He also ran for President, but then again, who hasn’t?

Although he should be remembered for all that, which ain’t all that bad, most people remember him from the “Tidal Basin” Scandal in 1974.

Ya see, Wilbur liked to drink.

And Wilbur let liquor get him in trouble.

He was married for over 40 years.

Then he met a stripper.

In a bar.

While he was drinking.

Her name was Annabelle Battistella, and she was Argentine, but the world knew her as Fanne Foxe.

Wilbur fell hard for Fanne, and he fell from power.

The Nation section of Time Magazine on Decmeber 16, 1974 said…”From the stage of Boston’s Pilgrim Theater, a seedy burlesque house in the city’s newly designated “Combat Zone” for sex films and ecdysiast exhibitions, a shapely, silken-gowned Fanne Foxe, “the Argentine Firecracker,” had a surprise for her audience. “I’d like you to meet somebody,” she said, then called to the wings: “Mr. Mills, Mr. Mills! Where are you?” Onto the stage strode Arkansas Congressman Wilbur Daigh Mills, 65, the redoubtable Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Placing a hand on Fanne’s shoulder, Mills began a brief exchange of quips with the audience, then received a kiss on the cheek from his favorite stripper and calmly walked offstage. With that unlikely bit of business, Mills’ distinguished 36-year legislative career came crashing down around him.”

They weren’t wrong.

Earlier that year, Mills car was stopped by US Park Police, because the driver had not turned on his lights.  Mills was intoxicated, and he had bruises on his face from a “tift” with Ms. Foxe.   When the po-po approached the car, Ms. Foxe jumped from the vehicle and dove into the Tidal Basin in a feeble attempt to escape.

It was a scandal!

And we ate it UP.

Not surprisingly these days, despite the scandal, Mills was re-elected to Congress in November 1974 in a heavily Democratic year with nearly 60% of the vote.  Back then, is re-election was a miracle.

Later on, in November of 1974, there was the theatre incident, which included an appearance on stage with Ms Foxe’s husgand and a press conference from the Stripper’s “dressing” room.  Just a thought, why do strippers need dressing rooms?  He told the press he went there to deny an affair with Fanne.

It didn’t work.

After leaving the Congress, Mills got sober.  He went to rehab, did not meet Liz Taylor, did not seek re-election in 1976, but did devote his time to counseling other alcoholics and rasising money for treatment centers.  One was eventually named for him;  the Wilbur D. Mills Treatment Center for Alcohol and Drugs, it’s in Searcy, Arkansas.

He had 15 minutes of ‘infamy’, and a great deal more than 15 minutes of fame!

There are so many places I could go today, The TVA was chartered today back in FDR’s days.  Vasco de Gama reached Calcutta, India and changed the place forever in 1498, The Seven Years War (French and Indian War) started in 1756, Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor of the French in 1804, Lincold won the Republican Primary, The siege of Vicksburg began in the Civil War, The Selective Service Act was passed in 1917, and Omar Khayyam was born in 1048…I could take the hight road, you know, go UP…but I’ve decided on the low road.

…Arnold admitted yesterday that he has a love child.

With a ’staff-member’.

Shocking?

Not really.

A politician with a love child…John Edwards, etc…not news.

An actor with a love child…*insert endless list here* …not news.

A pissed off Hollywood wife moving out…not news.

I’m no longer surprised, I’m on the rare occasion, disappointed, but never surprised.

So, waht is news?  Schwarzenegger has inked a new deal for his come-back film, it’s called…”The Spermanator”.

I’m sure it’ll be great!

When I posted about my interest in the Royal Wedding, and Why I Care about it, my sister-in-law, Diane, mother of Jenny and Aunt of Emily over at MomminitUP, commented, “Who’s your favorite royal?”

Well, that’s a tough question. 

The more I learn about Queen Victoria, the more I like her, but I’m glad she wasn’t my mom.

Henry VIII remains fascinating hundreds of years after he left a wake of headless ex-wives, priests, and other “traitors” behind.

And that’s just the English!

The French had their stars as well.

And it makes it hard to narrow down, so this could be a series! 

Yeah, I know you’re thrilled.

But, as always, my interest in history IS the people, and though I can talk cause, outcome, and reason for hours days weeks ever, I usually come back to the people.

Especially the ones with faults.

Which brings us to Prince George, Duke of Kent.

He was never king, but he was truly royal.

The present Queen’s uncle, The Duke of Kent, was among other things, a British Naval Officer and a war casulty.  He died during WW II at the age of 40.  He was the father of  Prince Edward, the present Duke of Kent, Prince Michael, and Princess Alexandra , 1st cousins of Her Majesty.  He was married to a Greek Princes, Marina, and was the last member of the British Royal Family to marry a “true’ foreign royal…UP to this point.

On 25th August 1942, Prince George, the fourth son of King George V, was killed when his aircraft crashed into Eagles Rock near Dunbeath, Caithness, Scotland. He was the first member of the British Royal Family to be killed on active military service for 500 years. His death is shrouded in mystery. The official report into his death has never been published. In fact, the government claims that it has disappeared from the archives.

Some believe that he was assassinated by the British intelligence services on the orders of Winston Churchill, and that The Duke of Kent was one of many people murdered as part of a cover-up operation

As with most of the “younger brother” royal family members, there was a dark side. 

Handsome and glamorous, he was probably the most interesting, intelligent and cultivated member of his generation of the Royal Family. He took a strong interest in the arts, theatre, and in interior decoration, an interest he shared with his mother, Queen Mary, but no other member of the family.

Both before and after his marriage, Prince George had a long string of affairs with both men and women, from socialites to cabaret singers to political figures to Hollywood celebrities.

Some of his liasons included the African-American cabaret singer Florence Mills, 

heiress Poppy Baring,

and social butterfly Margaret Whigham, who later became the Duchess of Argyll and was involved in a notoriously scandalous divorce case.

Twistedly enough, he had an affair with Barbara Cartland, the romace writer. 

And he is most likely the father of Cartland’s daughter, Raine (Acid Raine) McCorquodale, the step-mother of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Confused?

There were claims of a 19 year “off and on” affair with Noel Coward. 

Coward’s long-time companion, Graham Payn denied it, but intimate letters from the Duke to Coward were stolen from Coward’s house in 1942, shortly after the Duke’s death.  Most think the British Secret Service did the deed.

According to Lucy Moore, a British historian , he had an affair with Indira Raje, the Maharani of Cooch Behar – an Indian state; well, at least he was keeping it royal.

He was also ‘extremely close’ to Henry “Chips” Channon.  Channon was an American born, British politician who married into the Guinness (Ale) family, and had, shall we say, a reputation.

The Duke was also addicted to drugs – morphine and cocaine.  His older brother, The Prince of Wales, and the future King Edward VIII was comissioned by the family to ’cure’ him during the latter part of the 1920s.  There were several occasions when the Prince of Wales traveled to France and dragged his brother home, literally kicking and screaming.  He was one of the few royals banned from the George Cinc Hotel in Paris.

Goerge was blackmailed by a male prostitute to whom he wrote intimate letters.

Good thing texting was invented yet.

Another boyfriend was his distant cousin, Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, and the grand son of the last Kaiser of Germany.

British traitor, Soviet Spy,  and art historian Anthony Blunt may have been on George’s dance card as well.  Which could be why Churchill was so pissy about everything.

Prior to marrying Marina, The Duke tried to court Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.  She was less than amused, and sent him packing.  Juliana settled for a lesser royal, with less baggage, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Bisterfeld instead.

In addition to his legitimate children, the Duke probably had a son with Kiki Preston a.k.a. Alice Gwynne.  The American society maven was a generous girl, and she, George, and Jorge Ferrara, the bi-sexual son of Argentine ambassador to the Court of St. James’s engaged in menage a trois on numerous occasions.

Kiki was known as “the girl with the silver syringe”.  Drug-addict Preston — a cousin of railroad heiress and jean queen Gloria Vanderbilt, was married at the time of her affairs with the George and Jorge.

Imagine that!

The Duke of Wndsor, older brother of George was convinced that the son was Michael Canfield, the adopted son of Cass Canfield, an American publisher, who by the way, was the first husband of Lee Radziwill, younger and far trampier sister of Jackie O.

This guy makes Prince Harry look DULL!

He’s not my favorite, but I’m sure he would have livened UP any party!

 Is there a stranger romance than that of Kenny Chesney and Renee Zellweger?

Seriously, I can’t find one. 

Four months dating, four months of marriage, what went wrong?

Fraud, annulment, just too much room for speculation.

Of course the Kenny’s gay rumors started.

He denied that.  “It’s not true. Period. Maybe I should have come out and said, ‘No, I’m not, but I didn’t want to draw any more attention to it.  I didn’t have to prove to anybody that I wasn’t. I didn’t feel like I really did.”  All this to Anderson Cooper, ahem, who should know if Kenny’s gay.

He’s a mystery man, not living in the US, but living on his own private island, a very private man.

There’s room for speculation, most stars are open books, or at least have a phony perosna to cover their tracks.

Not Kenny, he plays it close to the vest.

Renée and Kenny met on January 15, 2005, at the Concert of Hope tsunami relief benefit. Kenny was there as one of the performers, and Renée had volunteered to answer the telephones. 

Their annulment was finalized in Los Angeles Superior Court on December 20, 2005, when a judge granted their request. Officially, their brief marriage never existed. It was legally erased by the annulment process.

Ok, I know that’s all legal, but that’s all just crap.

It existed.  There was a preacher, there were witnesses, there were ‘I do’s’, and supposedly there was a consummation.

Or was there?

So, what happened?

They “tied” the knot on on May 9, 2005 in St. John in the Virgin Islands in a small, private wedding.

The easy theory could be that she wanted an immediate baby and he did not.  Wouldn’t that qualify for a “miscommunication of the objective of their marriage?”

That’s the term used in the annulment.

Could it be ego?

Chesney has said, to none other than Oprah, so we know it’s true, that he still hopes to be married, but “felt that the idea of marriage made me lose my identity… I just don’t know that I’ve found anybody bigger than that.”

Ok, ego just might be it. 

One Hollywood attorney, Sorrell Trope says, “If fraud is checked that means a promise was made before the marriage, but the person who made it had no intention of keeping it. The promise has to pertain to the heart of the marriage.”

So, did he say, yeah, I want kids, and then a few days later, say, “oh BTW, I had a vasectomy”?  I mean, who wants to wind UP with a few “souvenirs” from a tour?  Child sUPport!

Did he say, “Renee, you’re just butt ugly, and I don’t love you!”

Was it, “My 400 other girlfriends are jealous of you, so you’ll have to leave.”

Who knows?