British Royal Family

Prince Harry has agreed to a £400,000 (about $505,000) settlement with a British tabloid publisher found guilty last year of improper snooping into his personal life, the BBC reports. The sum covers legal costs, as well as the initial £140,600 in damages Harry was awarded when the ruling against Mirror Group Newspapers was handed down last December. In the ruling, a judge found that Mirror Group’s papers — including The Mirror, The Sunday Mirror, and The Sunday People — had engaged in “unlawful information…

There have been many mind-blowing revelations on Finding Your Roots, the Henry Louis Gates Jr.-hosted PBS television series that employs a team of professional genealogists to trace celebrities’ ancestral histories. We’ve learned that Bernie Sanders is related to his SNL doppelgänger Larry David, that actor Joe Manganiello is part-Black and descended from slaves, and that LeVar Burton is part-white, which caused the Roots star to jokingly scream, “Nooooooo!” The Jan. 30 episode of Finding Your Roots, now in its…

When Luther Ford sent in an audition tape to star in the final season of The Crown, putting his best foot forward to play Prince Harry in Netflix’s hit series, the 23-year-old didn’t expect to land the gig. As a university student studying editing and directing, Ford says he didn’t have professional acting experience or attend any kind of drama school, but his brother’s girlfriend texted him about an open casting call for the role of Harry and encouraged him to give it a go. “I think she said something along the…

Prince Harry has emerged victorious in his lawsuit against the British tabloid publisher Mirror Group Newspapers over improper snooping into his personal life.  The judge found that the publisher’s papers — including The Mirror, The Sunday Mirror and The Sunday People — had engaged in “unlawful information gathering” tactics, including hacking Harry’s phone (or the phones of his associates), and intercepting his voicemails. He was awarded £140,600 in damages (about $178,000). In a statement read by his lawyer…

An unexpected thing happens in the series finale of The Crown, which Netflix released today: Queen Elizabeth is the main character. This would seem to be the most predictable thing in the world, right? The Crown began with Elizabeth’s unexpected ascension to the British throne at the age of 25, and it concludes a little over 50 years later. First Claire Foy, then Olivia Colman, and most recently Imelda Staunton have been playing the protagonist, haven’t they? In theory, yes. But The Crown creator Peter Morgan…

The Crown is back. The sixth and final season of Netflix’s royal drama begins with some Big D Energy: It’s all about Diana and Dodi, the young lovers whose whirlwind romance ended tragically in the Paris car crash that became the “Where were you?” moment for a generation. The first part of the sixth season, which dropped on Netflix this week, focuses on the princess as she navigates life outside the royal family. What is her purpose? Who is she without the HRH title? Diana and Charles are locked in…

Dear Reader, I met JR Moehringer 14 years ago. He appeared in the acknowledgements of a favourite book — Open by Andre Agassi. He should have been on the cover, said Agassi. Some years earlier, while playing his final US Open, Agassi had discovered The Tender Bar by JR Moehringer. He was so struck by this memoir, he spent all his free time reading it. Soon after, he invited Moehringer to dinner, at his home in Vegas. With that, was born a partnership which would go on to make Moehringer the world’s most famous…