Happy families

Jimmy Carter had his brother Billy, Bill Clinton had his brother-in-law Hugh Rodham, & Britain’s Royal Family has…the Royal Family.

If you don’t read non-US media, you’ve probably not heard about the latest on Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew’s ex-wife. That girl can spend like a bailed-out investment bank. She needs an intensive course in money management, because she just can’t seem to make her income stretch to cover her outgoings.

Last year she got jammed up for offering a tabloid journalist-got-up-as-an-Arab access to Andrew, for a small consideration of £500,000. (Andrew, since he left the Royal Navy, has had a jammy/dodgy job as “economic envoy” for the country, meaning he’s trotted out to any country that makes noises like it might like to invest in Britain.) When she was outed by The News of the World, she had to polish her apologizing skills.

But seems she can no more control her bribe solicitation jones than she can her shopping. This week she had to apologize for getting bailed out of debt by a known pedophile. An American one, at that.

Ferguson isn’t the first royal in-law to bring scandal to the family via TNOTW. Sophie, Countess of Wessex, had barely been married to Prince Edward for two years before the very same reporter punked her into indiscreet remarks about her new family in an attempt to bring in business to her PR firm.

Well, they did know about her PR tendencies when Edward took up with her, so it’s not like everyone didn’t have fair warning.

I hope Wills, who’s getting married next month, is luckier than his father & uncles with respect to choosing a bride who isn’t a loose cannon.