progress.

it amuses me that the second most important headline this week is the postponement of prince charles's second wedding. it's worse than celebrities. there have been opinion polls about whether he ought to marry her or not. it's a delicious story/scandal everywhere.

why? is it just because he's a prince? nah. it's because we're watching, played out in the exquisite manners of upper class england, the oldest of revenge dramas: competition at its most raw, most base level. diana, the publicly scorned, jealous, beautiful wife who died in a sordid car crash in paris. camilla, who met charles first, whose husband gave up the field to the prince. and in the end, she won. literally.

this columnist said it very succnintly:

Camilla has got the last laugh. She's got her man. She's nabbed the future King of England. She may yet be Queen.

the reason i think we're so fascinated is because this is the couple we all want to be. they both defeated, not their social rivals, but their sexual rivals. theirs will not be a romantic, fairy tale wedding, as his first was. it will be more subdued, a mere recogniction of a fait accompli. their wedding on saturday is not going to be a celebration of love, but a celebration of victory.