friendly crowd

Somehow, this is so…Charles.

They were supposed to form a sea of friendly faces lining the streets of Windsor during the royal wedding.

But plans for a "rent a crowd" have been thrown into doubt after the marriage was switched to Saturday.
Staff from dozens of charities and institutions associated with the Prince of Wales had been asked to line the route from the register office to the blessing of his marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles at St George's Chapel.

The "friendly crowd" was to be brought in amid fears that fans of Princess Diana or those who oppose the union on constitutional grounds may try to disrupt the day. But many of the "guests" have still not been informed of changes to the wedding day arrangements - and many are now unable to attend.

He can’t even get his own Potemkin crowd together because he’s forced to go off and watch the Pope being interred, the future head of the Church of England, defender of the faith, forced to bow the knee to the holy mother church. Curious how this is being interpreted as a “public duty.” It’s just the iron law of celebrity at work – the greater attracts the lesser, even in death, perhaps in the hope that some of the charisma will rub off on his own tawdry portion of glamour.

As for Charles’ hangers on and their disrupted weekends, who cares? Dependents of a minor celebrity are scattered like chaff before a truly illustrious corpse. Let them shiver all night on Windsor High Street in their collapsible chairs, rugs over their knees, draining their thermoses of weak tea, menaced by Dianaistas. Such are the fruits of patronage.