To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > People July 2, 1999 URL: http://www.salon.com/people/col/reit/1999/07/02/diana Panties fit for a princess Now you can wear undies inspired by Di; speaking of which, Marv Albert's back; white-chick folkfest is not a white-chick folkfest; der party poopers at Deutsche Bank throw wet blanket on currency toss. Plus: Hillary Clinton and Janet Reno deemed strangely sexy. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Amy Reiter The indignities of being a dead Di apparently know no bounds. The same week that the doors of her ancestral estate and burial place, Althorp Park, swung open to a less-than-clamoring public (ticket sales have been ever so sluggish), Princess Diana's memorial fund has approved the peddling of her image via a millennium wall calendar (a "tasteful" pinup, though dead, is born) and of her name via the Princess Beanie Buddy (a purple teddy bear with a white rose emblem), further capitalizing on the frighteningly successful Princess Beanie Baby. But even the erstwhile Princess' exceptionally entrepreneurial fund overseers might not approve of the latest -- and raciest -- attempt to make a coupla spare bucks off the car-wrecked royal's gently fading but newly colorized image: Lady Di lingerie. Reuters reports that a German entrepreneur named Andre Engelhardt has launched a line of "Lady Di" undies and perfumes, which aim to reflect "her life and her beauty." Although one might safely assume that Engelhardt never actually got a peek at Diana's dainties, his line reflects his best guess as to what the Princesstral pritties might have looked like. "Diana was a young, energetic and very beautiful woman," he told Reuters TV, "and I really doubt that she wore some old-fashioned underwear underneath her fancy dresses." Or perhaps, dear Andre, the young, energetic and beautiful lady wore no underwear at all? Try and market that. - - - - - - - - - - - - Is Lilith fair? "[It bothers me that people think] it's a white-chick folkfest. We invited artists who play all different kinds of music, but because of who said yes, it became this 'White Chick with an Acoustic Guitar' thing." -- White chick with an acoustic guitar Sarah McLachlan on unfair stereotypes of her oh-so-fair Lilith Fair, in the August Spin magazine - - - - - - - - - - - - No free money for you! Quick, cancel that flight to Berlin. Christoph Schlingensief will not -- I repeat, not -- be tossing 100,000 marks off Germany's Reichstag parliament building tonight as a "tribute to capitalism" after all. It seems that once the Deutsche Bank, the stunt's unwitting sponsor, got wind of Schlingensief's far-flung plans to hurl cash (the equivalent of $53,000) to the hungry public (you know who you are) in order to entertain 200 of the bank's managers, it opted out of its contract with the boundary-pushin' German film director. "The planned premiere will not take place," said a Deutsche Bank spokesman, stamping out many an evening plan. No matter. You may not be able to score the bank's pocket change, but you can still poke fun at edgy German art in the rumored big-screen version of Mike Myers' "Shprockets." (Now is the time in Nothing Personal when we dance ... ) - - - - - - - - - - - - Macbeth goes gangsta? "It's going to be very modern with lots of house and rock music. The three witches will be transsexuals and the gangster side of Macbeth will be explored." -- Australian director Toby Gough on the very different (as they say in the Midwest) version of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" he's bringing to the ever-edgy Edinburgh Festival next month. - - - - - - - - - - - - Juicy bits It seems like only yesterday nibblin' Marv Albert was exiled from his spot high atop the TV sportscaster heap. But in the flip of a bad toupee, the randy announcer has emerged from the cloud of shame surrounding his 1997 conviction for sexual assault, the airing of his sexual predilections (Biting? Wearing women's lingerie? Yesss!) and his resulting high-bandwidth banishment. Back on the air in February for TNT, he's now climbing back into his old chair at NBC, it was announced Tuesday. "I'm just so happy to be back and to be part of the NBC situation," Albert told the press. "I'm very satisfied to come home." Hmmm ... guess that pink slip didn't suit him after all. It's not enough that the ol' guy has a major U.S. airport, a whopping Washington building and lord knows what else named after him; Ronald "Now that I have Alzheimer's you all have to feel sorry for me" Reagan may soon lay claim to Warsaw's central Constitution Square. The Associated Press reports that some Polish politicians have begun a campaign to rename the square in honor of the man who is, in their estimation, "the winner of the Cold War, the man who called Russia the Empire of Evil, a great friend of Poland." On second thought, a square may be the one thing worthy of carrying Mr. Trickle-Down's name ... Hillary Clinton: strangely sexy? According to the readers of Men's Health magazine, she's the strangely sexiest woman around. (Take that, Ms. Lewinsky.) The first lady of odd eroticism is followed closely by Martha "All woman beneath my apron" Stewart, Judge Judy "I'll sustain your objection" Sheindlin, Janet "Be my independent counsel, big boy" Reno and "Home Improvement" mom Patricia "Let's make the most of your 'Tool Time'" Richardson. Am I the only one to feel a sudden, unfamiliar rush of respect for Men's Health readers? salon.com | July 2, 1999