LONDON (AP) — A scene from "My Fair Lady" is playing out in a posh London hotel ahead of this month's royal wedding — a princess boot camp.
Pint-size wannabe princesses were gathering Apr. 2 to learn how to walk straight, what to do with their forks and how to act if they meet the queen. Never mind that it’s doubtful any of them will come within spitting distance of the royals attending the April 29 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
But if they did, they wouldn’t spit.
The crash course in decorum involves walking with books on one’s head and learning the graceful art of being polite — not unlike when Audrey Hepburn learns how to shed her working-class Cockney accent and manners in the 1964 film classic.
Jerramy Fine, the American founder of Princess Prep, says she wanted to offer the free one-day tutorial as a preview to the wedding. The course will be followed by three weeklong summer camps in London for 8- to 11-year-old girls. The camps, which cost more than $4,000, teach girls about modern and historic princesses, royal history, phone etiquette, how to take compliments and how to curtsy.
The girls also volunteer at charities — all while being waited on by a butler called ‘Jeeves.’
"I wanted to create a different sort of summer camp — unlike the ones that I grew up with in America, where you slept in wooden cabins and had to play sports," said Fine, a 33-year-old who now lives in London with her non-titled, non-blueblood British husband. "My hippie parents are horrified, as they thought I would grow out of it."
Europe has long been known as the place to go to meet royalty and aristocrats. Some American girls and young women spend small fortunes each year to do "the season," which begins in the spring and features key events such as Wimbledon, the Henley Regatta and the Royal Ascot — tennis, rowing and horse racing events that have drawn Britain’s aristocracy since the 17th and 18th centuries.
Debutantes also vie for coveted invites each year to the Crillon ball in Paris, a matchmaking-cum-fashion extravaganza.
Fine’s royal obsession began in Colorado with a school girl crush on Peter Phillips — Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest grandchild. But she says her Princess Prep program is less about teaching young girls how to bag a prince when they grow up and more about how to behave like a lady.
Fine, who wrote the book "Someday my prince will come: true adventures of a wannabe princess" said: "It’s all about how to bring out your inner princess and how to maintain self control."
"These are skills they will carry on with them no matter what they do."
Still, the announcement of Prince William’s engagement has prompted a fresh wave of girls and women dreaming about winning the affections of Willliam’s younger brother, Harry, who is still single. Some have even admitted to stalking the party-loving Harry’s favorite London haunts in the hopes of seducing the redheaded prince.
"I can definitely relate," says Fine, who eventually did meet Peter Phillips after moving to Britain. "I try to explain now it’s not really about meeting royal men. It’s about the journey."
While the Princess Prep camps are in their first year, the princess business itself is a commercially charmed venture. Disney’s Princess line of products debuted in 2001, generating some $300 million in global retail sales. Today, Disney Princess is one of the fastest-growing franchises with global retail sales of $4 billion, according to Disney spokesman Andrea Tartaglia.
Part of the draw, he says, is that some of Disney’s fictional princesses have been given modern makeovers so they are more empowered.
"It’s a rite of passage," he says. "Many girls have emotional connections with the characters."
Critics, however, decry the perpetuation of princess-mania and the trend of becoming ultra-feminine. In her book "Cinderella Ate My Daughter," journalist Peggy Orenstein writes about her own daughter’s obsession with princesses and the color pink, and the marketing machine behind products based on princesses.
Fine insists that the princess mania is not affront to modern women and girls but a look at actual history.
"For Americans, we’ve only known Cinderella’s castle," Fine says. "Coming here (to Britain) is part of the princess dream."
