News from Europe: musical about Diana flops; dress for success; `shopping boyfriends'

Insight on the News, Dec 24, 2001 by Stephen Goode

News from Europe that was easy to miss but nonetheless worth noting: In Germany, Princess of Wales, Lady Diana -- A Smile Enchants the World, the first stage musical about the life and death of the famous British royal, failed miserably. Even at its opening performance the theater was only half-full. Despite its saccharine title, the musical portrayed the late princess in a bad light and included a scene of Diana struggling with bulimia, an eating disorder. Despite the play's uniformly bad reception, however, its producer told Reuters that he is confident the show one day will tour the world.

Also from Reuters, two other items: In France, Cedric Moribot, a former technician at the Sagem electronics group, has lost his appeal to be reinstated in the job from which he was fired because he refused to adhere to his employer's dress code. Sagem requires male employees to come to work in long pants, but Moribot wanted to wear Bermuda shorts and charged that the firm had "violated a fundamental freedom of an employee." The French court agreed with the employer, who said that infractions of dress codes have a "disruptive" impact on the workplace.

And in Scotland, the Braehead Shopping Centre in Glasgow solved the problem of husbands who don't like to shop by allowing women to select a "shopping boyfriend" guaranteed to be an "enthusiastic, attentive, admiring" companion. "He will browse with the girlfriend for hours on end. He'll even say her bum looks small," a Braehead official told Reuters. And what will husbands do in the meanwhile? Why, relax with video games and a selection of men's magazines in a comfortable room far removed from the rigors of shopping.

STEPHEN GOODE IS A SENIOR WRITER FOR Insight MAGAZINE.