Friday, October 24, 2003

By Marylynne Pitz, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

If you meet Prince Andrew this weekend, do not put out your paw.

For more than two centuries, Americans have lacked two important things: formality and monarchy.

	Related article For some, Prince Andrew's visit for conference is serious business

For that reason, you needn't bow or curtsy if you encounter the prince, though a slight bow of the head will do for a gentleman and the smallest imaginable curtsy wouldn't be all that awful for a lady.

"I think he'd be quite surprised if someone bowed or curtsied," said Marjorie Smuts, a special events coordinator from Oakland who helped publicize the visit of Prince Charles, Prince Andrew's older brother, to Pittsburgh in 1988 for a conference about post-industrial cities.

Prince Andrew, the United Kingdom's special representative for international investment and trade, will be in southwestern Pennsylvania this weekend to speak to the British-American Business Council's Transatlantic Business Conference, among other groups.

Smuts, who has delightful memories of the Prince of Wales, said bowing and curtsying are "even relatively unusual now in England. You see it now and then, but it doesn't happen all the time."

And if Prince Andrew does pop by the house or the store, remember that in America he's just an ordinary guy -- all right, an ordinary chap -- even if, in Great Britain, he is the Duke of York. If you're keeping score at home, he also is Baron Killyleagh, Earl of Inverness.

He's also a good golfer, with a handicap of two or seven, depending on which Web site you believe.

Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward of the House of Windsor may have a noble name and bearing, but in the United States, he has no noble status.

The royals, Smuts said, would like to be known as real people, not cardboard cutouts who wave from a palace balcony.

"It's a matter of trying to carve out their niche because the royal line will only go to one of them. They need to find a reason for being. ... That's what [the Princess of Wales] Diana did, when she went into charitable work. I think that's what she was trying to do, establish a reason for being," Smuts observed.

Life at Buckingham Palace may be loverly, but it has its down side, too.

"Imagine growing up in that situation, where you are literally waiting for someone to die. It's rather awkward. What do you do for the 50 or 60 years in between time? It's a big gap," Smuts said.

But back to the more pressing matter of that possible encounter with Prince Andrew.

You should first address him as "your royal highness" and later simply as "sir."

"Don't go up and say, 'Hi, Duke,' " advised Michael Corner, managing director of a public relations firm in Sheffield, England. "It's really a case of remembering the good manners your mother taught."

But most of all, "relax and enjoy it and be yourself. If you do, then you'll really remember it. He will extend his hand to you if he wishes to shake hands," said Ray Raymond, political officer for the British Consulate General and the first speaker yesterday at a seminar on the "dos and don'ts" of meeting royalty.

Prince Andrew is "one of the least formal members of the royal family," Corner said.

But that's no reason to disregard protocol, which is, Emily Post tells us, deference to rank.

"He loves to meet people, listen to them and engage with them," Raymond said.

Prince Andrew dislikes posing for photographs, so do not whip out your camera and pop off a few pictures for the scrapbook because it's not polite and it's not appropriate.

"I know people will want to but please resist the temptation," Raymond said. "We are trusting people to behave."

If not, the prince may disappear rather quickly.

"His Royal Highness is very fit and he walks very fast," Raymond said.

As for you news media types, remember that royals prefer substance to fluff.

Prince Charles "was very understanding of the challenges of dealing with the media, most of whom were interested in what he had for breakfast and why Diana wasn't coming -- trivial issues," Smuts said.

When Prince Charles met the woman who handled media requests in Pittsburgh, he inquired, "Oh, my dear. How is your health?"

"He was quite charming," Smuts recalled.

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