Keeping It Dignified

The gambling domain of Monte Carlo last week prepared a new game of chance, just for newsmen, who dubbed it "Rainier Roulette." Although hundreds of U.S. and European correspondents were preparing to cover the wedding of Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Grace Kelly of MGM, it looked as though only the luckiest kind of a chance would get any of the working press into the throne room and cathedral. Before leaving the U.S.,

Prince Rainier cabled an order to Monaco to bar all journalists from the civil and religious ceremonies except for three "official" photographers (two Monegasques and U.S. Free Lancer Howell Conant a friend of Grace's).

The order was a surprise to Monaco's press bureau, headed by Actor Jean Gastaud-Mercury and assisted by Charles A. Smith, on special leave as I.N.S. Euro pean general manager. Though Smith organized photographic pool coverage of the 1956 Olympics and D-day in Normandy, and sat on the committee that made press arrangements for Queen Elizabeth's coronation, the new project promised to be his toughest. Smith urgently wired the Prince to try to persuade him to let at least a few newsmen in for the ceremonies on a pool basis.

Flap in Manhattan. The press was also in a flap in Manhattan, from where Grace and her party (between 60 and 70) will sail April 4 on the American Export Lines' S.S. Constitution. Reported Herald Tribune Columnist Hy Gardner indignantly: "Miss Grace Kelly ordered the ship's officials to deny first-class privileges to the press and to keep them confined to cabin class . . . four to six to a cabin." The New York Post's Earl Wilson wrote that five reporters had canceled their bookings in a huff. Uneasily the line admitted that Grace had indeed requested that a way be found to keep newsmen at a distance. But when the howl went up, she relented. The compromise: there wil be two press conferences aboard ship Reporters will bunk four to a room in cabin class because of the crush, but will have first-class privileges.

In Hollywood the press stewed, too Wrote Gossipist Louella Parsons: "As the time draws near, I am tempted to cove her wedding but fear I won't be able to do it." Reason: Louella has not been able to wangle an invitation. Columnists Hedda Hopper and Sheilah Graham were also miffed to be off the list. The only invitation to a newsman went to Look Staffer Rupert Allan, but only because he is another of Grace's old friends. Not even Grace's M-G-M Studio Boss Dore Schary, who wears his pride on his sleeve, was slated to be a member of the wedding.

The Hollywood figures lucky enough to be among the 125 most intimate friends on Grace's own invitation list include the Alfred Hitchcocks, the Cary Grants, the David Nivens, Frank Sinatra. Ava Gardner, Bing Crosby. The palace at Monaco announced that invitations had gone to foreign royalty and heads of state, including President Eisenhower. But the crowned heads of Britain, Denmark and Sweden let it be known that they could not make it, and presidential assistants rummaged through the White House last week without finding an invitation. Prince Rainier also told newsmen that New York's Cardinal Spellman would be on hand to watch the Bishop of Monaco perform the wedding. But the cardinal's office gently denied it.

Friendly MGM. Grace and the Prince made plain that they are doing all they can to keep everything as dignified as possible. They want none of the shabby commercialism that marred Elizabeth's To this end, the lawyer for father, John B. Kelly, put an ad Women's Wear Daily warning enter merchandisers that they would risk prosecution if they tried to use the names or seals of the couple as bait on such products as dolls or handkerchiefs. But this did not prevent one of the leading U.S. falsie, girdle and brassiere manufacturers from signing up for commercials to go with ABC radio reports of the wedding direct from Monaco. Sales Vice President Herbert Mayer gleefully wired his dealers: "Be sure you have adequate stock on hand of Peter Pan bras and girdles! This is the most romantic event since Romeo and Juliet!"

To help with the dignity. M-G-M insisted that it was avoiding any publicity activity about Miss Kelly's private life. But as a friendly gesture, the studio will premiere The Swan, a new Grace Kelly movie in which she marries a prince, on April 9 in Philadelphia. That will be just about the time Grace sails into Cannes Harbor to embark for Monaco with her real-life Prince on his yacht Deo Jucarte II, which Rainier steadfastly translates as "God Help Us."

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