Royal Woes

Only a few weeks after the kind words and celebrations of the Queens' jubilee, it's back to normal at Buckingham Palace: with the Royals the target of criticism and rumors.

The criticism is coming from Earl Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, who isn't happy about relations between her sons and his side of the family.

The rumors this week are targeting Prince Harry, who is 17 and was reported by the News of the World to have consumed the equivalent of nine shots of vodka at a Polo Club party.

That wouldn't be illegal and a palace spokesman says the report is "blown out of all proportion... He was at a private party and had a couple of drinks, that is it."

The tabloids have been following Harry closely since January, when he admitted to smoking marijuana and underage drinking at a pub.

The palace may have a more uphill battle in responding to the latest criticisms from Earl Spencer, who believes the royals should do more to keep in touch with Diana's relatives.

Spencer says Prince Charles has spoken to him just once since Diana was killed in a Paris car crash five years ago.

In an interview with Monday's Guardian newspaper, he also said Charles has never visited the grave of his ex-wife, buried on an island at the Spencer family estate.

In an electrifying oration at his sister's funeral, Spencer said: "I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative and loving way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men."

Reflecting five years later on his relations with the House of Windsor, he said: "What I can say is that they (princes William and Harry) may not be encouraged to stay in touch with their mother's side of the family."

Spencer said the only time he has spoken to Charles since the funeral came quite by accident. "I bumped into him in South Africa. He came to a reception in Cape Town and I was on Table 29 at the reception," Spencer told the newspaper.

But he believed that his late sister had passed on a valuable legacy to William.

"She has made many more things acceptable in a royal context," said Spencer. On William's future, he predicts: "I think he's got it in him to choose who he wants to marry. I don't think he'll be told."