NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Photo of teen Diana scheduled for auction

AMHERST, N.H.

A photo marked “not to be published” that shows a teenage Diana Spencer before she became Princess of Wales, with a young friend seated beside her, will be featured in an auction this month in New Hampshire.

The photograph might never have been seen publicly until now, RR Auction said.

Stamped February 1981 on the back, the photo was taken around the time Charles, the Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer ended months of speculation and announced they were to be married.

The photo came from the Caren Archive, a major private collection of rare newspapers and other publications, and was purchased seven years ago from the Daily Mirror newspaper.

In 1981, Diana first told news of her engagement to her friends, then moved out of her apartment Feb. 23 and into Buckingham Palace. What was widely labeled the wedding of the century took place July 29, 1981, at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1996, and Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997.

The auction is scheduled for Jan. 17-24 in Amherst.

Poet-performer Cortez dies at 78

NEW YORK

Jayne Cortez, a forceful poet, activist and performance artist who blended oral and written traditions into numerous books and musical recordings, has died. She was 78.

The Organization of Women Writers of Africa says Cortez died of heart failure in New York on Dec. 28. She had helped found the group and, while dividing her time between homes in New York and Senegal, was planning a symposium of women writers in Ghana in May.

Cortez was a prominent figure in the black arts movement of the 1960s and ’70s that advocated art as a vehicle for political protest. She cited her experiences trying to register black voters in Mississippi in the early ’60s as a key influence.

Her books included “Scarifications” and “Mouth On Paper” and she recorded often with her band the Firespitters.

Pacino says he didn’t want to meet Spector

PASADENA, CALIF.

Al Pacino said Friday that he decided not to meet famed record producer and convicted killer Phil Spector before portraying him in an HBO movie — only to find he already had.

A friend showed Pacino a 20-year-old photo in which the actor was standing next to Spector. Pacino said he has no memory of the moment.

The movie, “Phil Spector,” debuts in March. It focuses on the client-attorney relationship between Spector and Linda Kenney Baden, who represented him in his first trial after he was charged with the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. That ended in a mistrial, but Spector was convicted in a second trial and is serving 19 years to life in prison.

Pacino wore a dizzying array of wigs in his portrayal of the eccentric Spector, whose “Wall of Sound” style was an integral part of pop music in the early 1960s.

The actor said he decided not to meet Spector in prison because he’d be a different man than the one Pacino is portraying, who had not yet been convicted of a crime.

He watched video clips of Spector to help him with his portrayal.

Associated Press