Freddie Mercury Princess Diana
And yet, according to a new book, there was one amazing night in the late '80s, when the former Diana Spencer was able to disguise herself as just another one of the girls — make that guys. Queen rocker Freddie Mercury, along with British comedian Kenny Everett and comedienne Cleo Rocos, once dressed Diana in an army jacket, a hat, and sunglasses, for an outing to a gay bar, Royal Vauxhall Tavern, in south London without anyone ever knowing it was her.
"When we walked in... we felt she was obviously Princess Diana and would be discovered at any minute," Rocos writes in her new memoir, The Power of Positive Drinking, which has already been widely excerpted online and will be released later this month in the U.K.
But Diana wasn't recognized. While people noticed Mercury and the others in the group, they didn't see that the "male model" with them was the most famous woman in the world. Diana even successfully ordered white wine and a beer without her true identity being detected.
"It was fabulously outrageous and so bizarrely exciting," Rocos writes. "Our hearts pounded with every new leather-clad hairy body that approached, but no one, absolutely no one, recognized Diana."
It probably helped, Rocos explains, that "she did look like a beautiful young man."
She adds that the princess — who separated from Prince Charles in 1992 — loved the experience, and that Diana and Mercury were "giggling" and acting like "naughty schoolchildren."
Sadly, we'll have to take Rocos's word for it, since she's the only one of the group who's still living. Mercury died of AIDS at age 45 in 1991, and the same fate befell Everett at age 50 in 1995.
