Brit gossip: Princess Di portrait flap!

Princess Diana fans, take note: There's a theory afloat in England (at least at the Inquirer) that someone — a certain royal someone with jug ears, we think — is trying to rub out the memory of the princess by removing her portraits from public view. At issue is a 1981 portrait of Diana by Bryan Organ that was on display in the royal section of the National Portrait Gallery in London. A couple of weeks before Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, the portait of Di disappeared, and officials at the NPG say it's probably not coming back.

What does this have to do with Houston? Seems a sketch of Diana by Organ that's nearly identical to the vanished portrait is now on display at the Museum of Natural Science here.

It was drawn by Organ as a precursor to the missing acrylic and subsequently given to her brother Earl Spencer who, at her Westminster Abbey funeral service, made clear his displeasure at how the Royal Family had treated his sister.

The hand-written text of his acerbic tribute is also, interestingly enough, part of the museum's display that ends February 5.

Charles Spencer, Diana's brother, loaned the sketch to the museum in early December for the remainder of the run of Diana: a Celebration. So if you're interested, this may turn out to be your only chance to see something resembling Organ's portrait.

Yeah, we know, a story about a sketch of Princess Diana will probably appeal to a pretty limited audience — but British gossip is just so much fun somehow.