Nearly 30 years after Princess Diana‘s untimely death, her presence is still widely felt – not just in the ways she impacted the world during her life but also the mark she left on pop culture. According to a story shared in a new book all about the late royal, she left a pretty significant mark on two very famous actors when they all ended up at the same party in the ’90s.
In an excerpt from Edward White’s new book Dianaworld: An Obsession that was published by People, the author shares a story told by Elton John that the musician said allowed him to see “the Diana effect” in full force.
As Elton’s story goes, he and husband David Furnish were at a house party that took place sometime in the mid ’90s, after Diana and then-Prince Charles had separated. Elton said Sylvester Stallone was also at the party “with the express intention of picking Diana up,” but when he finally found her in the crowd, he realized that he may have miscalculated things, because she was already deep in conversation with Richard Gere.
Sylvester wasn’t about to give up, though.
Edward wrote, “At some point in the evening, John’s husband, David Furnish, came upon Stallone and Gere ‘squaring up to each other, apparently about to settle their differences over Diana by having a fist-fight.'”
Sylvester even said that he would have skipped the party if he’d known ahead of time that “Prince f—— Charming was gonna be here.” Ha!
This wasn’t the only time Sylvester struck out with Diana. Tessa Baring, who worked with a charity Diana supported, told Edward that Sylvester had requested to sit next to her at a luncheon, but a little girl named Tracy actually beat him to it.
“We didn’t let him do that, but we did let him sit next to a child who was sitting next to the Princess of Wales,” she said.
After observing Diana’s interactions at the lunch, Tessa said she believed Diana was “placating” Sylvester.
“She thought Diana hit upon an effective way of placating the film star, making the child feel included, and indulging her own desire to find out the latest gossip, by leaning over and asking Stallone questions about his love life as though she were asking them on Tracy’s behalf: ‘Tracy and I want to know if you’re married,'” Edward wrote.
In the end, Diana didn’t end up with Sylvester Stallone or Richard Gere. But still, hearing this story does make us curious about what other stories Elton John might have up his sleeve …
