COSTNER'S WELL-KEPT SECRET

When you’re Kevin Costner you can do anything you like and get away with it. After all, Costner is the only star in Hollywood who has been in four movies over three hours long, and has survived both the flak and the cynicism that grew up around films like Dances With Wolves, Wyatt Earp and The Postman.

And he had another controversial project up his sleeve. He was going to make a movie with Princess Diana. Not so long ago, Diana and Kevin had a long talk over the telephone about the possibility of her starring in a sequel to The Bodyguard. The conversation revolved mainly around the dignity and sophistication that her character would have, and how it would be similar to the one played by Whitney Houston in the original. Diana told him that very soon she was probably going to be a free woman, and told him to go ahead and work on the script. There was no time limit put on the project. It was always understood that Kevin Costner would go ahead and work on his other projects without necessarily setting time aside for this one. But the script would be kept in readiness for whenever Diana was ready to do it.

The story of the sequel was, of course, a love story. Set in Hong Kong. Diana was going to play the part she had perfected over the years, that of a sexy and intelligent princess. The second draft of the script came back to Costner a few months ago. Three days later Princess Diana passed away.

Out of delicacy Costner did not reveal his well-kept secret at the time. Too many people were cashing in on her death, he said, and he didn’t want that kind of publicity to come anywhere near him in those initial days of mass hysteria over the princess’ death.

The script has been put away now, maybe forever. But if it had ever come to life as originally intended, it would have meant big box-office. And the world would have witnessed the strange and moving spectacle of a princess trying to re-invent herself in the realm of dream-makers and wishmasters.