No one knew if Prince Harry was just popping into London for the first day of the four-day pre-trial hearing in his case against ANL/The Mail. Considering how much media attention Harry got for his surprise appearance yesterday, he absolutely made his point and the international media is widely reporting on the lawsuit and the accusations Harry and other celebrities have made against the Mail. But Harry has a clear message: this wasn’t just a stunt. He has arrived at the High Court again today. He will likely stay for the entire day’s proceedings, just like he did yesterday. Harry is telling the world: this is very important, please pay attention.

Meanwhile, Harry’s continued presence in London highlights his family’s bitterness, laziness and incompetence, not to mention their continuing collusion with the same media forces Harry is challenging. The American media is covering it too, just as they did last year around QEII’s funeral. Just as they did when Harry’s dogsh-t father evicted him from Frogmore Cottage. New York Magazine’s headline was “King Charles Pretends He’s Too ‘Busy’ to See Prince Harry.”

King Charles clearly doesn’t want to see Prince Harry right now. I think we can all relate: Who hasn’t avoided a relative because they did something obnoxious — for instance, writing a best-selling memoir spilling decades of family secrets? What isn’t very understandable is King Charles’s inability to come up with a good reason as to why he won’t be seeing his son during his surprise visit to the U.K. this week. The Telegraph reports that the king is “busy.”

So what exactly is King Charles up to? The Telegraph only says that he is “understood to be at Highgrove,” which is just a two-hour drive from London. And his schedule is probably pretty clear, since he was scheduled to be in France this week but had to postpone the trip owing to protests in Paris.

If the palace was trying to take the high ground in its responses to Prince Harry, that would make sense. If it wanted to give him a Succession-y “F–k off,” that would also be reasonable. But post-Spare, it’s never clear whether the royals are intentionally snubbing Harry or just being incompetent. When King Charles said “Who?” in response to a heckler’s question about Harry, was he genuinely confused? Or was he making a dig at his son? Did palace officials avoid calling Harry’s kids prince and princess for months to belittle him? Or because they didn’t know the Sussexes’ title preferences?

Saying the king is “busy” — with no further details — when we all know he isn’t falls into this ambiguous category. Make up a plausible excuse or give us a decent insult. What’s the point of employing a whole team of publicists if “busy” is the best they can come up with?

[From New York Magazine]

Ouch! This is my favorite line: “it’s never clear whether the royals are intentionally snubbing Harry or just being incompetent.” It’s so true! That’s something I struggle with as well, trying to determine whether the Windsors are just terribly incompetent or whether they’re intentionally vile. Speaking of, in one of the very few stories the Mail published about Harry’s appearance in London, they accuse HARRY of briefing the Telegraph and telling the paper that his father is too “busy” to see him. No – what happened is that Harry surprised everyone yesterday and the Rota rats immediately ran to Buckingham Palace and said “did you know he was coming??” and the palace had to come up with a lie. That lie was “of course he told us, and we told him that Charles was too busy to see him!” The Mail also claims that Charles and William are in no mood to “humour” Harry right now. Good news for them, Harry does not give two sh-ts about them.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.