Fasten Your Seatbelts

Okay, the show's over, folks. Kitty has brought the timeline to an end with the exception of this PS:


The Duke and Duchess of York have, in birth order: Princess Alexandrina Sarah Margaret of York and Prince Albert George Christian Richard of York. That she was having twins was never announced. The birth occurs on 25 December 2008, after she goes into labor on the 24th. Bert – as he’s already called – spends 3 days in an incubator while Lexi does only 8 hours there. The twins occur because the couple used IVF to conceive, although that info remains unknown for over two decades, only revealed in a bio of Prince Andrew following his death by cardiac arrest.


Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to Princess Alice Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge on time (14 February 2008). In 2009, Parliament changes the law of succession, meaning any brother following will not take precedence over Princess Alice.



Diana and Tom decide against another child because of their status as “grandparents. After the birth of the Duke of York’s twins, there is betting that Diana will use a surrogate or IVF for another child, but that doesn’t happen. Tom and Diana have decided it would seen as competition with the Yorks – and a speculative article about Tom & Diana and their apparent need to upstage others is the final nail in that coffin. That doesn’t stop tabloids from issuing pregnancy rumors every couple of months until after Diana’s 50th birthday. “Pregnant at 54!” is an actual cover headline from one tabloid, the final one to announce a pregnancy for her….



Diana’s first two sons believe that the status of Tom and Diana’s marriage is going to be tied to that of George and Angelina: neither Tom nor Diana want to quit their marriage until the other couple does, to prove they were the ‘better fit.’ George and Angelina remain the primary custodians of Ria and Spence. Every time it looks like Diana is going to get joint custody, she does something stupid, like taking David to Angola (with Tom) or some such (usually with Tom, they are nothing if not persistent). David Miscavige tells the press that Tom will be rejoining Scientology along with his wife, but the Cruises publicly tell Barbara Walters in a TV special that they will never be part of the cult, which is stripped of its religious tax exempt status in 2012. They also tell her that their son was named after his godfather David Beckham, despite claims by Miscavige to be the namesake of the child.



The role Diana takes in the MI film is that of the arm candy wife of the bad guy who is seduced into helping Ethan Hunt. A crucial role for the script, it helped bring the worst reviews ever for an MI film. “No chemistry between the couple and she acts just like I thought she would – woodenly” were among the more popular reviews since her character’s name was Willow. It’s a much larger part than Angie advised her to take (and she reverts to her maiden name, the credits read: with Diana Spencer as Willow) and in one review, the critic mourns her failure to listen to Jolie (“I read the interview in ‘W’, Angelina actually gave her same damn good advice, too bad she ignored it.”). The only things to receive accolades were Diana’s new breasts, obviously larger than they were at the wedding of her eldest son. Her next two roles are also in films produced & star Tom Cruise and receive no better reviews (in the last, the reviewer at People goes so far as to suggest that had she taken off her top for a love scene with Tom, at least the audience would have gotten something out of it). She has no further roles (as of 4 May 2017), although she is acting as an advisor to a biographical movie on her life for Tom’s production’s company, scheduled to begin filming in August 2018 – if they can find a suitable actress to play Diana. She wants Kate Upton, but Upton declines after several interviews with the couple. An unknown pair of English cousins (primarily stage actresses, aged 17 and 35 – they look so much alike they’ve played women at different stages of life before) will end up starring in what will be a 2019 flop, produced and directed by Tom.

And now I've got to figure out how to put this in the completed file. If I do say so, myself, it's not bad for something that started with a thought that wouldn't go away and about someone of whom I've never been a fan. It was fun, though, thinking things through.

Thank yous to: David Flin for his advice and answering a lot of stupid questions; VVD0D95 for also answering stupid questions as well, my sister for being a sounding board and all of you for reading this.....
 
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Thanks for writing what turned out to be a very fun, interesting ride thanks to someone remembering to 'klunk, click, every trip'.
 
I have some thoughts on the things that Diana's survival seems to have affect in this TL that didn't get touched on too much.

One is the mention that RL's Pope Francis became Pope after the death of John Paul II, which means that the child molestation scandal that rocked the Church must have had something surface that tainted Cardinal Ratzinger moreso than RL. Now Pope Francis married Diana to Tom Cruise in the Sistine Chapel himself after they converted to Roman Catholicism, which means that every scandal those two get into that defies Catholic teaching reflects poorly upon Francis' in the eyes of the Cardinalate and the more Conservative factions in the Church that are not happy with his approach, both RL and in TL.

I predict that the stress of the job will kill Francis sometime in 2010-2013, meaning that there will be a new Pope by the time this TL's 2017 rolls around, I think if Francis's batch of Cardinals and supports can rally then Pietro Parolin will become Pope.

Or if the conservatives get their way, then most likely Angelo Scola will become Pope.

In terms of the Papal Name... recently the Popes are getting experimental with their names, either creating double-names, or using new ones, or reviving ones that haven't been used in at least a century. I could see Parolin wanting to honor the previous two popes and become 'Pope John Francis', Scola would want to emphasize tradition without going too political, so he might revive older but safe names like 'Clement' or 'Innocent'.


Now it's been revealed at the end that the Church of Scientology has lost it's tax-exempt status in America, it's a HUGE deal since Scientology now has to pay taxes on all of it's extensive properties and monetary gains and those tax forms will be public. And since they've lost their status as a 'religion' they are vulnerable to lawsuits based on their various controversial practices, and due to their aggressive tactics they've made enemies. Plus inside Scientology, Miscavige will be even more paranoid and afraid of a coup to remove him from leadership, which means he will treat his underlings even WORSE than in RL, which means even more defections (both RL defectors and some unique ones) and even faster, which means even more exposes on Scientology, and the whole thing will feed on itself.


I love that Clooney and Jolie got married in this TL, they really do seem like a good fit. Plus the Clooney/Diana relationship made a lot of sense in how it got started, and how it ended.


I noticed that Prince Harry didn't have the scandals that he did in RL, the whole 'Nazi costume' and getting caught smoking pot, and the Vegas nude pics thing. I guess not having his mother die so early in his life gave him less reason to act out.


As for Diana herself, I'm surprised that she drifted so far into the Hollywood set, yes in RL she had a lot of friends that were actors and fashion designers, but she did come from the 'old aristocracy' of Britain. She should have at least tried to get back into that social set a bit, especially if she wanted a title that could be passed onto her future children. Hell, she could have hooked up with anyone from the aristocracy of other extant Kingdoms in Europe, or even a few that technically don't exist by law, like the former HRE, Austria-Hungary, France, etc.

But for the sake of her three Post-Royal children, not having titles will be a blessing in disguise, they don't bear the burden of having to be a certain thing, and act a certain way, and always know that they are 'His/Her Highness the Earl/Count/Duke of [insert land name here]'. They can live their lives and do whatever they want without worrying about how it affects 'The Firm'. I think William and Harry will envy them that.

As for how she came across, it does fit with her personality, at her best she truly can pull off the whole 'Queen of People's Hearts' act and it not be an act at all, but at her worst she's a manipulative drama queen. It reminds me of Prince Charles's speech from 'The Queen' where he talks about Diana being two different people, the Public Diana and the Private Diana bore little relationship to each other at all, but in RL the Royals were operating under the delusion that the public would eventually figure it out. However due to her RL death, all her sins got whitewashed away. In this TL, the mask slipped off and she couldn't quite put it back on.


All in all I'll say it again @desmirelle, good work!
 
I left out Catholic molestation scandal, Harry's trip-ups, etc because this was about Diana, not them. As I stated in the PS post, I've never been a fan of Diana, but the initial post on this thread wouldn't leave me alone so I wrote it down to get it out of my head. I tried to make it believable, because I've known girls like her. They want to be loved, but they're demanding and needy - never quite get over things that did or didn't happen in childhood.
 
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