FOR a man who likes to be described as Princess Diana's "rock" Paul Burrell has become a surprisingly annoying little speck of grit to the Royal Family.

The can of worms his national newspaper disclosures have opened reflects badly on virtually all the royals and certainly on their households.

But then, royal households have always been hotbeds of gossip and intrigue. Like a girls' boarding school, there is little else to really occupy the mind and body.

Unfortunately, no-one has come out of this well, especially the former butler whose shenanigans in America now make him look even more money-grabbing.

I'm very sorry for his wife and family in all this, -- and for the young Princes -- but I can't bring myself to feel much for anyone else involved.

They royals themselves come over currently as a remote, unfeeling lot, desperately covering their own backs. And the peripheral players like Michael Barrymore merely seem opportunistic self-publicists.