IT'S been hard today for other national newspapers and the media generally to disguise their glee over the Sun being hoodwinked. Yesterday, their pages blazed with the "exclusive" pictures taken from a video purporting to show Princess Diana cavorting with former lover James Hewitt.

Now, the Sun has been forced to admit that it was deceived by "one of the most elaborate hoaxes of the decade." It was simpler than that.

Two lookalikes (one Christina Hance who recently made a successful visit to Bolton) recognised themselves in a pirated copy of a film made for a TV comedy. The video was totally discredited, and Sun editor Stuart Higgins has been left with large helpings of crow.

Rather than being an "elaborate" milestone hoax, this was merely obvious bait to catch a rather large fish which is so hungry for Diana scandal that it will swallow whole any old red herring that comes along.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.