Prince Buries Rumors on Occult

--Princess Diana denied she is a domineering wife, and Prince Charles said he does not try to contact dead relatives with a Ouija board. The royal couple were answering critics in their first television interview since their marriage in 1981. Diana, 24, told Independent Television News in a London broadcast that she is “scrawny” but not a diet enthusiast, not fashion-crazy and not strictly a fan of pop music. She said she sometimes buys lots of clothes because she “couldn’t go around in a leopard skin.” The royal couple gave the 45-minute interview to ITN in advance of a trip to Australia starting Oct. 25 and to the United States on Nov. 9-12, where they will attend a White House banquet hosted by President Reagan. The decision to speak out appeared aimed at mending the royal image before the trips abroad. The princess said she was horrified at the vast attention paid to her by the media when there are more important things going on in the world. Charles, 36, in a suave, relaxed manner said he isn’t interested “in the occult or dabbling in black magic” but that he thought that parapsychology, and perhaps alternative medicine, should be investigated with an open mind. He added: “Well, yes, I think I’m becoming more eccentric as I get older, probably.”

--French author Francoise Sagan regained consciousness two days after collapsing in her hotel room and returned to France for treatment for what was apparently a respiratory attack brought on by the high altitude in Bogota, Colombia. Sagan, 50, had been a member of a cultural delegation accompanying French President Francois Mitterrand on a visit to Colombia.

--A half-century of tradition was cleared away with the dishes this weekend in Middlefield, Mass., at the First Congregational Church in the tiny town of 365 people. It was the annual Coon Supper, where 160 people dined on squash pie, biscuits and raccoon meat served baked with bread stuffing. Members of the Ladies Aid Society, some of whom have been dishing up the unusual victuals for at least 50 years, say they have cooked their last raccoon. “The problem is the girls in the kitchen aren’t getting any younger, and the tendency of the younger women does not lie in the direction of coon suppers,” said Helen Cook, 78. “When I told them that I wasn’t going to do the tickets any more, and Priscilla Suriner wasn’t going to cook the coons, they said well, that’s that.” And that means no more hoedown, no more square dancing and no more public courting.