Retirement Could Be Queen’s Crowning Achievement

--No offense meant to her royal highness, but a majority of Britons thinks it would be a jolly good idea if Queen Elizabeth II stepped down and her son Prince Charles took over the throne. A Gallup poll published in the Daily Telegraph showed that 59% favor the queen’s retiring to allow the Prince of Wales, who is 40, to become king before he gets much older. Prince Charles, who has become an eloquent supporter of traditional British architecture and deprived young people, was also named in the poll as Britain’s most popular royal. Although generally cheery about the state of the monarchy (82% favor it), 40% of the Britons surveyed said the $9.4 million in state funds spent annually on the royal family is a bit steep. Despite his popularity, the prince could be a bit long in the tooth before becoming king. His great-great-grandfather, King Edward VII, had to wait until he was 59 years old before he succeeded to the throne on the death of his mother, Queen Victoria, at age 81 in 1901.

--Paulina Porizkova, the super model who wowed ‘em in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and went on to cinematic exposure in the critically acclaimed film “Anna,” reportedly will marry Ric Ocasek, former front man for the rock group the Cars, when his divorce becomes final. Ocasek split last year with his wife, Suzanne, after 17 years of marriage and has been living with Porizkova in New York’s Greenwich Village, the Boston Herald reported. The newspaper says Suzanne Otcasek (she uses the original spelling of the singer’s surname) will get about $4 million in real estate, three cars worth about $70,000 and $3,000 a month in child support for their sons, Eron, 15, and Derek, 7. She also gets the furniture, but Ocasek gets to keep four Andy Warhol canvases.

--The nurses and staff at a Nashville, Tenn., hospital fully intend to spoil rotten the 3-day-old baby found in one of the hospital’s restrooms on Christmas Eve. “It was love at first sight,” said Margie Corlew, a nurse at Southern Hills Hospital. “We named her immediately. My first choice for a name was Angel but, since she did come to us on Christmas Eve, we decided on Holly Noel. She’s just a delightful baby.” Holly Noel was dehydrated and weighed only 3 pounds, 10 ounces when she was found, “but she was alert,” Corlew said. The baby, who has been showered with presents, has gained 2 ounces since then and is in good condition. Police are searching for the mother, who they believe was filmed by a hospital surveillance camera. “By the time Holly Noel leaves us, we’ll have her sufficiently spoiled like a newborn should be,” Corlew said.