Royally Good Timing : Fergie Photos Send ‘Behind the Palace Doors’ Scurrying

The tabloids have been having a field day with Fergie’s frolics.

A few months back they served up the first set of photos of the Duchess of York vacationing with a rich Texan. Over the past few weeks they have splashed their covers with new, topless photos taken while the 32-year-old duchess vacationed with another Texas playboy on the French Riviera.

Fergie and her alleged new flame graced the cover of last week’s People magazine with the headline “Fergie’s Final Folly?” And this week’s National Enquirer headlines shrieked: “Fergie Tells Andy: I’m Having My Boyfriend’s Baby. Prince Rages: ‘You’re a Slut!’ ”

So you had to figure a made-for-TV movie couldn’t be far behind.

But this month?

Yes. Through a fortuitous bit of scheduling, NBC will be on the air Sept. 28 with “Fergie and Andrew: Behind the Palace Doors.” The network describes it as an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the “fairy-tale romance” and the eventual withering of the 5 1/2-year marriage of Prince Andrew and the former Sarah Ferguson.

The two-hour movie was planned and made well before the latest scandal. But the producers and NBC’s promotion department are scrambling to capitalize on it.

“To their credit, (the producers are) going back in and shooting some last-minute scenes to try to update the film a little bit and reference current events, which I think is good,” said John D. Miller, NBC vice president of advertising and promotion.

And as for his department? “I think the tabloids are promoting this film as much as we can, and our hope is just to swim along in that tide,” Miller said.

“Fergie and Andrew” began shooting in July in Great Britain and finished production on Aug. 7. The latest photo scandal hit the British newspapers in late August.

The producers, figuring that it might have seemed odd to viewers watching the movie in late September to hear no mention of the much-publicized new scandal, quickly decided to add some reference to the 22 photos, first published by London’s Daily Mirror, which showed Fergie and a man she called her financial adviser kissing, cuddling and generally cavorting poolside in St. Tropez while her two small daughters looked on.

“There will be some mention,” said executive producer David Rosemont. “We are certainly going to try to bring the picture as current as we possibly can. But this whole scandal is not what this movie is about.”

What the movie is about, Rosemont said, is “a marriage between a commoner and a royal, the idea that these two destinies came together. Her being who she is and him being where he’s from. In the end it was a marriage that just wasn’t meant to be.”

But network officials concede that this tale of star-crossed lovers will likely draw significantly more viewers given the latest gossip. Indeed, they are not leaving the connection to chance.

Next week, NBC, building on the ubiquitous headlines, will air ads for the movie with references to the topless photos scandal.

“Clearly, yes, we’ll capitalize on the latest revelations,” Miller said. “We have called the English tabloids for the photos. We’ll say something like, ‘Just as you’ve seen the pictures, you’ve read the magazines, now see the story behind the palace doors.’ Those are the type of promos that we make. . . . I think that every magazine has revealed something about what’s going on. To not reference the fact that the tabloids are talking about it both in this country and in Britain, you’d lose your stripes as a promo guy.”

Miller was quick to point out that the network would not use the more graphic of the photos.

“The photo that I’m thinking of is where she doesn’t have a top but she has her arms strategically placed,” he said.

While viewers will not be treated to any new disclosures in the movie, Rosemont said that “Behind the Palace Doors” endeavors to examine the royal couple’s romance, courtship and marriage in a broader context. (The couple married in July, 1986, and announced their separation last March.)

“We’re basically holding up a mirror to Sarah Ferguson to see what she was like as a wife,” Rosemont said. “She’s the central character because that’s who all the conflict really revolves around. . . . (The royal family) didn’t really approve of her. They had their doubts all along. That’s all part of the pressure that was put on her. We’re really getting into the roots, into the intimacies of these people and the reasons behind her downfall.”