Crown’s Glitter Makes Sales Pitches Easier : Television: Prince Edward and Duchess of York court broadcast executives for their own productions.

There is little doubt that the British Royal Family sells--just ask the editor of any magazine what happens when they put a royal on the cover. But this week, at the world’s biggest international TV market, two royals have taken the exploitation of their names into their own hands in very different ways.

After a brief career in the theater with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Company, Prince Edward has set up Ardent Productions, using the unassuming title of Edward Windsor on his business cards. He arrived at the Marche International des Programmes de Television, or MIP convention, here over the weekend with hundreds of other hopeful producers to pitch his programs to broadcasters.

Unfortunately Edward’s trip coincided with that of another royal, Sarah Ferguson the Duchess of York, who was launching the animated version of her book “Budgie, the Little Helicopter.” The prince’s bodyguard, pointed out, however, that the two would not cross paths, because his entourage left Sunday as the duchess arrived.

The presence of both royals brought quite a different tone to this bland business market. With a swarm of British tabloid press and photographers following the prince around Cannes, a rumor that the Queen Mother had died spread from the Carlton Hotel to the Palais des Festivals in an hour Saturday before it was denied.

Prince Edward valiantly tried to mingle with the business crowd throughout the market. Flanked by two English bodyguards and two French secret service agents, he could be found at the bar of the Martinez Hotel along with all the others producers trying to tap into the $4-billion international TV market. At a party Saturday after his first day at MIP, he was looking a little worn but said he had enjoyed his first day in international television.

“It was very good,” he offered, rubbing his hands together and glancing nervously at a reporter’s press badge, “very busy but very interesting.” He was reluctant, however, to discuss his program ideas: “If I do it for you I have to do it for everyone, and that wouldn’t be fair,” he said.

“The thing is, they (the tabloids) just don’t understand that this is a hard-working business weekend,” said Eban Foggitt, Edward’s partner in Ardent. “They can’t believe we traveled down here economy (class), and they can’t believe we are staying in a regular hotel by Cannes standards. It’s the ordinariness of it they can’t comprehend.”

He was right. Saturday’s tabloids, which have been trailing Edward hoping for some news about his relationship with Sophie Rhys Jones, carried headlines of “Eddie steady with the readies as he saves for weddies” (The Daily Mirror), reporting that he sat near the toilets in the economy section of a British Airways flight and stayed at the Hotel Cristal for a mere $150 a night.

While Ardent’s requests for meetings were better received than any other first-time British producer with no credits, Foggitt insists Ardent does not use the royal connection unduly. “We choose to be judged on the quality of our product,” he said.

But arriving at meetings with a cortege of bodyguards and a trail of tabloid photographers does create an impression, and, as one industry executive pointed out, Edward’s access to a ready fund of development money through his own personal wealth or that of his family had the television industry “swarming like bees around a honey pot.”

An industry consultant added: “The difference is that he has money, unlike every other independent producer, and there is a real danger he may be taken for a ride.”

Ardent did tie up one deal at MIP, entering into a development agreement with the colonial alliance of Australia’s Nine Network, Television New Zealand and Canada’s Baton Nine. Baton Nine Chairman Bruce Gyngell was blunt about Edward’s heritage being a factor.

“Of course it makes a difference that he is a prince,” he said. “If Kevin Costner offers me a series about Indian Americans and another guy offers me the same show, who am I going to take if from? A prince is a product advantage, and if I have him presenting a program instead of someone else, of course I have an advantage.”

On Sunday, Ferguson also found her royal title a “unique selling point” at the dinner for “Budgie,” a show about a mischievous helicopter that was inspired by her flying lessons. She dined at the ritzy La Ferme de Mougins with 200 guests culled from the 9,000 MIP attendees.

The official walk-around by Fergie, as the British papers affectionately call her, deteriorated into a tacky scramble as a table of Japanese buyers requested photographs of themselves with the duchess. For the next hour, 200 people were individually greeted and photographed with Ferguson.

Did she think being here helped market the show? “I’m not here to sell,” she said. “I am here to talk to people. It really is a dream come true to see my character come to life.”