Will Royal Family Tree Sprout a Presidential Bush?

--It is too soon to know if George Bush will be elected President, but London’s venerable genealogy specialists at Burke’s Peerage think he might have an edge. “In the past, the candidate with the most royal blood has usually won,” said Harold Brooks-Baker, Burke’s publishing director. The Bush family roots come directly from Henry III. Research found that Princess Diana is a 13th cousin of Bush, four times removed, and that Queen Elizabeth II is a 13th cousin, twice removed. “Without any shadow of doubt, Vice President George Bush is connected to more imperial, royal and noble houses than any President of the United States” including George Washington, who holds the title of most royal President, Brooks-Baker said.

--The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s daughter, in a talk to students at Roshd High School in Tehran, gave an insight into the home life of Iran’s revolutionary patriarch. Zahra Mostafavi, 49, said her father used to take his family on summer vacations in the mountains before he became a revolutionary leader banished into exile by the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Mostafavi was quoted as saying her father observes a strict schedule at his home in the north Tehran suburb of Jamaran. She said Khomeini reads the Koran, Islam’s holy book, seven times a day, takes a radio with him to the bathroom to keep up with the news, and is an obsessive clock-watcher. “His self-discipline is unbelievable. You wouldn’t believe it unless you saw it for yourself,” she told the students.

--Attorney Melvin Belli, the famed “King of Torts,” has denied allegations made by his wife, Lia, that he beat her and falsely accused her of having affairs with celebrities. Belli described the charges as “utterly absurd and ridiculous.” Lia Belli, 39, told reporters last week she wanted to end the marriage, and Belli, 80, said his wife has a reputation for making things up. He accused Viscount Alexander Montagu, a 24-year-old friend of his wife, of beating her, stealing money from the Belli mansion and threatening him. Montagu, speaking at a Beverly Hills press conference, denied those charges and said he would sue Belli for “false accusations, slander or whatever.” Belli said he prefers to keep his private life out of the press, as he recommends in a forthcoming book on divorce and marriage.