Was Princess Diana really part of a late-night singalong at a Hollywood comedy club?
The Comedy Store is a famed hangout on Hollywood‘s Sunset Boulevard with an alumni list that stretches just as far as the boulevard itself – Dave Chappelle, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, David Letterman, Bill Hicks, Robin Williams are all among the comedy club’s famed alumni. Despite all the famous names that have passed through its doors, you still wouldn’t expect royalty to show up. But according to legend, that’s precisely what happened during one memorable evening at the club in the 1980s.
It came about during an impromptu late-night show by country singer Willie Nelson. He had walked in on Richard Pryor and Robin Williams performing in front of Burt Reynolds and Sally Fields – “balancing on chairs, goofing around, just trying to be the funniest person in the room” – as fellow Store alumni Ryan Mirvis puts it. And Nelson loved it. As a thank you to the pair for keeping him entertained all night, he decided to repay the favour.
“He says: ‘Guys, hold on’,” explains Mirvis. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. Nobody leave. And Willie Nelson goes out to his car out front, opens his trunk, gets ‘Trigger’ (his guitar), and comes back in. And nobody’s even on the stage anymore at this point. And he says: ‘You guys have entertained us all night, so now let me entertain you.'” Nelson started to go through his repertoire, with his celebrity guests drinking, singing along and generally having a great time.
But there was one more celebrity in the room that night; according to Mirvis, someone was “crushing it, kicking back cocktails with Richard Pryor”. As per the story, the lady was none other than Princess Diana. Hollywood director Mike Binder, who was also present that night, says Lady Di was there until 4am. “All of the celebrities wanted to see Richard Pryor,” he said. “He would show up with huge celebrities. That’s what happened that night. She was a princess, but we had the king of comedy in the house. It might sound crazy, but honestly, it wasn’t a big deal. We let her be.”
Despite Binder’s proclamations, further research has cast doubt on whether the lady in the famous photo is actually Princess Di. After Binder’s claims were broadcast in a 2021 documentary about The Comedy Store, Jennifer Lee Pryor, the widow of Richard Pryor, told the Daily Mail that she is actually the one in the photo. “This is a con,” she said. “I told him to tell Showtime the truth. I have the contact sheet of other photographs taken that night, which clearly shows that the woman he says is Diana is me.” The article in the Mail also uncovers a photo from earlier that evening, in which Pryor seems to be wearing a very similar blouse to the one ‘Diana’ purported to be wearing in the photo.
Yet Binder is sticking to his word. “Diana was there. It’s not just me saying it. Others remember it. Jennifer is sending me all these horrible messages. She remembers it one way. I – and lots of other comics – remember it another way.”
However, since the broadcast of the documentary, his publicist has gone on record to quell Binder’s initial claims. “That might well be Jennifer Pryor and not Diana in the photograph. But Mr Binder is very clear that the show was already done by the time he found out it might not be Diana. There was absolutely no intent to mislead anybody or be malicious in any way.”
Still, the very idea that Princess Diana could have been part of a drunken late-night singalong at a Hollywood comedy club is such a beautiful one that we would like to keep it out there as a possibility.
