Royal Battle: Edward Surrenders

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/01/2001 at 08:19 AM EDT

Britain's embattled Prince Edward has agreed to stop making films about the royal family after his Ardent Productions TV company overstepped media guidelines by filming his own nephew, Prince William, the company's leader said on Sunday. Ardent chairman Malcolm Cockren told the Sunday Telegraph, "I can confirm that our energies will be put into the drama and film areas." Aides reportedly described Prince Charles as being "incandescent" with rage last week when it was discovered that, after all other media had left, Ardent continued to film in St. Andrews in Scotland, where Prince William had begun his university studies. Edward, the Earl of Wessex, was spending the weekend watching tapes shot by the crew and would remove any "intrusive" footage, Cockren said. "He (Edward) has requested all of the footage shot in Scotland and is reviewing it personally," he told the Sunday Times. "He will say nothing until he has completed that." Prince Charles has asked for any film of his son to be handed over, his spokeswoman told Reuters on Sunday. "If they do have any footage of William then we would hope it would be handed to us. We certainly haven't received anything as yet," she said. It would be "wrong" to speculate what might happen to the tapes once they had been handed over, she added. Ardent apologized on Thursday for the actions of its crew, which had been filming for an episode of "The A-Z of Royalty" for America's E! Entertainment network.