This was definitely not the greatest week for the British Royal family, due to a naked-photos scandal. Prince Harry was enjoying himself with friends during holiday in the United States when some embarrassing images of him surfaced from a wild night of partying in Las Vegas.

Specifically the two images obtained of Harry, sold for £10,000, were published and leaked online on tuesday night by the american celebrity news website TMZ. The two pictures were both showing the third-in-line to the throne naked in his birthday suite.

In one of the photographs, prince Harry is pictured naked benting over a second person, who also appears to be naked. It is not clear whether the person is male or female. In the other photograph the young prince is also pictured nude, covering his genitals with his hands and wearing only a necklace and a watch while another person, who also appears to be naked, stands close beside him.

TMZ reported that the two images were both taken after a game of strip billiards last weekend at a private suite in the Wynn Resort. The Prince visited Vegas to enjoy himself with some friends, after official business at a charity event in San Diego.

Prince Harry who has now returned to the motherland has some serious explaining to do to the Queen.

A video from the very same trip to Vegas has also been released, showing the Prince racing Ryan Lochte, the US Olympic swimming gold metallist in the pool of a nightclub in the hotel they were staying. Ryan Lochte, who was in Las Vegas in order to celebrate his 28th birthday, admitted that he was ‘surprised’ Prince Harry had challenged him to the race, which of course Ryan won.

Ryan also said that Harry was a great guy, and it has been a honour to have met him. Challenging one of the world’s top sportsmen wasn’t a first for the 27-year-old Prince, since he had managed to beat the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt in a joke race in March during a Caribbean tour.

Although banned to be printed in the United Kingdom, the nude images of Harry were quickly spread worldwide online. The Sun became the first newspaper in Britain to have published the naked images of Prince Harry, despite warnings from the Royal family’s lawyers. Elizabeth Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, claimed The Sun was right to publish the photographs. Elizabeth told Telegraph that “it would be very sad if we lived in a world where you can’t publish that. Even in my MacTaggart tunnel of the last couple of days, i went online and checked and checked out the pictures.”

A palace official, declining to be named in line with protocol, stated that Prince Harry has been on private holiday before, resuming his military duties. For those who don’t know: Harry is a captain in the British Army Air corps. On Wednesday, the British Royal family requested the country’s newspapers not to print the nude images of Prince Harry dancing around excitedly with friends on holiday in Las Vegas.

While now it’s nude pictures that are dominating the headlines, the young Royal is used to controversy. It is not the first time he’s coming into the spotlight. After all, he has the reputation of the ‘wild child’ in the Royal family:

Back in 2002, young Harry earned the nickname ‘Harry Pothead’, given to him by the British Press after admitting to having tried out cannabis and engaging to underage drinking. In January 2002, Prince Charles sent Harry and a friend to visit the Featherstone Lodge Rehabilitation Center in South London for a day in order to learn about the effects of drug-taking.

In 2004, Harry comes once again in the spotlight for wearing a swastika armband to a friend’s ‘Colonial and Native’ themed party. The tabloids exploded with reports that Harry was a Nazi. Clarence House quickly released an apology, saying “Prince Harry has apologized for any offence or embarrassment he has caused. He realizes it was a poor choice of costume.”

His reputation as a wild child was increased when The Sun claimed to have video of a 23-year-old Harry drinking in large gulps from a bottle of vodka, spitting it out on a cap and inhaling the shot through his nose while his friends were cheering him on. His representative made no comments on the incident, claiming it was a ‘private matter’.

Moreover, in 2009 there was additional footage of Harry in which the Prince was calling his fellow Army colleagues by racist or other derogatory names. Prime Minister David Cameron spoke out against his utterances, claiming they were unacceptable things to say. Harry of course quickly apologized for the incident saying he was sorry for any offence his words might have caused.

Image Courtesy of  waynehowes / Shutterstock.com

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Leonard Cohen’s “Old Ideas” has reached unprecedented worldwide creative and commercial heights with debuts in the #1 position on the official Album Sales Chart in 9 countries.

Additionally, “Old Ideas” has smashed records with its debut at the top of the charts (official, iTunes or Amazon) in 17 countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Finland {trending to #1}, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, UK, USA).

The highly acclaimed 10-song collection of new material from poet/singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen was also Top 5 in an additional 10 countries. This makes “Old Ideas” the highest debuting album of Leonard Cohen’s career!

Both The Washington Post (U.S.) and The Telegraph (UK) declare Old Ideas ”a work of genius,” and worldwide praise continues to mount.  In his fifth decade of producing critically-acclaimed music, Cohen remains at the top of his game, a rare event for an older artist.

In TIME Magazine, Adam Kivel observes about Cohen, “…here he is…delivering material that matches the depth and power of that first solo record, covering the same tropes of mortality, sexuality, and religion, while remaining as vibrant and striking a poet as ever… Listeners have been relying on Cohen’s heartbroken yet grinning, world-weary yet hopeful voice to get through that night for decades, and this album should continue that for a whole new batch of souls.”

“Old Ideas” has earned four and five star reviews from the media around the world including Rolling Stone (U.S.), Irish Times (Ireland), London Evening Standard (UK), VG Nett (Norway), Uncut (UK), The Globe and Mail (Canada), New Zealand Herald (New Zealand), RTE (Ireland), The Western Australian (Australia), American Songwriter (U.S.), Mirror (UK), The Gazette (Canada), The Guardian (UK), Winnipeg Free Press (Canada), DeMorgen (Belgium), The Observer (UK),  Aftenposten (Norway), Rolling Stone (Germany), The Sun (UK), Gaffa (Denmark), Daily Express (UK), Bloomberg (U.S.), Calgary Herald (Canada), The Times (UK), The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), Rolling Stone (France), The Telegraph (UK) and The Mail on Sunday (UK).

“Old Ideas” comes on the heels of Leonard Cohen’s triumphant world tour.  Ann Powers of NPR (U.S.) suggests that the album “…throbs with that life, its verses rife with zingers and painful confessions, and its music sounds more richly varied than anything Cohen has done in years.  Its depth comes in the tenderness and refined passion Cohen brings to his thorough descriptions of being human…”

Cohen’s work has received literary recognition throughout the world.  In the past year, Cohen has received the Premio Principe de Asturias, the highest literary award granted by Spain, the PEN New England award for “Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence” and in Canada, the Ninth Glenn Gould Prize.

“Old Ideas” continues Leonard Cohen’s devotion to literary excellence.   About the album, Jesse Kornbluth of The Huffington Post writes, “The lyrics are something else: considered, bone-deep, precise.  And smart in a way that looks like his best work – a reach for what is eternally true…  He insists he has no answers…but we know he does something even more important: He asks the right questions.”  Bernard Perusse of The Gazette in Montreal says simply, “Lyrically, Cohen is at the top of his game.”

“Old Ideas” brought about a reunion of several players from Cohen’s past: Jennifer Warnes with vocals/arrangement on “Show Me The Place”; Sharon Robinson with vocals/arrangement on “Amen,” “Darkness” (with The Webb Sisters),”Banjo” and “Lullaby”; and the Unified Heart Touring Band on “Darkness.”

The band performed with Cohen on his sold-out world tour. Inspired partners, Patrick Leonard, Anjani Thomas, Ed Sanders and Dino Soldo, assisted with the arranging, engineering and recording on the majority of the album. These collaborations have proven most successful.

“Lush female harmonies still carry refrains and colour his monochrome tones, but they float on the organic pulse of a live band, that plays with gentle restraint, and weaves flowing violin, trumpet and harmonica melodies in among the glistening pearls of Cohen’s epigrammatic phrases,” writes Neil McCormick of The Telegraph (UK).

Finally, Geir Rakvaag of Dagsavisen (Norway) concludes, “The songs are rich and musically sophisticated… Those who yearn for a new ‘Hallelujah’ may also come to find new evocative favorites among the ten tracks.” “Old Ideas” is Cohen’s twelfth studio album with Columbia Records since 1967.

Image Courtesy of  Route66 / Shutterstock.com

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