Contemporary Media Coverage and Popular Culture
In the years after Bernhard died his life story still fascinates many and is the inspiration for literature, theatre, television and even comic books. In 2010 fact and fiction of the life of Bernhard is portrayed in a Dutch television series. In the series it is insinuated that writer Ian Fleming, who personally knew Bernhard from their war efforts in London, based some features of his fictional character James Bond on Bernhard, who was for instance known to enjoy a vodka martini shaken and not stirred. Next to his reputation as a womanizer Prince Bernhard was also well known for his love for fast planes, fast cars and speeding. Among the villain's henchmen in the novel and film "Thunderball" one of them is named Count Lippe. He only knew of one person who was having a great time during World War II, and that it was Prince Bernhard.
In a biographical dissertation by Dutch journalist and historian Annejet van der Zijl published in March 2010, Bernhard was called "a failure" in the history of the Dutch royal family and a "creature of his own myths". With his lifestyle and the "myths" that he created around his own person would have done "permanent damage to the integrity of the monarchy".
Read more about this topic: Prince Bernhard Of Lippe-Biesterfeld
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, contemporary, media, popular and/or culture:
“The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.”
—Carl Bernstein (b. 1944)
“Men are so charmed with valor that they have pleased themselves with being called lions, leopards, eagles and dragons, from the animals contemporary with us in the geologic formations.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The media network has its idols, but its principal idol is its own style which generates an aura of winning and leaves the rest in darkness. It recognises neither pity nor pitilessness.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“You are, I am sure, aware that genuine popular support in the United States is required to carry out any Government policy, foreign or domestic. The American people make up their own minds and no governmental action can change it.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting the progress of the arts and the sciences and a flourishing culture in our land.”
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976)