Prince Philip was left red-faced after asking actress Cate Blanchett if she could fix his DVD player.


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The blunder-prone prince didn’t recognise the Oscar-winning actress when they were introduced at Buckingham Palace and assumed she was a technician when she told him she worked in the film industry.

A courtier said: “When Cate told him she worked in films, Prince Philip then began discussing his DVD, which he said was broken. ‘There’s a cord sticking out of the back of the machine,’ he said. ‘Might you tell me where it goes?’

“Cate politely responded that she was an actress, not a technician. Prince Philip seemed nonplussed.”

Philip’s misunderstanding is even more embarrassing given that Cate has twice portrayed Britain’s famous 16th century monarch Queen Elizabeth I on screen.

The star – who first played the queen in 1998’s Elizabeth – is even up for an Oscar at next month’s Academy Awards for her title performance in Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

Last night (30.01.08), a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said: “We do not
comment on private conversations. The Duke of Edinburgh meets so many people on engagements. These are often film stars.”

Philip, 86, is well known for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. During a royal visit to China in 1986 he told British students, “If you stay here much longer you’ll all be slitty-eyed.”