Will His Royal Hotness Make a Splash in Budapest?

The big news last week in Hungary was people, more specifically the modest shuffle announced on Friday to the cabinet of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány. Being an informed kind of person, you probably already know all about that, and may even be informed enough to know that it doesn't matter a squirt who is mismanaging which ministry. But don't let this lead you to think that there is no people news going on in Hungary that is interesting, or at least more interesting than that.

We know some people who mght feel the same way

For example, did you know that Prince William - as in the heartthrob heir to the British throne - might spend some quality time in Budapest in the coming week with his shirt off? According to Blikk, William has been invited by Hungarian Water Polo Federation Captain Dénes Kemény to join the team when they are training for the Water Polo World Cup, which starts on June 13th. Apparently Wills is a fan of the Olympic champion Hungarian team, and played water polo while at college, "He likes the idea, but he needs permission from the army to visit us. If he gets it, we'll have to see how long he can be away from his home," Kemény told the tab. One player said that in addition to being an honor for Hungary and a nice experience for the prince, a royal splash on Margit Sziget for Prince William would help raise the profile of the entire sport, which is unfairly considered sort of faggy by some people, even though it is actually grueling and savagely violent. (And, of course, that many fags are also grueling and savagely violent.) In fact, it is so grueling and savagely violent that this player went out of his way to say that William wouldn't actually get the full Hungo vízilabda experience - even though the future king is currently in training to be killed in Iraq.

Cheer up - you could be on a video, smoking pole

Now on to the Hungarians of note. Last week's big domestic people story was the meltdown of Éva Párkányi, better known as BB Évi, the winner of the first "Big Brother" reality show. Sometime early in the week BBE was placed in the psychiatric unit of a Kaposvár hospital after going on a rampage in a local kocsma. She has been released and is now back at home, but her mother won't let her near her three-month-old son, János Noel. Only two weeks ago Évi had claimed to be on top of the world, being the proud mother of a healthy baby, and having found the "man of her dreams." (And not having to follow through on her earlier plan to go into the "reality" porn racket.) Apparently the guy had second thoughts, leading Évi to take to the bottle, and then realizing that in addition to being single, she is also a crappy mother. Informed of Évi's plight, her ex (and fellow BB contestant) BB Renátó said the problem was that she had moved back from Budapest to Kaposvár. As for me, I'd recommend that any starry-eyed kids from Kaposvár or anywhere else in the countryside who are thinking of moving to Budapest and getting on reality TV should just stay put at their local kocsma, and otherwise stick to normal reality.

Meanwhile, the simple life seems to have won over Réka Farkasházi of "Barátok Közt," the soap opera watched by all Hungarians with access to a television. Réka was recently the subject of a uniquely icky marital crisis after she started shagging Kristóf Németh, who plays her brother on the series. She's gotten back together with her husband and even put out a children's record. In other words, stay tuned.

Marital bliss also seems to have returned to the home of Győzike Gáspár, the Roma singer/reality TV star who was recently the subject of a uniquely icky marital crisis after he strong-armed his long-suffering wife Bea into appearing in the Hungarian issue of Playboy. The two are planning to adopt an 11-month-old baby boy, Balázska. Whether this is good news for young Balázska is hard to say, though according to the local press he'll be going on the Gáspár family vacation in Turkey. Good luck, kid.

I'll have my people talk to your people

Finally, marital bliss does not seem to have returned to the home of former gymnast/TV host Zsuzsa Csisztu. Csisztu, who was the subject of a uniquely icky Paris Hilton-like unauthorized sex video a while back, is feuding with her former husband, businessman István Básty, over the sale of their former holiday home. Csisztu says she is the injured party, and only learned about the transaction from the tabloids. For his part, Básty insists he only started selling the property with his ex-wife's consent, and hopes the dispute can be settled amicably. As do I. From what I've seen, nothing good ever comes out of these post-divorce lawsuits. On the other hand, I really hope they don't resolve the conflict too amicably, as they might get back together and reproduce.