The Question Is, What Do We Owe To The Dead?

Dodi Fayed’s family is fuming over a Vanity Fair story claiming the late lover of Princess Diana once had a $15,000-a-week cocaine habit.

The magazine quoted one of Fayed’s friends who said he saw a kilo of cocaine in his New York hotel suite - an amount then valued at more than $15,000 - which was described as his “weekly buy” during the 1980s.

Fayed’s father, Mohammed Al Fayed, says his son “was never connected to drugs” and called the article “a tawdry exploitation of a man who is not here to defend himself.”

Fayed and Diana were killed in an August automobile accident in Paris.

The elder Fayed also denied that Dodi lived beyond his $100,000 monthly allowance and was deeply in debt, insisting: “When he died, he owed no one anything.”

Loose talk

Boxing fan Barry Gibb, on the Bee Gees playing their only U.S. show in Las Vegas tonight: “We love a good fight. In the third round, I’m going to bite Robin’s ear off.”

Coke? He’s more of a Royal Crown cola guy

Prince Charles turns 49 today.

Cross that line again? He’ll take a powder

Elton John, whose haunting “Candle in the Wind” rewrite was one of the highlights of Diana’s funeral, tells Vanity Fair he’s drug- and alcohol-free but still has cocaine nightmares. Says John: “If someone’s doing coke, I can taste it in the back of my throat, and I’m out of here.”

Why, you couldn’t keep their hides apart

Earl Spencer, whose heartfelt tribute to his late sister was another highlight of Diana’s funeral, says his speech was not intended to be critical of Britain’s royal family. “If there had been a rift among us, I would never have been seen with Prince Charles twice during his visit to South Africa,” said Spencer, who lives in Cape Town.

Just another episode of ‘Charles in Charge’

Prince Charles, meanwhile, is swapping his modest St. James’s Place flat for a five-bedroom home so his sons can stay with him when they’re in London. Prince William and Prince Harry used to spend their time in the city at their mother’s spacious Kensington Palace apartment.

All about Goldilocks and the Paparazzi Bear

A book about Princess Diana titled “The Last Fairy-Tale Princess - Modern Myths and Real Fairy Tales” has been published in Germany. Author Robert Menasse said he was inspired to write the book, aimed at adults, after his 8-year-old asked about all the fuss over Di’s death.

And all we can say is, ‘God save the queen’

The late Helen Cathcart, a hugely popular biographer of the royal family, might make a better biography herself. The reclusive Cathcart’s obituary in The Times of London revealed that “she” was actually a he - Harold Albert, the alleged assistant who was credited with contributing to several Cathcart works.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino