The Prince Clocks In

Prince Edward of Great Britain arrived 10 minutes early Monday morning for his new job as a theater production assistant at composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Theater Company. The 23-year-old prince, casually dressed in a blue sweater and collarless tweed jacket, arrived with his personal bodyguard in a limousine at the Palace Theater in the heart of London’s West End. Queen Elizabeth II’s youngest son abandoned a career in the Royal Marines last year. Royals-watchers in London say it’s the first time a close male relative of the British monarch has landed employment outside the military. “The prince won’t be treated as a member of the royal family but as an employee,” Bridget Hayward, the company’s executive director, said. His pay--if any--hasn’t been disclosed. (The prince makes $30,000 a year as a scion of the House of Windsor.) But the prince will have the constant companionship of a bodyguard. Asked if he was looking forward to his first day on the job, Edward said only: “Of course I am.”