There was a high price on the head of Diana, Princess of Wales--dead or alive, as it tragically turns out. The amount being paid for any picture of the princess getting to know her first serious beau since her divorce had increased dramatically. Princess Di was used to being the most photographed woman in the world, but her linking up with Dodi al Fayed had thrown the scavengers of celebrity into a heightened state of alert. When she took her two sons to vacation with Al Fayed's family at his St. Tropez villa in July, paparazzi followed by land, sea and air; "the kiss" in the sparkling Mediterranean waters was on the front pages of tabloids on three continents.

By the time of the couple's dinner at Paris' Ritz Hotel, the rules of engagement sometimes observed between the photo hounds and the princess had gone completely by the board, as the street value of a grainy shot of Diana with Al Fayed reached six figures. The stalking had become so bad that two weeks ago Diana disclosed that the idea of leaving Britain and its paparazzi had crossed her mind. "Any sane person would have left long ago," she told the French newspaper Le Monde. "But I cannot. I have my sons."

Now her sons don't have her, and part of the blame has to be placed squarely on the lunacy of publications paying exorbitant amounts for whatever the paparazzi can get by whatever means. The photographers in hot pursuit of the couple into a tunnel under the Seine were quickly arrested, but none of the publications that buy their pictures have so far been taken into custody. If the publications don't buy, the photographers won't shoot. Steve Coz, editor of the National Enquirer, says he swore off overly aggressive photographers a year ago when he saw the scrum that formed around certain celebrities. "We told the paparazzi we didn't want stalking pictures," he says.

Although Princess Di used publicity for her causes, she often appealed to the press to give her and her family space to live. On a skiing trip with her two sons last year, she left a restaurant on the slopes to go along a row of photographers and ask them to give her sons some breathing room. All but one did, and he made a fortune for his exclusive pictures.