http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000102/re/britain_william_2.html

Sunday January 2 8:38 PM ET

UK's Prince William Jokes About New Year Hangover

By Ralph Gowling

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William ditched his shy image on Sunday to go on a rare walkabout, thrilling teenage girls
in Cardiff and joking with New Year holiday crowds about a hangover.

Tall and blond William, 17, shook hands with young and old -- from toddlers to grandmothers -- and wished them a ``Happy New Year.''

``I'm still hungover from the millennium -- I think everybody is,'' he told a woman who asked how he was feeling.

Bending down to greet a small child, he called out: ``Are you alright down there?''

``He's so handsome,'' said a one teenage girl. Her three friends chorused their agreement to the TV cameras.

William, who missed the royal family's traditional Christmas Day turnout for church because of an unexplained illness, was in Cardiff with his father, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, and younger brother Prince Harry for a service at Millennium Stadium
attended by more than 60,000 people.

Queen Elizabeth and other members of the royal family attended millennium services in other cities across Britain.

The queen was in the congregation in London's St Paul's Cathedral where the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey -- spiritual head of the world's 70 million Anglicans -- criticized the high status given to wealth, power and fame and urged people to adopt more Christian values.