Prince of Wax

These are exciting times at Madame Tussauds in London: first a new figure of Justin Timberlake (known as SexyWax), and then another of HRH Prince Charles. Think of this one as EcoWax.

Strictly speaking, the statue isn't a replacement, but a $298,000 refurbishing of the 1989-vintage model of the prince, supplemented with 82 pounds of organic beeswax and 55 pounds of clay and fiberglass. HRH's delicate skin tones were rendered in organic pigments. To save electricity, the sculptors worked only by daylight and without power tools. And to offset the tiny amount of carbon generated by the project, Madame Tussauds planted three trees in Cornwall.

You may chuckle. But the real prince's credentials are actually pretty solid. His green career began more than 20 years ago, when he started the Duchy Originals line of organic food, from produce grown on his Gloucestershire estates. (Check out Duchy Original ginger biscuits at your local market.) He's now bought a Prius and abandoned private aircraft in favor of commercial flights and trains. And in January Al Gore presented him with the Harvard Medical School's annual Global Environmental Citizen Award -- arguably an even greater honor than standing next to Justin Timberlake.