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Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo or Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi commonly known as Mia Thermopolis is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Princess Diaries novels by Meg Cabot. The story revolves around her diary, which she writes in religiously, and her relationships with her best friend, Lilly Moscovitz, her long-time boyfriend and 'the love of her life' Michael, her grandmother and others.






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Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo or Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi commonly known as Mia Thermopolis is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Princess Diaries novels by Meg Cabot. The story revolves around her diary, which she writes in religiously, and her relationships with her best friend, Lilly Moscovitz, her long-time boyfriend and 'the love of her life' Michael, her grandmother and others. She is the Princess of fictional country Genovia, and is pushed into the title, being the sole heir. Mia lives in a loft in Greenwich Village, with her mother, Helen Thermopolis and her orange cat, Fat Louie. Helen begins dating Mia's algebra teacher, Frank Gianini during Mia's freshman year, and as the series develops Helen & Frank have a child together. During the year she attends Albert Einstein High School, and spends her holidays in Miragnac, a castle in France.

Physical Appearance

Mia is known for her sarcastic personality, and her flat-chest, 5 feet 9 altitude, and extremely large feet. Mia grabs an interest for writing during the series, and works as hard as she can on her activist goals, such as whale saving in Greenpeace. Mia makes donations to Greenpeace, with the money her father pays her to visit and learn from her grandmother.

Recently, in junior year, she's grown into something of a beauty - 5 feet 10 inches tall and with long-anticipated breasts.

Background

Mia's mother, Helen Thermopolis is an upbeat artist who is featured various times in Art in America magazine. Helen's Painting Woman Waiting for Price Check at the Grand Union won her a national award. Helen comes from a fairly simple, typical American background. Some of Mia's headstrong and modern opinions come from Helen. For instance, Helen is a feminist.

Mia thoroughly dislikes her Grandmother, Clarisse Renaldi, Dowager Princess of Genovia. Clarisse is critical, dark and cynical of other people's actions, and could be described as contradictory. She is a chain smoker, and prides herself in her background. She is a key person in Mia's royal education. She wears long turbans, shaves off her eyebrows, and uses vast amounts of makeup. Clarisse inhabits during her stays in New York, a plaza suite, that is technically pink, and fluffy alongside her poodle Rommel. She's a native French speaker, and lives in Miragnac, castle in southern France, surrounded by European socialites.

Phillipe, Mia's father, is the Genovian Prince. Phillipe shares a complicated relationship with his mother. He is Mia's secondary caregiver, he pays for the loft's rent, and Mia's school tuition. Phillipe is a survivor of testicular cancer
Testicular cancer

Testicular cancer is cancer that develops in the testicles, a part of the male reproductive system.In the United States, between 7,500 and 8,000 diagnoses of testicular cancer are made each year....
. The chemotherapy and cancer caused him to become sterile which is why he reluctantly acknowledged Mia as his heir.

Royal Duties

As a native New-Yorker, Mia works hard during her princess lessons to swap her Chinese take-out, cosmopolitan lifestyle to a more European lifestyle. Mia's life is packed with lots of her cynical Grandmother,(or as she calls her) Grandmere, and her bodyguard Lars. Mia is closely followed by the media after Carol Fernandez' article in the Post. Her grandmother's incident with a busboy in a fancy New York restaurant attracts massive media attention. The media also plays a huge part during her romantic flings.

Mia doesn't have a vast amount of duties during the series, although during one of the balls she attended during the Christmas holidays allowed her to meet Prince William. During the holidays, Mia and her grandmother and father dine with the owners of the Mirabeau castle in France. Mia dislikes the snobby British owners of the castle.

Education

Albert Einstein High School is headed by Principal Gupta. The school makes various attempts to celebrate and encourage diversity. For instance, the Cultural Diversity Dance in October, and the Non-Denominational Winter Dance. The school has a very complete core-curriculum, and prides itself in its gifted students. Mia is often sarcastic towards her placement in the Gifted & Talented class. She claims, she was put in the class to improve her lowly grade in Algebra. The teacher in charge of G & T is Mrs. Hill, who spends class time in the teacher's lounge across the hall. In the films, the mascot is the Lion.

Personal life

Mia's friends include best friend Lilly Moscovitz, Tina Hakim Baba, Shameeka Taylor, Perin and Ling Su Wong. Lilly is seen as an overly critical person, who although probably wants what's best for Mia, is always getting into arguments with her.

Love interests throughout the books have been Josh Richter, Kenny Showalter, Michael Moscovitz (Lilly's brother) and J.P.(John Paul Reynolds Abernathy IV) who was only a friend, until he proclaims his love for Mia.

Michael was Mia's main boyfriend- for two years until she (to her own opinion) makes a very large mistake in breaking up with him, "accidentally".

She then dated J.P. for almost two years before getting back together with Michael.

Mia in the Films

Mia was portrayed in the films by Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (actress)

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the 1999 television series Get Real , but her first prominent role was in Walt Disney Productions family comedy The Princess Diaries , which established her career....
. This role was Hathaway's breakthrough role.

Differences between the movies and the books


  1. In the books, the Mia lives in New York City; in the movie, she lives in San Francisco.
  2. In the book, Mia's mom meets and marries her algebra teacher, Frank Gianini, . In the movie, Mia's mom meets and marries her debate teacher, Patrick O'Connell.
  3. Perin, Tina, Shameeka, Ling Su, and J.P. are not in the film. (Perin and J.P. were also introduced in the later books.)
  4. Boris' character was replaced with Jeremiah Hart.
  5. At the beginning of the second film, Mia is 21 and has graduated from college. In the last book, Mia will be graduating from high school.
  6. The name of Mia's baby brother in the books is Rocky. In the film it is Trevor.
  7. Contrary to the 2nd movie, in the books Mia never moved to Genovia. She only spends her Christmas and summer vacations there (as well as spring break) after she finds out she's a princess.
  8. Mia's bodyguard is called Lars, not Joe, in the books. In the movie, Joe does not follow Mia around all day after it is discovered that Mia is the heir to the throne of Genovia.
  9. In the books, Mia's father (Phillipe) is not dead. In the first book it is revealed that Phillipe is unable to have any more children, thus making Mia his heir.
  10. In the books, Lana has only one friend, Trisha; in the movie, her friends are Anna and Fontana.
  11. In the books, there is no Nicholas.
  12. In the movie, Fat Louie is black and white. In the book, Fat Louie has orange fur.
  13. In the movie, her grandmother's dog is named Maurice; in the book his name is Rommel.
  14. In the books, Mia's grandmother (called Grandmére by Mia), is quite mean and bossy. But in the movie, she is a loving grandmother.
  15. In the books, Michael is three years older than Mia and in the movies, Michael is Mia's age.
  16. In the movies, Mia has brunette hair color, but in the books she has dishwasher blonde.
  17. In the first movie, Clarisse mentions her son Pierre, who gave up his rights to the throne to join the Church. In the books, Phillipe is an only child.
  18. In the movie, Genovia is a principality country, not a kingdom. So, Mia's title would be Her Serene Highness Sovereign Princess Amelia Mignonette of Genovia rather than Her Majesty the Queen Amelia.
  19. In the movie, Mia's grandmother is a queen , but as Genovia is a principality in the books, her title is dowager princess.
  20. The 2nd movie opens with Mia graduating from Princeton University
    Princeton University

    Princeton University is a private university university located in Princeton, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and has the largest per-student Financial endowment in the world....
    's Woodrow Wilson School. In the final PD novel, it is revealed that Mia has decided to attend Sarah Lawrence College
    Sarah Lawrence College

    Sarah Lawrence is a Private school, Independent school, Liberal arts colleges in the United States in the United States. It is located in southern Westchester County, New York, New York, in the city of Yonkers, New York, north of New York, New York....
    .
  21. In the movie, Principal Gupta is a vice-principal; in the books, she is the head principal.


External links

  • (In the series, the website is set up by Mia's then ex-best friend, Lilly, while they are fighting in book 10.)
  • .