Duchess Kate takes the cover of this week’s People Magazine – a sure enough sign that this year’s Oscars were a boring snooze fest. Usually, the Oscars post-game analysis take the cover – this year, it just got a sidebar. Anyway, People’s Duchess Kate story is just another pro-Kate propaganda piece designed to make her look competent and hard-working. Remember how all of the “sources” connected to Kate were making such a big deal about how she was going to work her little fingers to the bone while William was away? She’s done two-and-a-half days worth of public work. I’m including her visit to the Freud exhibit as a “half-day” of work. I mean, she’s doing so much more than she usually does, but it’s not like she’s working her little fingers to the bone, you know? Still, let the propaganda commence!
With Prince William away on a military mission, Kate is a newlywed on her own – but she’s hardly sitting home alone waiting. Instead, she is confidently stepping out solo into the royal spotlight, and impressing royal insiders and commoners alike with her grace and charm.
In this week’s cover story, PEOPLE steps inside Kate’s world, chatting with people who’ve met her during her six recent royal engagements at charities of her choice. All were moved by the Duchess of Cambridge’s friendly and warm manner.
“We were a bit nervous,” parent Diane Squire said after Kate met her daughter, 12-year-old Megan, who has cancer, at a Liverpool hospital. “But she was lovely.”
Though William is 7,500 miles away, the couple keeps their love alive through phone calls, emails and Skype. Kate often referred to her husband during her recent engagement, and even told one young girl that William had sent her a card and flowers on Valentine’s Day.
[From People]
I wish I could see all of the quotes these media outlets had to sift through. I just can’t imagine there wasn’t at least ONE person who said, “She was fine, I guess. She played with her hair a lot and she didn’t have much to say about anything. Whenever anyone asked her anything, she just blinked furiously. She wears too much makeup. She seems pretty average.”
Two more Kate stories – she recently paid a visit to the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace “to thank the master embroiderers who helped to create her wedding dress.” That’s nice of her. Also, six students from the UK’s De Montfort University have decided to hold a competition to design a new pair of shoes for Kate – she’ll be the judge of which pair of shoes is the best (for her). I kind of have my doubts as to whether Kate is a shoe person – her shoes never seem that special or noteworthy. She goes for function over beauty – a trait which I share, so I admire it in her.
Cover courtesy of People Magazine, additional pics by WENN.
I like her, she is pretty and seems kind. She has so much on her shoulders and it is refreshing to see someone who isn’t trashy or a famewhore.
Slow news day eh?
Seems like she put on weight, it looks better on her. That’s the only nice thing I gotta say about this story!
I think she is more into boots than shoes.
Why is she on the cover of People? I am sure this will be a low seller. I don’t think the interest in her is as big as they would like so they are approving these silly puff pieces.
I agree with you Kaiser I don’t think she’s a shoe person. I did like those espadrilles that she and her sister were wearing last summer though, those were hot. These boots aren’t bad either. I actually think they look good with the matching tights.
my grandma thinks her espadrilles were hot too!
@Kaiser: pls don’t put up her pictures wearing palace curtains anymore….i’ve seen them enough
It’s snowing here today. That sucks.
That inch thick of eyeliner is really shocking when seen in hi-def.
I think she is lovely & always looks & acts appropriately. Beautiful woman & I wish her well.
Hey, at least she did SOME work. I’m willing to keep down my complaining down for a while.
I get the impression that Americans would like Kate to act as a standard celebrity.
She is not a celebrity, she is a Royal. Her ‘job’ is to be a mascot for the UK, show up to events (once in a while or it would be considered self promoting, which is very much frowned upon), smile and look interested.
She is not expected to express personal opinions or do anything outside of protocol. To me she seems to be doing well given the pressure
Kate will be expected to spend her whole life in public view. The best things she can do for the time being is not do or say anything (potentially) offensive or (potentially) controversial.
Agreed. I don’t understand what’s not to like about her.
I think she’s well liked in this country. The real hatred for her mostly seems to be online, and from the USA.
Having said that, the reason most people gush at events she attends is most of us would never bother! Only serious royalists would turn up to wave a flag and gurn. All the same, she seems to be capable of doing a good job. The job is to smile prettily, say nothing controversial and be polite and ladylike, and she does all that just fine. The Queen never provides any drama, which is just what we like in a monarch. If only the same could be said of Prince Charles.
There are a lot of unsuitable candidates out there. I remember people joking that the Palace must have grown her in a vat when she first arrived on the scene, because she was so appropriate. It bemuses me that people’s main argument against her is that she went out to a few clubs when single, and that paparazzo took photos up her skirt. I doubt she asked them to. And the work thing – how is that our business, before she became a royal? I’d like her to work a bit harder now, given we pay for her protection, but I think it’s fair enough to break her in gently. Look what happened to Diana and Sarah, when they were thrown into the deep end. She’ll be on display the rest of her life; I don’t begrudge her a hiatus to settle in now.
@London Girl & @AudreyS: Because she’s being forced down our throats as someone to be admired, when all she’s done is sit around and wait for her Prince to marry her. What’s admirable about that?
Its not admirable.
Its just what Royals do and are expected to do.
I live in London (hence the moniker) and rarely see converage of her. I see more on Kate on US based website like this one. Which is a little strange
Hi London Girl,
There isn’t a daily news story in the London papers, but there is also a PCC order not to print anything about the royal family including Kate.
Of course the broad sheets barely cover gossip/celebrity/showbiz news but mid level tabloids like The Mail do. And whilst the Mail is a pro-royal paper, they taken a critical tone with her. And before you object to my assertion, it’s well known that the Royals and or Palace pr plant stories in the Mail, so depending on the Journalist covering the story, i can believe or not the story therein. And through the Mail the palace has put out statements about what an independent, working girl [excuse the pun] Kate is, who should be admired by one and all. They also keep insisting she’s about to do something, which never materialises or she’s done the opposite eg Statement: Kate is a housewife in Anglesea…Reality: Kate is living in London based upon how frequently, if not daily, she is spotted on Ken High Street
Finally, PCC barrs Royal stories in British stories going back to year dot and whatever form that kind of body took.
The British papers are always the last to print negative Royal stories – case in point Mrs Simpson who they finally wrote about a month before the abdication even though the american papers were writing about her for months.
Lastly, the online editions of all the big papers [broad and tabloid] are attracting very negative commnents from the public on Kate Stories but this is rarely put across in the print editions.
Another London Girl.
@LAK…I too heard that the Royals exercise a great deal of control over what’s printed in the Mail and other papers. For instance, a few months back I read that PW’s “people” told one critic to ease up on Kate. When I heard that, I was completely shocked! Does Britain have freedom of the press?
@Houston Girl – Britain has freedom of press, but not over Royals.
They may be a constitutional power now, but they do exercise power in certain arenas. The PCC is one of them.
Nothing is written about the Royals that isn’t determined. It depends on the Journalist who writes the story.
The story about William reaching out to individual Journalists to ease up on Kate is true. One of the journalists had their revenge by writing a pseudo obsequious story about the wonder of Kate which emphasised in every way all of the things that irk people about Kate. it was hialrious. If i can find, will post the link.
To LAK:
The PCC are a voluntary and self-regulating organisation – it’s run by the press themselves, and they don’t have to remain members. (In fact at one point I seem to recall the Daily Express pulling out for a while.) It never stopped the press doing anything unless public shame is the alternative (and vicious harassment being exposed qualifies) and they have no powers other than to issue a statement criticising the paper in question, which mostly is enough to get the paper to fall into line.
The PCC moved to protect the Middletons about five years ago, after which the stories tailed off because the lawyers and the PCC together with the papers in question hammered out a voluntary agreement. In the 1930s we were a very deferential society – since then things have exploded. Look at the way Fergie was exposed sucking her lover’s toes while married, or how Diana was treated. The Wales’ marriage was exposed as a sham, and the Palace couldn’t stop that.
Our libel laws are tough and we now have anti-harassment laws. The Palace also lean hard on the press, and run a strong PR operation, absolutely. Prince William has been extremely pro-active on using the law to protect Kate (and himself) I agree. But please don’t misrepresent our country. The main problem over here is NOT any lack of press freedom. The press hacked into William’s cellphone and those of his friends, and ran stories with that stolen information. As the Leveson Inquiry is making very plain, the press in this country were like gangsters and answerable only to themselves. They paid massive bribes to the police, and obeyed no laws they didn’t like. Your loathing of Kate aside, if there were real dirt on her, we’d hear it.
And the article you mention is by Amanda Platell, who is a thoroughly unpleasant and spiteful commentator, but I agree completely that that article was a clever and funny expose of the Palace’s heavyhanded PR tactics. I haven’t a lot of respect for that, nor for the way they tried to lie and sell the fairytale all through the 1980s, long after the Wales’ began to hate one another. But still, please don’t post as if fully conversant with our media arrangements when you really aren’t.
I googled the link to that story by Amanda Platell, it’s worth a read http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2078175/Kate-Middleton-Im-sorry-getting-wrong.html
I can’t believe Prince William’s aide actually approached a Daily Mail journalist and told her to ease up on Kate
Aside from Celebitchy, I never hear or read anything about Kate so I don’t understand how she’s being “forced down our throats”. So she waited and married a prince. It’s her life…
Bingo! I really hate going through the check out lane and seeing her dopey grin everywhere. She’s England’s Duchess, not ours.
I wish the publishers would realize that most Americans don’t know/care who she is. Maybe because America is based on meritocracy. People are important/famous/admired because of their accomplishments (not including bagging a prince).
Ummm, ok, It’s the Oscar issue why is Duchess Kate on the cover?
And not Angelina’s leg? They totally Streeped Angelina’s leg! haha Seriously they Streeped all the other winners too. One would think winning an Oscar would garner a shot on the cover of the Oscar issue.
She is someone to be admired. Just because she is not out at some charity every single day does not take away from all the publicity she has brought to the charities she endorses and all the good she has done for the economy over there. Everything she wears whether is it a shoe a dress a nail polish a hair product, sells out immediately. She is doing alot to help small businesses stay in business. She may not have done much when she was waiting for prince William to marry her but I think that she has more than made up for it. I would much rather her a role model for my daughter than some tramp like Kim kardashian or Paris Hilton or a ton of other girls. Kate is classy, well spoken and is a great person to look up to.
i doubt, she thinks about how to save small businesses or large businesses when she buys her clothes. and now she wears almast always only designer gear.
Kristin, there are a lot of role models to choose from, not just Kate and Kim K.
She brings attention to the charities she visits? Please! I cannot call to mind one single charity that she visited. All I can remember are the screaming headlines and photos about some aspect of her appearance — usually hair, clothes, heavy makeup, and anorexia. Because of this, I call all her public appearances to date a major FAIL, because all they do is call attention to her — which is what she really wants. It has become painfully obvious after a year that this woman is nothing but shallow and vain.
It is always tough to be a military spouse, but I find myself lacking sympathy for her while her man is gone. Not only is a 6 week tour incredibly short, but she knows exactly where he is and is pretty much guaranteed to have him back. While I am not a military spouse, a lot of my friends are in the military and the length of time they are gone, coupled with the uncertainty of ever seeing them again, makes me feel like his tour in the Falklands is just not as…worrisome.
her life is an luxurious cheap farce
Kate is only doing these royal duties becuse she has to. She doesnt want to be there and given how uninterested she always looks, she just doesnt care. Ask any royal watcher what they think about her and they will tell you that she is doing a terrible job. She always looks bored and uninterested or she is trying too hard. She “works” tiny little duties and does nothing else but shop all day. She is a pathetic women. The royal family doesnt care for Kate and Im sure that we will see that in a week when she does a duty with HM and Camilla and after that HM and Prince Philip.
I honestly think her marriage is a sham given hers and Willams record for breaking up and cheating every year. They were broken up just weeks before William proposed and the proposal story sounds just like one of his friends including the location. It probably happened after a fight so he could get Waity to shut up. She has never worked a day in her life and she has no aspirations. Once this honeymoon phase with her is over, the press will see how worthless she is and there will be backlash. I just cant stand how quickly the press seemed to forget her recent holiday.
That Mustique fiasco was broadcast on Good Morning America and CNN and HLN. What an embarassment for England and the royal family.
I don’t admire Kate or William, so I guess they deserve each other.
lets’ go back to angie’s leg everyone. i hate the story with angie, but this woman her life and clothing are so incredibly bland!
Kaiser, could you please write an article about Princess Victoria and her new baby, Princess Estelle?
You seem to know a lot about celebrities/royalty and I can’t find much about these two on the net. Thanks!
I like reading your articles.
and we haven’t heard anything about pippa for a while now and there are nowhere new pics of her on the internet. do anyone know why?
Very good blog post. Much obliged.