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Many thanks to CB, who covered one of my favorite gossip beats yesterday, the royals. I was away all of Thursday morning because my mom was having surgery, so I missed part (but not all!) of the discussion going around William and Kate’s visit to the Rethink Mental Illness in London. Various pro-royal sites have been doing the heavy lifting on William’s latest cause, which is suicide prevention. He’s keen about it. Until he drops it a few months from now.

Anyway, these are some additional photos from Will and Kate’s two events on Thursday. At Rethink Mental Illness, Kate did not take off her Erdem coat, which is something I never liked about Kate – I get that she has an impressive coat collection, but to sit inside for an hour and not take off your coat? It makes it look like you have one foot out the door and you’re not really that keen about what’s happening. At the second event of the day, Kate did take off her coat to reveal this inexpensive (relatively speaking) Jonathan Saunders dress, which retails for $115. Kate does love a bird print, and I actually sort of like this.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of other stuff going down in Cambridgeville. Most of British media outlets have had enough of the Cambridges’ crap and the coverage is starting to get openly hostile. Failing that, some outlets are covering-the-coverage, like “Have the British papers fallen out of love with the Cambridges?” types of pieces. One of my favorite royal-watchers, Tom Sykes of the Daily Beast, did an excellent piece called “Inside Will & Kate’s Privacy Obsession” – go here to read. He slams Will & Kate as “arrogant” and “extravagant” and says this could be a preview of things to come if Will and Kate’s marriage ever does start to crack or if they continue to be so utterly tone-deaf.

And finally, a few days ago, the Daily Mail decided to run what was easily the most laughable and nonsensical story. All week, The Mail has been running “exclusives” about what the Queen really thinks about this and that (like, there are claims that the Queen hated the idea of gay marriage), and then the Mail’s Richard Kay dropped this: “The Queen’s secret ‘deal’ to let William be a part-time royal and why the short-fused Prince reminds her of Philip – and her father.” I would suggest you read the full piece here, because it’s one of the most obvious pieces of royal-PR fluff I’ve ever seen. Sources tell Kay that the Queen admires the Middleton family and she loves that William is so influenced by Carole Middleton. The Queen sees William as her true heir, and she believes he will rule Great Britain in much the same way she has. And William only works as a royal “part time” as part of a “quiet understanding” with Her Majesty.

If all of that is true – and let’s be clear, it is not true – then why is the Queen so hellbent on forcing Will and Kate to work more, hm? Why couldn’t Kate even get through a pre-Christmas lunch without being FORCED into taking on another commitment? Why is the Queen letting William know that she expects him to take on more work, starting this year?

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Photos courtesy of Getty.