On Thursday, Prince William attended the Sovereign’s Parade at the Royal Air Force College. He obviously stepped in for his father, although I do not know if the switch was always planned that way or if Charles canceled at the last minute. William certainly didn’t look like he’d been planning to do this event – he looked like he crawled out of a bottle and put on an Air Force dress uniform without showering. His posture is awful and he’s honestly lost an alarming amount of weight over the course of the year.

Of course, no one is talking about any of that. Instead, they’re talking about his creepy beard. Kensington Palace is doing the most to encourage reporters/supporters to say that the “rugged” beard is making “royal fans weak in the knees.” It’s like we’re watching the royal propaganda campaign unfold in real time and absolutely no royal reporter will mention how creepy it is that William feels the need to copy his brother’s facial hair.

At this Royal Air Force event, William’s aunt, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, also turned up. Rebecca English tweeted that Lady Sarah “heard he was in the area and wanted to support him.” Yeah, more like William is salty that the Spencer family has shown so much love and support for Harry this year, so William is making a point of cozying up to them too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

All week, the British media has been freaking out over the Princess of Wales’s “cancer free” video, which was filmed to look like a commercial for douche. I think the baseline reaction across the board was that the video was cringe, awkward and poorly conceived. What’s taken the criticism next-level is that Buckingham Palace seems to be quite upset about it too, and King Charles and Queen Camilla think the whole thing is unbecoming and tacky. Throughout all of the negative commentary, the Duchess of Sussex has been referenced repeatedly. You would think that Meghan makes a regular habit of creating bizarre videos where she walks through fields whilst her voiceover describes her medical issues. Meghan does not. During Meghan’s medical issues – her miscarriage, her suicidal ideation – Meghan spoke and wrote about the issues respectfully and movingly and never turned those issues into an cringefest douche commercial. Well, in the Mail’s latest Palace Confidential episode, they’re once again crying about Kate’s dumb video and comparing Kate to Meghan.

The Princess of Wales’ slick video announcing she has finished chemotherapy treatment has left some in royal circles worried that she is echoing Meghan Markle, according to the Mail’s Richard Eden. Speaking on Palace Confidential, Mail+’s weekly talk show, Richard said insiders feel that the three-minute clip showing Kate with Prince William and their children in the countryside is ‘the sort of thing that Meghan would have loved to do.’

They do not want Catherine to ‘turn into’ Meghan, he added. Richard also said the clip left him feeling ‘uneasy’, adding that it appeared to be an attempt to create a ‘Hollywood trailer’.

Sitting alongside the Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English, he said: ‘Lots of people have said to me, “Oh you know it’s just the sort of thing that Meghan would have loved to do, obviously being an actress and we don’t want Catherine to turn into Meghan.”

Richard added of this week’s video: ‘The royal family should be different. They should be dignified, not chasing this. Yes, it’s the way that Catherine might have wanted to tell her story, but she’s surrounded by advisers. And she’s got people saying, “we want to get loads of hits on Youtube or whatever, and I think the Royal Family should be above that. They don’t need to be the Kardashians.’

Rebecca English feels the Royal Family’s use of video and social media has improved, but warned that content still needs to be authentic. She added: ‘They are getting more professional and upping their game but I do see that it needs to be authentic as well. I think it’s one of these things that needs to be applied slightly carefully.’

[From The Daily Mail]

“Oh you know it’s just the sort of thing that Meghan would have loved to do.” Trust me when I say that Meghan would not have loved to make a weird video announcement that she ended chemo. Beyond the issue of Meghan living rent-free in all of these people’s heads, the whole thing is that Meghan and Harry produced their docuseries where they told their side of the story, and they used private footage which they shot themselves. Years later, Kate hired a commercial director to COPY the Sussexes and try to manipulate the public into believing that her marriage is happy and healthy.

This is actually something I’m stuck on too: “Yes, it’s the way that Catherine might have wanted to tell her story, but she’s surrounded by advisers.” I want to know the inside story of how the video came to be. Was it really just Kate hiring Will Warr on her own initiative and deciding to film this in Norfolk over the summer? Or were there meetings where the clownshow advisors and the senior staff signed off on all of this?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Will Warr/KP.

The first time I really paid any attention to Caitlin Clark, it was during the NCAA championship game for women’s basketball, and there was a pop-culture “incident” between Clark and Angel Reese during the game. The incident involved two highly competitive college athletes on different sides, one white and one black, making the exact same “you can’t see me” gesture, yet only one of them was called “classless” and “ghetto.” That actually became a defining moment for both Angel and Caitlin and set up their narratives after their college careers.

Caitlin turned pro after she graduated this year, and after a middling start on the WNBA’s Indiana Fever (she wasn’t picked for the Olympic team), she’s actually doing really well right now. I’ve actually never seen anything like the hype around Clark – white people go absolutely feral for her, and Clark is credited with bringing lots of new fans to women’s basketball. Clark has quickly become a cipher for white supremacists, often being propped up as “the good one” compared to the rest of the WNBA, most of whom are women of color. There were widespread rumors that Clark and the people close to her were politically conservative, if not outright MAGA. And then something happened this week: Caitlin Clark liked Taylor Swift’s Instagram endorsement of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Suddenly, white people were very disappointed in their perfect white angel:

Them folks in Caitlin Clark’s IG comments withdrawing their support for her cuz she liked Taylor Swift’s post endorsing Kamala. pic.twitter.com/HzItUSyHEC

— Kevín (@KevOnStage) September 12, 2024

Caitlin was asked about liking the Instagram – which is still there, she didn’t “unlike” it or claim that her finger slipped – during a Fever presser on Wednesday:

WNBA rookie standout Caitlin Clark is speaking up about her decision to like Taylor Swift’s Instagram endorsement of Kamala Harris.

“I have this amazing platform, so I think the biggest thing would be just encourage people to register to vote,” Clark, 22, said to reporters during her media availability on Wednesday, Sept. 11, a day after Swift posted her backing of Harris on the social media platform.

The Indiana Fever rookie added, “That’s the biggest thing I can do with the platform that I have, and that’s the same thing Taylor [Swift] did.”

While Clark stopped short of offering her own endorsement, she emphasized the importance of voters’ rights. “Continue to educate yourself on the candidates that we have,” she said, “The policies that they’re supporting — I think that’s the biggest thing you can do. And that’s what I would recommend to every single person that has the opportunity [to vote] in our country.”

Though she didn’t officially endorse either presidential candidate, Clark is now courting controversy from followers on her Instagram account, many of whom have criticized the WNBA star for dipping her toe into political waters.

[From People]

I mean… I’m actually really proud of her for not backing down or making excuses. She’s treating this like: it is what is, you can read whatever you want into it. She’s not “courting controversy” by advocating for voter education and getting out to vote. But sure, it absolutely looks like she’s quietly supporting the Harris-Walz ticket. Good for her! I wonder if all of those new Clark-centered WNBA fans are going to leave in droves.

PS… Even before all of this, you know who was one of Caitlin Clark’s biggest fans? LeBron. He’s been hyping the sh-t out of her for a while.

CAITLIN CLARK!!!!! HI HATERS

— LeBron James (@KingJames) August 31, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Donald Trump’s mangy team has spent the past two days pushing various stories about how he thinks he won Tuesday night’s debate. Trump doesn’t believe that, but it gives his supporters something to cling to and cry about, that everyone would see that Trump “won” if not for those mean ABC moderators, if not for the mainstream media, if not for this or that. Trump knows that he lost, which is why he’s now saying that he will not participate in another debate.

Donald Trump will not debate Kamala Harris again, the former president said Thursday.

“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!,” Trump wrote in all caps on Truth Social, referencing the first as his June debate with President Joe Biden and the second as his debate with Harris on Tuesday.

Harris’ campaign, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, had challenged Trump to an additional debate immediately following their showdown earlier this week, and Fox News offered to host it.

“We owe it to the voters to have another debate,” Harris said Thursday at a rally in North Carolina minutes after Trump’s announcement.

But Trump on Wednesday told “Fox & Friends” he “probably” would not agree to another debate with the network and on Thursday confirmed he would not debate the vice president again at all, citing what he characterized as a decisive victory in a contest widely viewed as having gone favorably for Harris.

“When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, “I WANT A REMATCH,”” Trump wrote Thursday.

[From Politico]

Trump was also in Arizona yesterday (he thought he was in Pennsylvania) and he declared in the middle of his rally that there would not be another debate. The Harris campaign keeps pressing through, and a few outlets have put together offers to host. Meanwhile, Trump is now flying around with that conspiracist lunatic Laura Loomer, and people think they’re banging?

Trump announces he is refusing to debate Vice President Harris again after he overwhelmingly lost the first one pic.twitter.com/DRATbzt4lo

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 12, 2024

This is why Trump is hanging out with Laura Loomer. Watch them with their hands all over each other at Mar-a-Lago. Note: He’s married. pic.twitter.com/GKdSMjDnvD

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) September 12, 2024

Left: Top Trump advocate Laura Loomer saying “someone” is going to shoot and kill immigrants and she’s “not going to care” when it happens

Right: Trump recently praising Laura Loomer, calling her “terrific” and “special” pic.twitter.com/B32Xc6VgzU

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) March 13, 2024

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

As we’ve discussed throughout the week, the British media’s reaction to Prince William and Kate’s “cancer free” video has been critical and skeptical. Kate’s message about the end of her chemotherapy was accepted at face value, but the video broke something in even the most sugary of royalists. The Mail, the Evening Standard, the Guardian and more have all run negative commentary pieces about the video feeling cringey, cliched and gruesome. The press is also worried that this will become Will and Kate’s new normal. Well, I’m ashamed to admit that it didn’t occur to me that this criticism and skepticism was being authorized by Buckingham Palace. I clocked the fact that Buckingham Palace or “sources close to the king” had not spoken off the record, positively or negatively, about the video. But it didn’t occur to me that Team Charles and Team Camilla were quietly letting the Keens twist in the wind all week. Of course, Charles and Camilla couldn’t help but sign their work in the end. From Richard Eden’s latest Daily Mail column:

Everyone close to the Royal Family is delighted that the Princess of Wales has completed her chemotherapy treatment and hopeful that she remains in remission from an unnamed form of cancer. But the super-slick video that Kensington Palace released on Monday to broadcast the welcome update on her health has divided opinion among courtiers – and provoked scathing backlash from some friends of King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Their Majesties haven’t yet commented on the extraordinary three-minute film – made by Will Warr, who earns most of his money from shooting advertising campaigns for companies including supermarket giant Tesco and delivery service Uber Eats…But the highly-stylised video certainly laid bare how radically different Prince William and Catherine’s approach to communications has become from the more traditional methods favoured by the King and Queen, and Queen Elizabeth before them.

Notably, while Catherine’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, are shown playing cards with their grandchildren at what appears to be Anmer Hall, the Prince and Princess’s home on the King’s Sandringham estate, King Charles and Queen Camilla are nowhere to be seen in the video.

Some of the monarch’s friends are critical. One told me: ‘There’s no coincidence that the Middletons appear in it and not the King and Queen. I can assure you that Charles and Camilla will not be filmed kissing each other on a beach [as William and Catherine were] until hell freezes over. It’s distinctly un-regal.’

I spoke to another insider who was even more scathing.

‘All that lying round, hugging and kissing – they’re not soppy teenagers,’ they said. ‘It felt manipulative. It’s the sort of thing that Meghan would make. All the time, effort and expense put into making the video could have been much better spent elsewhere. Why not visit other women being treated for cancer? That’s what Diana would have done.’

Even though I think the latest video is very sweet… William and Catherine don’t need to be ‘Instagram royals’, hungry for ‘likes’ and ‘engagement’ online. They should follow the example of Queen Elizabeth. The late Queen was always keen to keep up to date with the latest technology but, at the same time, maintain the dignity of the Monarchy.

A Kensington Palace spokesman declined to comment on why the Middletons featured in the video but not Their Majesties.

[From The Daily Mail]

It also goes back to my question about why Kate released that tree photo and lengthy statement ahead of Trooping the Colour, because it felt like Kate was making Trooping all about her and ensuring that she was the only story. The same thing here – she was centering herself and trying to convince everyone of her solid marriage (as opposed to sticking with a simple, concise “cancer free” narrative). Nowadays, it looks like Charles and Camilla are absolutely sick of her sh-t. I still believe that Charles stepped in, back in March, and basically rescued William and Kate’s from whatever catastrophe they had gotten into and couldn’t manage their way out of. Cover stories were brainstormed, new people were brought in, narratives were orchestrated and Charles likely hoped that Peg and Buttons could stick with the program for six full months. They could not. Now, is this Charles washing his hands of them? Probably not, but he’s clearly furious at their constant stupidity, vapidity and short-sightedness. “All the time, effort and expense put into making the video could have been much better spent elsewhere. Why not visit other women being treated for cancer? That’s what Diana would have done.” And I oop–

Photos courtesy of Will Warr/Kensington Palace and PA Images/INSTARimages.

Right before Francis Ford Coppola’s 40-years-in-the-making passion project Megalopolis premiered at Cannes, The Guardian ran a piece on the film’s production that wasn’t a takedown, but wasn’t glowing either. At best the article painted Coppola as underprepared, at worst it showed him to be grossly inappropriate with female extras. The film itself was not well-received, so Coppola’s promotion over the summer has been a beleaguered mix of defending the finished work as well as his process. On the film front, the studio tried to get ahead by releasing a trailer featuring bad reviews of previous Coppola classics… only for it to be quickly uncovered that all the reviews were fake. As for Coppola defending his own behavior, other outlets followed The Guardian’s lead, including a Variety cover story about him that was published alongside video footage of him kissing women on set. It seems that Variety story was the straw that broke Coppola’s back: he’s now suing them for libel and $15 million in damages.

The suit, which was filed in the Superior Court of California, Los Angeles on Wednesday, Sept. 11 and reviewed by PEOPLE, names Variety and executive editors Tatiana Siegel and Brent Lang. Siegel and Lang appear on the byline for the article, which was initially published on July 26, 2024 and remains live on the Variety website.

In the suit, Coppola, 85, claims that Variety knew the allegations leveraged against him were “false” and they were made to “harm Coppola’s reputation and cause him severe emotional distress.” He further says “harm has been caused” and he is seeking no less than $15 million in damages and a jury trial.

On Wednesday night, a rep for Coppola issued the following statement on behalf of the director to PEOPLE.

“Nothing in my 60+ years career can equal the painstakingly difficult, yet artistically triumphant journey of bringing Megalopolis to the screen. It was a collaboration of hundreds of artists, from extras to box office stars, to whom I consistently displayed the utmost respect and my deepest gratitude,” the statement read.

“To see our collective efforts tainted by false, reckless and irresponsible reporting is devastating. No publication, especially a legacy industry outlet, should be enabled to use surreptitious video and unnamed sources in pursuit of their own financial gain,” it continued. “While I have no intention of litigating this in the media, I will vigorously defend my reputation and have trust in the courts to hold them accountable.”

Reps for Variety and its parent company PMC did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The Variety story published in July, which is at the center of Coppola’s complaint, cited anonymous sources that claimed the director tried to kiss female extras in a nightclub scene that were “topless” or “scantily clad.” The source was also allegedly reported as claiming at one point after multiple takes, that Coppola grabbed a microphone and said out loud, “Sorry, if I come up to you and kiss you. Just know it’s solely for my pleasure.”

The lawsuit also complains about the Variety article’s inclusion of video footage reportedly from the scene in question, where Coppola seemingly kisses and dances with female extras while filming in a nightclub. Siegel and Lang wrote that the video corroborated claims that Coppola was trying to kiss extras that initially surfaced in an article by The Guardian on May 14.

…In the court filings, Coppola’s attorneys asserted that before filing the lawsuit, he “provided evidence to Variety that the above allegations were false and Coppola requested that the allegations be retracted. Variety refused and doubled down. It repeated the same allegations and thereby emphasized its malice toward Coppola. In order to clear his name and obtain a public determination of the falsity of Variety’s allegations, Coppola has brought this case.”

[From People]

“While I have no intention of litigating this in the media…” he says in a statement to People Magazine. Coppola made sure the Megalopolis set was an anti-woke safe space for Trump supporters and credibly accused domestic abusers in the cast; a place where at least two intimacy coordinators were among the crew, yet none were present during the filming of this infamous nightclub scene. Multiple trade papers researched and reported on these facts, but it’s 85-year-old Hollywood veteran Coppola who’s suffering emotional distress — to the tune of $15 million — from their (accurate) accounts of him? With this lawsuit, Coppola is accusing Variety of trying to destroy his reputation, when in reality he’s the one successfully doing that to himself. Sadly, though, I’m not surprised by this DARVO move from him. What I am confused by is why is he suing Variety now, but didn’t sue The Guardian back in May?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Variety (@variety)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Variety (@variety)

Photos credit: Lu Chau / Wenn / Avalon

Earlier this year, I watched Scoop, the dramatization of what happened “behind the scenes” of Prince Andrew’s absolutely disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview. The movie made me really sad, that the BBC had one brief moment of speaking truth to power and they’re still talking about years later, like “remember that time we did something good?” Well, a second movie has been made about everything around the interview. This one is A Very Royal Scandal, with Michael Sheen playing Prince Andrew. Sheen is not a royalist or a monarchist. He wants the monarchy abolished. But he also enjoys a juicy character study, and so he seemingly had a good time playing degenerate Andrew. Sheen recently spoke to People Mag about the role and what he thinks of Andrew:

His research into Andrew: A moment of revelation for Sheen came while watching an interview Prince Andrew gave “maybe 15 years ago,” he recalls. In the interview, Andrew is asked whether he had any advice for Prince William, likely regarding military service. Andrew, who served in a different branch of the armed forces than William, makes a joke about the rivalry between the services. “He says, ‘I should have said you should be in the Navy,’ and then he laughs, and the laugh he does is so startling. It was sort of extraordinary. I’d never seen that before — it was an exposed moment in a way. And that really stuck with me.” It was jarring, Sheen explains, because, “For the royal family, who are usually so controlled, trying to keep things very much under the surface, it was a moment of startling, shocking emotion — even if it was just a laugh. But there was something about it that I thought was quite telling, so that stayed with me.”

Sheen also noticed Andrew’s teeth: “He has quite prominent teeth. He’s quite toothy. So the combination of the relish of this kind of joke that he’d made and then those teeth — it was quite shocking.”

Would Sheen want to be a royal? “Absolutely not. No. The fairytale image of it seems so extraordinary — living in palaces and having everything you want and servants and all that kind of stuff. But the reality seems to be that there are far more restrictions than there are freedoms. No amount of wealth or assets or privilege can make up for not being able to have basic sort of freedoms that a lot of us take for granted. So no, I would not want to have that life.”

The compromises at the heart of the monarchy: “I’d always quite naively imagined that the media and the royal family were quite separate institutions. But then it became clear that there’s all these sort of negotiations that go on between them, and there’s a kind of, you know, ‘Well, if you do this, then we’ll do that. And if you give us this interview, we’ll hide this thing.’ You know, it’s a real — there are deals being done all the time between the two institutions, which I found fascinating, and I didn’t realize that. That was a big surprise.”

What he learned about Prince Andrew: “I was very surprised by, for someone who, despite being perceived as having such privilege, entitlement and what you would imagine is great wealth, seemed, at least from the outside, to be someone who felt like they were being denied so much. Part of the draw towards Epstein was not only that there was some financial help there. That a prince could be in money trouble seemed extraordinary. Someone who you think is going to be incredibly wealthy seemed to have money troubles and also seemed to be drawn to a community where he would be treated like a prince. [He] didn’t feel like he was being treated like a prince in his own country somehow. That I found extraordinary. And quite surprising that someone who appears to have so much could experience their life as having relatively little.”

[From People]

“There are deals being done all the time between the two institutions, which I found fascinating, and I didn’t realize that. That was a big surprise.” It feels obvious at this point, but I do think that Prince Harry has done a lot to expose just that, how the British media and monarchy do not operate as separate institutions. They work together, hand in hand, and sometimes their relationship is parasitic and sometimes it’s symbiotic. Honestly, Sheen almost seems sympathetic towards the Windsors when he talks about how they don’t have the freedoms regular people take for granted. I think he’s just saying that sh-t because he’s promoting this Prime movie though. He really doesn’t give a sh-t. Here’s the trailer:

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Convicted fraudster Anna Delvey (née Anna Sorokin) is trying to launch her comeback. If you’re not familiar with Anna, she’s a Russian native who got famous after being caught posing as a German heiress and conning people, hotels, and banks out of $275,000. Netflix’s Inventing Anna is based on her scam. In 2018, Anna was convicted of larceny, theft, and other crimes, and sentenced to four to 12 years in prison. She was released in 2022 for good behavior, but shortly thereafter taken into custody by ICE for overstaying her visa. She was eventually released from their custody and sentenced to house arrest as she fights deportation. Anna’s house arrest was just lifted, but she’s wearing an ICE-mandated ankle monitor. Yeah, this chick’s got a lot going on, but that’s not slowing her down from making a return to the spotlight. A girl’s gotta grift, ya know?

Anna is going to be on the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars, as well as starring in a new reality TV show called The Anonymous, which is, appropriately, about deception. Before Anna’s new TV gigs get going, though, she’s also dabbling in modeling. Anna showed up at New York Fashion Week as a spectator and model for the Untitled&Co runway show. To show off her latest accessory, Anna decided to bejewel her ankle monitor for the occasion.

Fake heiress Anna Delvey showed off her bejewelled ankle tag during New York Fashion Week on Wednesday.

Attending the Untitled&Co runway show at The Altman Building, she added a silver and black jewels, in the shape of the brand’s logo, to her ankle monitor. Not shy of hiding the tag, Anna wore a quirky mini dress, with a graphic printed bodice and short rara skirt. She elevated her height with a pair of white stiletto heels and layered over a black blazer, accessorising with a tiara and rosette.

Anna, who modelled at the event, later changed into a leather maxi dress and a sheer sequinned two-piece for her second and third look.

She spent years posing as a wealthy heiress while defrauding a series of banks, hotels, and individuals out of $275,000 and is currently gearing up to feature on Dancing With the Stars. Anna was arrested in 2017 and found guilty of grand larceny, larceny in the second degree, and theft of services. The fraudster was sentenced to four to 12 years behind bars, and was released from prison in 2022 to house arrest. She was also banned from using social media.

[From The Daily Mail]

Is it attention-grabby to bling out your ICE-ordered ankle tag while attending a fashion show? It sure is! But I’d expect nothing less, and why the hell not? It’s there for the blinging. I’d probably do the same thing if I were her. I think it may be the best part of that mess she’s wearing. As you can see from the pictures below, Anna also showed up to NYFW with a whole new face. I’m going to guess that change was not court-ordered, and I’m dying to know who paid for it. As for DWTS, I still think it’s absolutely wild that Anna is participating on it in the first place, but this is a show that’s also had Tucker Carlson, Sean Spicer, and Tom DeLay as contestants. Clearly, she’s their controversial figure archetype for this season. The lady has no morals but she’s got that hustle, and even prison couldn’t keep her down.

Photos credit: Elder Ordonez/INSTARimages, Janet Mayer/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images

Damiano David (the lead singer for the Italian band Måneskin) was out here looking like a Prohibition-era bootlegger at the VMAs. [Buzzfeed]
More fashion pics from the VMAs. [Jezebel]
Analyzing Taylor Swift’s endorsement timing. [LaineyGossip]
Review of Angelina Jolie’s Without Blood. [Pajiba]
Backstage photos from the VMAs. [JustJared]
Donald Trump & JD Vance’s latest attacks on immigrants are disgusting. [Socialite Life]
Chappell Roan comes across as a huge brat to me. [Hollywood Life]
Kevin Hart went day-drinking with Seth Meyers. [Seriously OMG]
Tyla wore Area to the VMAs. [RCFA]
Pamela Anderson is getting great reviews for The Last Showgirl. [OMG Blog]

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Kensington Palace dropped Prince William and Kate’s new video on Monday, where Kate announced that she is “cancer free” and that she completed her chemotherapy. The announcement could have been a written statement alone, but the video was supposed to be something else. As I wrote, it felt like it was a different kind of proof of life, a “proof” of their performatively and awkwardly happy marriage. Just hours after the video release, one of William and Kate’s friends huffed to the Daily Beast: “It’s the reset to end all resets. This is Kate and William as they mean to go on. It’s family first and f**k the haters, f**k the press, f**k Harry and Meghan.” What a message of hope after cancer, right? In any case, the “f–k the press” part of the message seemingly came through loud and clear, and the British press has responded in kind, publishing several high-profile and intensely critical pieces about the stupidity of that video. Well, now another Daily Mail commentator is chiming in. The Mail’s Stephen Glover analyzes the stupidity of the video from a press-access and comms perspective. An excerpt:

And yet I do have a deep concern – not so much about the video itself as about the way in which the Prince and Princess of Wales have taken control of their own image and supplanted the traditional media. This development seems to me potentially dangerous to the future of the monarchy. Let me explain.

Catherine has a passion for photography, and for a long time has been releasing pictures of her family that in a previous generation would probably have been taken by professional photographers, if at all. Unsurprisingly, these pictures are very sympathetic to their subjects, to the point of being idealised. On at least one occasion they have been ‘photoshopped’ – that is to say, doctored to the advantage of the ­photographed children.

On Mother’s Day in March, Catherine produced a picture of herself, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – all of them looking radiantly beautiful and utterly happy – that aroused the suspicions of ­several photo agencies. The Princess of Wales quickly confessed that she had edited the picture, and apologised. Two weeks later she released a video in which she announced with some dignity that she was in the early stages of treatment after a cancer diagnosis. Until very recently such information would have been given to the public by Royal media advisers in a deadpan way. The video of Kate was certainly moving, carrying as it did such dreadful news, although it threw further doubt on the authenticity of the photograph of two weeks earlier in which she and her children had appeared so blissfully happy.

And now we have a further video in which Catherine, ­William and their children seem utterly delirious – as if they have eaten too many magic mushrooms discovered in their enchanted, dappled wood. At one stage a smiling William even plants a kiss on his wife’s cheek. In a sense the video is intimate as we are briefly invited into the heart of a seemingly perfect family. But, of course, the invitation is entirely on the Prince and Princess of Wales’s own terms. They don’t begin to answer the question that such intimacy is bound to provoke – namely, what exactly was wrong with Catherine, and how long is the ‘path to healing and full recovery’ likely to be?

What is going on is nothing less than a revolution. William and Kate have taken control of their own PR, offering an idealised, almost fairytale ­version of themselves and their family. The traditional media, which might have been expected to ask a few searching questions, are virtually written out of the script…. It’s ironic that Harry has chastised both his father and his brother for having been too close to the Press, although, in reality, William and Catherine are seeking to neutralise it.

…I believe that this is a dangerous ploy. Most of us aren’t TikTok aficionados. More to the point, the British people don’t want a supposedly perfect, make-believe monarchy. They expect members of the Royal Family to be real, grounded, recognisable human beings who don’t inhabit a fanciful world of endless smiles and eternal laughter. In the end, the Royal Family survives, and is justified in the public mind, because it is scrutinised. And that is what the traditional media have done, doubtless not always fairly, but for the most part ­rigorously. If the Royal Family is allowed to repackage itself as a wholly sanitised yet untouchable institution – well, disaster is likely to follow.

Harry and Meghan are richly comic, as well as infuriating, figures as they painstakingly fashion their own image of perfection in California. Yet it doesn’t really matter a great deal what they do because they have become so peripheral to the monarchy. But the Prince and Princess of Wales are the future.

I rejoice that Catherine is getting better. She is a gifted woman, and we are very lucky to have her. We are fortunate, too, to have in William such a balanced and dedicated heir to the throne. But the monarchy will be weakened if the public comes to believe it is being fed a fairytale narrative that has been nurtured by the Prince and Princess of Wales beyond the scrutiny of the media.

[From The Daily Mail]

Basically, William and Kate have already been caught manipulating and editing photos several times this year, so they don’t have the credibility to pull off this hazy, fairytale-royal video. Yes, this is a member of the media advocating for his own profession and trying (in vain) to say that it’s the media’s responsibility to scrutinize William and Kate and independently verify whatever horses-t they push. But aren’t we too far gone for that? The horses have already bolted, you know? So the British media’s pushback this week has come across like they’ve only just realized that William and Kate plan to say “f–k the press” from here on out. The press created these lying monsters and they can’t figure out how to close Pandora’s box.

Photos courtesy of Will Warr/KP.