It’s more than likely that the Princess of Wales’s medical mystery turns out to be incredibly serious, when we eventually learn what exactly happened. It’s also more than likely that it’s been amateur hour from Kensington Palace this whole time. Both things can be true at once: Kate’s situation is serious AND KP completely bungled the release of information, which led to weeks of speculation and ham-fisted damage control from staffers who can’t manage their way out of a paper bag. Last weekend, the Spanish media was widely reporting on Kate’s surgery and medical situation, and one Spanish royal expert claimed she heard, from sources, that Kate’s condition was dire, to the point where Kate had been in a medically-induced coma. The next day, Kate was suddenly discharged from the London Clinic and the British and American media suddenly has a vested interest in minimizing Kate’s situation and making Kate’s situation sound like it was no big deal. Five days after the Spanish media was widely reporting the “coma” story, “palace sources” have finally come out to try to rebut that speculation:

Palace officials are said to have been left furious after a Spanish news show’s ‘made up’ claims that Kate was in a ‘coma’ and in ‘great danger’ following abdominal surgery.

Overseas journalist Concha Calleja claimed doctors had to act quickly as they were ‘saving her life’ in a broadcast the day before she was released from hospital The writer, 59, who has appeared on Spanish TV as a royal expert, said the medical team’s ‘drastic’ actions included intubating the 42-year-old Princess of Wales and putting her in an induced coma.

She claimed: ‘There were serious complications that they didn’t expect because the operation went well, but the post-operative period didn’t go so well.’

She continued that Kate’s recovery was ‘possibly going to require a bit of assistance, and I’m not just referring to her family’ – as she said ‘practically an entire hospital’ was being set up to support her at their Windsor home. But the Spaniard’s claims – made on news channel Fiesta – have been rubbished by the palace.

‘It’s total nonsense,’ a source told The Telegraph. ‘No attempt was made by that journalist to fact-check anything that she said with anyone in the household. It’s fundamentally totally made up, and I’ll use polite English here: it’s absolutely not the case.’

The most-watched channel in Spain for 13 years, Fiesta is known for its gossip shows and was founded by an Italian media company formerly owned by Silvio Berlusconi. The claims about the Princess of Wales quickly went viral – and was even taken up by the country’s more serious sites including El Confidencial, La Vanguardia and La Razon.

Calleja claimed to have gained the insight from an aid in the royal household ‘in a completely confidential manner’ – something the Palace has completely refuted. They also strenuously denied her assertions that Kate had been taken to hospital for the first time on December 28, where she stayed for several days, as she said she ‘began to feel unwell, not for the first time.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Not only did it take “the palace” nearly a week to pushback on the coma story, it’s taken them three weeks to push back on the “Kate was rushed to the hospital on December 28” rumor, which spread like wildfire on social media, and I even half-believe it too. Whatever Kate is going through, I’d be willing to bet it’s been an issue for many weeks, if not months. As for the palace finally doing some pushback on the coma story… I don’t know what to believe anymore. KP is definitely being way too furtive, but some of these conspiracies feel so wide off the mark. As I’ve said before, wherever Kate is and whatever her condition, I hope she’s receiving quality care and I hope she’s doing okay.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.

From Kensington Palace’s sudden pushback on the “Kate was in a coma” speculation to this new exclusive in the Daily Beast, it finally seems like the palace communications office is finally back from vacation. Did they have all of January off? KP announced on Monday that Kate was discharged from the hospital and that she’s returned to Adelaide Cottage, where she’ll recuperate for the next two to five months. “After Easter” is what we were told at first, but they keep extending it, like Kate might be iffy for Trooping the Colour in June. This week, there’s also been a strange effort to minimize Kate’s situation. Now the Daily Beast’s Royalist column is doing the most to make it sound like this has all been expertly handled (???) because Kate and William are showing the world that they’ll do things their own way, which means months and months of never being seen. There’s also some speculation about when William will “come back to work.” Some highlights:

A change of protocol: Former royal editor of the Sun, Duncan Larcombe, told The Daily Beast: “The whole of their focus is on her recovery and their family right now. This is a big change in protocol: it’s not really the done thing in royal circles to be seen to be taking great swathes of time off for a mere illness. You keep going. Just look at the queen; even when she was dying, she would get it together for five minutes and walk out onto the balcony and wave. The queen mother had breast cancer in the late 70s—but that didn’t emerge until after her death in 2002! Any suggestion that Prince Philip was ever seriously ill was always aggressively denied by Buckingham Palace. William and Kate are making it very clear that times have changed and they won’t be bound by the old ways of doing things. Instead, they are going to act like anyone else in this position, and are putting their family first.”

Nanny Maria is a big help: The Daily Beast understands that William and the couple’s nanny, Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, are splitting household duties including school runs for the children, with Kate under doctor’s orders to remain in bed as much as possible. Borrallo… has become a trusted and valued member of the domestic household, one whose presence will be relied on more than ever in the months ahead.

When Kate & William will be back to work: Kensington Palace have said that Kate will not be expected to return to public life until April. After Kate was admitted to hospital, palace sources told The Daily Beast that William would be absent from public duties, “during the immediate period following her return home.” They have since declined to enlarge on that carefully ambiguous formulation. In contrast to Kate’s protracted absence from public life, King Charles is understood to be mending well from his much more minor prostate procedure. Some sources have suggested he could be back doing public engagements as soon as next week. When it comes to William and Kate, however, no-one is making any bets, although some hope that William might return to public engagements relatively soon.

Maybe William will attend the BAFTAs after all: One source said: “It would help give a sense of normality, and that things are being adequately managed, if William made a few public appearances. Perhaps the BAFTAS [the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards] will be the moment.” Certainly, if William, President of BAFTA since February 2010 is not able or willing to attend the awards, scheduled to take place on 18 February, his non-appearance will cut through to the general public, precisely because of his near-perfect attendance record at the ceremony.

Other sources think William will be MIA for longer: A friend of the couple told The Daily Beast: “I don’t think William will be doing anything at all in the next few weeks.” Asked if they thought that was a sign of how seriously the couple are taking Kate’s recovery, the friend said, “It is totally unprecedented. It’s just about two very conscientious parents putting their children, on whom there is tremendous pressure, first.”

No one will cover for the Waleses: There seem to be no plans for any other royals to step into William and Kate’s shoes while they are off work. A royal source told The Daily Beast: “William and Kate have their own royal household, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for Prince Edward, for example, to suddenly start representing them, in the way he could represent the king.”

[From The Daily Beast]

“If William, President of BAFTA since February 2010 is not able or willing to attend the awards…his non-appearance will cut through to the general public, precisely because of his near-perfect attendance record at the ceremony.” BAFTA President William has actually skipped the ceremony seven times since 2010. If he skips this year’s ceremony, that will be the eighth time. The other times he’s skipped, it’s usually been for reasons like “he needed to recover from his holiday” or “he didn’t feel like it.” He even skips the pre-BAFTA party HELD AT KENSINGTON PALACE every damn year.

As for when Will and Kate will return… the way the wind is blowing, I would say Kate probably won’t be seen until May. I think William will probably aim for one or two March events. Maybe he’ll take the kids to church on Easter Sunday.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

We’ve talked about the fact that retailers are removing self checkout machines because of product loss and customer frustration. Added measures to control shoplifting often make the machines throw errors, requiring more employee oversight and making self checkouts cost more in overhead. They’re not cost effective for retailers at this point, which is good news for those of us who hate them. It turns out that self checkout machines also make people less loyal to a store. A study in the Journal of Business Research found that people have a poorer impression of stores when they have to use self checkout for larger numbers of items. No wonder Target is limiting self checkout to 10 items or less, although I doubt that will solve this problem. Here’s more on that study:

A recent study published in the Journal of Business Research found that self-checkout systems can lead to less customer loyalty when compared to a regular checkout staffed by an employee, especially for large purchases.

“Retailers are actually facing some dilemma regarding whether it’s really a good decision to install self-checkout systems,” said the study’s coauthor, Yanliu Huang, associate professor of marketing at the Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.

Huang set out to understand how customers’ loyalty to a store is affected by whether shoppers choose to scan items themselves at a self-checkout kiosk or have an employee ring them up at a regular counter.

“More than one-third of U.S. customers use self-checkout systems, so it’s very relevant to both retailers and customers,” said Huang, who coauthored the research with Farhana Nusrat, her former student.

Huang and Nusrat ran five separate studies, some of which included asking hired participants to imagine themselves in different shopping scenarios at a grocery store or having them recall their recent grocery shopping trip.

Participants in some of the studies were asked to respond to questions or prompts about their sense of loyalty to the store based on their shopping scenario or experience. Questions focused on how likely the shopper was to return to the store, how valued as a customer they felt, and how the savings during their purchase made them feel rewarded.

Huang and Nusrat discovered that the amount of groceries being purchased matters.

When participants were put in scenarios where they only had six items, the sense of loyalty a customer felt was pretty similar if they used self-checkout or an employee rang up their order. When the purchase was 18 items though, that sense of loyalty was significantly higher for the customer that used regular checkout compared to the self-checkout.

“When you only have a very small basket size, it’s easy to use [the] self-checkout system,” said Huang.

Self-checkout kiosks represent about 38% of checkout lanes in grocery chains in the country, and the global market size of the machines is expected to continue to grow in the coming years, the study notes.

[From GM Today]

The findings of this study are definitely true for me. I very rarely go into grocery stores at this point and use delivery and pickup services for the most part. I typically only shop in person at Food Lion, which has no self checkouts and very friendly employees. I’ve never had a bad experience at a Food Lion! That may be due to corporate culture and the fact that their stores have predictable layouts. In comparison the competing grocery stores in my area, Kroger and Walmart, are awful. You often have to wait a long time to get service, at Kroger the aisles are often too small, and every location has a different layout. A few years ago they mixed up the aisles at most Walmarts to force you to make more impulse purchases too. When you’re ready to pay, you have to wait a long time for a cashier or you have to check out yourself and wait for someone to clear your error messages. It’s very tricky to figure out and anticipate why the machines require approval for purchases, which is surely by design.

As for Target, I recently placed a pickup order to include some Clevr Blends. I’m sure that I spent over $100 less than if I was browsing the store for items myself. I’ve learned through some very annoying experiences that it’s no longer pleasant to shop there in person.

Also I agree with this mom blogger that self checkouts ruin the social experience of shopping too.

 

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Justin Timberlake has new music and he’s desperate for people to pay attention to him. I was trying to ignore him for as long as I could, just for fun! But I can’t ignore this. After JT performed on SNL last weekend, Britney Spears posted a general apology for her memoir, which was pretty rough on Justin. She wrote, in part: “I wanna apologize for some of the things I wrote about in my book. If I offended any of the people I genuinely care about I am deeply sorry… I also wanted to say I am in love with Justin Timberlake’s new song ‘Selfish’.” She also complimented Justin and Jimmy Fallon, writing that whenever she saw them together, she “laughs so hard.” Britney ended up deleting that whole post. For good reason – Justin doesn’t deserve any apologies. During a performance in NYC this week, Justin also took back his previous apologies:

Justin Timberlake celebrated his birthday with a one-night-only show in New York City, and made it clear he has “nobody” to apologize to.

The former *NSYNC frontman turned solo star turned 43 on Wednesday and celebrated by playing a free show at Irving Plaza, performing both a slew of his career-spanning hits and some of his new music of his forthcoming album, Everything I Thought It Was (which is due out March 15).

Before singing his 2002 hit “Cry Me a River,” Timberlake took a moment to share some candid thoughts with the crowd. “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to absolutely f—ing nobody,” Timberlake said before the song, a concertgoer confirmed to PEOPLE.

Timberlake also performed the song at the opening of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas in December, but shouted “No disrespect!” before beginning the tune.

[From People]

God, what a douche. Britney thinks so as well – soon after the reporting of Justin’s comments, Britney posted this to her Instagram: “Someone told me someone was talking s— about me on the streets !!! Do you want to bring it to the court or will you go home crying to your mom like you did last time ??? I’m not sorry !!!” I’m sorry but Britney remains hilarious. She’s just naturally funny and Justin is just a dweeb and a loser. It’s driving me crazy that Justin has launched his comeback and people (with the attention spans of gnats) are like “oh wow, Justin is the best, I can’t remember any of the terrible things he’s done!”

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid, Avalon Red.

Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t think Margot Robbie is getting enough credit for her performance in Barbie. I agree completely. [JustJared]
Henry Cavill is sort of remaking his career these days. [LaineyGossip]
Did Taylor Swift write Argylle? LMAO. [Hollywood Life]
Diane Lane looks amazing as she promotes Feud. [GFY]
Nicki Minaj’s Barbz need an intervention or prison time. [Pajiba]
People describe their favorite “poor man’s meals.” [Buzzfeed]
Why certain artists are disappearing from TikTok. [Socialite Life]
Courteney Cox was on Seinfeld. [Seriously OMG]
Who will wear these Giambattista Valli gowns at the SAGs and Oscars? [RCFA]
The trailer for Tarot, which… could have been a lot scarier. [OMG Blog]

If you told me Kate Hudson did an album ten years ago and it faded into obscurity I would believe you. She’s just someone who has her finger in a lot of pies, like Fabletics, a vodka brand and a supplement line. She’s said “I’m an Aries. I get bored. I gotta keep moving,” which might explain her latest foray into music. Kate has released a single co-written with venerable multi-Oscar nominated Linda Perry and Kate’s fiance, musician Danny Fujikawa. It’s called “Talk about Love” and it’s very mid, for lack of a better word. First here’s People Magazine’s writeup about it. In her press release for the song, Kate said “I wanted it to be something delicious and sexy and all the things that I believe in.”

Kate Hudson’s debut single has landed!

The actress-turned-singer’s first song “Talk About Love” has finally dropped after weeks of anticipation from fans, providing a burst of blended rock/pop sounds for listeners to enjoy.

In the song — co-written with Linda Perry and Hudson’s fiancé Danny Fujikawa — the actress, 44, celebrates having a love connection at the deepest level possible while belting out vocals over columns of synth, guitars and a jumping rhythm track guaranteed to raise the mood.

“You only have one first single,” Hudson said of her musical debut in a press release. “And I wanted it to be something delicious and sexy and all the things that I believe in.”

“I wanted it to be open and seeking, searching to find something powerful. But I also wanted the music to be the rock, the pop, the dance music and even a bit of the alternative records I love,” she continued. “It was a lot to put into one song, but thankfully, I had some wonderful people working with me. And so, here we are!”

Hudson worked independently with producer Johan Carlsson and Fujikawa to form a fresh sound for the song that also felt natural to her. The collaboration developed into the makings of an album which the actress has teased will be released later this year.

[From People]

This single, which is below, isn’t bad. I like the retro vibe, but it’s like a theme song on a CW show. It’s budget Lady Gaga without the soul or variety. The refrain is OK and it grew on me I just don’t find it memorable or catchy. Good for Kate for doing music if she wants though. There are so many other musicians who are doing complex, nuanced and haunting music who don’t get much attention at all. I’m thinking specifically of Chadwick Boseman’s widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, who sings as sahn. Her music is phenomenal and some of her videos on YouTube have less than 2,000 views. She’s in a different genre and she does slower jams but they just have so much heart. I’d love it if she got wider recognition. As for Kate, sometimes celebrities dabble in things they want to do rather than things they’re passionate about and it shows.

Here’s that single from Kate.

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We’re actually days/weeks into another cycle where the British media tries to convince everyone that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s business is crumbling, that they’re about to lose their Netflix money, that Spare didn’t make tens of millions of dollars for Harry, etc. The worst part of all of that crap is that, from time to time, the Hollywood trade papers end up mimicking those same deranger talking points. It all becomes a vicious cycle where the Sussexes are held to different standards than literally everybody else in the film/TV production world. In any case, there’s some good news – Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria spoke this week about what Archewell has in the pipeline for Netflix:

There’s been a lot of speculation as to the future of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s deal with Netflix. Fueled by their recent appearance at the premiere of Bob Marley: One Love in Jamaica, reportedly at the invitation of Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins, there’s been much talk as whether the duo would continue working with the streamer.

However, Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria seemed to quell these doubts by teasing a few more royal projects in the works from the pair, who signed an overall deal in 2020.

“Oh, what are they working on,” said Bajaria at a Netflix slate event. “They have a couple of unscripted things they’re working on with Brandon [Reigg]. And they actually have like a bunch of development, they have a movie in development, a [scripted] series that they’re working on. So all very early development, with a movie, a TV show and a couple of unscripted shows. But yeah, the movie’s great.”

Bajaria didn’t disclose what any of these projects were but last year the duo, who run Archewell Productions, acquired the screen rights to Carley Fortune’s Meet Me At The Lake novel to turn into a movie. It tells the story of a couple who meet in their thirties, and deals with themes of childhood trauma, including losing a parent in a car crash, mental health challenges and post-natal depression.

The Harry & Meghan docuseries from the couple launched in December 2022 with six episodes. They also made Live To Lead, an interview series featuring the likes of Greta Thunberg and Gloria Steinem, and Harry’s Heart of Invictus documentary series launched last year.

[From Deadline]

“A couple of unscripted shows” – please, let it be Harry & Meghan: The Second Season. I need another docuseries like that. I would also love a second season of Heart of Invictus, I loved that series and I found the veterans’ stories so compelling and moving. As for Meet Me at the Lake, the author confirmed that Archewell and Netflix purchased the rights to her book and she was happy that they were producing it. It sounds like they have a lot of different stuff they’re doing now.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Netflix.

In 2020, Chris Evans launched A Starting Point, which was supposed to be a political-explainer site with short videos in which politicians and experts could explain laws, bills and policies in short video clips. The site was supposed to be for Gen Z (the youths) and Chris got a lot of well-deserved pushback for engaging in both-sidesism and for platforming fascists. I actually didn’t know that A Starting Point was still a thing – I thought maybe Chris had quietly folded it or re-engineered it. But no. It’s still happening, and on Wednesday, Chris co-hosted a youth forum at the White House AND he got to meet President Biden.

Chris Evans and Mark Kassen, co-founders of the civic engagement not-for-profit A Starting Point, were speaking to Jean-Pierre and other White House officials for a youth forum about the environment, climate change, and the economy.

“We thought we could help shine a light on certain issues and create more civic engagement,” Evans told CNBC’s Emily Wilkins at an appearance at the National Press Club on Monday. “We each have our own social media [accounts]. We each have our own opinions, but that only reaches a certain amount. I think we both felt more good could come from creating a mechanism, a platform, where it is more about engagement, about education, demystifying issues to create a government that more accurately reflects who we are, because if you have half of the country not voting and not using their voice, you will never have a government that understands where we are going.”

Evans and Kassen have said that they don’t want to be at the center of A Starting Point in the longterm. Evans, for instance, had been very vocal in criticism of Donald Trump on Twitter, now known as X. Evans said, “I’ve made my opinions known so vocally that you don’t want someone at face value to think that we are pushing something. The nature of the site is information based and not my opinion. I am not an expert. I’m not a journalist. I have no right to be in this arena, other than as a voter, as an American, who wants to play on the one string I have, which is my voice, as we all should.”

When Wilkins asked if either of them thought about going into politics, they each said no even though they admitted to being intrigued. “I don’t think so,” Evans said. “I think there’s better ways to be a part of the world without having to do the work that goes into being an elected official.”

[From Deadline]

I suspect that – unlike the political reporting to the contrary – the Biden administration won’t be using celebrities as election year “surrogates” per se, but the administration will be using celebs like Chris to push voter engagement and education, and then GOTV. After the forum, President Biden did a video with Chris and apparently there are official Biden-administration aviator sunglasses now??? When did that happen?? Is Ray Ban doing a White House collab? Biden told Evans, “What you’re doing with the kids matters, so thanks for doing this…I’m a fan.”

Chris, thanks for everything you’re doing to get young folks engaged in government and public service.

Because of you, our country’s youngest leaders are getting off the sidelines and helping build the backbone of their communities. pic.twitter.com/TmN1Wk1qer

— President Biden (@POTUS) January 31, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, White House video.

Not to brag, but I think I could make a killing on Wheel of Fortune (ok it’s a brag). I’m sitting on a 100% win rate on Wordle, plus I also play Quordle and Duotrigordle everyday. And when I have a spare moment (ha!) I dip into one of my crossword puzzle volumes for The Washington Post, LA Times, or Boston Globe. (I swear I am an adult and taking care of adult business daily, as well.) So I was thrilled when I got a callback to do a first round audition last fall. Now I’m in the contestant pool for one year!! If/when I make it onto America’s Game, I will be sure to pay extra attention to my volume and diction. A recent contestant who made it to the bonus round has caused a minor brouhaha online over whether or not she gave the right answer. Host Pat Sajak didn’t hear it, but the interwebs disagree.

Are there better ways you could spend your time than getting mad at Wheel of Fortune clips? Yes. But also, I don’t blame people for thinking it’s bullsh*t how one contestant was “robbed” of winning $40,000 during a recent episode of the game show.

Contestant Megan Carvale made it all the way to the bonus round where the category was Living Things. After getting the customary “RSTLNE” letters and guessing a few of her own, she was left with P_N__RC__D. Megan wasted no time in trying to solve the puzzle. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to. “You might have been overthinking a type of orchid. I’m sorry that didn’t work out for you,” host Pat Sajak said as the board revealed the correct answer: Pink Orchid.

But as noted by Decider, “Viewers at home were convinced that Carvale had guessed ‘Pink Orchid’ right as the countdown began. Because the countdown music was playing at the same time, her first guess is a bit difficult to understand.” It’s hard to tell: it could be “pink orchid,” but it also might be “something orchid.” The Wheel of Fortune community has weighed in, though, and they’re convinced Carvale should have won.

[From Uproxx]

I have watched this video over and over again, and it’s just the final consonant of the first word that I cannot make out. Megan’s answer (the first guess, by the way) sure sounds like “Pink Orchid” except for the definitive K sound trailing off. She either said “Pink Orchid” or “Ping Orchid.” Or maybe Pat thought he heard her say “Pinq” and dismissed the answer due to the Q spelling. The thing is, once the answer is revealed Megan deflates and acts like she knows she just lost. Why would she do that if she had said the right answer? Nerves? And there are a lot of people in that studio, so I’m kind of inclined to believe that someone from production is tasked with listening closely. That’s it — we need the sound tech to weigh in! Hold on, after watching the video one extra umpteenth time I am cautiously confident that she says “someTHING orchid,” with the first syllable very softly spoken. Meanwhile, since I now have “Pink Orchid” stuck on a loop in my head, all I can think of is how it sounds like a perfume. Pink Orchid by Wheel of Fortune… always the right answer.

photos are shreenshots from YouTube/Wheel of Fortune

Queen Camilla was pretty much the only senior royal out and about in the month of January. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh also did a handful of events (Edward was even abroad), but ever since King Charles and the Princess of Wales’s dual medical issues were revealed, it’s been all about Camilla. Camilla out and about, doing events. Camilla making sure to be seen visiting her husband repeatedly in the hospital. Camilla holding down the fort and giving updates about Charles’s condition, while mysteriously never being asked about Kate’s condition. Everything’s coming up Camilla! Which is the point of this latest Telegraph piece – it’s mostly a summary of previously reported, positive PR for Cam, but the framing of it is very “Camilla is the last one standing.” Some highlights:

Last woman standing: The King is recovering from hospital treatment for an enlarged prostate, the Princess of Wales is convalescing at home, and the Prince of Wales is focused on supporting his wife and taking care of their three children. That leaves just one woman standing: Queen Camilla, holding the fort… This means the 76-year-old Queen – who has been out and about every day this week – is practically ruling solo, with support from the other “women of Windsor,” the Princess Royal and the Duchess of Edinburgh.

A busy schedule?? The ever-capable Camilla has ploughed on with a busy schedule of public engagements, too. On Wednesday, she opened a new Maggie’s cancer support centre at the Royal Free Hospital in London. She promised to pass on well wishes for the King, who she said is “getting on” and “doing his best”.

Camilla’s shoes: The secret to smiling in the face of a never-ending list of engagements? Comfortable shoes. “Camillla has found a way to dress elegantly for royal engagements without sacrificing on comfort. You’d never see her in a spindly stiletto – all her shoes tend to have the same sensible low block heel which the late Queen Elizabeth relied on into her 90s,” says Bethan Holt, Telegraph Fashion Director and author of The Queen: 70 years of Majestic Style. “She favours British brands like Sole Bliss, Eliot Zed and Russell and Bromley whose shoes and boots are crafted to withstand long periods of standing while looking good, too,” Holt adds. “The Queen’s longtime dresser Jacqui Meakin works with a small circle of designers including Anna Valentine and Fiona Clare to source outfits which will make Camilla feel effortlessly good.

Stoicism & good humor: A double Royal health blow presents unprecedented circumstances. But the Queen’s approach is nothing different to her usual attitude of stoicism and hard work coupled with good humour. “She has a great twinkle, and it comes out very readily… it puts people at their ease very quickly,” said Lady Lansdowne, a close friend of the Queen’s, in a recent BBC documentary about the Coronation year.

A stiff drink: Indeed, as a voracious reader and the patron of several literary charities, relaxing with a good book (with or without a gin and tonic, said to be her favourite tipple) is one of the ways the Queen takes care of her own wellbeing when faced with a busy and demanding schedule. Another is riding or walking, either at Clarence House or the private Wiltshire residence she has owned since the mid-1990s – although it is doubtful there is much time for a countryside retreat at the moment.

Running the show: Not long ago, it would have seemed impossible that the Queen would be running the show solo. And yet she has proved she is a very safe pair of hands.

[From The Telegraph]

What’s also sort of funny about the whole “Camilla is holding down the fort/she’s the last woman standing” thing is that before January, it felt like Camilla was being slowly downgraded in importance. She didn’t do well during the Kenya trip, and the trip to France wasn’t a galloping success either. There were more and more stories about how she didn’t want to travel, how she and Charles were spending more time apart, and she was “overwhelmed” by the workload and expectations of being queen. I got the feeling that she missed having more downtime to day-drink at Ray Mill. But something about Charles and Kate’s medical issues has given Camilla a spring in her step. She’s always happiest when she’s playing some kind of angle and screwing over one of her enemies. Something to keep in mind.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.