“6 ways to look dapper in the rain - South China Morning Post” plus 1 more |
| 6 ways to look dapper in the rain - South China Morning Post Posted: 14 May 2019 06:00 PM PDT  On Boaz (left): Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Self-winding Chronograph, calibre 4401, 41mm in 18ct white gold, HK$333,000 (US$42,450); Dior Homme jacquard coat, HK$52,000; trousers, HK$7,700; belt, HK$5,800; jacquard top, price on request; Pasotti umbrella, price on request; On Tuur: Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Self-winding, calibre 4302, 41mm in 18ct pink gold, HK$211,000; Dior Homme waistcoat, HK$19,000; trousers, HK$6,700; belt, HK$6,300; Hermès parka, price on request; Borsalino Panama hat, price on request; Fox Umbrellas walking stick, price on request |
| Posted: 05 Feb 2019 12:00 AM PST Is there a vicious feud raging between everyone's favorite royal sisters-in-law, Duchess Kate of Cambridge and Duchess Meghan of Sussex? They'll never say. But that doesn't stop TV networks and media from whetting fan appetites with speculation. Thus, "Kate v Meghan: Princesses at War?" landed Tuesday on TLC, the cable network that once brought you the "19 Kids and Counting" family and now airs "Dr Pimple Popper" and "My 600 Lb Life." Technically, neither Kate nor Meghan are princesses; they're royal duchesses. But "princess" sounds better to royally confused Americans so that's what they went with. Also, the question mark at the end of the title is an important signal to take everything said with a proper dose of skepticism. What was the show about? It was an hour-long exploration of whether there is "any truth to the speculation of unrest" between the former Kate Middleton and the former Meghan Markle and their husbands, Prince William and Prince Harry. British media people – royal reporters and commentators, royal historians and biographers, broadcasters and former royal staffers – were the talking heads brought in to explain why media people have been gossiping about a royal rift near daily for months. You'd be hard-pressed to decide if the stories are true from watching this, but if you're a royal fan you've made up your mind already. Some of the talking heads have made up their minds, too. "Meghan needs to understand this is the British monarchy and she is not in a TV show, this is not a performance, this is the real story," sniffed Lady Colin Campbell, an eccentric Jamaican-born ex-wife of a British aristocrat who has written books about the royals. What do palace officials have to say? Nothing. There is no official, on-the-record confirmation from Kensington Palace (or any palace) about a "war" between the duchesses or their husbands the dukes. And there never will be because, even if there is a feud, no royal media minion would ever say so without fear of losing his or her head. Metaphorically, of course. So why bother? Because the British find it entertaining to gossip about their royals, and the more outrageous the stories the better. TLC let Americans in on the fun. Who says there's a feud? The media, of course. It is a truth universally acknowledged that the British tabloids, in possession of a new royal star they have drenched in fawning coverage, must eventually be in want of a royal "scandal" they can gleefully exploit to tear her down to size – and bulk up their readers, clicks and viewers at the same time. And so it has come to pass since Meghan married Harry last May at Windsor Castle in a blaze of royal splendor and an avalanche of adulatory coverage of the American royal bride destined to rescue the royal family from its (alleged) stuffiness and irrelevance. "The rift was an inevitable narrative because the idea of two duchesses having a cat fight was too irresistible for the press not to go near," says royal reporter Katie Nicholl, who's been covering "the rift" for Vanity Fair and the Mail on Sunday. CLOSE  According to Hello Magazine in the U.K., Kensington Palace says many of the comments towards the Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton are abusive. The magazine is taking a stand. Buzz60 What are they supposed to be feuding about? In public, by their words and behavior at joint appearances, Meghan and Kate appear to be as friendly as any two strangers now married into the same family. After Harry and Meghan's engagement announcement in November 2017, she said in an interview that Kate was "amazing" and "wonderful." Kate told reporters she was "absolutely thrilled" about the engagement, and told well-wishers during a walkabout in November 2018 that Meghan's pregnancy is "really, really special." "Harry and Meghan had an incredibly successful tour to the South Pacific (in October) and boom, they get back and suddenly Kate and Meghan hate each other? It was extraordinary how fast it happened," says CNN's royal commentator Victoria Arbiter, the daughter of a former press secretary to the queen. Scores of anonymously-sourced stories have have landed, and not just in the tabloids, since late in 2018: Meghan, 37, made Kate, 37, cry at a pre-wedding dress fitting for little Princess Charlotte: It has not been explained why or what she supposedly said. "The future queen was in tears about what Meghan said to her," declares broadcaster Carol Malone, although she allows that maybe Kate was a little post-partum emotional having just given birth to her third child, Prince Louis, in April. Some of the reporters swear their sources tell them it's true and that the queen had to "intervene" with Harry to get Meghan to behave better. Others dismiss it as no big deal. "Meghan, if she did have a weak Bridezilla moment, she wouldn't be the first bride to have experienced that," shrugs Arbiter. Harry and Meghan's decision to move to Windsor away from Will and Kate at Kensington Palace is being interpreted as a sign that the two couples don't get along. But Harry and Meghan need a bigger place than a two-bedroom flat now that they're having their first child, and there is no reason why they have to live in Kensington Palace or even in London. Harry and Meghan were not at Kate's 37th birthday party in January at their Norfolk country retreat, Anmer Hall. A similar interpretation is being applied to this episode as a sign of friction. But where does it say they have to celebrate birthdays together? Meghan was rude to Kate's staff and Kate told her it was unacceptable. An "impeccable" royal source told The Sun that Kate told Meghan not to berate her team at Kensington Palace in a confrontation before the wedding. What did Meghan say and to whom? Not explained. However, the palace took the rare step of flatly denying this: A palace official told the tabloid, "This never happened." If the Kate vs Meghan storyline seems implausible, maybe you'll go for the Harry vs William claim. Under this scenario, reported by Nicholl in Vanity Fair, Harry was peeved at his brother for allegedly not being welcoming enough to Meghan at Sandringham for Christmas in 2017, when Meghan was invited by the queen to spend the holiday in a first-ever invitation to a royal bride whose wedding was still five months off. "I was told the (rift) was actually between the brothers," confides Nicholl. What other stories about Meghan are swirling? Meghan is supposedly demanding and difficult, a diva who is peremptory with the staff and bossy to Harry, and way too American in her approach to her new role. Royal staffers moan to reporters that Meghan gets up early to do yoga and begins firing off emails at 5 a.m. The nerve. "Meghan is 'go-go-go-go, I've got to get it all done now.' I think she needs to chill and slow down a little bit," says royal biographer Ingrid Seward. Even when Meghan does something that seems positive, some journalists find some reason to criticize her. When Harry and Meghan visited a Bristol charity last week that helps women escape from sex work, she scribbled inspirational messages – "You are loved" and "You are special," plus little hearts – on bananas packed in lunches for the women. "It's a very American thing to do: tell people lies that don't really work to sell books or a brand," sniped Mail on Sunday columnist Liz Jones under a headline: "Oh, Meghan! Writing twee slogans for sex workers on bananas won't change anything." Why would these two women be at odds? Meghan and Kate allegedly don't get along, aren't best friends, and are very different people with very different upbringings, according to royal correspondents. "Different upbringings" is code for: Kate is English, white, the daughter of a happy home of upper-class millionaires, private school-educated, and home-counties bred. Meghan is American, biracial, a former Hollywood actress ("Suits"), married and divorced before, the daughter of a dysfunctional family , and raised in sprawling Los Angeles. "In the media they were pitted against each other: the one loud, outspoken, ambitious, American, and then the shy, retiring English rose," says Nicholl. "I think it was very convenient for the media." Because it's a dream storyline, says Eve Pollard, former editor of the Sunday Mirror and of Elle magazine in the U.K. "It's a right royal knockabout – if you were an editor...what do you think will sell newspapers?" Where's the proof? The "tension" has gotten so thick, the in-the-know claim, that Harry and Meghan, pregnant with her first child due in the spring, decided to move to a renovated mansion on the Windsor Castle grounds. Also, the two have moved to split up their royal offices, as Harry is beginning to emerge from his brother's shadow as a separate royal personality and the two couples' philanthropic activities diverge to reflect their own interests. "The idea that the Fab Four were going to be splitting up actually suggested that the Fab Four were not that fabulous," says Nicholl. But maybe a desire to find a new home for a growing family, plus a desire for greater privacy and security far from London, played more of a role in their announced move? "Harry is obsessed with privacy," says royal historian Kate Williams. "And he's seen what happens to William's children every time they go out in the park outside the palace – someone takes a (picture) snap at them." Surely this alleged rift is exaggerated? "I think a lot of rumors about Kate and Meghan are manufactured to sell newspapers - it's just too good a story," says Paul Burrell, Princess Diana's former butler and a go-to royal commentator . Malone, a TV broadcaster with decades of experience working for tabloids, was huffy at the charge. "The media, contrary to popular belief, do not make up stories," she says. "We can't name some of the people saying derogatory things about Meghan because they would get fired." What is the effect of social media on the rift rumors? In the short term, the media-driven rumors are having unpleasant consequences, including a surge of racist and sexist comments and threats on royal social media accounts, where fans of one duchess slag fans of the other with offensive abandon. Some of them are too vicious to publish, reported The Times of London. "Palace aides have been spending hours each week moderating comments on the official palace Instagram account and removing racist and sexist content," reported The Associated Press. Hello!, a British celebrity magazine (which has covered the story as assiduously as any other publication), last week launched a "kindness campaign,"#HellotoKindness, to combat the online slime, including accusations that Meghan is "faking her pregnancy to get attention, trying too hard, walking strangely, touching her baby bump too often and being too slim." Why does any of this matter? The program notes that the relationship between Meghan and Kate is crucial for the monarchy's future as a viable, popular, respected institution. It won't do for brothers and sisters-in-law to be at odds when they take on future royal responsibilities, especially the Cambridges as future Prince and Princess of Wales. But Burrell predicts trouble for Meghan's relationship with Kate, who will always outrank her as Princess of Wales and as a future queen. "Kate will always be in front – this is going to be alien to Meghan, having to curtsy to her sister-in-law in public," he says. "She's a strong, independent woman whose views will be difficult to change and that's where she's going to clash with members of the royal family and the royal household, if she doesn't conform and do as she's told." Well, maybe we should wait and see. In the meantime, welcome to the royal life, Meghan.
. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2019/02/06/kate-v-meghan-ropes-royal-fans-look-tabloid-claims-feud/2731144002/ |
| You are subscribed to email updates from "black earrings,chanel tan de soleil,fashion earrings" - Google News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
0 Yorumlar