On Monday, we covered the scandal involving Pippa Middleton and a gun. I making that way more sensational than it really was – the basic story: Pippa was in France, hanging out with rich dudes, and one of the dudes “pulled a gun” and pointed it at a paparazzo while Pippa smirked and laughed. The paparazzo in question had been following Pippa around Paris, taking photos of her as she made the rounds with all of the eligible Frenchmen she could find, and he got the “money shot” – one of the dudes pointing the gun at him as Pippa made eye contact with the camera.

Well, on Monday, the British and French press were having a field day with this story, and there was said to be a police “inquiry” in regards to the gun incident. Even if the gun was fake, there would still be legal consequences, maybe. Except that it doesn’t seem like there actually is a police inquiry. Because no one has complained or filed charges or anything. Oh, and one of the French dudes has a spokesperson, and the spokesperson claims the gun is fake:

Pippa Middleton went to Paris for a friend’s birthday party and the British media are agog over an alleged gun flashed at paparazzi by one of her companions.

But a spokesman for a French fashion designer photographed in a car with Middleton, sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, and a pistol-brandishing driver says it was a toy gun, and just “a game” with paparazzi.

Aymeric de Drouas, spokesman for a French clothing company owned by Arthur de Soultrait, told The Associated Press the gun in a photo published by The Sun newspaper was a toy and the photographers knew it.

Drouas says Middleton and Soultrait told him they were joking with photographers who’d been trailing them throughout Middleton’s visit for Soultrait’s birthday party.

Paris police say they’ve received no complaint and are not investigating.

[From The New York Times]

A French police source also told the Press Association, “We don’t know the circumstances in which these photographs were taken. But we cannot launch an inquiry based simply on photographs that have appeared online and in the press. To launch an investigation, it would be necessary for there to have been a complaint or something would need to have presented itself to police.” So… it sounds like Pippa is not going to get arrested or anything like that. It was just embarrassing for her, but not criminal.

Which makes me wonder – are the British people finally over Pippa? Granted, I like her. I think she’s pushy, aggressive, nakedly ambitious and Uptradey, but I like that about her. I feel like there’s not much pretense with her – you know you’re getting a party girl looking to marry the richest, most well-connected man. But the way the British press tried to whitewash her, it seemed like she was being groomed for bigger and brighter things. Not so much anymore – after hustling in the public eye for almost a year, Pippa is finally getting some really bad press, much of it self-inflicted. After all, even before this fake-gun incident, Pippa had partied the night before with “dwarves, strippers, people clothed in bondage outfits and a woman fire-eater” at that Frenchman’s birthday party. So not Duchess-y, Pips. I wonder if the British press is going to recast Pippa as the “Fergie” to Duchess Kate’s “Diana”?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.