Did you guys see this People Magazine article a few days ago? It’s all about whether People Mag should refer to The Artist Formerly Known as Kate Middleton as “Princess Kate” or “Duchess Kate” or “Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge” or whatever. We’ve had that debate so many times before. Back in 2011, just after William and Kate got married, I made the editorial decision to refer to her as “Duchess Kate” in headlines, even though that’s not the real royal title style. Her real title should be written HRH Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, which is what the Queen decreed back in 2011. But that’s way too wordy for headlines, so she became Duchess Kate around here and many other outlets.
There’s been a movement (mostly among pro-Kate sites) to start referring to her as Princess Kate or Princess Catherine, but I refuse. That’s really far from her given title, although through her marriage, she could be called Princess William of Wales. My theory has always been that William – like a tantrum-prone child – has always been pissed off that people call Kate a duchess and not a princess. William tried to rectify that on Prince George’s birth certificate by calling Kate a “Princess of the United Kingdom.” Which led to even more debate and angst. Anyway, this is just an FYI. Media outlets are still debating it but around here, we’re still going to call her Duchess Kate. Or Waity. Or the old stand-by, the Duchess of Buttons.
Meanwhile, Duchess Kate is still feeling unwell. She’s staying with her parents in Bucklebury and George is reportedly there too, being looked after by Carole and the nanny. Where is William? I guess he’s in training for his new job, but God knows. Kate’s staffers keep scheduling stuff for Kate to do, but she keeps canceling so we have no idea when we’re going to see her in public again. Perhaps she’ll just spend the rest of the year at her parents’ house? Might as well. And interestingly enough, it sounds like at least one person is making an effort to come to the Middletons. That person? Harvey Weinstein!
Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton may get a private screening of Oscar-contender movie “The Imitation Game” because of her family connection to the World War II code-breaking center where the movie is set. The Duchess’ paternal grandmother, Valerie Glassborow, in 1944 worked at the famous “spy school” Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, the central site of the Government Code and Cypher School, which penetrated the secret communications of the Germans and their allies. The work done there is credited with shortening WWII by at least two years, and Glassborow was reportedly a “duty officer.”
The upcoming Weinstein Co. movie, which opens Nov. 21, is about Alan Turing, the pioneering mathematician and computer scientist who played a key role in decrypting German codes at Bletchley Park. We’re told Harvey Weinstein is working on setting up a private screening of the movie, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, for the entire Middleton family. Now-pregnant Kate visited Bletchley in June.
I’m including photos of Kate’s Bletchley Park visit in this post – she actually seemed pretty jazzed to visit the area and listen to the old recordings in June. Obviously, this whole thing is just an Oscar campaign scheme by Harvey Weinstein to get The Imitation Game even more press. But I wouldn’t put it past Harvey to, like, personally travel to Bucklebury to give the Middletons a private screening of the film. Prince George could endorse Benedict Cumberbatch for Best Actor. It would be great press!
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News and WENN.
Who cares????
Yeah, I don’t mean to be rude but…who cares?
I feel the same way. There’s nothing of substance to report about her, so this is what we get. I hope when she comes out of seclusion she’ll have undergone a total make-over so that we have something interesting (and positive) to comment on rather than her work ethic, theme dressing or eyeliner.
+1000 seriously who cares? This girl is so boring I don’t understand the fascination with her. Or any of th royals really
Agreed. I’m having trouble even regarding her as a royal these days. She’s losing ground fast.
Haha yes, I’m sure royals get perks like this all the time, not really a big deal.
+10000000
If memory serves, her grandmother worked at Bletchley park-so I could see her being jazzed to be somewhere with real family history. I know I would be.
Again, why do Charles’ press office keep scheduling her for things when they know she’s sick?
Charles’ press office doesn’t schedule anything. Hers and William’s PR does. They control their own schedules, not PoW.
Didn’t their offices combine and they are all under Charles now?
I thought that was just for press, L, but I could be wrong.
I might be wrong, but I thought of it like this. there were 3 pr groups. W&K get KP, Harry gets SJP, and Charles has his own… Forget the name. They were scattered about, but now are all consolidated for size and ease of intercommunication. And it doesn’t mean 1 pr group is working for them all.
She sets her own schedule, they all do. As someone mentioned on another thread, her PR people can only do so much with what they have to work with. W&K look like nightmare clients and the staff are scrambling. Staff are announcing things have been cancelled without first announcing that they had been scheduled. Why announce something that was a secret? It looks a lot like, “Make it look like she *would* have been working hard if she could.”
The next event that has been announced is a quick afternoon meet & greet as part of a group, in about two weeks. They aren’t scheduled for the state dinner. So if/when she cancels, it has minor impact because she was an add-on to someone else’s event. They’re following their usual pattern. W&K always do a rush of events (ie. a handful) in the fall, to bulk up their numbers before the final tally and the trip to Mustique.
BUTTONS
that’s all I’ve got
£2,000 worth of buttons to visit people who’d lost everything in a riot. Faux military garb, to add insult to injury, when tensions between the residents and the police were high.
sighs. shakes head. later. rinse. repeat.
I was also surprised by the dress worn for the riot aftermath. Who’s side was she on?
Small correction: she’s HRH The Duchess of Cambridge. No first name therein. The only women who have a first name ahead of their titles are daughters and divorcees of title. Calling her HRH Catherine, DoC says she’s divorced.
I call her Plastic Bot Of A Person Regarded By Others As Representing My Country Which She Does Very Poorly Indeed Causing Me To Weep And Wail And Gnash My Teeth.
But I suppose, by the time you’d typed all that lot out, there’d be no room for any gossip. I’m also sure there’s a pun in there about Capital Case, but I can’t be arsed to think of a good joke around it. Sorry! Anyway, you’re right: even in non-accurate common parlance, it’s either Duchess Kate or Princess William. Not Princess Kate.
Sixer, you could call her “C.O.W.” (Catherine of Wales) which was briefly pegged as her security name.
It took me a good minute to get this.
Nearly 10 to 9 and clearly not enough caffeine in the system yet.
D’you reckon we could fit that on a blue plaque somewhere in Buckleberry?
Or maybe the London branch of L.K Bennett –
‘Here lies the shop where HRH Duchess Dolittle sources far too many nude heels’.
Amelia: did you know that there is a branch of L.K Bennett on Ken Church street at the junction of an alley that leads straight to the gates of KP!!!
Pure concidence since it’s been there longer than Kate has been a royal, but it always makes me laugh every time she appears in LK Bennett since a branch is literally outside the gates.
On the subject of broken relationships, chocolate, brandy, TRANSFORMERS (1-4) or any film of that type. (hugs)
Notasugar: I used to laugh at Sophie’s title acronym COW (Countess of Wessex). Didn’t know security had given it to Kate.
It’s a source of mild irritation that Kaate and Camilla have the same title accronym since one has to write out the titles to show distinction instead of simply going with DoC for Camilla as it used to be.
And if Harry gets Clarence while HM is still alive, we’ll have even more DoC’s in the mix!
Seriously??
That’s priceless! She could do an early morning shoe run every time she leaves KP.
Now all I have to do is source some brandy. In the meantime I shall eat ALL THE HARIBO <3
I’m entirely up for both blue plaques and mean acronyms! (I’m having a bad day. Can you tell?!)
That’s why I thought that security acronym was so funny. It was the one the security people had given her briefly (based on initials but result was amusing).
Come sit over here with me in the mojito corner, Sixer, and nom your troubles away.
We have cocktails, cake and digestive biscuits (I’ve been feeling poorly and just got dumped – digestives and tea always go down a treat.)
How about just Plasic Bot?
I never thought I’ll say this but I’m glad that my native language doesn’t have separate words for princess/duchess. Saves a lot of headache.
I’d have thought this was pretty normal for any film, tbh.
As ^^^^ notes, Kate’s granny or someone worked at Bletchley Park, so it has a personal pull.
@Kaiser. “There’s been a movement (mostly among pro-Kate sites) to start referring to her as Princess Kate or Princess Catherine, but I refuse.”
Thank you for refusing. Her Majesty decides the titles, that’s the deal. The “fans” don’t like it, then they don’t understand how monarchies work.
I post on a pro-Kate site and there hasn’t been anything there. Other than calling her Catherine rather than Kate, but no one makes a big deal over it. I continue to call her Kate. 🙂
Some call her princess. And if you challenge that on factual level it’s not pretty. Using Princess as an endearing term is fine. Tell them she’s not princess Kate from a techincal view and it’s madness. For some anyways.
I think it’s hilarious that PEOPLE mag keeps trying to push the Princesstitle on their pages ,even the British Press gave up on the idea after the first few days of the wedding. PEOPLE had no problem understanding or calling Sarah Ferguson by her Duchess title, but somehow they scratch their heads over Kate’s title. Sarah was also a Princess, but People Magazine never went into meltdowns over why she was a Duchess. The problem is not really Kate’s title, The problem is that Kate is not really doing much with her position, nor is she very interesting past Prince George.
Also from what a friend told me who worked for one of the big celebrity magazines in a NY office, the magazines were desperately hoping for a new Diana to sell magazines and capture the worlds attention. The magazines thought Kate would be the new Diana and enrapture public interests as such, but she hasn’t, even though some of the magazines keep trying. The Magazines were desperately hoping for that Princess title but the Duchess title threw them , many just did not understand how royalty worked.
Many of those staff writers and even many of the American reporters didn’t understand how Royalty and Royal titles actually work.
I recall seeing a NBC New anchor hit her desk on the wedding day and say why did the Queen make her Duchess? These people had no clue about things.
+1. I really hate that People stubbornly refuses to use the Duchess title and instead uses one that doesn’t exist (I know she’s Princess William but no one is going to use that). For a while after the new editor took over, they stopped referring to her as Princess so much and just used Kate a lot, so I thought maybe the new editor was going to make the switch to Duchess, but now they’re back to Princess with a vengeance. Every other tabloid gets Duchess right, so why don’t you, People???? SMH
Even some of the Royal press pack of journos laughs at PEOPLE for it.
HRH Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge isn´t right too. Only divorced members have no “The” (see Fergie, she lost her “The”) and people who are only royals by marriage wear the “HRH” before their title and not the name. Kate is not HRH Catherine. She is Catherine HRH The Duchess of Cambridge.
The official website and George´s birth certificate show the difference between Kate and her men:
royal born:
HRH Prince William The Duke of Cambridge, (…)
HRH Prince George of Cambridge
not royal born:
Catherine HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, (…). Only her “title” is a “royal highness”
She has no Catherine in her title. The certificate was wrong – PW doesn’t know how his own system works.
ONLY daughters or divorcees have their first name as part of their titles eg
Lady Diana Spencer = daughter of title.
Princess Beatrice of York = daughter of title
Countess Spencer = Wife of title
The Duchess of York = wife of title
Caroline, Countess Spencer = divorced wife of title.
Sarah, Duchess of York = divorced wife of title.
Kate is simply The Duchess of Cambridge = wife of title.
Calling her: Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge = divorced wife of title.
“PW doesn’t know how his own system works.” This is sadly true about so many things when it comes to William and the monarchy in general.
By the expression on her face with the headphones on I think they must have substituted ‘You And I’ by One Direction instead of Bletchley tapes.
This film was made by Harvey W film company. Pre Oscar hype, remember how it was leaked that Elisabeth Taylor was voting for kings speech while she was in her hospital bed
Yea. Harvey will do anything for press and he is pretty great at it.
TWC bought the rights for distribution, didn’t made the film.