Here are some new photos of the Duchess of Cambridge in London last night. She wore a “a double-breasted, 1950s-style dress by the high street clothing label Jesire” for her first solo public appearance as a royal – I like the outfit. She looks good in grey, and I think it was suitable for the occasion and the season. While she still needs to STOP with the eyeliner, her salon-fresh hair did seem more subdued, right? It’s not so “college girl sausage curls”. Or maybe I’m just getting used to it.
Anyway, the occasion was a preview of the Lucian Freud exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. You might remember, the National Portrait Gallery is one of Kate’s five patronages (which took her more than a year to organize). The tour of Freud’s work took an hour, and I’m happy to report that Kate handled herself with grace. She didn’t mess up, she didn’t trip or scratch one of the Freuds. Incidentally, did anyone else read that fantastic article about Freud in Vanity Fair last month? Go here to read it – it’s a great piece about one of the great artists of the modern age.
Us Weekly has an article this week about how depressed Kate is now that William has left her for his Falklands military training. Here are some highlights from the piece:
William left on February 1, and “Kate misses him,” says a Kate source. “It’s difficult for any officer’s wife to have her husband away on duty.”
William’s absence comes as Kate, 30, begins an intensive round of princess boot camp. “Kate’s a working royal, and her first work will happen while William isn’t around,” says the Kate pal. “It’s the toughest time for her to be alone.”
While William is away, the Queen is advising Kate. A palace aide says, “They’ve become close. Her Majesty has done it all. There isn’t anyone who can give better advice. Her Majesty has helped Catherine learn the importance of engagements, and what’s expected of her when she starts to go out and meet the public by herself.”
“While William is away, Kate plans to do nothing but work,” says a palace source.
[From Us Weekly, print edition]
Sure. I’m sure she “plans to do nothing but work” especially considering the palace has been trying to convince us she’s actually been working “hard” this whole time. In between shopping and hair appointments, of course. And sitting around, waiting for William to come home. And I really, really hope the whole “this is the toughest thing EVER” part of these stories is just editorial BS, made up out of whole cloth, and Kate isn’t really sitting around thinking about how tough she has it.
Duchess Kate has returned to England following her two-week Mustique vacation with her family. Prince William did join Kate for the vacation, he just came there days after she arrived. I yelled about the “tone-deaf” PR of the vacation, but in the end, I took some of it back. It was probably nice for William and Kate to get away together (with her family) before William’s six-week training session in the Falklands. But don’t think that Kate and William were trying to get pregnant during their vacation – British sources are still claiming that it will be another year before any royal baby-making goes down.
So William has officially left his duchess wife for the Falklands – I thought he was going to be on the base there, but People Mag says that he’s serving on a warship. It’s almost the 30th anniversary of the Falklands “conflict” (war), and there are some concerns that the UK and Argentina could be entering into another “conflict” – I don’t know what William’s presence means for the politics of the situation, but whatever happens, I seriously doubt William will see any war games or action. But that’s the point of this story – as William departed for the Falklands, Kate returned to London. All of last week, while Kate was on vacation, the palace was telling every media outlet out there all about Kate’s plans to do a mountain of charity work while William was away. So what did Kate do upon her return? She spent several hours at the hair salon. She went shopping. Seriously.
She’s known for her chic, yet affordable, wardrobe, but not every item in Kate Middleton’s closet is budget-friendly.
After returning from a Caribbean vacation — and saying goodbye to husband Prince William who’s currently serving in the Falklands — the Duchess of Cambridge, 30, was spotted in jeans, knee-high black boots and a gorgeous brown suede coat with fur lining in London on Monday. She carried her favorite Mulberry Small Polly Posh handbag in Midnight, which retails for $1,050.
Middleton first showed off the pricey purse back in June and took it on the royals’ North American tour during the summer.
For her first public outing since William’s departure, the style icon spent three hours at the Richard Ward salon and picked up groceries at Partridges.
ONLY three hours! Because Kate’s hair is a national treasure! I mean, I’m sure she needed a visit to the salon because of all of the vacation wear-and-tear on her hair. I’m not saying she’s an awful person because she spends hours in a hair salon. I’m just saying that the palace should really stop trying to convince us that Kate is so diligent, hard-working and “normal”. She’s just a spoiled rich girl who spends the bulk of her time on vacation, shopping or grooming herself. Also: CB just said that the only reason Kate would spend that much time in the salon is for extensions. I AGREE.
Oh, and here’s a days-old story in The Mail that just cracked me up – it’s all about how the Queen is trying to gently encourage Kate to, you know, do something.
The Duchess of Cambridge is being offered the perfect preparation for her life as a working Royal – a series of ‘training sessions’ with the Queen.
Kate will take on a handful of solo engagements while Prince William is overseas and will then tour the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Malaysia and Singapore with him in September.
Now the Queen, who ascended to the Throne 60 years tomorrow, has invited her to Buckingham Palace for regular chats to boost her confidence.
‘The Queen has developed a great affection for Kate and wants her to feel fully supported,’ says an insider. ‘She knows how big a step carrying out official duties will be for Kate and has offered to have regular meetings to make sure she feels prepared.’
The 30-year-old Duchess is to accompany the Queen on two Diamond Jubilee engagements next month, and a courtier says: ‘The Queen is taking a very close interest in the Duchess’s development. The engagements they will carry out together promise to be invaluable learning opportunities for Kate, as well as being a real honour.’
I would love to know the Queen’s real opinion of Kate. I remember hearing that the Queen was very pleased with Kate and William’s royal tour of Canada, but beyond that, I have to wonder if the Queen is a bit displeased with what kind of a royal bride Kate is turning out to be. As the Queen would say, “We are not amused.”
Headlines involving the words “Kate” and “Wait” are nothing new. In fact, there’s a decades’ worth of those headlines, but they all involve her waiting for the ring, Duchess Kate’s only career goal ever. So this is slightly new – The Mail reports that despite centuries of royal history and the expectations of a decade’s worth of waiting, Duchess Kate and Prince William aren’t going to try for a baby in their first year of marriage. In fact, they probably won’t even get to it in their second year of marriage.
Prince William and Kate are putting off having a family until next year so they can focus on the Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics.
Despite hopes of a Jubilee baby, sources close to the couple say they are in ‘no hurry’ to start a family and want to make sure that 2012 is a success for the sake of the Queen’s 60th anniversary celebrations.
‘Realistically there is not going to be time for a baby and they have said they are in no hurry. There is no urgent need for an heir – we already have two,’ says a source. ‘William and Kate want to take things in their own good time.’
The news comes as Clarence House confirmed that Kate, 30, will start solo official engagements next month, once William leaves for his first tour of duty in the Falkland Islands.
‘It will be a good distraction for her and take her mind off worrying about William,’ says the source. ‘At the moment, starting a family is definitely on the backburner.’
The Duchess of Cambridge – who married William last April – is the Royal patron of The Art School, National Portrait Gallery, Action On Addiction, and East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices. She has also said she will volunteer with the Scout Association.
‘The Duchess will have a handful of engagements while the Duke is away,’ a spokesman says. ‘She will visit all her patronages publicly at least once and continue to visit them privately. It will be a busy period. The reason she chose so few charities is that she wants to get to know them intimately.’
William and Kate will be apart for six weeks in February and March, then they will gear up for the Jubilee weekend in June. In September or October they will tour Singapore, Malaysia, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
I really don’t understand why Kate couldn’t be pregnant AND working as a royal? Princesses have done it for years and decades and centuries, fulfilling their royal duties at the same time, if you know what I mean. Like walking and chewing gum, actively being pregnant and making appearances on behalf of the monarch doesn’t seem like it’s something so grueling, no one has ever done it before. Anyway, I guess the British people will just have to WAIT as Kate is slowly, methodically eased into her royal role at a snail’s pace, and they’ll have to wait until Kate and William are well into their 30s for them to produce a royal heir.
Look, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with waiting until your 30s to start a family – there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and I actually do think it’s very interesting to see that more “modern” trend happen in the royal family. But just know that in this, Kate and William really are breaking with tradition in a big way. Most royal brides produce an heir very quickly, and people were really expecting Will and Kate to start having babies, considering William made her wait so long for the ring. I also think Kate is misjudging her popularity – royal brides pop out babies quickly for PR reasons too, because everybody loves babies and babies “soften” the image of a princess and give her something to “do” (as in, “Kate is raising a family, that’s what she does all day.”). If Kate isn’t pregnant two years out from the wedding, I think there will be a big backlash against her, honestly. Because what the hell does she do with her time? “Kate gets her hair done, and goes shopping, that’s all she’s done during two years of marriage.”
On Friday, we discussed the Duchess of Cambridge’s decision to fly to Mustique with her family for one of her dozen yearly vacations. I noted how oddly tone-deaf it was for Kate to go on a family vacation without her husband of less than a year, given that the palace was trying to play Kate as the sympathetic military wife who was devastated at the prospect of being without Prince William for six weeks. As it turns out, Prince William will be joining Kate and the Middletons in Mustique, although that information was only reported two days after Kate flew to Mustique. Kate left on Wednesday (first class!), and it’s thought that William flew to meet her yesterday, or he’s flying today. Still, she left him in Wales so she could spend a few extra days on vacation.
Wills is headed on vacation! Kate Middleton may have gotten a head start with some fun in the sun on the island of Mustique, but as it turns out, her hubby Prince William isn’t far behind!
“He’s leaving tomorrow morning,” a source tells Us Weekly. “It wasn’t set in stone because William needed to clear the week of work first.”
On Wednesday, the 30-year-old Duchess flew first class to St. Lucia with her parents, Mike and Carole Middleton and her siblings, Pippa and James Middleton. After arriving in the Caribbean, the family made their way to the ultra-private island of Mustique, where they will celebrate Carole’s 57th birthday (her actual birthday is January 31).
This isn’t the first time the Middletons took Mustique. The family, sans Kate, vacationed there last August.
This vacation may be the last bit of R&R that the Duke of Cambridge, 29, sees for awhile. The Prince, who is a search-and-rescue co-pilot for the Royal Air Force, is scheduled to be deployed to the Falkland Islands, which is the center of fresh tension between Great Britain and Argentina, next month.
Well, I’ll take back what I said about Kate’s tone-deaf PR image – she and Will are just enjoying one last vacation before he leaves for the Falklands. I can understand that, although I still think it says something about Kate’s laziness – her whole life is a series of vacations. And would it have been such an imposition to wait until William had gotten the time off so they could leave together? I’m just sayin’.
Meanwhile, The Mail reports that Kate’s presence on the island of Mustique is causing a lot of consternation. Security has been heightened, but Mustique is the kind of place where pretty much everybody is really, really wealthy. So, basically, millionaires and billionaires are being treated like crap because security guards think everybody will be taking photos of Kate lounging around in a bikini. One dude complained: “This isn’t exactly the way one expects to be treated when you pay very good money to visit the most exclusive island in the Caribbean.” A security guard on the island – who is reportedly working with Kate’s team of bodyguards – tells The Mail, “The concern isn’t crime. It is that visitors might try to take photos of the VIPs who are here on their phones.” Yes, because God knows what the British public would think if they saw more photos of Kate sitting around, doing nothing. IMAGE CONTROL!!! Must control Kate’s image!!!
When Kate returns to the UK and William goes to the Falklands, how will Kate spend her time? The Mail reports that Kate is “dreading” William’s absence, and that she’s not even going to stay at their Anglesey house while he’s gone. She’s going to be staying at Kensington Palace, and she’s going to begin doing some charitable work at long last. And yes, she’s also going to take some much needed “breaks” to spend more time with her family in Bucklebury, and Camilla Parker-Bowles has invited Kate to spend some time at Clarence House. I’m sure Kate will manage to fit in another vacation, don’t you? It will be difficult, but she’s made it clear that vacations are her top priority.
Here are some photos of Will and Kate on vacation with her family, back in 2006:
A few days ago, Us Weekly ran a story about Prince William’s stoic bravery in the face of being sent the Falkland Islands. The gist was that tensions are currently rising between the UK and Argentina, even after they fought a war with each other over these crazy, rocky little islands. Basically, the whole thing was positioned in a way where you’re supposed to think that as soon as Prince William arrives at the Falklands, Brazil is going to declare war on William personally and poor Duchess Kate will never see her husband again! In truth, Prince William is only going to be gone for six weeks, and he’s just going through the same kind of training that other military pilots go through. I can’t believe politicians are still upset about the Falklands!
Anyway, with William being positioned as The Savior of Rocky, Desolate Islands That No One Should Fight Over, Duchess Kate is being positioned as the brave, selfless military wife who will pine away for her new husband every single day of his absence, all while endlessly re-applying her eyeliner. So it’s a wonder that the Palace is so tone-deaf with this – Kate has just flown off to vacation in Mustique with her family – and without William!
Rainy and 48 degrees in London on Friday. No matter: The Duchess of Cambridge – with parents Michael and Carole, sister Pippa and brother James – is off on a sunny vacation, PEOPLE has confirmed.
Passengers on a British Airways flight from London’s Gatwick Airport to St. Lucia in the Caribbean were surprised to see the family in the first class section on Wednesday, a photographer blogged. Their presumed final destination: one of their regular holiday haunts, the private isle of Mustique.
It is believed that Prince William is not with them, as the search and rescue helicopter pilot is spending this week at his RAF base in Anglesey, Wales, after hunting last weekend on an estate in Spain with brother Prince Harry.
Mustique, where Kate and William have been frequent visitors, is a well-known, pricey haunt for such celebrities as Mick Jagger and Queen Elizabeth’s late sister, Princess Margaret. It was even inspected as a possible honeymoon destination for William and Kate.
The trip to the sun comes just days after Kate’s 30th birthday on Jan. 9 and before Carole’s 57th at the end of the month.
Sure, married couples often take separate vacations, and if William is busy and Kate wants to spend time with her family, why not? Except that we shouldn’t have to hear about Kate’s heartbreak and how brave she is to WAIT for William to come back – she can’t even be bothered to spend time with him before he leaves for the Falklands! Plus, the palace should stop with the “Kate will spend this time building up her charitable portfolio” crap. She’s on vacation – AGAIN. Like always. So much for her charitable work!
By the way, have you heard that Pippa Middleton has lawyers, and those lawyers have taken out an injunction against the “harassing” paparazzi? Go here to read all about it – my problem with this is that Pippa loves the spotlight and she actively engages it. I know she gets pap’d way more than her sister, but Pippa has definitely encouraged it. Guess she doesn’t want to be “the star” anymore? Or maybe she just wants to control her image.
Happy 30th birthday, Duchess Kate! To celebrate her birthday eve, Kate walked the red carpet with her husband last night in London for the UK premiere of Steven Spielberg’s War Horse. War Horse is based on an acclaimed and beloved English play, and they probably shot a great deal of the film in the UK too – Spielberg and the British Film Council go waaaaaay back. Plus, it’s a movie about a horse, so of course the British royalty came out. Fun fact: did you know that Duchess Kate is allergic to horses? True story. Here’s another fun fact: one of the stunt horses used in the film, “Joey”, walked the red carpet as well.
Kate wore this black and white lace Alice Temperley gown for the premiere… thoughts on the dress? You know how I feel about lace and/or crochet dresses. A little goes a long way, and a lot will make you look like a doily. Somehow, Kate managed to avoid the “doily effect” even though this is much, much too much lace for one dress. I think it comes close to working because the black lace isn’t too heavy or intricate, and you can see the white slip/sheath part very clearly. Plus, the dress is cut very well. Basically, it’s not my favorite (far from it), but I don’t think Kate looks bad at all.
Should we even talk about her hair and makeup? Her hair is always down. It gets boring, especially for formal events and evening events, which traditionally demand more of a “style” rather than just big sausage-roll curls hanging down in her face. As for the makeup – well, the only time Kate’s too-heavy raccoon eye makeup ever looks appropriate is when she’s at a formal occasion. On this red carpet, her makeup looks fine. It’s when she does it for daywear and low-key events that it looks terrible.
Oh, and it seems like William is dominating the umbrella, right? Poor Kate! It probably took her hair stylist hours to do those perfect sausage rolls, and all for naught!
PS… I’m including a photo of Benedict Cumberbatch at the premiere, just in case we get some Cumberbitch/Waity-defender crossover fans.
Duchess Kate turns 30 years old on Monday. She’s six months older than William – and I believe Camilla Parker-Bowles is older than Charles as well, right? So, given that Kate is now a member of the royal family and given that she has pretty much spent the first 30 years of her life unemployed, wandering around getting her hair done and doing a spot of shopping, you’d think that everyone would be going all out for her birthday party. Not so! A palace spokesman said that Kate’s birthday plans are going to be on the DL: “Whatever is planned will be low-key and private.” I have a theory – Kate doesn’t want to remind people that she’s older than William. She doesn’t want to remind people that she’s 30 years old, yet gets treated like a lay-about teenager, praised for doing the bare minimum. She doesn’t want to remind people that she’s not pregnant yet as she’s entering her 30s, which makes her an oddity in the royal family (the royal women tend to get knocked up in their 20s).
Really, though, I’m just writing this post because I wanted to talk about this article that Us Weekly published yesterday. It’s all about how we too can stay “fit” like Duchess Kate.
She may be a Duchess, but Kate Middleton is a commoner when it comes to her workouts.
“For as long as I’ve known her, she’s never had a trainer,” says an aide of the royal, who squeezes in three 40-minute workouts each week.
When in London, the slim, 5-foot-10 beauty visits Clarence House’s small private gym for rowing, running and weight training. But when she’s home in Anglesey, Wales, with hubby Prince William, 29, “she never works out indoors, regardless of how rough the weather is. She likes to go on hikes, carrying small weights for her arms. She says it kills two birds with one stone,” says the palace aide, adding, “William joins her on weekends.”
Kate, 29, keeps eating simple too. Though one pal says, “she hates dieting,” she sticks to healthy picks like oatmeal, dried fruit and almonds. “Kate’s not much into sweets,” says the aide, “but she does love Kettle chips!”
BULLS–T. Kate didn’t go from a pleasantly athletic, healthy figure to a really, really skinny figure by just doing three workouts a week and eating oatmeal. Yes, Kate was already thinning herself out circa 2008-10, but she still had an athletic, healthy-looking build. Then when the engagement came, it seemed like she was losing weight for the wedding, and then it just kept coming off until she looked like she could snap like a twig. She was on diet, and my guess is that it was an intense one. She’s also a smoker, although she doesn’t want you to know that – she was allegedly smoking a lot to keep the weight off all of last year.
Last Kate story, I swear – People Magazinehas a lengthy interview with Diana’s former protection officer Ken Wharfe, who often comments about the security concerns of the royal family. Wharfe says that it’s horrible that Kate and William’s security plans for their multi-million-dollar Kensington Palace renovation were made public. I don’t know why we should be upset, though. Aren’t we being sold an image of William and Kate as simple country folk who are happiest in Wales? Why would they ever need to be in London, right? Oh, what’s that? That’s just a BS image that the palace is trying to sell?
HIDE YO BUTTONS. Duchess Kate is comin’! At loooooong last, Duchess Kate has finally signed on for some charity work, otherwise known as a “job”. Kate is rather famous for her laziness when it comes to anything not involving “getting the ring.” Soon after the engagement, the Palace went into overdrive, trying to fluff up Kate’s meager CV to make it sound like she did more than wait around for a prince for nine years. The palace also claimed – once again, this was a year ago – that now that Kate was joining the royal family, she was “studying” and “researching” which charities she wanted to become involved with, and that she would announce her patronages when married. Then came the shifting goalposts and the “princess lessons” and of course, lots of shopping and hair appointments. So finally, we are upon the day when Kate finally gives us a list of patronages. She spent more than a year creating a list of five charitable organizations. FIVE. A YEAR.
The Duchess of Cambridge is ready to hit the new year running! The palace announced the good causes that will get the benefit of her super-hot publicity. Her choices will likely bring comparisons with husband William’s late mother Princess Diana as she adopts a group of children’s hospices and an addiction charity. And young Boy Scouts in North Wales are set for a surprise when the outdoor pursuits-loving royal pops in to volunteer.
A palace source says Kate – 30 on Monday – sifted through “a few hundred” requests in order to make her choice of four patronages and her volunteer position.
“She did her own research and chose these after approaches or because they reflected the areas she was already aware of, especially in the arts and outdoor activities,” says the source. And the announcement could herald Kate’s first public solo engagement soon – it is likely to take place when Royal Air Force helicopter pilot William is away in the Falkland Islands in February and March.
The organizations are:
1. Patron of Action on Addiction, which works in research, prevention, treatment, professional workforce development and support for families and children.
When she was doing her research, Kate came to realize that addiction “lay at the heart of many of the social issues she was looking at,” a palace source tells PEOPLE.
She has paid a private visit to one of the charity’s treatment centers and spoke to clients about their addiction and personal journeys to recovery, the charity says.
Chief Executive, Nick Barton, says Kate’s “support will enable us to keep the issue of addiction in the spotlight. Addiction is a consuming condition that results in a great deal of harm to individuals, families, communities and society as a whole. ”
2. Royal Patron of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, which supports families and cares for children with life-threatening conditions in Cambridge, among other areas. As well as being a “moving issue,” this is one of the “leading charities in palliative care and there is also the Cambridge link,” the palace source explains.
3. Royal Patron of The Art Room, set up in 2002 to offer art as therapy to children aged between five and 16, using art to raise their self esteem, confidence and independence.
Kate made a private visit to a unit in North London during her research. The Art Room’s founder Juli Beattie said in a statement, “It is a fantastic endorsement of . . . the role that art and creativity can play in helping children and young people whose start in life has been difficult.”
4. Patron of the National Portrait Gallery. Kate visited the London gallery in September during her work to decide on the causes she wanted to patronize.
And the choice reflects her interest in arts (two of her “big hobbies” are “photography and painting, which she does privately,” the palace source says.) She did some pre-university study in the Italian city of Florence and read Art History at St. Andrew’s University – where she met William, 29.
5. Volunteering in the the Scout Association – specifically for cub scout packs and more junior “Beaver Scout Colonies.” Palace sources point out that Kate (and sister Pippa) was a Brownie herself and wants to “get stuck in” locally. “This role allows a level of flexibility for her to volunteer in North Wales or elsewhere,” the source says.
“She is a big hill-walker and does a lot of outdoor pursuits. So, she might teach them how to pack a rucksack, how to put a tent up, cooking in a camp situation,” Simon Carter, a spokesman for the Scouts Association, tells PEOPLE. “All those sorts of things are skills she might pass on as she’s an adult who’s got some expertise in that area.”
I don’t hate any of these, and I appreciate the diversity in issues. I wouldn’t have thought Kate was brave enough or substantial enough to become a patroness to a charity dealing with addiction issues. Waity’s going to meet some sex addicts! And I think the whole “volunteering for the Scouts” is really cute, actually. I’m very happy that she finally signed on to some significant work, and my only complaint is still “She should have done this a long time ago.”
Of course, there’s always the issue of Kate being in over her head. A lot of people were talking about how “off” she seemed in this interview in November. I didn’t think she was as awful as other people claimed, but she just seems… nervous? Out of her depth? She doesn’t have William’s ease.
I was going to start this post by talking about a super-boring new interview with Angelina Jolie. I’ll save it for the end of the post, though, because I like this tabloid story so much more. I should point something out – I’ve been reading the tabloids regularly for years now, and ever since Kate Middleton and Prince William became engaged, the tabs have been itching to do something about Kate and Angelina Jolie. There are constantly stories about Kate wanting to meet Angelina, and Angelina wanting to meet Kate, and Kate wanting to model her charity work on Angelina’s UNHCR work and stuff. Generally, I think those stories are crap. But I still enjoy them. Anyway, OK! Magazine claims that Kate is now modeling herself after Jolie, for better or for worse:
The Duchess of Cambridge has a serious girl-crush on Hollywood’s star Angelina Jolie and royal insiders are worried. From her weight loss to her humanitarian efforts, Kate Middleton is starting to resemble Brad Pitt’s lady love.
“Kate adores how Angelina’s always so graceful and elegant and makes everything look so effortless,” a friend tells OK!.
Weight Loss
In the run-up to her April 2011 wedding, then Kate Middleton shed 16 pounds from her 5-foot-10-inch frame with a diet-and- excercise routine. She liked what she saw. “Since then, she has cut down on food even more,” a close pal tells OK!. “Kate now has the build of a supermodel and can’t believe she’s giving her hero, Angelina, a run for her money on the red carpet.”
But palace insiders fret that Kate, who weighed 120 pounds at her wedding, may starve herself down to Angie’s size; the 5-foot-8 star is about 97 pounds. “Many friends think Kate looks too thin,” says the pal. “But she says she’s happy the way she is.”
Adoption
Heirs are supposed to produce… more heirs. But while Kate and Prince William hope for kids of their own, Kate’s pal notes, “She has always said how much she’d like to adopt a couple of kids, just like Angelina. She and Wills think it would be a really modern thing to do.”
Humanitarian Work
The duchess hopes to mimic both William’s late mother, Princess Diana, who was known for fighting AIDS and land mines, and U.N. goodwill Ambassador Angelina, who has visited myriad strife-torn regions. “Kate intends to show the world she’s a strong, independent woman — just like Angie,” her close friend tells OK!.
You know how I know this is full of crap? Because of the adoption stuff. Kate would never. She and William wouldn’t be allowed to adopt. It would never even enter Kate’s mind. Although I suspect she’s not looking forward to gaining pregnancy weight, Kate knows her duty (to have babies), and she will fulfill her obligations.
Anyway, onto the new Angelina Jolie interview. It’s mostly about In the Land of Blood and Honey – you can read it here. Here are some of the more interesting quotes:
When Jolie first wrote the script…“Brad (Pitt) saw it and said, ‘It’s not that bad, honey, you might want to send it out and see what response you get.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m not doing it without the people from the country. If people from all sides agree to make it, then we’ll do it. If they don’t, we’ll burn it.’ ”
Learning on the job: “Every day I learned so much. I mean, everything,” says the Oscar-winning actress, laughing. “I had to understand the camera, shot lists – how to make a shot list. The first time I said, ‘Action,’ nobody could hear me because I wasn’t loud enough. How to do sound, color timing. Once the girls said, ‘We need more of a scene at the top of this section.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we do …’ And then I realized, ‘Oh, I’m the writer! Give me a half an hour, I’ll try to come up with something.’ “
In other Jolie news, a portion of the profits made from the soundtrack of ITLOFBAH (composed by Gabriel Yared) will be donated to SOS Children’s Villages, an organization that Angelina has been affiliated with for years. The money will be directed towards SOS Children’s Villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jolie said, “We are happy that a portion of the proceeds from the film’s soundtrack will support SOS Children’s Villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina to provide stable, family-based homes to children, regardless of religion, ethnicity or gender, who do not have their own families to care for them.” Go here to read more, and here to donate to SOS Children’s Villages.
The blurry photos of Duchess Kate and Prince William (separately) are new! Kate and Will rang in the new year at her parents’ house in Berkshire. It’s interesting because there were lots of reports that Will and Kate would be spending New Year’s in Scotland, with Prince Charles, or perhaps even in Mustique, where Kate’s parents have a home (rent a home?). Anyway, none of that came to pass. Instead, Kate and Will spent New Year’s in a teepee on her parents’ lawn. Seriously!
Party like a royal! Despite buzz that Prince William and Catherine would ring in the New Year at his father’s sprawling Aberdeen, Scotland, estate, when it came time to celebrate, the couple chose a more low-key locale: a tent pitched in the back garden of the Middleton family home in Berkshire, England.
According to the U.K.’s Mail on Sunday, Pippa, who’s in the party-planning business, played host.
And the stylish sister has expensive taste: The tent, a teepee-style kata made of animal hides, cost nearly $5,000 (3,000 British pounds).
Described by an onlooker as a “canvas palace,” the tent enclosed a dance floor and seating for more than 100 partygoers.
Notably missing: Prince Harry, who rang in the New Year in Switzerland, where he was spotted at the ski resort Verbier.
“[Catherine] looked full of the joys of the season,” a local said of the royal, 29, who laughed and joked with her husband, also 29.
The celebration in her hometown comes nearly a week after the duchess’s first Christmas as a royal in Sandringham, Norfolk.
At first I was like, “Damn, $5000 teepee? Expensive taste, Pippa.” But really, $5000 for a teepee with a dance floor and seating and everything? Not that bad. What strikes me again is that William really does love Kate’s family. It might even be that Kate’s stable family life is one of his favorite things about her. It’s nice that Kate and Will were able to split their holiday between his family and hers, and it certainly bodes well for their future together, and it signals that William will continue to embrace his “commoner” in-laws.
