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The Royal Wedding of William and Kate - And What Came After
Front-Ranger:
I thought Diana's walk was longer. Personally I thought "how lopsided she is!" I'm so glad I escorted my daughter down the aisle along with her father. After all, I gave birth to her!
Aloysius J. Gleek:
http://www.popeater.com/2011/06/22/prince-harry-pippa-middleton/
Are Prince Harry and Pippa Middleton
Close to Becoming a Couple?
By Christo Varghese
Posted Jun 22nd 2011 05:00AM
It has been reported that Prince Harry and Pippa Middleton are on the verge of becoming a couple. Grazia UK (via the Daily Mail ) is reporting that Harry and Middleton have met a few times since the Royal Wedding in April and already have nicknames for each other.
Middleton reportedly calls Harry 'Captain,' which is his rank in the British army and Harry calls her 'Commando,' a reference to the rumors that Middleton was not wearing any underwear at the Royal Wedding.
Harry also reportedly ended his best man's speech with the line, "Pippa, call me."
A royal insider is quoted saying that the couple have been helping each other through their respective breakups.
Pippa recently split from her long time beau, Alex Loudon, and Harry's relationship with his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend Chelsea Davy is reportedly strained.
The insider is quoted saying, "They speak on the phone all the time and have met up at least five times since the wedding, once for tea at his Clarence House apartments... She thinks he's got a really cheeky sense of humor."
Another source is also quoted saying, "He only recently came out of a relationship, of course. He's been trying to cheer Pippa up."
The couple have been more public about their budding relationship; Harry and Middleton turned heads when they were seen recently at a restaurant in London where they spent a couple of hours talking.
Could there be a second Windsor-Middleton Royal Wedding on the horizon?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2006057/Prince-Harry-nicknames-Pippa-Middleton-Commando.html
'I call him Captain and he calls me Commando':
Are 'close friends' Harry and Pippa on the verge
of becoming an item?
By Lauren Paxman
Last updated at 8:15 PM on 22nd June 2011
They are both recently single, and became the UK’s second most talked about couple after joking around on Buckingham Palace’s balcony at the Royal Wedding...
It’s too good to be true, but could Pippa Middleton and Prince Harry be on the verge of becoming an item?
The couple have reportedly met up a handful of times since their siblings got married in April and are said to already have nicknames for each other.
Cheeky sense of humour: Pippa and Harry joked around on the balcony
on Buckingham Palace at the Royal Wedding
A royal insider told Grazia that the couple have been helping each other through their break-ups, saying: ‘They speak on the phone all the time and have met up at least five times since the wedding, once for tea at his Clarence House apartments... She thinks he’s got a really cheeky sense of humour.’
They have also gone more public with their budding friendship. The pair turned heads when they turned up at The Troubadour in Chelsea for a hushed tete-a-tete. They stayed in the royal haunt for two hours.
Close friends: Despite their busy schedules, Pippa and Harry have met up
and handful of times since their siblings got married
Another source said: ‘He only recently came out of a relationship, of course. He’s been trying to cheer Pippa up.’
We wouldn’t expect anything less from the perfect gentleman.
But if Harry really is interested, he’ll have to join the queue. Now that her long term boyfriend, Alex Loudon, is reportedly off the scene, many of Pippa’s exes have been thrown back into the limelight.
George Percy is currently seen as the most likely replacement. He accompanied Pippa and her friends to Madrid shortly after the wedding, and has offered her a job in his environmental firm.
Another contender for Commando? Pippa Middleton went to watch the
tennis at Queen's Club with her ex, and boss, George Percy
Last week the couple were spotted house hunting together at exclusive London property giant, Grosvenor Estates - sparking speculation that they are going to move in together.
Other men apparently after a piece of Pippa include her old friend singer James Blunt, and Prince William’s close friend, Barts nightclub owner Charlie Gilkes - as well as most of the male cast of Made in Chelsea.
Pippa has got her pick of the crop, so will she go for a prince or a pop star?
Jeff Wrangler:
OMG Harry and Pippa would make such a HOT couple! :o
BTW, I've noticed at least one bridal shop here in Philadelphia--I pass it on my way to shop for groceries--that has a knock-off of Kate's wedding dress in the window.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on June 23, 2011, 08:49:32 am ---OMG Harry and Pippa would make such a HOT couple! :o
--- End quote ---
And maybe here is--a slightly less hot couple? ::)
(And why do I know that Lashawn Malone would have been perfect for Albert? Princess Lashawn! :laugh: )
Sidebar:
The Other Royal Wedding??
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/fashion/charlene-wittstock-and-monaco-prepare-for-royal-wedding.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
The Quiet Royal Wedding
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Published: June 22, 2011
KEEPSAKES Memorabilia for the July 2 royal wedding is prominent in stores.
Charlene Wittstock competing in the South African national championships in 2004.
PARIS
FOR four years, Charlene Wittstock lived mostly in the shadows, waiting for Prince Albert II of Monaco to propose.
With no job, no college degree and no knowledge of French, she was installed by him in a small apartment in the center of the tiny Mediterranean principality, far away from home in South Africa. With no official status, she appeared at the side of the prince when summoned, to smile a lot but to say little.
She endured the nastiness of the locals, who gossiped about Prince Albert’s love affairs and predicted that he would never marry her. She stayed silent as stories were embellished about his siring of two children, one with an airline hostess from Togo, the other with an American tourist from California. She bided her time by swimming, gardening, lunching, playing golf and reading in a cafe.
But Ms. Wittstock, a South African national swimming champion who competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics, applied to her love life the same determination, perseverance and stamina that had inspired her backstroke.
“There was meanness, there were jealousies,” said Stéphane Bern, a celebrity French journalist who has known her for four years. “There was the indecision of the prince. Her every move was watched and judged. But she is very strong, very natural and very direct. And it worked.”
The payoff comes July 2 with this summer’s “other” royal wedding. This time, Ms. Wittstock will be the princess stepping down the aisle (in a dress designed by Giorgio Armani). Though the event won’t come close to inspiring the global fascination of William and Kate’s nuptials almost two months ago (or even that of Albert’s own parents, Prince Ranier III and the American movie star Grace Kelly, in 1956), the three-day celebration will nonetheless be quite a party. The event will include an open-air Mass on the Place du Palais; oceans of Perrier-Jouët Champagne; a multicourse dinner by the three-star French chef Alain Ducasse; a concert by the Eagles; a sound-and-light show and fireworks. When it is over, Ms. Wittstock, the daughter of a salesman father and a swim coach mother, will become Her Serene Highness, Princess Charlene of Monaco.
There are familiar elements of Ms. Wittstock’s experience in the story not only of Kate Middleton (pretty and patient commoner who endured snippy tabloid gossip and in the end got her prince), but also in the sadder tale of another princess: Like Diana Spencer three decades ago, she is a much younger bride of a prince with other love interests, who has been painstakingly choreographed by a palace apparatus intent on managing her image. A new episode of the soap opera will begin after the wedding. Will her royal marriage end up being a happy union based on mutual love and respect, as Kate’s seems to be so far, or a melancholy charade like Diana’s?
As with many princesses, Ms. Wittstock’s main responsibility from the outset will be to produce an heir. Although she is only 33, Prince Albert is 53, and his subjects do not want him to die before a successor is old enough to reign. (Because Prince Albert’s two children were born out of wedlock, they are barred by the Constitution from acceding to the throne.)
Ms. Wittstock has been reluctant to talk about the baby issue. Asked during an interview by the veteran French television journalist Patrick Poivre d’Arvor whether she wanted to have children who will one day succeed Prince Albert, she broke with protocol and said to the prince, “Hey, won’t he just give us a break!”
The savvy prince smoothed things over, saying, “We have the intention to start a family.”
Asked in the same interview whether she was afraid of protocol and the relentless glare of the press, she choked. “No, I am not nervous, or ... I’m quite excited actually, so ...” she said. She then turned to Prince Albert, asking, “What do you want me to say?”
“No, it’s fine!” he assured her.
Stumbles not withstanding, ever since their engagement last year, Ms. Wittstock has been preparing feverishly for her new role, with intensive lessons in French and palace protocol. Tutored, watched and corrected by an unforgiving palace guard, she has said little during her public appearances. She has granted few interviews. In at least some cases, journalists have been required to submit both written questions in advance and then the text of the interview before publication. The palace declined a request to interview her for this article.
“I thought she was one of the most anxious people I have ever met,” said Jenny Crwys-Williams, who interviewed Ms. Wittstock for South Africa’s popular Talk Radio 702 in February. “She was absolutely terrified of saying the wrong thing and falling foul of the terrible women in the palace.
“There was a fascinating moment when I asked her to tell me about an amazing blue room in the palace, and she said, ‘I don’t know if I can talk about it.’ I wanted to put my arms around her and tell her it would be all right.”
Ms. Wittstock has been both praised and vilified for appearing to imitate the style of Albert’s mother, who died in a car crash in 1982. Ms. Wittstock sometimes wears the same blond chignon, muted colors, and elegant, tailored dresses as did Princess Grace.
Before-and-after style photos of Ms. Wittstock have appeared on the Internet, with speculation about whether she has changed her teeth, breasts, eyes and nose. A recent post, under “new lips Charlene,” shows her on the cover of the German tabloid magazine Bunte with what appears to be a fuller upper lip than is evident in previous photos.
No strangers to tabloid snipes, Prince Albert’s sisters, Princesses Caroline and Stéphanie, have taken Ms. Wittstock under their wings. In an interview with Paris Match, Princess Stéphanie described Ms. Wittstock as “strong” but “very sensitive.” She added, “I try to reassure her. To help her.”
In a moment of candor in an interview with Tatler magazine last year, Ms. Wittstock acknowledged the difficulty of living in a fishbowl like Monaco, which is about half the size of Central Park. “The people I mixed with in Monaco didn’t relate to my South African mentality or humor,” she said. “Of course, I’ve been subject to jealousy, but that comes with the territory. Although I have met some wonderful people since I’ve been living in Monaco, I regard them all as acquaintances. I only have two people I consider friends here.”
In private, she is said to be blunt and direct. “She speaks very frankly to people,” Mr. Bern said. “She tells Albert, ‘I want this, I don’t want that.’ ”
Even after four years living in the principality, she seems uncomfortable speaking French, a shortcoming that has limited her social circle. (Prince Albert, who spent time with his mother’s family in the United States while growing up and studied at Amherst College, speaks flawless English.)
“Her inability to speak French is going to be a real handicap,” said Joe Little, managing editor of the London-based Majesty magazine. “Princess Maxima of the Netherlands came from the Argentine, picked up Dutch and became very popular. The former Mary Donaldson, who became crown princess of Denmark, came to grips with the Danish language quickly.”
Ms. Wittstock’s effort to try a few phrases in French in the interview with Mr. Poivre d’Arvor backfired. When he asked her whether the fact that she was not a Catholic was an obstacle to marriage in the Roman Catholic principality, she replied, “Je suis Christian.”
“Chrétienne, voilà, chrétienne,” he replied, correcting her. (She has since converted to Catholicism, the official religion of Monaco.)
Ms. Wittstock first met Albert in 2000 at a swimming competition in Monaco. A sportsman who for years occupied a spot on Monaco’s Olympic bobsled team, the prince was obviously taken with her.
She has said that as princess, she will devote herself to charitable causes, perhaps involving children and sports. She also has expressed the hope that she can help modernize the 900-year-old principality. She says would like to see Monaco have a Manolo Blahnik boutique and a Starbucks, for example. “She’s a girl in a gilded cage,” Ms. Crwys-Williams said. “Albert looks at her with great affection. She’s going to look beautiful in her Armani dress. But where the real girl is? That I really don’t know.”
delalluvia:
I feel sorry for Charlene Wittstock. The Prince of Monaco is an aging playboy, his looks long gone, the only thing going for him is his name and status and money. He hasn't married for years because he didn't have to. He had women throwing themselves at him for free and he's been indulging himself. Now, falling testosterone levels and age are catching up with him and he thinks he'd better settle down and try to have legitimate heirs - if he still can. I highly doubt he will be faithful to Ms. Wittstock.
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