Prince William wants Valerie Suau jailed for being French: Kate Middleton is topless (but not in Britain)
DID Prince William really say “I want them jailed”? Them, being everyone involved in taking and publishing the topless pictures of Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge?
The Mirror says he did. Is Wills auditioning for job as the King of Thailand?
If the Mirror is right, Wills wants Valerie Suau, the photographer, to be sent to prison. The Daily Mail – hypocrite of hypocrites – tells readers Suau “is pronounced ‘sewer’”. She took the photos from a public road. The rights and wrongs are a matter for French law to rule on. The Windsors are suing Closer magazine for publishing the images. The fine is unlikely to top £24,000. So. Why has no British newspaper published the photographs? What happened to publish and be damned?
Tazio Secchiaroli, the photographer most like to have inspired Paparazzo, the photographer in Federico Fellini’s film La Dolce Vita one explained his job:
“Nothing will stop us, even if it means overturning tables and waiters, or raising shrieks from an old lady… even if the police intervene or we chase the subject all night long, we won’t let go, we’ll fight with flashes.”
If Kate Middleton is a celebrity, why should she enjoy special privileges that mere mortals without access to expensive lawyers can only dream of? You might shrug it off as bad form, bad luck and bad planning that a photographer took photos of your topless self and published them. But the Windsors have responded with anger and outrage. It’s not topless Kate’s decorum that matters. It’s yours.
In 2007, the Daily Mirror said sorry for publishing a photograph of Kate Middleton, then Prince William’s girlfriend, walking along holding a cup of coffee. The caption read: “Smouldering: Kate heading for work yesterday.” Soon after, Middleton’s lawyers at Harbottle & Lewis complained to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC).
Daily Mirror editor Richard Wallace said the paper “got it wrong and we sincerely regret that”.
What he got “wrong” he never said? No law had been broken.
The Royal Family enjoy it when the press if favourable. They like to foster an image of themselves. We see Harry and Wills and Kate – the three amigos – larking about with People. We don’t see much of Beatrice, Eugenie and Andrew. This is deliberate. It’s PR at work. The Royal Family are aware that image matters. Prince Charles likes to tell us his view on the health service, global warming and Islam. We have seen William and Kate posing for Hello! magazine, smooching, walking and going to the Olympics. We are invited to look and see what they want us to. They don’t like it when we write back.
When Diana died the Royal Family’s image was of cold, anal, distant “aliens” (the Sun). Why should we show deference to them? So. The Windsors began a campaign to showcase their ordinariness. Prince Edward went to work as Edward Windsor. Knobs and knobesses were lobbed from the civil list. Prince Charles published his accounts. But this ordinariness is a sham. If Wills and the team don’t like press they consider to be unfavourable they unleash the lawyers.
In 2009, the Queen told media that photographers would be monitored on public roads around the Sandringham estate in Norfolk over Christmas.P rince Charles’s spokesman said the Royal Family had a right to privacy during “everyday private activities”. The idea as that even in a pubic place the Royal must remain private when they say so.
Rather than being ordinary, when they chose to be, the Royals are regal and imperial. If they are not, what’s the point of them?
The Windsors want us to see them without the Royalty. But with their power comes commitment and responsibility. They want to chill out with the People and look fun and modern. But you only need look at the British media’s deference to know that a game is going on. Did you see many photographs of William at University in Scotland? No. Did you see many of Harry on his way to school or dating? No. The media has self-regulated. Indeed, the only group we can recall snapping Wills at uni was Prince Edward’s Ardent Productions, which was forced to give up any footage over to Buckingham Palace. The BBC reported:
Ardent Productions was accused of trying to film Prince William in breach of the understanding reached with all other sections of the news media.
The British media works in cahoots with the Palace. The French do not. Kate’s mistake was going topless in France. Had she done it in the UK, you never would have known about it…
Posted: 16th, September 2012 | In: Key Posts, Royal Family Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
