The many covers of Kate Middleton

With the Duchess of Cambridge on the cover of Chatelaine this month, we take a look back at some of Kate's many magazine covers.

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By our count, Kate has been on the cover of Hello! Magazine (including all its regional editions) 21 times so far in 2011, and five times in 2010. Hello! publishes weekly, so they have put Kate on the front of nearly half of its UK editions so far in 2011 (since we're 43 weeks into the year). Three of those have been in October, so the Kate craze doesn't look to be waning much. (Just imagine a pregnancy announcement!)

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Kate has been on the cover of US Weekly four times so far in 2011. US is American, so it's not surprise that it's less Kate obsessed than Hello!. You can also see that the US Weekly prefers more sensational headlines.

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Vanity Fair, July, 2011, and Women's Weekly (Australia), June, 2011.

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Grazia has had a 'complicated' relationship with Kate. After publishing its May 3, 2011 edition, above on the left, the magazine admitted that it had doctored the photo of Kate in her wedding dress, making her waist look even more slender than it actually is. According to a story on MSNBC, the magazine said that the thinning was an accidental consequence of removing William from the desired shot:

The magazine explained it wanted a solo shot of Kate in her Alexander McQueen wedding dress on her big day — trouble was, editors couldn’t find a suitable shot without new husband Prince William on her arm.
In the process of removing William from the picture, Kate’s right arm had to be altered to match her left, the magazine claims, so that it would like she was striking a pose. “This involved mirroring one of the duchess’s arms and an inadvertent result of the change was the slimming of her waist,” the (Britain’s Press Complaints) commission reported.

(Doesn't this seem a bit like apologizing for running somebody over with your car but that it couldn't be helped because you were trying to escape from the police?) More recently (Aug. 17, 2011), the magazine called Kate 'too ordinary'. I'm sure there are millions who dream about being that ordinary.

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Finally, the Vogue cover. Ha, just kidding. As we noted a while back, there is no Kate Vogue cover on the horizon.

Unlike many of the celebrity magazines, Vogue would never put somebody on the cover that they did not photograph themselves. And therein lies the problem. E! Online quotes a Buckingham Palace source as saying: "both William and Kate feel it would be wrong for Kate to promote herself as a fashion or style icon. That's not what they are about and they take their royal duties far too seriously to, in one sense, trivialize them."

Er, plus the Queen disapproves of the idea.

This image is a dream cover cooked up by the folks at New York Fashion. Hope springs eternal.

Is this the Queen's Aussie swansong?

A sea of flags and flowers greeted Queen Elizabeth during her last visit to Australia in March 2006. Her 11-day tour which begins Wednesday includes Brisbane, where thousands of homes were flooded in January and more than 30 people died. (ROB GRIFFITH/AFP/Getty Images)

There’s a touch of sadness that surrounds the Queen’s visit to Australia beginning Wednesday, a sense that this may well be the last time the Down Unders will have the British monarch on their soil.

She is 85 after all — though in very good health — and it’s expected she will be curtailing overseas excursions following next year’s Diamond Jubilee.

The Queen and Prince Philip (lets not forget he’s 90!) touch down Wednesday for the 16^th royal tour by this monarch to this country, dating back to 1954. Her last visit was in 2006.

The only country she has visited more is Canada, with 24 tours. Her tours of Australia, though, have tended to be longer stints, for a total of 249 days during her reign. She has spent 211 days on Canadian soil, where she more often targets provinces or areas rather than embark on cross-country marathons.

This will be an 11-day visit to Australia, culminating in the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Perth on Oct. 28.

"People want to catch their last glimpse of the Queen," Philip Benwell of the Australian Monarchists League told AFP.

"There's a feeling of excitement, of anticipation which we didn't get on the few earlier visits since 2000. And whilst I don't think it will be the Queen's last visit because as long as she can travel she will want to come and meet her people, it could be her last visit to the states that she's now visiting."

Australia has had a love ‘em-leave ‘em relationship with the crown. The high point may well have been the Queen’s first visit in 1954 (see video below), when she spent two months visiting about 70 different towns and cities.

Against that backdrop, however, the country’s republicans were making inroads to rid themselves of the foreign monarch. In 1999, they mustered 45 per cent support in a national vote aimed at turning the country into a republic.

Twelve years later, the Queen’s impending tour seems to have inspired a nostalgic resurgence in the Queen. An opinion poll last week showed support for a republic was just 34 per cent, its lowest level in 23 years.

That number may shrink even further as the new generation of royals, in particular William and Kate, inspire some loyalty among a young generation. Will and Kate could well be hitting Australia during 2012 to help the Queen celebrate her 60 years on the throne.

The Queen was always a master of good timing and, in the twilight of her reign, it’s expected she will get a warm welcome Down Under, where even anti-monarchists have doffed their hat to her, if not her title.

“There won’t be the same passionate excitement as we’ll get when a young Prince William and his wife come but there will be enormous respect and affection, including from those who are republicans,” Professor David Flint, who heads a group of Australians for constitutional monarchy, told the Telegraph.

As for her health, there was some concern last week when, for only the third time in five years, she pulled out of an official engagement at the British Museum. The next evening, however, she was back to business, hosting a reception for 350 Australians living in Britain. (Above photo, shaking hands with model Elle Macpherson).

 “The Royal Family is very robust,” said Flint. “I don’t think we can write her off just yet.”

 

Canada delivering another royal heir

 Autumn Phillips and her husband Peter are expecting their second child in March 2012.

Well, you can’t say Canada isn’t doing its bit to keep the Royal Family stocked with heirs.

Autumn Phillips, wife of the Queen’s grandson Peter Phillips, is in the royal family way her second child – the Queen’s second great grandchild – and is due in March.

Phillips, born and raised in Montreal, married the son of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips in 2008. Their first child, a girl named Savannah, was born Dec. 29, 2010 and is 12^th in line for the throne. She is the Queen’s first great grandchild.

“The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, as well as Autumn's family, have been informed and are delighted with the news,” said a royal spokeman.

Autumn, who worked as a management consultant after graduating from McGill University, met her future husband in 2003 at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

Raised a Roman Catholic, she coverted to the Anglican church to allow Peter to keep himself in the royal line of succession. That royal rule of not marrying Catholics is likely to be abolished under proposals announced this week by the British government.

It didn’t take long for the couple to get in hot water following their marriage, reportedly selling their wedding pictures to Hello! magazine for a $800,000, drawing a seriously raised eyebrow from the royal hierarchy.

Autumn and Peter, both 33, live in London, where he works for the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Although Peter is 11^th in line for the throne, he has no royal title.

Will and Kate pack a powerful financial punch

If anyone had any doubt about the Midas touch of Kate and William, you need only look at their impact when they show up for dinner.

The prince and his bride (right) attended a gala put on by 100 Women in Hedge Funds on Thursday night, the proceeds going  for the Child Bereavement Charity, of which William is a patron.

The event at St. James’s Palace brought in close to $1.1 million.

About 300 women from the hedge fund industry had their dinner with the prince and Kate, who went very formal for the affair with a floor-length red gown by Beulah London (retail price: $950).

The 100 Women in Hedge Funds, an international organization, has a three-year commitment to the Prince’s charities and, as long as he keeps showing up to dinner with Kate, their financial future is assured.

“I find it enormously rewarding and gratifying to observe how two organizations which mean so much to me are working so superbly with one another,” William told his dinner crowd. “What you are both doing together to alleviate the suffering of children who have lost family members, and bereaved families who have experienced the tragedy of losing a child, is beyond praise.”

Meanwhile, Kate’s sister Pippa was also attending a charity event in London, the Too Many Women event to raise funds for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. Pippa, too, went with a floor-length gown, this one by Dannii Minogue. You can catch some pix of her here.

Brits finally tackle sexism in succession rules

The British monarchy is finally putting its regal foot in the 21^st century.

The tradition-laden Family Firm looks like it might soon be rid of centuries-old rules that discriminates against royal daughters inheriting the throne and forbids marriage to Roman Catholics.

And none too soon, as royal baby watchers stay tuned and the rumour mill keeps churning around the parental prospects of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge (right).

British Prime Minister David Cameron is consulting with the 15 other countries recognize the Queen as their head of state – including Canada – to seek consensus on reforming the laws that date back to the time of Henry VIII. Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, has given his blessing to Britain's initiative.

Under the proposed changes, the first child of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, regardless of sex, would eventually become the monarch. As it stands now, a daughter would have to stand aside for a brother, even if she was the first-born.

"We espouse gender equality in all other aspects of life and it is an anomaly that in the rules relating to the highest public office we continue to enshrine male superiority," Cameron wrote in his letter to the heads of the Commonwealth nations, including Stephen Harper.

The current rules about regal religious ties are steeped in British history, dating to the 1500s when Henry VIII famously split with the Roman Catholic church over its laws against divorce.

"This rule is a historical anomaly," Cameron said in his letter. "It does not, for example, bar those who marry spouses of other faiths — and we do not think it can continue to be justified."

The sexism rules have kept women off the throne in the past. Queen Victoria's firstborn was a girl, Victoria, but then along game a boy, who made it to the throne instead as King Edward VII.

Buckingham Palace is staying mum (pardon the pun) on the topic.

Kate cousin's career is taking off ... literally

 

We never really get to see the Duchess of Cambridge dance too much these days, but there’s obviously some musical genes floating around the Middleton family DNA.

One might say, even exotic.

Case in point … Katrina Darling, who, technically, is Kate’s second cousin. She’s also a burlesque dancer, a branch of the family tree that was uncovered just prior to the royal wedding.

Darling, who has never met her cuz, declares she doesn’t want to use her lineage to promote her career, but, like it or not, she can’t escape the connection and there’s no evidence that it hurts.

Her latest moment in the spotlight is a new music video by the instrumental UK group BEAK>, which features Portishead’s Geoff Barrow (see above). Don’t bother looking for the family resemblance, though … Darling wears a beak mask through the entire video as she twists around on a squash court.

“I have always worked very hard and got myself out there by myself,” Darling told England’s Sunday Sun. “But obviously when the link with Kate came out it did open a few more opportunities.

“It’s not a hindrance but it’s not something I would like to rely on and I would rather stay credible.”

The 21-year-old Darling has been doing her striptease act for three years, mostly around her working-class neighbourhood in Sunderland, where by day she works in a bank.

At night, she dons her tassles and gyrates to tunes like ‘God Save the Queen’ by the
Sex Pistols while stripping her Union Jack costume (photo).

“Obviously some things people said weren’t very nice, but then there were others saying ‘well, at least she’s got a job,’” said Darling, who’s grandmother was the sister of Kate’s great-grandfather.

The erotic arts and the Royal Family are not strangers, of course. In the early 1980s, before his marriage to Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew had hooked up with a soft-porn actress, Koo Stark.

It's no trick ... Kate will be everywhere on Halloween

Scary stuff, right? Masks that were popular for the royal wedding will no doubt be roaming the streets again on Oct. 31 as both kids and adults seek some royal inspiration for Halloween.

What would you do if Kate Middleton showed up at your door?

Best advice? Give her a chocolate bar and a bag of chips and send her on her way.

Two recent surveys show that Kate Middleton -- or a pint-sized facsimile -- will likely be going door to door in your neighbourhood this Halloween. Surveys by Bing and ShopRunners put Kate at or near the top of lists of celebrities for trick-or-treaters to copy this year.

The costume shops are full of prince-princess garb for those willing to splurge on outfits (like the ones at right -- $35.99 each at Amazon), but the polls also show that do-it-yourself costumes will be in vogue.

Kate tops the Bing poll for Halloween costume plans for girls at 47 per cent while fictional character/vampire Edward Cullen from Twilight was the top choice for males.

Lady Gaga -- who is always in the Halloween spirit -- is No. 1 on the ShopRunners list, followed by Kate, Katy Perry and, just to add a 'Winning' touch, Charlie Sheen.

This will clearly be a budget-conscious Halloween, with the Bing survey also finding 40 per cent of respondents were giving up on store-bought costumes and resorting to home-made creations.

That may seem a bit of a challenge for parents rummaging through the closet for a spare Alexander McQueen or Alice Temperley outfit in petite sizes. But fear not. The key to any Kate outfit will be the fascinator and she has worn enough of them in the past six months to provide inspiration for Halloween.

Her Canada Day-inspired hat, left, looks Halloween-worthy and as crafty a royal project as you'll find for the big night.

As for William, well, there's a little more work in putting together a homemade uniform of an Irish Guards colonel, but not impossible. The tough part is the receding hairline.

 

 

 

 

Harry and Chelsy ... together again?

Prince Harry’s military training has given him a never-say-die attitude. Apparently he extends that to his girlfriends too.

The British royal, who is in the U.S. for two months of Apache helicopter training, is California dreamin’ about long-time on-again off-again Chelsy Davy.

Word via the Daily Mail is that Harry and Chelsy had reunion dinner (another!) at her London home before he headed off to the California desert last week.

The Mail speculates via a friend of Chelsy’s that Harry is looking to “rekindle their romance.”

Lets recap. This is a couple that has broken up more times than Humpty-Dumpty over the last seven years. Just after the royal wedding in April (when the baseless Harry-Pippa rumours started floating) the couple broke up one more time, presumably for good. Harry declared himself to be "100 per cent single."

Davy continued to train for her law career, while Harry partied and took up with lingerie model Florence Brudenell-Bruce. The ‘Flee’ fling didn’t last long and Harry, at 27, may be showing signs of getting serious about what’s next.

For now, he has his hands full with the Apache training, while is a precursor to a second tour of duty of Afghanistan next year. Davy’s trying to get a foothold on the legal ladder and, according to friends, “she doesn’t want to be a princess. She’s very much her own woman.”

Can Chelsy compete with California girls? Will Harry find happiness with Chelsy? Will Chelsy have him back? Will a a tour of military duty bring them closer, or further apart? Stay tuned for the next episode. This is a royal soap opera that never seems to end.

Prince Harry gets ready for a fight

Prince Harry arrives at Naval Air Facility El Centro in California on Thursday for the final phase of his Army Apache helicopter training. (Getty Images)

Prince Harry is going on the attack … literally.

The third in the line to the British throne landed in California late Thursday to begin advanced training on the Apache attack helicopters.

The 27-year-old royal will be known as Captain Wales, one of 20 elite British Army pilots who will be at the Naval Air Facility at El Centro near the Mexican border for the next couple of months.

The training culminates at the U.S. Air Force station in Gila Bend, Ariz., where the prince will be firing live missiles and rockets from the helicopter.

This is the final phase of a 16-month program that could see the prince back in Afghanistan, where he saw 10 weeks of action battling the Taliban in 2007. The desert areas around the U.S. bases simulate many of conditions that are typically found in Afghanistan.

Although free time will be at a minimum, Harry — never one to shy away from a party — will be allowed to use it at his discretion. That might mean a short hop across the Mexican border, or even making the six-hour drive north to Las Vegas. It’s more likely he’ll stick to the local fast-food joints in the town of 40,000, though one local resident warned the Telegraph: “We don’t have places for him to cruise around. He’s going to get bored. I would recommend the mall.”

One thing he won’t have to worry about is doing public appearances.

“He is travelling to the United States in a military capacity and will not be undertaking any Royal or public engagements,” said a military spokesman.

Britain has a fleet of 67 two-man Apache helicopters, each equipped multiple rocket systems.

Prince Harry marches off after receiving his helicopter pilot's wings from his father, Prince Charles, on May 7, 2010. (AP Photo)

 

Beatrice gives fellow princess a royal snub

Princess Beatrice, left, did not exactly roll out the welcome mat for Thailand's royal princess.

Just because you’re a princess doesn’t entitle you to talk to another princess.

That seems to be the message Princess Beatrice delivered to her Thai counterpart when then two found themselves in the front row for a Paris fashion show this week.

Beatrice and Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana were sitting six seats away from one another at the show by designer Elie Saab. The 24-year-old Asian royal – one of the world’s most attractive young royals, according to Forbes magazine – decided to introduce herself to the fifth in line for the British throne.

According to the Telegraph, Nariratana was stopped by a protection officer before she reached Beatrice. She explained her courtesy call to the guard, but was rebuked.

“She don’t want to meet no princesses,” was the reported reply. “She’s sitting here, not getting up.”

With that, an irritated Princess Nariratana turned around and was heard to utter: “Is that the sort of Princess you've got?”

So ended the royal summit. As of this writing, neither princess is talking about the incident or, it appears, to each other.

A spokesperson for the 23-year-old daughter of Prince Andrew said they “do not comment on security issues."

Can’t wait for the next time these two cross paths, or cat walks.