What will Kate do?

PROFILE
ROYALTY
Perfect match?:
Princes Harry (left)
and William with
Kate Middleton
at a rugby game
E. Keogh / Reuters
What will
Kate do?
Der britische Thronfolger hat in Kate Middleton vielleicht die Königin seines Herzens gefunden.
Aber wer ist eigentlich diese junge Frau? Und vor allem: Ist sie im Begriff, in Prinzessin Dianas
Fußstapfen zu treten? EAMONN FITZGERALD hat unauffällig recherchiert.
medium
plus
www.
A
air hostess [eə həυstes] UK
apparent [əprənt]
binge drinking [bnd drŋkŋ]
boarding school [bɔ dŋ sku l]
brand [brnd]
casual [kuəl]
catwalk [ktwɔ k]
consternation [kɒnstəneʃən]
fee [fi ]
gossip [ ɒsp]
homework: do one’s ~
[həυmw k]
icon [akɒn]
malicious [məlʃəs]
monochrome [mɒnəkrəυm]
retailer [ri teələ]
safeguard [sef ɑ d]
sensible [sensəbəl]
snapped up: be ~ [snpt p]
suburbanization
[səb bənazeʃən]
(suburb
the late [ðə let]
unique [juni k]
versatile [v sətaəl]
4/07
Flugbegleiterin
scheinbar; hier: in spe
Alkoholexzess, Saufgelage
Internat
Marke(nname)
GelegenheitsLaufsteg
Entsetzen, Bestürzung
(Schul)Gebühr
Klatschmaul
sich vorbereiten,
etw. recherchieren
Idol, Kultfigur
boshaft
einfarbig; hier: schwarz-weiß
Einzelhändler; hier:
Einzelhandelskette
Schutz
vernünftig
weggehen wie warme
Semmeln
Ausufern eines Ballungsraums, Zersiedelung
Vorstadt)
die/der verstorbene
einzigartig
vielseitig
A royal
success
f the British monarchy survives,
Prince William, and maybe even
Kate Middleton, will thank the director
of The Queen, Stephen Frears, because his film suggests that the institution is worth saving. In a key scene,
a servant approaches the royal bedroom in Balmoral, Scotland, late one
night in 1997. “Good evening,” he Not expecting emotion:
Helen Mirren in The Queen
says. “I’m sorry to disturb ... but it’s
the Princess of Wales.” Unhappy to have been awakened, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, asks, “Why? What’s she done now?”
The emotionless royal family did not expect the British to react as
emotionally as they did when Diana died. For her excellent portrayal
of the queen and her consternation, Helen Mirren received an Oscar
for best actress. We go to films about royalty expecting to leave the
cinema as republicans. After watching The Queen, however, one ends
up viewing the monarchy, for all its faults, as a safeguard against the
cynicism of politics. www.thequeen-movie.com
I
dren’s birthday celebrations. Kate has a younger sister,
Philippa, and a younger brother, James.
The Middletons are not mentioned in Debrett’s, the bible
of the British aristocracy. When The Spectator magazine
wrote about the princess apparent last summer, it rather
snobbishly noted that her family history “can’t be traced
much further back than the suburbanization of Berkshire”.
Some older readers might have smiled at this because, as
some see it, Prince William’s family name dates back only
to 1917, when George V took the name Windsor to replace
the German Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Despite her lack of blue blood, Kate grew up happily in
the family’s upper-middle-class five-bedroom home. She
went to an elite boarding school, Marlborough College (currently being attended by Sting’s daughter, Mickey Sumner),
where the fees are £24,600 a year.
The picture we have from this time is of a clever, sensible
girl who enjoyed playing sports and who always did her
homework. Binge drinking, wild parties and casual sex?
There is nothing to report. Next stop after Marlborough College was Scotland. She studied the history of art at St Andrew’s University in Fife. Now, some malicious gossips say
that Kate’s mother did her homework, too, because she
knew that Prince William had also accepted a place at St
Andrew’s. Mrs Middleton calculated that her daughter Kate
might meet the future king if she studied in Scotland instead
of in England, which it is said was her preferred choice.
But since when has a mother’s interest in finding the
best husband for her daughter been unusual?
Kate and William did meet and did become friends at
St Andrews. They shared a house with two other students
for two years. Both Kate and William finished their studSpotlight 45
▼
young woman goes into a shop in London’s
Oxford Street and buys a dress — a black and
white dress. She wears it to her birthday party.
Immediately, it is snapped up on the shop’s website and sells out within 24 hours. That’s how
Topshop learned about Kate Middleton’s purchasing power.
Her decision to buy a simple £40 dress for her 25th birthday party on 9 January showed that the other Kate M.
(Kate Moss) is not the only woman who can dictate British
fashion trends.
Responding to the storm of publicity about Middleton’s
outfit, a Topshop spokesman told the Daily Mail newspaper: “Kate is not a fashion icon yet, but she may become one, so it is nice to see her wearing Topshop clothes.
The dress is popular because it is versatile, and the whole
monochrome theme is very big at the moment.” The whole
Kate Middleton theme is very big at the moment, too.
The reason is that Catherine Elizabeth “Kate” Middleton
is the girlfriend of William Arthur Philip Louis Windsor, the
elder of the two sons of Prince Charles and the late Diana.
After Charles, William is next in line to the throne of the
United Kingdom. In other
A CLOSER LOOK
words, Kate Middleton could
one day be Queen Kate.
Kate Moss, the British model,
is moving from the catwalk to
But who is Kate Middleton?
the design studio, creating a
Born in 1982 in Berkshire in
new fashion range for Topthe south of England, she
shop. The collection will be
is the eldest daughter of
available in the retailer’s 308
Michael Middleton and the
stores and on its website.
former Carole Goldsmith.
“Kate has a unique position
When they met, both were
as a true fashion icon, and I
working in the travel industry.
look forward to helping deHe was an airline pilot, and
velop ‘Kate Moss for Topshop’
she was an air hostess. Now
into a global brand,” the
they run Party Pieces, a comchain’s owner, Sir Philip
pany that sells supplies such
Green, told the BBC.
as balloons and hats for chil-
PROFILE
ROYALTY
Remembering Diana
n Sunday, 1 July, Princess Diana would have been 46. Princes William and Harry are marking
the birthday and the 10th anniversary of their mother’s death with the Concert for Diana in
London’s new Wembley Stadium. Tickets went on sale on 13 December and were sold out within
minutes. Performers include Sir Elton John, Bryan Ferry, Duran Duran — artists Diana knew and
liked — as well as US rapper Pharrell Williams. www.concertfordiana.com
A memorial church service will also be held on 31 August, the day Diana died beside
Dodi Fayed in a Paris underpass. Camilla Parker Bowles has been invited. Although William and Harry
are well aware of the pain she caused their mother, they appear to have put the sadness behind
them and have accepted that she has made their father happy.
O
Concert site:
Diana loved
pop music
The company has forbidden the use of paparazzi pictures of
Kate in its other publications, which include News of the
World, The Times, The Sunday Times and thelondonpaper.
The celebrity magazine Hello! has also said it will not
print paparazzi pictures of her. In a prepared statement,
Hello! said: “We are always careful, in any case, in the
choice of photographs and respectful of her privacy.”
2:1 degree [tu wn d ri ] UK
ambush [mbυʃ]
celebrity [səlebrəti]
coffin [kɒfn]
commemorative merchandise
[kəmemərətv m tʃəndaz]
decent [di sənt]
eerily [ərəli]
engagement [n edmənt]
exposure [kspəυə]
frantically [frntkəli]
hemline [hemlan]
hound sb. [haυnd]
intrusion [ntru ən]
lamb dressed as mutton
[lm drest əz mtən] UK ifml.
(mutton
lawyer [lɔ jə]
legal action: threaten ~
against sb. [li əl kʃən]
lie in wait [la n wet]
MA (Master of Arts) [em e]
memorial church service
[məmɔ riəl tʃ tʃ s vs]
nursery school [n səri sku l]
opaque [əυpek]
passing out [pɑ sŋ aυt] UK
pawn [pɔ n]
L. Whyld/picture-a
lliance
ies with respectable 2:1 degrees. His was an MA in geography, a three-year course. Kate had reportedly advised him
to do it instead of the four-year history of art degree he
had started. By the way, in a somewhat undistinguished academic family, Prince William’s 2:1 makes him the highestqualified British royal of our time.
But such achievements are not what interest the mass media. Paparazzi photos are better for business. Since the couple were first seen together publicly on a skiing trip in
Switzerland in April 2004, telephoto lenses have followed
Kate’s every step. When she attended William’s “passingout” parade at the Royal Military Academy in December
last year, pictures of her flashed around the world. Constant
exposure is the price one pays for being a possible princess.
In December 2005, the German magazine Das Neue published photos of her flat, which made it possible for others to
find out its location in London. This led to a security
review by the police because of concerns for her safety. On
the morning of her birthday this year, four police officers
were posted outside her home in Chelsea, as photographers
lay in wait to get a picture of that Topshop dress. A week earlier, ten police officers were called to protect Kate and
William from photographers as the pair left a nightclub in the
early hours of the morning. The increased attention has led
to warnings from both Prince Charles and Prince William,
as well as from Middleton’s lawyers, who have threatened
legal action against those who would publish intimate
photos of the couple.
“I do not wish to perpetuate this intrusion into her privacy,” wrote Maricar, author of the Merry Royals blog, on the day
of Kate’s birthday. Maricar said that she
would no longer post photos of Kate that
appeared to have been taken “by street
ambush”, and continued: “In addition,
I have deleted those old posts and photos on this blog that are of this nature.
I will still post stories and photos of
her as she appears in official functions and public events. Just not
paparazzi/ambush-type shots.”
Britain’s biggest-selling tabloid,
The Sun, has also said it will not use
paparazzi pictures of Kate. The Sun
is part of News International, a British
newspaper publisher owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
46 Spotlight
perpetuate sth. [pəpetjuet]
privacy [prvəsi]
reminiscent: be ~ of sth.
[remnsənt]
review [rvju ]
sensible heels [sensəbəl hi əlz]
solid [sɒld]
suede [swed]
tabloid [tblɔd]
tights [tats] UK
to have and to hold
[tə hv ənd tə həυld]
underpass [ndəpɑ s]
undistinguished
[ndstŋ wʃt]
wings [wŋz]
Trendsetter: Middleton
in the Topshop dress
guter (Universitäts)Abschluss
Hinterhalt
ProminentenSarg
Artikel, die an ein Ereignis
erinnern
anständig; hier: nicht zu kurz
unheimlich
Verlobung
Ausgesetztsein; hier: Im-Lichtder-Öffentlichkeit-Stehen
fieberhaft
Rocklänge
jmdn. jagen/verfolgen
Eindringen, Verletzung
eigentlich mutton dressed as
lamb: Versuch, jünger
auszusehen, als man ist
Schaffleisch)
Rechtsanwalt, -anwältin
jmdm. mit einer Klage drohen
auf der Lauer liegen
Magister Artium der alten
schottischen Universitäten = BA
Gedenkgottesdienst
Kindergarten/-tagesstätte
undurchsichtig; hier: blickdicht
Abschluss der militärischen
Grundausbildung
(Schach) Bauer; hier:
Marionette
etw. aufrechterhalten
Privatsphäre
an etw. erinnern
Revision, Überdenken
nicht zu hohe Absätze
hier: dezent, unauffällig
WildlederBoulevardblatt
(Fein)Strumpfhose
(Teil des traditionellen
Eheversprechens)
Unterführung
mittelmäßig
Kulissen
4/07
All this is eerily reminiscent of the life of Prince
William’s mother, Diana, who was hounded to death by
the paparazzi. Since that night in Paris in 1997, the media
has been frantically looking for the next Diana, and now she
has been found — well, perhaps she has been found.
Is Kate another Diana? Her
job as an assistant accessories
buyer with the British clothing
chain Jigsaw is not particularly glamorous. But neither
was Diana Spencer’s career as
a nursery school teacher in the
days before Prince Charles
asked her to marry him. Kate
is pretty, not beautiful like Diana. She is pragmatic and 25,
not naive and 20, the age when Diana got married. And
while Diana was a pawn in the long game being played by
Charles and Camilla, Kate Middleton is a very modern, independent woman who could make a career in the fashion
industry.
Princess Diana’s wedding-dress designer, Elizabeth
Emmanuel, recently described Kate’s style as “understated
elegance”. It is in Kate’s dress sense that we can find the
strongest echo of the dead princess. Diana is seen today as
a style icon, but what she wore 25 years ago was more
safe than stylish. Kate Middleton prefers sensible heels,
decent hemlines and solid colours. With the now-famous
Topshop dress, she wore a black blazer, opaque tights and
suede knee-high boots. Not particularly stylish; more lamb
dressed as mutton — just like the young Diana.
The biggest problem facing Kate Middleton is not that she
will become the new Diana; it is that she might marry the
new Diana. Prince William’s
good looks have made him a
pin-up for young women all
over the world, and his motherless life stimulates a protective
instinct in most older women.
He has Diana’s glamour and
the same magical ability to
connect with people. The world
that watched him carry his mother’s coffin and comfort
his father has always wanted to have and to hold him. It
won’t give him up without a fight.
So will Kate stand by William as the ghost of his mother
watches from the wings? Is she ready to play the role that
the media has created for her — a role that could become
a self-fulfilling prophecy and end tragically? Woolworth’s
has already prepared commemorative merchandise in case
a royal engagement announcement comes soon.
It is still possible, however, that the very sensible Kate
Middleton will walk away from it all. Every little girl may
dream of being a princess, but not every woman wants to
be one.
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Photographers
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