Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Kate’s photo scandal shows how hard it is for the monarchy to control its narrative
LONDON | The scandal over Kate, Princess of Wales’ family snapshot is a new chapter in the thorny relationship between the media and Britain’s royal family.
It’s also a sign of how hard it is for the monarchy to control its own narrative in the social-media era.
“Social media has empowered the royals to curate their public image in new ways,” royal historian Ed Owens said Tuesday.
“But they have also given over significant power to the end user. And that end user … desires greater insight, greater intimate detail about what exactly has been going on behind closed doors.”
The palace issued the image of Kate and her children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — on Sunday to mark Mother’s Day in Britain. A family snapshot taken, the palace said, by Prince William, it was intended to calm speculation about Kate’s health, almost two months after she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition.
But within hours, The Associated Press withdrew the photo over concerns it had been digitally manipulated in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards. For instance, it contained an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand with the sleeve of her sweater. Other major agencies including Getty, Reuters, AFP and Britain’s PA also retracted it.
Kate said sorry on Monday, saying that “like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.” In a statement on social media, she expressed “apologies for any confusion the family photograph” had caused.
The royal family is under particular scrutiny because King Charles III has also had to cancel public duties while he undergoes treatment for an unspecified form of cancer. Charles’ relative openness about his diagnosis was a departure for the generally secretive royal family.
Both online conversation and traditional media in the U.K. were dominated Tuesday by what the Daily Mirror called the “Picture of Chaos” and the Daily Mail labeled a “PR disaster” for the royals.
The tabloid Sun leapt to the princess’ defense with a front page that thundered: “Lay off Kate.” The tabloid said “social media trolls, idiotic conspiracy theorists and sniping media critics” were bullying the future queen.
The royals have long had an awkward relationship with the media in Britain, where they are an uneasy hybrid of celebrities and taxpayer-funded public property.
Decades ago, it was possible for the royal family to assert control. In the 1930s, the romance between King Edward VIII and twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson was headline news in the U.S., but was barely mentioned in Britain until the king abdicated to marry the woman he loved.
But the era of deference gave way to the age of celebrity, and with it pressure on the royals to be open and likeable, glamorous but relatable — all while maintaining the dignity of a 1,000-year-old institution.
At times, the royal-press relationship is openly hostile. William and his brother Prince Harry accuse the media of hounding their mother, Princess Diana, and blame paparazzi for her death. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while she was being pursued by photographers.
Harry, who moved to California with his wife Meghan in 2020, has made taming Britain’s tabloid press a personal mission. He has launched lawsuits against several newspaper publishers over alleged phone hacking and other unlawful intrusion.
Harry has attacked the media directly in television interviews, a Netflix documentary series, and in his memoir, “Spare,” accusing the press of racist attitudes towards Meghan, who is biracial. He said he feared Meghan would suffer the same “feeding frenzy” as Diana had faced.
Harry isn’t the first royal to try to speak directly to the world through TV interviews. During the breakdown of her marriage to the then-Prince Charles in the 1990s, Diana gave a BBC interview in which she said, “There were three of us in that marriage,” referring to Charles’ relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles, who is now Queen Camilla.
Prince Andrew tried the same tactic, disastrously, with a 2019 BBC interview to address his friendship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of sexual abuse. Andrew appeared uncomfortable and evasive, and announced after the interview that he was “stepping back” from public duties. He has not returned.
Diana’s death shocked the palace and the press into an uneasy truce. The British media left young William and Harry alone in exchange for carefully staged interviews and photo opportunities as they grew up. That practice has continued with William and Kate’s children.
British media also became more reluctant to use paparazzi photos. A picture of Kate and her mother in a car was published last week in the United States but not in British publications.
That rule is flexible, though, if an image is judged sufficiently newsworthy. Several U.K. outlets used a grainy photo of Kate in a car with William taken near the couple’s Windsor home on Monday.
The age of social media, with its democratic but chaotic flow of information, made the palace’s decision to say little about Kate’s condition risky.
Royalty has always attracted gossip, rumor and conspiracy theories — look at the evergreen theory that Princess Diana was murdered.
Stephanie Baker, senior lecturer in sociology at City University of London, said social media amplifies that chatter and allows the creation of “crowd sourced conspiracy theories” that can spread around the globe.
“The most serious issue for the Princess of Wales and the monarchy in light of the photoshopped image is the erosion of trust and credibility” she said.
Despite pressure from the media, however, the palace has said it will not release the original, unedited photo.
Owens, author of “After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?” said William and Kate “have been the great beneficiaries of social media up to now.”
But from now on, “they are going to have to be more honest in terms of their communications strategy,” he said.
Beyoncé’s new album will be called ‘Act II: Cowboy Carter’
LOS ANGELES | Beyoncé is full of surprises — and on Tuesday, dropped yet another one. Her forthcoming album has a name: ‘Act II: Cowboy Carter.’
The title was revealed on Bey’s official website, along with details on a few limited edition CD, vinyl and box set releases.
‘Act II: Cowboy Carter’ arrives March 29.
Beyoncé first announced the news of a album last month after starring in a Verizon commercial during the Super Bowl that ended with the superstar saying “They ready, drop the new music.” The main details about the release had been a cryptic Instagram video with country iconography appeared that teased “act ii” coming out in March. (Beyoncé’s 2022 album “Renaissance” is frequently referred to as “Act I: Renaissance.”)
Soon after, she released two new country tracks — “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.” Those releases made Beyoncé the first Black woman to top Billboard’s country music chart.
Oscars’ strikes tributes highlight solidarity, and the possible labor struggles to come
LOS ANGELES | Hollywood has been able to put on a show of happiness and something akin to normalcy as it struggles to shake off the effects of the dual strikes and one of the most tumultuous years in industry history.
Yet Sunday’s Academy Awards didn’t sidestep the labor strife that left its screenwriters and actors out of work for much of 2023. The acknowledgment — prominent amid muted acknowledgment of the strikes during other awards shows this season — comes as behind-the-scenes crews could be next to challenge studios, and video game actors may be weeks from their own strike.
In front of an enormous global audience, Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel devoted part of his opening monologue toward vowing to union members and those working behind the scenes that Hollywood’s stars would stand with them — repayment for those workers supporting actors during the strike that brought much of the entertainment industry to a standstill last year.
“We fully support them, obviously, as they did us,” said Fran Drescher, the president of the actors guild, told The Associated Press on the Oscars red carpet.
Kimmel took the opportunity to shine an even bigger light on the matter.
“For five months, this group of writers, actors, directors, the people who actually make the films said ‘We will not accept a deal’ … well, not the directors, you guys folded immediately,” Kimmel said during the show, mixing a bit of humor in. “But the rest of us said we will not accept a deal without protections against artificial intelligence.”
That’s when he thanked the workers in Hollywood now embroiled in a labor fight of their own, bringing dozens of truck drivers, lighting workers, gaffers, grips and more onto the stage as a thank-you.
“Thank you for standing with us,” Kimmel said. “And also, we want you to know that in your upcoming negotiations, we will stand with you too.”
There was a time when the Academy Awards would have been the last place for an expression of solidarity like Kimmel’s. The guilds in the current labor struggles formed in the 1930s in large part because of fears that the newly founded Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would become a cartel of studios used to keep pay low. Actors, directors, writers and other workers would eventually exert greater control over the film academy, with threats to boycott the Oscars among their tools.
The same fears of being replaced by artificial intelligence that fed the actors and writers strikes may lead to a strike of video game actors, who are also represented by SAG-AFTRA.
Speaking at a panel at SXSW Film & TV Festival the day before the Oscars, SAG-AFTRA executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said a strike could be four to six weeks away.
“It is, at this point, at least 50/50, if not more likely, that we end up going on strike,” Crabtree-Ireland said, “because of the inability to get past these basic AI issues.”
Actors who work on video games range from voice performers to stunt performers. Their long-term contract expired more than a year ago, and there has been little progress in months of talks. In September, the game actors overwhelmingly gave their leaders the authority to call a strike against the collective of gaming companies that hire them. They last walked off the job for six months in 2016 and 2017.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — whose members include cinematographers, camera operators, set designers, carpenters, hair and makeup artists and many others — plans to resume talks next week with the Hollywood studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the same group actors and writers negotiate with.
The talks on pay hikes and protections against overwork, which began last week, will affect about 50,000 workers in the Los Angeles area, IATSE said.
Three years ago, the talks reached the edge of a strike before the current contract was reached. That turned out to be a harbinger of the massive disruption that came last year.
“I think that this is a very dynamic year because everybody’s impacted by the significant changes that have occurred in our industry, especially AI,” Drescher said. “It’s a left jab and a right hook, because the AMPTP is getting it from all sides. But it’s long overdue.”
Nicole Scherzinger, Sarah Jessica Parker nominated for Olivier Awards
LONDON | An acclaimed revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard” and a play about the travails of England’s national soccer team lead the race for the Olivier Awards recognizing work on the London stage.
The 11 nominations for “Sunset Boulevard” announced Tuesday include best actress in a musical for Nicole Scherzinger, a former member of girl group the Pussycat Dolls, and best actor for Tom Francis. The Jamie Lloyd-directed production is due to transfer to Broadway later this year.
James Graham’s “Dear England” got nine nominations including best new play and best actor for Joseph Fiennes, who plays Gareth Southgate, the coach who has restored the team’s fortunes.
Other acting nominees include Andrew Scott for one-man Chekhov adaptation “Vanya,” “Succession” star Sarah Snook for her solo show “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Sarah Jessica Parker for Neil Simon comedy “Plaza Suite” and Sophie Okonedo for Greek tragedy “Medea.”
Musical performance contenders include Daniel Mays and Marisha Wallace for “Guys and Dolls,” which is also nominated for best musical revival.
The nominees for best new play are “Dear England,” Jez Butterworth’s “The Hills of California,” Jack Thorne’s “The Motive and the Cue” and Beth Steel’s “Till the Stars Come Down.”
The best new musical contenders are “The Little Big Things,” “Next to Normal,” “Operation Mincemeat” and “A Strange Loop.”
Winners of the Oliviers — the U.K. equivalent of Broadway’s Tony Awards — will be announced April 14 at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Hannah Waddingham, a West End musical star before she found TV fame as the owner of a struggling soccer team on “Ted Lasso,” is due to host the ceremony for a second year.
The prizes were founded in 1976 and named for the late actor-director Laurence Olivier. Winners are chosen by voting groups of stage professionals and theatergoers.
Last year’s acting winners included Paul Mescal for “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Jodie Comer for “Prima Facie.”
—From AP reports
