Silly Season is Among Us
Late Summer marks a quiet time in Royal watching. Enter: Silly Coverage
Readers, an update:
I published this post and minutes later the Daily Mirror released a huge exclusive. A Balmoral Summit begins first thing Monday. This is a meeting that Prince William cannot Zoom into and likely one of the reasons why Australia was a non-starter. Biggest agenda item: Discussing the Future of the Monarchy. I’ll have some thoughts next week
Yours,
Lady Sinclair
Hello Everyone!
In one of my columns last week, I noted that we were right in the thick of “Silly Season. Some of you are probably wondering, “What’s Silly Season”? For those not in the know, Silly Season is the time where the British Royal Family decamps for the summer and foolishness in the press reigns supreme. The Royals occasionally do little engagements here and there, but by and large, there isn’t much for Royal Rota, journalists or watchers to do to fill their columns in the Summer months.
But the press is an ever-hungry beast and cannot come to a standstill just because Royals have winded down their engagements. There is a whole army of reporters and social media accounts who still have column inches to fill and posts to create. So during the months of July and August, we the public get fed a plethora of utter nonsense. Insignificant stories that we would otherwise never hear about become huge nothingburger stories. Previously held notions about Royal wastefulness in a cost of living crisis go by the wayside. And drama is created where there is none. So far this Silly Season some of the highlights I’ve seen include:
The Princess of Wales was chided by a former Vogue editor because her choices in jewelry weren’t ostentatious enough and therefore, a disappointment
“I imagine her looking beautiful in one of those gowns behind the scenes and then pulling a face as if to say, ‘Do I have to wear this? She doesn’t give any sense of adoring jewellery and being pleased to put it on.”
Menkes went on to suggest that Queen Camilla seems far more interested in jewellery, stating: “[Kate] doesn’t seem to have Camilla’s joy at wearing jewellery.”
Kiltaggedon! The Prince of Wales hasn’t been seen in a kilt since he was a young child and it’s making the press a bit ornery. Many think-pieces have been written fretting about how Prince William “snubbing the kilt” portends bad omens for the stability of the monarchy.
People Magazine scrapped the barrel with this story. I did not know this, but the Duchess of Sussex’s birthday is also a “special day” for the Prince of Wales as he was christened on that day in 1982 41 years ago!
Much was also made about the fact that none of the Royal Family social media accounts “snubbed Meghan” by not wishing her a Happy Birthday even though they haven’t done so for a handful of years now.
To varying degrees, the stories during silly Season have a short shelf life. Just three months ago, Royal experts were bewailing the optics of Royals draped jewels and riding around in golden carriages during a cost of living crisis. Now? The Princess of Wales’s being criticized because she isn’t wearing enough expensive jewelry? They can’t win, which is why we receive very little pushback to stories published during the Summer.
The new narrative that’s been taken hold in the past 24 hours is Prince William’s decision to not attend the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in Australia. Apparently this means that Prince William “hates women” and “doesn’t respect” the Women’s Soccer Team as much as he does the Men’s team. Before I dig in, I want to say unequivocally, of course it would’ve been great for Prince William to be there to cheer on the Women’s Team.
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