Booted by Wikipedia

It's a sad day when one of Britain's top selling newspapers gets told by the on-line encyclopedia

Wikipedia to clear out their desk and leave the premises. The Daily Mail has been told that it can be no longer be used as a reliable source although Whispers feels quite a few British tabloids could well receive the same treatment.
We here are quite fond of the Mail even if they do nick the odd story from us. We've also made a habit of posting our regular Daily Mail Fails such as this ripper when they reported on the sad death of comedienne Tracey Ullman's mother. In the photo caption they claimed (in several editions) that the lady accompanying Ullman was her mother when in fact it was Australian actress Nell Campbell of Rocky Horror Film fame. The fact both women appeared to be of similar age seems to have eluded the editor.
Alas the curse of Daily Mail Fail has struck again on the very day they get their marching orders from Wikipedia.

 In this story about the sad death of British society identity Tara Palmer -Tomkinson they make some strange mistakes, firstly claiming Palmer-Tomkinson's body had been discovered by her "Portuguese cleaner" and then just a paragraph later claiming her body had been discovered by a 'friend'.
Mind you, perhaps her Portuguese maid was a close friend.

Still, who are we to cast stones. There's probably a blog somewhere compiling some of our corkers.

It's A Girl !..but not a Princess yet

Not long ago we chided a Sydney columnist for gushing that Royalty, in the form of horse loving Zara Phillips, had attended the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast in Queensland. Zara is a commoner as are all children born to those with Royal titles unless HM The Queen confers titles upon them.
Of course Her Maj usually does as a matter of course unless the parents decide otherwise as in Zara's case where her parents HH Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips decided to turn down the offer.
While a colonial writer and even a New York paper (as out pic shows) may be forgiven for making a common mistake, it's unacceptable for British newspapers who have also elevated the Duchess & Duke of Cambridge's newly born daughter to Princess status when, in reality she is a commoner at this stage. Talk about slack fact checking!.
Nothing is guaranteed in the world of Royalty where they ( and their handlers / courtiers) more than anyone judge the mood of the general public.
 Kate and William may just decide to accept no title for the new bub,
Time will tell but I'm sure she's a little princess in their eyes.


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Fairfax Fail : The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have both failed in the fact checking
department. Are we being pedantic?. I think not as this indicates how journalists these days fail to do the most basic fact checking.
Calling the new baby a "princess" is simply wrong until the Monarch confers a title upon her.
In fact she will not even strictly be a 'royal' unless she is given a peerage as well which is why her parents were created the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge which is also why her grandfather Prince Phillip was created the Duke of Edinburgh before he married the Queen so that she would not be marrying a commoner.
Last month with such sloppy fact-checking we had 2 large publishers killing of Australian actress Nell Campbell on the claim she was comedienne Tracey Ullman's mother.
# Even Whispers is less than perfect. We did forget that the recently born and now (created by the Monarch of Great Britain) Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Cambridge was a Lady from the word go. Being the daughter of a Duke & Duchess she is entitled to that title.
Critics again have attacked me for being pedantic which is nonsense. British titles are a powerful legal entity crafted over centuries of law making. The new Royal Princess could one day also be the Queen of Australia. We aren't a Republic yet (if ever) and it's sad that major media outlets in this country can display such ignorance. What other mistakes are they making?
It's remarkable that newspapers that lived and breathed the late princess Diana have ignored the fact that she felt the cruelest blow to her after divorcing the future King, Prince Charles was losing her Royal status.

Gratuitous One Direction Photo

Did you just watch the Royal Variety Performance?.  Fact: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 of Australia (Great Britain and Her Dominions) cost British taxpayers roughly $99M yearly. The British Tourism Board estimates that the income derived from tourism because of the history of GB and the Royal Family is from $700M to $900M per year (in 2013 5.8 million tourists visited a royal palace).
You do the maths.  That's a long winded way of introducing our exclusive photo from the 2014 Royal Variety Performance of the Most Famous Pop Band That Ever Lived- One Direction !!

Lara Bingle Nude & the Duchess of Cambridge

For some odd reason 'Lara Bingle nude' is a search term we encounter here at the Shuttle almost every day that leads excited readers to our pages.

So here are the latest shots of the lady as she poses for the next issue of Cleo Magazine.
The last time we encountered the lovely Lara was at a party in Oxford Street as she arrived and we were leaving. Her strident manager quickly said "no photos , no photos please" as we lifted our smartphone to call for a taxi.
Still it's the thought that counts.












 Here is a snap of the Duchess of Cambridge's expensive pumps after walking the red dirt at Uluru.
An excuse to introduce an article : The Golden Era of ‘Fashion Blogging’ Is Over.

Royal Update

A comment from a UK Time's reader :

Topless Kate Middleton Pics & an Aussie Connection

William & Kate in Malaysia

While the brouhaha over the topless photographs of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge gets more dramatic by the day, an Australian connection is emerging.

A fortnight ago Bauer Media, Europe's largest privately owned publishing firm purchased Australia's largest magazine empire ACP for around $500M. Bauer Media also own the Closer brand of magazines. The topless photographs have been published in the French edition of Closer and the editor is unrepentant with reports now emerging that there are further pics to be published next  week.

Bauer have issued a statement deploring the use of the topless photographs of Kate Middleton and have complained to the magazine but the French edition is published under license by an Italian publisher Mondadori.

Bauer CEO Paul Keenan says he has asked Closer to remove the pics : "We deplore the publication of these intrusive and offensive pictures and have asked that Closer France takes these pictures down immediately from its website and desist from publishing any further pictures"'. Bauer are said to be reviewing the Closer license with Mondadori.
                                                                                                                           
Where does this leave the Australian Woman's Day, the biggest selling weekly magazine and new Baeur acquisition ?. WD is in fierce competition with New Idea (owned by billionaire Kerry Stokes' Pacific Magazines) and barely a week goes by without the 2 glossies running a feature on Prince William and Kate. A month ago we can imagine a bidding war would have erupted between the 2 mags for the topless photos. New Idea was the first to breach an agreement, not to mention that Prince Harry was serving in Afghanistan in 2008.

The Shuttle has worked on a number of occasions with the British royals including the late Princess Diana on her last visit to Australia. We once attended a dinner for HRH Prince Edward at Lady Mary Fairfax's pile Fairwater. Twenty guests had paid $10,000 each for the privilege of dining with Edward (the money went to charity) with the promise of a snap with the royal. The Shuttle obliged but not before an arrangement was made with Edward's minders- 2 charming but lethal looking gentleman from Scotland Yard's Royal Protection Squad. The Shuttle was to be searched before we left the function to ensure we had not taken any covert pics of Edward, perhaps rubbing his bald spot and so on. We were happy to oblige.
But where were Kate Middleton's minders while she was holidaying in France and for that matter, Prince Harry's when he was in Las Vegas ?.