Article from the Standard - which I thought would finally settle the ongoing debate about how to define class
Hello! to a new social order
It is an unworthy thought, I know, but I wonder if it was someone in Princess Michael of Kent's circle who leaked to the press the fact that her son Freddie Windsor and his bride, Sophie Winkleman, turned down £600,000 to let Hello! photograph their wedding.
It would be too tempting a piece of one-upmanship for most of us to resist, particularly when Princess Anne's son was offered £100,000 less ? and accepted!
There are only two slight dents in this social triumph. One is the shame of £600,000 being described as a ?life-changing amount? by one's own servants.
The other is having Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine ? whom they let photograph the whole shebang for free ? describe it with ungrateful haughtiness as ?not a massively significant wedding ? along the lines of the Duke of Gloucester's kids, I suppose?.
Still, the principle is established. Celebrity magazines have become the most exact guides to the social hierarchy.
The new class system goes, in order, like this.
- Turns down lots of money from Hello!
- Turns down less money from Hello!
- Accepts money from Hello!
- Not offered money by Hello!
- Reads Hello!