Royals, Again

Saturday morning update: I've now read the new issue and my hunch was correct. People really doesn't have any information about "plans" for baby number 3. Here's the exact quote from Prince William, which comes from his interview with UK media: "We've only just had the second! You never know what is going to happen in the future." The magazine claims that "multiple friends [of the couple] have told People that it's a matter of when, not if," but still, that's pretty weak tea. For the record, my bet is that it will be two and done.

Mid-morning update: Blog readers know I sometimes see patterns in the way People chooses and headlines their cover stories. Today's new cover sounded familiar and sure enough, exactly a year ago there was another cover story and there it is, at the very bottom: "PLUS Plans for a Royal Sibling." I haven't checked the archives but if I remember right, the big info about plans for a royal sibling was that there weren't any. Prince William was quoted as saying that one was fine for the moment. (Side note: given that George's birthday is July 22, there will probably be similar covers every mid-July for the foreseeable future.)

I haven't seen the new issue yet, but what do you want to bet that "Plus PLANS FOR BABY NUMBER 3!" will turn out to be nothing more than a statement that two are fine for the moment? Stay tuned.

(Last year) Issue dated July 28, 2014


Original Post:
(Current) Issue dated July 27, 2015


Even for someone who's as "into" the royal family as I am, this seems like a bit much. I also have a "media literacy" note: the headline promises "NEW INTERVIEW & PHOTOS" but if you've been paying attention since Princess Charlotte's christening, there almost certainly won't be anything new. William did a "televised interview to UK media outlets" that Tom Sykes reported at The Daily Beast on Monday, and the pictures are almost certainly the official set taken by Mario Testino at the christening.

Regarding other current pop culture news stories, I'm somewhat sad that People didn't see fit to include the World Cup-winning women's soccer team on the cover this week, and very glad that they didn't feel the need to include anything about Kourtney Kardashian's relationship woes.