Media Talk: The New Yorker's Royal Mockery

Media Talk: The New Yorker's May 2 Issue

Clearly, The New Yorker didn't get the same memo as the crew at The Chaser/ABC stipulating that material from the royal wedding supplied by the BBC cannot be used ''in any drama, comedy, satirical or similar entertainment program or content''. 

The titillating May 2 cover of the magazine is accompanied by Laura Collins' 'Holy Matrimony' Letter From Britain, which notes, "Alexandra Shulman, the editor of British Vogue, deemed the royal wedding a “perfect Marmite moment”—splitting the nation into equal camps of lovers and loathers...William and Kate, toothy and cuddling, have a page that looks indistinguishable from any other young couple’s on the Web site The Knot. But it remains to be seen whether the Windsors’ presumption that commoners will be happy to eat their sausage rolls in the streets while an élite of six hundred parties at Buckingham Palace is a nostalgic one."

A highly amused Collins tells NewYorker.com online editor Blake Eskin (who says he's been "hostile to the British Royal Family" since he read about the American Revolution but is in the minority in his office) that the event represents a feudal gesture from the royal family, as everyone gets the day off, with Prime Minister David Cameron encouraging street parties. Collins notes the distinctions of class and elitism that separate British and American society: "Coming from humble origins and making something of yourself is the best pedigree you can have in the US. And let's not forget the Middletons, independently of their association with the Royal Family, are self-made millionaires. They're a very comfortable, privileged family in their own right." 

A curmudgeonly Leo Carey writes elsewhere for The New Yorker that he shan't be watching today's official proceedings, to which one reader comments: "If nothing else (and I think it is far more), the Royal Family and a constitutional, non-ruling institution of monarchy act as centers in a far-too-whirling world. I suspect that if Mr. Carey "shan't be watching or singing," no one would have cared or noticed...".

Girl With a Satchel