Like Kate Middleton, this spectacular issue of The Australian Women's Weekly is an exercise in restrained elegance. From the sparse cover with its silver foil masthead, to the opening 'Princess Perfection' ads for L'Oreal, to the 50-page Royal Wedding spread with its descriptive prose, full-page photos, captions in cursive font and complementary Tetley tea, Phantom of the Opera and commemorative Australia Post stamp ads, and Michael Sheather's moving tribute to Diana, the issue is breathtaking, a keepsake and, apparently, a sell-out already in Brisbane, Queensland. How apt. The fairytale wouldn't be complete without The Weekly. Take a bow (or curtsey), Helen McCabe and team.
Beyond the royal pages of the May issue, we meet the Danish royal twins; editor Helen McCabe talks to author Jeffrey Archer, who goes to the theatre twice a week; Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, says she wants to increase awareness of the effects of domestic violence and develop strategies for unpaid carers; former NSW health minister and current Sisters of Charity Foundation CEO Reba Meagher appears next to the headline, "I quit politics, now I work for God"; Asher Keddie talks Ita, Kerry Packer and life in the country; and Oz magazine co-founder Richard Neville talks about raising (and embarrassing) his daughters.
Golden Logies winner Karl Stefanovic, who, writes Bryce Corbett, has seamlessly segued from "bloke's bloke to housewife's darling", is awarded a timely eight-page spread. Alan Jones comments: "The very good thing about Karl Stefanovic is that he is not up himself and that's very rare in the media." His temporary Today show co-host Sarah Murdoch adds: "I will always appreciate how generous Karl was – allowing me to have my moments, letting me have my opinion and, more than anything else, holding my hand."
Of Cassie Stefanovic, his wife with the Phillipa Middleton butt, who met Carl when she was a gun reporter for ABC Radio News, he says, "I remember sitting opposite her at dinner and thinking what an interesting woman she was. She just gave me shit all night. She spent the whole evening calling me 'preppy'." Good to see he gets as good as he gives in his relationship!
Of his Logie nomination, before noting Lisa Wilkinson has "played a massive part in any success I have had", Stefanovic says, "I have to say, the [Logie] awards thing doesn't mean all that much to me, but the one thing that does move me is to think how immensely proud my grandparents would have been. They moved to this country 65 years ago on a wing and a prayer, and only a generation later all of us grandchildren have managed to build lives for ourselves. Early in my career, people told me I had to change my name, saying it wasn't Australian enough. But I couldn't be more proud to carry this name and all that it stands for."
Fashion on a fuller-figured model, beauty with natural ingredients, Gwyneth Paltrow's family cooking, winter soups, novelist Elizabeth Stead's garden retreat, working dad David Penberthy's comforting words for guilt-ridden parents and Pat McDermott's 'Royal Bride Guidebook', with faux bridal to-do list, filed perhaps after the wedding ("Remind bridesmaids, once again, that their dresses are a little odd. This is so they don't outshine me!") round out a class-act issue.
Girl With a Satchel
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