All About the Dress

April 28th, 2011 Heather Kovar

Poor Kate. She’s not just trying to keep the groom from seeing the dress before the wedding, but the entire world!

The night before the Royal Wedding, Kate Middleton is staying at the Goring Hotel in London. The UK Press Association reports a canopy has been put up over the front of the hotel to make sure no one sees her dress before she arrives at Westminster Abbey Friday.
As you can see here, people and press are trying to get as close as they can to the hotel, despite barricades and street closures.

My interest in this part of the Royal Wedding stems back to my early days as a reporter (when quite honestly I made a screaming fool of myself.)
In 1997 I was an early morning anchor/producer at USA Radio Network News in Dallas. For what seemed like months, we were running this story promoting Princess Diana’s dress collection touring US museums. I was a fairly new journalism graduate full of ideals of what should be news and frankly I was sick of hearing about Diana’s dresses. I would rant why that story wouldn’t be in my newscasts.

As I walked into the news room to start my early morning shift on August 31st 1997, I asked out loud, “what’s our lead story?”
I thought the answer, simply “Princess Diana,” was a joke, so I started my rant again of how she wouldn’t be in my newscasts that day. I saw terror on my colleagues faces and then quietly began my shift that spanned into the announcement she had died.

Ever since the engagement was announced, I’ve seen Kate’s outfits compared to Diana’s. Even when I walked into work with a new white coat, someone said, “that’s like Kate’s! Everyone wants a white coat!”
How had I missed that? After a google, whew. Mine didn’t have black buttons.

However, Kate is now a leader. Which also makes her a fashion icon. If those magazines are selling to the masses- and they’re buying- it shows respect for the new royal. People are looking for leadership and why should someone like me dismiss clothes as part of the big picture.

Outside the chaos of central London, here is a residential street that I’m told could echo much of the country. On the eve of the wedding, a quaint display of national pride and respect.

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X Factor

April 26th, 2011 Heather Kovar

Of course Kate and William grace the news in London. Three days before the Royal Wedding, London’s Daily Express entices readers with a “FREE Royal Wedding Commemorative Bell.”

But the big picture is Cheryl Cole.
According to Simon Cowell, America will love her.

It’s recently been reported that Cole, one of Britain’s top celebrities, will be a judge on the American version of “X Factor,” set to premiere in the US on Fox this fall. Cole sits next to Cowell on the judge’s panel of the British version of the reality star search program.

Auditions for contestants are currently underway across America. They were held in New Jersey April 13th and 14th.
You can head to Chicago for an audition April 27th or Dallas May 26th.
Plus it’s the first time people can audition in booths in malls. There are studios set up in Denver, Honolulu, Phoenix, Nashville, Anchorage, and Kansas City.

In London, headlines once questioned whether America would understand or accept Cole’s accent.
Just as there as regional dialects in America- speak styles differ across England.
The Daily mail online is pointing out her “Georgie twang” helped her land the gig. (Is that like a Texas twang?)
The paper uses the example of how Americans were in awe of the Beatles Liverpool accent back in the 60′s.

Linking it all back to music, Cole is a member of the British all girl pop band “Girls Aloud.”
The band got it’s start in 2002 as winners of a reality TV show competition, “Popstars The Rivals.”

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