TV Eye
The Royal We
By Belinda Acosta, Fri., April 29, 2011
Every time I hear a woman on a TV show or in a movie say she's been dreaming of her wedding since she was a little girl, I frown. I never had a thick binder full of wedding plans. None of my girlfriends had "dream wedding" notebooks either. I cringe when a woman says that her wedding is the most important day of her life. Really? Not a graduation or making an enduring piece of art or well, practically anything else?
I like ceremony and ritual. I like pretty things. I even like getting dressed up once in a while. But being a bride has never, ever been on my list of things to do. So when coverage information about the upcoming royal wedding between England's Prince William and Kate Middleton began flooding my inbox, my response was a resounding "meh." That changed when several of my like-minded girlfriends astonished me by admitting that they were excited about the upcoming royal wedding and were planning to watch it live, from start to finish. I decided I wanted to try to understand the appeal.
BBC America has declared itself "The Home of the Royal Wedding," and that's where I turned to get schooled on the wedding of the century. Several short documentaries cycled throughout the week, bringing viewers up to date on the story of the tragically short life of Diana, Princess of Wales: her dresses, her jewels, her rise to prominence as the "people's princess," her loveless marriage to Prince Charles, and the products of that failed marriage, eldest son William, who will be marrying the "commoner" Middleton on Friday, and her youngest son, Harry, who will be the groom's best man.
"Most people can only dream of being commemorated on a plate," a talking head intones in Modern Monarchy: Here & There, before a display of ceramic teapots stamped with images of William and Kate. This was stated with a straight face. Apparently, the British Royal Family surpasses other royal families worldwide in collectible kitsch. In addition to cups, saucers, and other tchotchkes, a special commemorative coin has been minted in honor of the royal wedding. Wow – but nope, I still wasn't feeling it.
Throughout the BBC marathon of royal wedding specials (How To Be a Prince, Modern Monarchy: Dos & Don'ts, Princess Diana: Her Life in Jewels, and many more) there was talk of pomp, tradition, and much comparison to the Cinderella story in which the ordinary girl (Kate) meets and marries her Prince Charming (William). Kate Middleton is hardly an ordinary girl. Vibrant and lovely, she's marrying an equally handsome young man who inherited his mother's good nature and ability to speak with an easygoing charm, as opposed to the imperious air of his elder royals. Forget Cinderella, I wanted to be the fairy godmother with a magic wand – and make it a big one! And all that "soul mate" talk or the "happily ever after" finish? It still makes me gag.
"The more digitally commonplace our world becomes, the more we want irrational magic," said historian Simon Schama on William & Kate: Modern Monarchy. I'm not sure about that "digitally commonplace" remark, but in a year that has already seen its fill of grief, warfare, disasters, and economic uncertainty, is it really irrational to seek a little magic? I can think of many other useful ways to spend the millions of dollars that will be spent on the royal wedding, but it's the idea that two people managed to find each other in a world filled with distractions – and for this young couple, while under constant media scrutiny – that I find magical. Okay, yes, I'll be watching the wedding with all the other magical thinkers and Anglophiles too.
The royal wedding airs live on BBC America on Friday, April 29, starting at 2am. Highlights of the ceremony, interspersed with the aforementioned specials, will repeat throughout the weekend. Other networks offering wall-to-wall coverage of the royal wedding include NBC, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, and E!. YouTube will be streaming the wedding online. Locally, the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek will screen the royal wedding Friday at noon.
