In the slideshow: Puppies and pleats, which would have made an amazing name for a style blog in 2009.

Elsewhere of interest:

Obviously, the biggest topic of discussion in royal-watcher circles (and honestly celeb-centric media in general) this week is Meghan and Harry’s upcoming Oprah interview, and the corresponding domino of WTF responses from Buckingham Palace; The Palace would have been so much better served by simply keeping their mouths shut, rather than whatever it is they think they’re doing by announcing that they’re “investigating” whether or not Meghan was difficult to work for (something I obviously do not know, but regardless I’m fairly confident that a large portion of the BRF have been allowed to be nightmarish to staff for eternity and are likely currently being nightmarish bosses, so pretending they suddenly care about this feels pretty transparent. She doesn’t even go there anymore!).  I do not know who is advising the Firm here, but it seems they’re making a massive mess of it; this has correspondingly turned into even more of a PR fiasco for them, and they’re only drawing more attention to the Oprah interview, which may turn out to be generally benign! I just hope Meghan and Harry are enjoying the nice weather by their pool right now, eating some good Mexican food in peace because this has been quite a week.

Anyway, this is a really good and thoughtful piece at Vanity Fair: Why Kensington Palace Just Can’t Let Go of Meghan Markle

In other news — and the issues with the Thai monarchy are really serious, and I hope folks are paying attention — this is an amazing story: How K-pop fans are helping Thai protesters stay out of jail [The New Statesman]

I learned something from this! Why Meghan Markle Called the Royal Family “The Firm” in Her Interview With Oprah. (Obviously, I knew some of this but not all of it. Learning!)  [Oprah Mag]

Speaking of interviews, Tatler reports: Martin Bashir will not face criminal investigation over Princess Diana’s Panorama interview

Additionally, via Hello!: “The High Court has ruled that The Mail on Sunday must publish a front page statement about the Duchess of Sussex’s victory in her copyright case against the newspaper over the publication of a “personal and private” letter to her estranged father.”

And on social:

I ran this through Google Translate for you, and so I can tell you that this is a meeting following up on some initiatives born out of a United Nations conference about “the rights of girls and women, including sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

One of you pointed out this post to us the other day, and I need to ask: Is that fabric on the sofa….OF THEM????

 

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[Photos: Shutterstock, Kate Gabor The Royal Court of Sweden/IBL/Shutterstock, Kensington Palace/Shutterstock]