THE "CHI" ISSUE

Tonight I'm going to weigh in on the story that won't go away and yes, I have a copy of Chi - it's pronounced "kee", for any Sky presenters who may be reading - the Italian magazine that has published pictures of a topless Kate along with others that have been trumpeted as "even more intimate".  The magazine may have sold out in locations such as Milan and Bologna, but it was still on the newsstands here late on Saturday and in the newsagent's people were talking about but not, for the most part,  buying it.  That may say more about Sicilian spending habits than it does about the quality or otherwise of the publication in question.

Having purchased a copy [because I'm still too British to leaf through it and put it back on the shelf] I can tell you that the answer to the question, "What's all the fuss about?" is, "Very little":  The "intimate" pictures show nothing more than the couple applying sun lotion to each other's backs and a caress of the head, while the young woman sunbathes topless, just as millions of others do - except, of course, that this young woman is the future Queen of the United Kingdom and that is the editor's justification for publishing the pictures.

I have to say that I would have more respect for the editor if he simply admitted to publishing to sell more copies and it is worth pointing out that Chi is the magazine which published photographs of the dying Diana, Princess of Wales some years ago - a more serious lapse of taste with the potential to deeply wound a number of people, including the young man who features so prominently in the September 26th issue.

More interesting, for me, are several interviews in the same issue with key Italian media figures, one of whom, Clemente Minum, director of TG5 news, expresses views which are close to my own:  Mr Minum points out that members of the Windsor family enjoy many privileges, for which being a little more careful about what they say and do seems a small price to pay.

I would add this:  if the Windsors had ever known what it is like to need money - I mean really need it - they might understand that the temptation, for paparazzi and public alike, to photograph them in compromising situations is irresistible.

Back in 1962, the film producer Carlo Ponti who, as the husband of Sophia Loren, knew a thing or two about paparazzi, wrote this:

"Our privacy as a couple is always threatened, and consequently we move from country to country or across the ocean, from house to flat and back again, in the effort to safeguard it.  We don't hold others responsible for this lack of privacy. The fault, if any, lies in ourselves, or rather in our chosen profession."

Prince William of Wales did not choose to be a royal but his wife did.  She has plenty of advisers but an example is close at hand in her grandmother-in-law, the only head of state in the world who could have played the part of a "Bond girl" at the Olympics Opening Ceremony whilst retaining her dignity. Why? Because retaining her dignity is what she has been doing all her life.