Kate Middleton Has New Job
Kate Middleton, Prince William's long-time girlfriend, has a new job with British photographer Mario Testino.
And as CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reported Wednesday on The Early Show, it may be excellent training for a future life as a royal.
Of course, if you are royal, there is really only one job. It requires hats, and jewels and the stamina of a horse, even at age 82.
Last year, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II carried out more than 425 engagements. Her recent trip to Uganda was her 256th foreign tour in the 50 years she has been on the throne.
Photos: Kate Middleton
All this means is that the rest of the family has to find something else to do.
Prince Charles, king-in-waiting, is an organic farmer; Prince Andrew is the ambassador for British business, with a sideline as an international flirt. Princess Ann and her daughter Zara are involved in anything to do with horses. Whatever the chosen occupation, it must have minimum potential for embarrassing headlines.
There has been embarrassment in the past when members of the royal family have the wrong job. The queen's youngest son, Prince Edward, drew criticism several years ago when his TV production company followed his nephew Prince William through St. Andrew's while the rest of the media were turned away from the school. And Edward's wife, Sophie Wessex, worked in public relations but had to give up her job after embarrassing headlines arose.
So what's a girl without a trust fund, like Middleton, to do?
It's very difficult for her to go and work in a bank or in a normal job. Yet it is almost imperative that she have a job.
It's important that Middleton is seen to be someone industrious, who's not just waiting to be the next Princess of Wales and the truth is the royal family wouldn't like it either.
But in her years as Prince William's girlfriend, the long lenses of the paparazzi have followed Middleton as they used to obsessively follow William's mother, Diana.
Her family has accused photographers of hounding Diana to her death. Her brother, the Earl of Spencer said at her funeral, "Of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this - a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age."
So there is no small irony that Middleton has chosen a life behind the lens and turned to a super-star photographer to tutor her. Testino took the now iconic pictures of Diana the last summer of her life.
And there is a long history of royal photographers. Antony Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon, was married to the queen's sister, the late Princess Margaret, from 1960 to 1978 and, after the divorce, remained close to the royal family, taking official royal photographs. The queen's cousin, the late Lord Lichfield, also took many royal photos, including the official wedding pictures of Prince William's parents, Charles and Diana.
Even American princesses turned to the camera: Jackie Kennedy behind it and Grace Kelly in front of it.
In fact, it may be the best possible training for a life as the world's most photographed woman, if Middleton does marry her prince.