Baby mama

So, it’s looking as though Prince Harry may be off the hook, since the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have announced that they are expecting a child, who will be (either male or female, thanks to recent changes to the rules of succession) third in line to the British throne.

I personally find all the media hoo-hah a little extreme. According to this report in the Guardian, there’s been round-the-clock coverage of the “event” of the sort you’d expect for a cataclysmic earthquake or presidential election. Except that there’s no one to interview and nothing to report beyond (apparently) that the Duchess is glued to a throne of a different sort.

Yes—the cat sneaked out of the bag because Kate has been hospitalized for severe morning sickness.

Evidently broadcast executives have decided that they need multiple news teams on the scene—at a hospital to which they have no access—in order to speculate six ways from Sunday (boy? girl? name(s)?) about things that in a normal world wouldn’t be considered news outside of a zoo with a pregnant panda.

Even the Guardian itself managed to hawk up a hairball of nonsensical factoids: “It is understood she is less than 12 weeks pregnant, possibly only two months. The duchess is likely to be taking anti-sickness tablets and have a drip in her arm so she can receive fluids intravenously.” (Plus: look at all their sidebars.)

Well, duh! This is worth scrambling “11 production crew for the hospital watch” by ABC? Our ABC, not the Aussies’?

I’m just seriously dumbfounded that people are losing their minds to this degree over something that has less and less relevance to the real world. (Talking about maintaining that whole monarchy thing as anything other than a symbolic nod to tradition.)

On the other hand, Harry’s probably out with his mates downing a few and feeling massive relief that there’s soon to be one more body between him and the throne.