Absolutely no selfies to be taken with the rock-star-like Duke of Cambridge -- er, you know, Prince William, the bald guy

"Sorry for the delay -- the royal couple are staying
here because they couldn't afford Brooklyn."

by Ken

So Joe Dator has slid into newyorker.com's "Daily Cartoon" chair -- replacing David Sipress, who seemed to be doing it, like, forever -- just in time to memorialize the great occasion of the royal visit of the Duke of Cambridge. (I know, "Duke of Cambridge" still sounds like a made-up title to me, but I assume it's what he's got printed on his business cards.) And it turns out that there is great controversy surrounding the visit to the White House of the man who stands second line to the British throne, behind his father, Prince Poopie, the Duke of Dorkborough.

Myself, I thought the frenzy over Prince Willie had died down once he began the evolution from looking like a golden fairy-tale prince to looking like, well, his father, Prince Poopie, so I have to wonder about the "rock star" designation. Still

Sure, he's still got a hot wife, but she's not with him. Nevertheless, the White House didn't seem to think that the press corps could be counted on to control its collective self in the face of such stimulation.

IN THE LOOP
White House to press corps: Don't take selfies with Prince William

By Colby Itkowitz
December 8 at 2:53 PM



Yes, Prince William has international rock star status and mere mortals rarely get to be in his presence.

But White House press corps, please show some restraint.

A White House aide, fearing professional journalists wouldn’t be able to, reminded them that selfies were forbidden as they were escorted into the Oval Office, where the Duke of Cambridge and the president of the United State were meeting, according to the Telegraph, a British newspaper.

Selfies are a bit of a sore subject for the White House, which spent a whole news cycle last spring beating back claims that presidential selfies were now banned after the Red Sox’s David Ortiz’s publicity stunt fiasco. Presumably they didn’t want to go through that again. Or embarrass themselves in front of the man two heartbeats away from the throne. (After Queen Elizabeth, 88, and Prince Charles, 66.)

The White House didn’t give reporters much time to break the rules even if they’d wanted to. One pool report noted that they were “in the Oval Office at 10:53 and out by 10:56.”

And there is, onsite, a clip of 46 seconds of those three minutes. Eat your heart out. Maybe you can do a screen grap and Photoshop yourself in.

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