Kate Middleton most likely hoped that her topless photo scandal is a thing of the past, but now a Danish magazine has published "bottomless" photos of the royal.
The new photos, published in the Danish magazine Se og Hor and leaked to the web this week, show the Duchess of Cambridge trying to put on a pair of bikini bottoms with a towel wrapped around her shoulders. The photos are from the same set of topless photos first published two weeks ago in the French magazine, Closer and later re-printed in Italy, Ireland and widely across the internet.
"It's a set of unique photos from an A-class celebrity. We are a leading gossip magazine in Denmark, and it is my job to publish them," Se og Hor's editor told the Belfast Telegraph before the issue came out. "If the British royal family want to sue us, then it will happen then and we'll deal with it."
Middleton won an injunction against Closer, halting distribution of the photos which were taken while she and Prince William were on a balcony in Southern France, during a private vacation earlier in the month.
Per the ruling, Closer had to hand over digital copies of the unauthorized photos within 24 hours. The court also stopped the magazine from republishing the pictures - including on its website and its tablet app - as well as re-selling them. The court also imposed a $2,500 fine and blocked further publication of the photos. The ruling only affects the French magazine branch of Mondadori, Closer's publisher. Mondadori faces a daily fine of euro10,000 ($13,100) if it fails to do so.
"These snapshots which showed the intimacy of a couple, partially naked on the terrace of a private home, surrounded by a park several hundred meters from a public road, and being able to legitimately assume that they are protected from passers-by, are by nature particularly intrusive," the French ruling said, according to the Associated Press. "(They) were thus subjected to this brutal display the moment the cover appeared."
"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcome the judge's ruling," a spokesperson for the royal couple said in a statement obtained by OTRC.com.
The royal couple is also filing a criminal complaint against 'X' - the unnamed photographer who took the picture in hopes to get the identity of the mystery photographer and prevent him or her from selling the photos to new outlets. The photographer could face a significant fine and a year in prison if the case goes forward.
Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty magazine told The Associated Press that the royal family swiftly enforced legal again in the case because "they wanted to set a benchmark for the future."
Little speculated that the quick legal action also reflected Prince William's desire to not let the press to harass Kate Middleton in the same manor that they harassed his late mother Princess Diana. Princess Diana was killed in 1997, when she was fatally injured in a car crash after being chased by paparazzi in Paris.
In 1994, Britain newspaper editors refused to publish topless photos of Princess Diana that were offered by a Spanish press agency, saying they wanted to respect. They were taken while she was sunbathing in a hotel in Malaga, Spain.
Last year, Middleton's younger sister Pippa also faced a topless photo scandal.
Meanwhile, Prince Harry and the Palace ended their complaint against British tabloid The Sun, which printed naked photos of the royal in Las Vegas.
(Copyright ©2012 OnTheRedCarpet.com. All Rights Reserved.)
No comments:
Post a Comment