[美国.时代周刊].Time.2011-05-16.pdf

COVER The Royal We By Catherine Mayer / London Friday, Apr. 29, 2011 Kate and William on the Carrage down to Buckingham Palace Friday April 29 2011. Andrew Cowie / UPPA / ZUMAPRESS If London were a ship, she would have listed. Days before the wedding of His Royal Highness Prince William Arthur Philip Louis and Catherine Elizabeth Middleton, it began: the inexorable buildup of spectators along the ceremonial route, at first a straggle of flag-bedecked diehards, then the crowds and finally hordes, all intent on squeezing into the same small corner of a sprawling city. Some were locals, but many had traveled across countries and continents. Those lucky or determined enough to grab the best vantage points caught fleeting glimpses of oxblood-colored Rolls-Royces and open carriages and their smartly dressed occupants. The greater press of people, their views obscured, raised smart phones like periscopes. What mattered was not seeing the pageantry but living it. You can understand why Britons and the 54 nations of the Commonwealth would take more than a passing interest in an event attended by their head of state, her immediate heir and the heirs heir. Brits observing the bobbies keeping order on the ceremonial routes may also have wondered how much of their taxpayer cash had been spent on what was, after all, described by palace officials as only a semi-state occasion. Citizens of Bahrain could take heart that even amid the cheers, their clamor for reform was audible, forcing the Gulf states Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa to send his regrets. Yet this wasnt a spectacle of interest only to audiences with tangible links to those present. The marriage of the Prince and the commoner gripped a global audience, reaching places not represented at the ceremony and without historical ties to Britain or, like the U.S., long independent of its Crown. The world loves a love story, and were thirsty for narratives of hope in difficult times. But more than that