After the shattering announcement that Prince William and would-be-Queen Kate Middleton had split after five years, the British press paused for just a moment before unleashing all sorts of Pygmalion-style nonsense about how Kate was, in the end, too "middle class" to marry a prince.
The Kate backlash has had a further effect: hordes of aspiring lookalike Middletons were suddenly out of work, and Madame Tussaud's has stopped work on a wax figure of the royal girlfriend.
Now, just before Kate slips into complete obscurity, her detractors are sharpening their claws. Most hacks agree she was a nice enough girl—the real vitriol is aimed at her mother, Carole, a former stewardess turned party entrepreneur.