Royal Wedding? Seriously? How can you compare....

...Kim Kardashian's wedding with the Royal couple in Great Britain?  I realize that makes for great tabloid fodder, but really?  Kim Kardashian used the Royal wedding as her inspiration, yes.  I understand that part.  I would imagine most any young girl imagined, in a moment of wishful thinking, imagined herself getting married to a prince.  William is heir to the throne and together they looked the part of 'Future King & Queen'.  Let's get one thing perfectly clear, though - Kim Kardashian is NOT royalty.  She is a reality-TV personality.  It is hard for me to even call her a 'star' as she is simply going through the motions of her day-to-day life while a camera films it.  I will acknowledge one thing - she and her family have made a small fortune (and then some) marketing, well, their family.  Quick, think of ALL your friends.  How many of them do you know that can turn their lives into a TV show and rake in millions?  How many of them can sit and think, "Hmm, we know a lot about________ (fill in the blank).  We ought to start a business selling the associated items," and make that work?  Hey, I like riding motorcycles - think I can simply go out and open a dealership that will be successful because they know me from my nights out partying?  Yeah, I didn't think so.

The other thing I heard today, while listening to the comparisons to the Royal Wedding, was that Kim and her husband will rake in a cool $17.9 million from the proceeds.  The WHAT???  Proceeds?  From a WEDDING??  Okay, another quick show of hands - how many of you have ever known anyone that made money on their wedding?  They had $400,000. of donated Perrier-Jouet champagne.  Kim wore three different Vera Wang gowns.  They are selling their wedding pics to People magazine.  Sold the rights to their engagement announcements and bridal-shower photos.  They were even paid to have the bachelorette party at Tao Las Vegas!    Can anyone else even imagine this?  Hey, you are absolutely correct - I am not faulting them.  If you can get it, get it.  You know they're laughing all the way to the bank and we, as "common folk" have no right to complain...for it will be us, the American commoners, that pay for the People magazine.  Others will do whatever they can to wear a Vera Wang.  (stop giggling) Amazingly, we will be the ones to watch, too, the 4-hour, two-part TV show on the E! network sometime in October.  That doozy alone got them a cool $15 million.  I am still dumbfounded.

Consider this last point, though.  When William and Kate, future King and Queen of England, wed earlier this year they asked that they not be given gifts.  Instead, they raised money for charities.  My question to everyone is, "How much do you think Kim and her husband will give to charity?"  I'm guessing, if they were any version of "America's Royalty" they would have given much of it away.  This, however, will probably be their 'little' nest egg for the future, right?  Well, I , for one, am glad they did it this way.  In a time when our children expect (and most often, demand) whatever they want, this should help a lot.  I hear kids now, at the age of 15, saying they want a Range Rover for their first car.  Seriously?  Uh, yeah...me, too.  Now, every father in America can thank Kim and the fellow Kardashians for allowing them the opportunity to say, "No," to their daughters in the future.  When a young girl bats her eyelashes at daddy and begs for a more lavish wedding, they will point to Kim and ask how she got it and they don't.  It's at that point, dads, that you need to make sure your kids know they should have been reality-TV stars so they could afford such a thing...because, quite honestly, that's where the comparison ends.  Please, too, do NOT compare these two to Kate & William.  You remember Kate - still thrift-shopping even after her marriage.  Think we'll see Kim doing that?  And what about hubby?  Oh, yeah - NBA star.  William?  He's a lowly helicopter pilot out saving lives.  I have to say, if my kids ever wanted role models, I'd certainly point "across the pond," first.  They are some classy, centered young people that are providing an excellent example around the world.

Until next time.....