The photos of Pippa Middleton's bodyguard waving a gun at paparazzi in Paris that came out this week had the promise of making for a salacious royal scandal. But French police have said over the past few days they aren't even investigating the incident since no one has complained about it. (Who would complain about Pippa?) Also, the gun was fake, according to a spokesperson for Pippa's friend, Arthur de Soultrait, who she had been out partying with the night before.
The AP reported:
A spokesman for a French clothing company owned by de Soultrait, who also appeared to be in the car, denied that Middleton's companion brandished a pistol at the paparazzi, saying that the driver was in fact "playing a game" with the photographers with a toy gun.
Though French law treats fake guns with the same weight as real guns, this at least makes it sound not as bad in the press as if it were a real gun.
So with the gun being passed off as a toy, and no investigation ongoing, that may be that — a potentially truly horrible scandal may be just about averted.
Pippa is not a royal, but her sister Kate is, of course, so she kind of owes it to her to behave as benignly as possible in public so that she doesn't taint the otherwise very safe duchess's tiara. Kate seems like the unlikeliest of royals to make a mistake in the public eye, but tabloids hungry for a royal scandal wouldn't be crazy to put their eggs in Pippa's basket. She's already been photographed on the front row of a London Fashion Week show apparently a silly shiny yellow period costume with fuchsia bows all up the front. The event had the look of one of those themed parties Real Housewives are always embarrassing themselves at.
As a correspondent told the "Today" show, Kate probably had a pretty stern word with her sister about the toy gun "game." Unfortunately for Pippa, she had less of a choice in her position in the public eye than Kate, but is still expected to play it just about as safe as her.
