Pippa Middleton arrives for the Boodles Boxing Ball at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel on October 1, 2011 in London, England.
Poor Pippa Middleton. Here she is, trying to make an honest living as a party planner. But now, the royal family is getting in the way of the world’s most famous sister-in-law.
Pippa, whose party-planning book Celebrate is due out October 30, was supposed to go on a promotional tour this fall around America. But now, Kate Middleton’s 28-year-old sister has had to cancel the tour and turn down $600,000 worth of U.S. media opportunities for fear of drawing even more attention to the Duchess of Cambridge’s topless picture scandal, reports the New York Daily News. Her U.S. publisher Viking Press has confirmed in a statement that “Pippa is not doing anything for us. She is not coming here to do interviews and is not available for anything, unfortunately.”
(MORE: The 100 Most Influential People in the World: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Pippa Middleton)
“If Pippa is quizzed about Kate’s topless pictures, then whatever answer she gives will generate more news about the matter, and upset Will and Kate,” a source told the Daily News. And that’s not the only worry. “If she were seen using the royal family to promote her book, she would soon be viewed as the next generation’s Sarah Ferguson.”
But the fact remains that the crown is still in the process of containing the fallout from the photos, taken covertly earlier this year while the Duke and Duchess were vacationing in France. The images were published in at least five publications outside the U.K., prompting St. James Palace to file a lawsuit against French magazine Closer, which initially published the images.
And we shouldn’t be so quick to forget that Pippa has been no stranger to scandal herself. In fact, she’s laid quite low since she was photographed in Paris in April riding in a car, the driver of which was seen brandishing a semi-automatic handgun. And the wild party she allegedly attended the night before that incident is even more salacious.
So which shows has Pippa had to forego? The Daily News‘ source says she’s been offered interviews with Anderson Cooper, Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres, as well as a spot as a special correspondent on ‘Entertainment Tonight.’
A heavy blow, to be sure, but no doubt Pippa can console herself with the knowledge that had it not been for her sister, no one would have ever heard of her in the first place.