Was Kate Middleton’s smile given extra gloss? - Her dazzling smile lit up the royal engagement and charmed the watching world. But that beaming look has, it seems, been given something of a helping hand.
It was reported at the time that the wedding was announced that Kate Middleton, 28, had visited the consulting rooms of French-born orthodontist Dr Didier Fillion on London’s Wimpole Street for a teeth-whitening makeover.
In fact, I understand, the future Princess Catherine underwent a revolutionary dental treatment to ensure her teeth were perfect ahead of those engagement photographs.
Pearly whites: Kate Middleton gives a nice smile for the cameras at St James's Palace
Kate first visited Dr Fillion — who also has practices in Paris and Geneva, and who travels to Britain two days a week to see patients at The London Lingual Orthodontic Clinic — around a year ago, and had an initial £100 consultation.
Fillion specialises in a method of applying braces from behind the teeth so they are invisible.
Two years ago, Fillion started to use 3D digital technology, which he developed himself with a laboratory in South Korea.
He is the only practitioner in the world to use this method, which is more precise and cuts the amount of time a brace needs to be worn for by several months.
Kate had dental work as a child, and it is known that she wore a conventional brace at the age of 12. Noticeably, however, a gap between her two front teeth remained — until recently.
Her gleaming new smile looks as though it was topped off with a course of teeth whitening to give that Hollywood sparkle.
Dr Fillion, who has also straightened the teeth of Sadie Frost and Kelly Brook, is reluctant to discuss his soon-to-be-royal client, but happily talked about his pioneering treatment.
‘The new digital technique I have developed is more precise and, depending on what needs to be done, can cut the treatment by three or four months,’ he tells me.
Patients can expect to pay between £6,000 and £9,000 for braces on upper and lower teeth, or between £3,000 and £6,000 for upper only.
Treatment can last between six months and two years. In Kate’s case, it seems to have been perfectly timed for the announcement of her engagement.
In 2009, Clarence House confirmed that Prince William had worn a brace on his teeth for a decade.
Gleaming grin: Kate and William at their engagement announcement
Home of French Lieutenant’s Woman author faces bulldozers
It’s the historic gem where the author of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles, wrote some of his great novels.
But five years after his death, the fate of the Lyme Regis villa where Fowles wrote the best-selling The Ebony Tower will be decided today when controversial plans to convert it into a holiday home come before the local council.
Under threat: Writer John Fowles at his old home in Lyme Regis, which could be partially demolished
There was uproar among the property’s fans — including Fowles’s widow, Sarah — when the Landmark Trust, to whom the house was sold four years ago, announced they were to demolish its south-west wing and restore the Dorset building to its 18th-century form.
‘It’s such an antiquated thing to do,’ Sarah, 67, tells me. ‘Maybe I’m approaching this with my glass three-quarters full, but I am willing to bet these changes will in fact not go ahead. It is the most wonderful house and I have for a long time been horrified over these ludicrous plans.’
The Victorian Society has also weighed in. ‘This is an outdated approach to conservation,’ an official tells me. ‘We simply cannot agree with their idea of turning back the clock on the house’s history, especially because doing that will most certainly wipe out all the years that John lived there.’
Prince Harry’s decision to join badly injured servicemen pulling sledges on a 200-mile trek to the North Pole is commendable. But the timing is curious.
The expedition, for which the Prince is already in training, is due to reach the Pole sometime between April 20 and 24, just five days before Prince William says ‘I do’ to Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey.
Students of royal history wonder if Harry is hoping for an ‘all this and Everest, too’ moment as the icing on the royal cake, much as Sir Edmund Hillary’s conquest of Everest did for the Queen’s coronation in 1953.
Might portly bar owner Mark Dyer be Harry’s Sherpa Tenzing?
Not content with reinventing himself as vice-chairman of Sunderland AFC and as a part-time teacher at his old school, former foreign secretary David Miliband says he has also set his sights on developing his musical talents.
In a gushing interview given with his wife Louise Shackelton — who plays violin with the London Symphony Orchestra — to this month’s edition of classical music magazine The Strad, the MP says: ‘For pleasure, I listen to BBC Radio 2 or 3. I’ve got time on my hands now — I can go and do some singing lessons . . . We [he and Louise] are not sitting at home bathing in nostalgia. We’re looking forward, not back.’
Maybe, but when will he have time to see his constituents?
Aitken’s girl finds her Sikh
One-time party girl Alexandra Aitken has completed her transformation from budding actress to yoga teacher and Sikh devotee.
Wedding: Alexandra Aitken
After changing her name to Harvinder Kaur Khalsa — first revealed here three months ago — the daughter of former Tory MP and jailbird Jonathan Aitken has married a fellow Sikh and moved to India.
Ali has been sharing her news with chums. ‘Hi, heavenly friends,’ she emails. ‘A very funny, forgiving, huge-hearted, saintly hero called Inderjot Singh was adventurous enough to marry me!’
A snapshot of Ali in traditional Sikh bridal regalia — including a dumalla [turban] — accompanies the missive, along with the promise: ‘We’ll have celebrations in London and LA soon — hope you’ll join us.’
Alexandra does not seem to have settled on a location for a marital home. She requests correspondence be sent to an address in Beverly Hills, adding: ‘I am currently living in India. My mail gets shipped from here [Beverly Hills] to wherever I am in the world.’
Velvet-voiced Joanna Lumley has been enjoying old rocker Keith Richards’ autobiography, Life.
She calls it ‘an excellent insight into the life of this extraordinarily gifted man. It’s touching and breathtaking. As important as Van Gogh’s letters to his brother — fabulous’.
La-di-dah!
With one Labour MP (David Chaytor) already in prison and another, Eric Illsley, facing a term behind bars, Westminster types have been reminiscing about the misdemeanours of past dishonourable members.
A particular favourite is Liberal Horatio Bottomley, sentenced to penal servitude for fraud in 1922.
He was spotted in prison sewing mailbags by a visiting MP, who said: ‘Ah, Bottomley. Sewing I see.’
Replied the swindler: ‘No, reaping.’
PS
Always on the move, Sir Richard Branson is having to adjust to life with his feet up.
The Virgin tycoon was skiing in the Swiss Alps with his family when he collided with a teenager. The result? Sir Richard’s anterior cruciate ligament snapped, a knee injury all skiers dread.
Within 24 hours, Branson — who was staying at the Hotel Alex in Zermatt — flew to London, where he was swiftly operated on.
Sir Richard, 60, is making light of the situation. ‘Normally, it takes nine months to fully recover, but I’m working hard to be back on my feet as soon as possible,’ he says.
Of the teenager he collided with, he adds wryly: ‘With my injury, I couldn’t catch him.’ ( dailymail.co.uk )
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