Pavlos and Marie-Chantal current events 2: October 2005-June 2006


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Marie-Chantal lives a very glamorous and luxurious life, yet seems to be a doting mother to her children. It is unusual to see someone who appears to have it all. Good for her!
 
Good interview of MC.

I must give her some credit for being so honest in this piece. Bravo, MC.

At first, I really didn't know what to make of her, but now I have to respect her for the things she has accomplished. :)
 
''..Her father could buy Greece if he wanted...''is mentioned somewhere in the interview.Why don't they tell us,who actually said that?He or she,who said that, suffers from the syndrome of ''Big mouth and small brain''.
 
Thank you for scanning the article and pictures! MC comes across far more down-to-earth than I'd ever imagined. And I think she sincerely enjoys her children and her marriage. I hope it's all real, not some glossy PR ploy. I really liked the photo of her and her masked children on the stairs. Looks like they have alot of fun.
 
Bella said:
Thank you for scanning the article and pictures! MC comes across far more down-to-earth than I'd ever imagined. And I think she sincerely enjoys her children and her marriage. I hope it's all real, not some glossy PR ploy. I really liked the photo of her and her masked children on the stairs. Looks like they have alot of fun.

I too enjoyed the article and also found her down to earth. I also liked her "blunt" honesty, especially in regards to her father's wealth and her sister's misfortunes. As for the "her father could buy Greece" comment, I found that ignorant and offensive, especially since her father is not even that rich in America compared to Bill Gates, etal.

The only thing that made my eyes roll was when she mentioned that she would like to get her hands "dirty", especially to help children. Please. In my opinion, only if you are willing to teach, coach or mentor children do you really make a difference. The rest is just talk.
 
Wallis said:
Thank you m 12. I tried to scan it using the scanner in my husband's business, but he thought I was ridiculous and said I should stop wasting my time posting and opining about other people's lives.
Men just don't understand the gossip gene.;)
 
Thanks so much M 12 for posting the links for us. :)

Well, it was a pretty good interview. At least she came across as more humble than she has in her other interviews. :rolleyes: I don't think she should have dissed Paris Hilton though. I'm not crazy about Paris either, but still it wasn't very appropriate to do in an interview. I'm also surprised she swore a bit. :eek:

BTW, what is bento boxes. She says, ".... we have friends over & watch a film together with bento boxes on our laps. :confused:

I have to say I give her and Pavlos credit for still having a seemingly strong marriage. And I don't think it's a farce like some people claim. I don't think you can "fake it" for 10 years. I think it's nice to see a marriage (especially in this day and age) last a long time. So kudos to them.
 
rchat said:
BTW, what is bento boxes. She says, ".... we have friends over & watch a film together with bento boxes on our laps. :confused:
Bento boxes are a Japanese tradition of dining. They are (usually) lacquered boxes that are separated into several quadrants (like a separated plate if you live in North America). In each compartment is a different dish, such as rice in one compartment, meat in another, and veggies in another. The combinations of food vary.

Here is an example.
 
Alexandria said:
Bento boxes are a Japanese tradition of dining. They are (usually) lacquered boxes that are separated into several quadrants (like a separated plate if you live in North America). In each compartment is a different dish, such as rice in one compartment, meat in another, and veggies in another. The combinations of food vary.

Here is an example.



Oh, ok. Thanks Alexandria. That hasn't caught on in America. It looks kinda cool though.
 
Thanks M_12 for scanning & posting the interview for us!

Wallis said:
I too enjoyed the article and also found her down to earth. I also liked her "blunt" honesty, especially in regards to her father's wealth and her sister's misfortunes.
Not to mention her comments on royalty and current RULING royal families in particular! I actually am pretty blown away by some of her comments on this.

For example,when talking about how 'lucky' she is to have her father to help out financially, and mentioning how Pavlos didn't grow up "with that certainty", then Vogue quotes her: "I mean, you take any of those families and kick them out of their country and they wouldn't know how to.." and then there's a meaningful silence on her part according to the interviewer!

This is stunning stuff, folks! I'm quite serious: For one, she's talking about--dare we say criticize?-- direct family of her husband! I.e. the queen of Denmark is her husband's aunt--another aunt of his is queen of Spain!
She is basically saying that without their pretty tiara's, these royals who happen to currently have a country to rule, wouldn't be worth their salt if you took away their thrones!

In my opinion, this is an extremely interesting comment: the way I interpret it is that Marie Chantal, having been able to take a good look 'in the kitchens' of a slew of these royal families for over a decade now, has (finally) realized that perhaps these royals aren't all they're made out to be: and that without these vast, as she puts it, "well oiled machines" behind these royals, those crowned heads we love to discuss may not be all we think they are! Of course, that might be a big "DUh!" to billions of us who see these royals for what they are: human beings with a heck of an interesting pair of shoes to walk in.

That said, I also think that MC is (belatedly?) realizing that it actually takes a lot more perseverance, luck, and hard, hard, work, to be a successful 'self made' person, to start your own company and become a billionaire like her father did, than most of these people we call "royals" will ever know!

And that people like her father--who by all impressions literally earned the good fortunes that eventually came his way after years and years of sweat--are more worthy of our admiration than someone who is merely lucky to be born into a family with a throne.

I think it's really really interesting that MC, of all people, turns out to think this way AND let alone that she has the guts to express this publicly! Good for her, I say. I always had the hunch there's a sound head on this girl's shoulders, and now, in my view, it's been confirmed.

Was the interview a PR move? Of course it was! She has a new business to hawk, she might as well promote it as best she can.
 
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kelly9480 said:
Men just don't understand the gossip gene.;)

Yes, it's really ridiculous. At this point, especially after he chastised me when I tried to scan the article, I just read this forum when he is not at home. What gets me angry is that I own the most books in the house, including John Kenneth Galbraith's "The Good Society", which he read after his death. I also buy "The Nation" and am currently reading Marcel Proust's "Swann's Way." So I get pissed when he mocks my interest in royals.:(
 
princess olga said:
Thanks M_12 for scanning & posting the interview for us!

Not to mention her comments on royalty and current RULING royal families in particular! I actually am pretty blown away by some of her comments on this.

For example,when talking about how 'lucky' she is to have her father to help out financially, and mentioning how Pavlos didn't grow up "with that certainty", then Vogue quotes her: "I mean, you take any of those families and kick them out of their country and they wouldn't know how to.." and then there's a meaningful silence on her part according to the interviewer!

This is stunning stuff, folks! I'm quite serious: For one, she's talking about--dare we say criticize?-- direct family of her husband! I.e. the queen of Denmark is her husband's aunt--another aunt of his is queen of Spain!
She is basically saying that without their pretty tiara's, these royals who happen to currently have a country to rule, wouldn't be worth their salt if you took away their thrones!

In my opinion, this is an extremely interesting comment: the way I interpret it is that Marie Chantal, having been able to take a good look 'in the kitchens' of a slew of these royal families for over a decade now, has (finally) realized that perhaps these royals aren't all they're made out to be: and that without these vast, as she puts it, "well oiled machines" behind these royals, those crowned heads we love to discuss may not be all we think they are! Of course, that might be a big "DUh!" to billions of us who see these royals for what they are: human beings with a heck of an interesting pair of shoes to walk in.

That said, I also think that MC is (belatedly?) realizing that it actually takes a lot more perseverance, luck, and hard, hard, work, to be a successful 'self made' person, to start your own company and become a billionaire like her father did, than most of these people we call "royals" will ever know!

And that people like her father--who by all impressions literally earned the good fortunes that eventually came his way after years and years of sweat--are more worthy of our admiration than someone who is merely lucky to be born into a family with a throne.

I think it's really really interesting that MC, of all people, turns out to think this way AND let alone that she has the guts to express this publicly! Good for her, I say. I always had the hunch there's a sound head on this girl's shoulders, and now, in my view, it's been confirmed.

Was the interview a PR move? Of course it was! She has a new business to hawk, she might as well promote it as best she can.

I agree with this whole comment. I too was stunned. I would have been afraid to have criticized my husband's family in public, where they can easily read it or at least get wind of it. Also, it is hard to make money. It took my husband 5 years to make his business profitable. Now he is making 2-3 million a year and he is expanding. But we struggled for many years together. We have been together for 15 years, married for 10 (11 years come July 9) and for 8 years I was the only one making a salary while he finished law school and opened his own business. It was hard.

But I also agree with what you said at the end. Was this a p.r. move? I mentioned in previous posts that I met Marie Chantal at her store on Madison Avenue here in New York. She was very friendly. I didn't look at her much (like a typical New Yorker around a celebrity), but she was curious about whether or not I had kids and who was I buying the clothing for. Perhaps she was warm and friendly, but perhaps she was also trying to get an idea of what kind of customers are coming to her store.
 
I agree with alot of what you said, Princess Olga. I tend to think MC holds a bit of resentment towards the "ruling" royal families, perhaps because it only makes her position less important or because she might feel her husband (and his family) were cheated out of their destiny (for lack of a better word) and probably because her son will never become king which she probably feels is his birthright. However, if you take anyone out of their situation, they'd be lost. Including herself. If she (and her family) suddenly found themselves penniless ~ w/out the palatial houses, the designer clothes, the servants, the holidays, etc. ~ she would be just as stranded as the royal families who found themselves w/out crown or country. As for being born into a priviledged position (rather than working for it), you really can't blame anyone for that. I once read a comment about the Prince of Wales where someone said 'you can't blame him for the life he was born into just as you can't blame someone born into a less fortunate life.' Or something like that. And while I do tend to give a more respectful nod to someone like Robt. Miller who struggled and sacrificed and earned his wealth and position, you can't write off those born w silver spoons. It's what they do with their advantages that really matters as well as the knowledge that (alot of times) their words and actions can have a positive (or negative) effect on those around them.
 
rchat said:
Thanks so much M 12 for posting the links for us. :)


I don't think she should have dissed Paris Hilton though. I'm not crazy about Paris either, but still it wasn't very appropriate to do in an interview. I'm also surprised she swore a bit. :eek:

I didn't interpret that statement as a diss, but more like a compliment. My understanding was that for many years Marie Chantal felt like she cared too much about other people's opinions and what they thought about her. Now she feels that she is at a place in her life where she wants, to quote Eric Cartman from South Park, to "do what I want." So she used Paris Hilton as an example of some one who does what she wants no matter what people think and is still happy.

Funny that she mentioned this because years ago I read in an interview that she left New York because, especially after 911, everyone looks over your shoulder and judges what you do, including what charity you should get involved with or what board you should belong to. I would say that Marie Chantal is tired of political correctness and to tell you the truth, so am I.
I hope I don't get into trouble for saying this.:)
 
Wallis said:
I agree with this whole comment. I too was stunned. I would have been afraid to have criticized my husband's family in public, where they can easily read it or at least get wind of it.
Same here! Let alone if my husband's aunt from his dad's side was QUEEN SOPHIA OF SPAIN, and one aunt from his mom's side the formidable Danish queen Margarethe! To say nothing of other family members who are royals! Imagine queen Margarethe, or Frederik, or Felipe or Sophia of Spain reading this! All these people are DIRECT family of Pavlos, and thus of MC's own kids as well. Almost makes you wonder whether these royals have perhaps been not as welcoming to MC as we'd like to believe? Or, more likely, MC has come down to earth from cloud 9, and perceives royals for what they are: humans like anyone else. Or rather, humans who for the most part, wouldn't be able to really earn their own pay check if you'd let them loose from their golden cages into the real world! And that may well be very true for most of these royals out there today.

Wallis said:
Also, it is hard to make money.
Yes, it sure is. It's one thing to earn a pay check working for "the Man", as in, any employer, but, as you're alluding, it's even harder to have your own company and make that work. And yes in that sense, most current royals have nothing on Robert Miller. (Bar a bunch that does earn their own living, like Joachim of Denmark who's a farmer, like the princes of Liechtenstein who all work as financiers, or princess Alexia of Greece who (used to?) work with disabled children for a living.)

Wallis said:
But I also agree with what you said at the end. Was this a p.r. move? I mentioned in previous posts that I met Marie Chantal at her store on Madison Avenue here in New York. She was very friendly. I didn't look at her much (like a typical New Yorker around a celebrity), but she was curious about whether or not I had kids and who was I buying the clothing for. Perhaps she was warm and friendly, but perhaps she was also trying to get an idea of what kind of customers are coming to her store.
Nothing wrong with a PR move indeed, I'd do it in a heart beat too, if I'd been in her shoes. She clearly wants her business to become a success, she's leveraging the tools within her reach. I suspect that her conversation with you in her store was therefore two-fold indeed: on the one level, I'm sure she enjoyed the person to person interaction, but meanwhile, any information about how you think and how that influences your behavior as a consumer, is valuable information for someone like her.
Also what I sense out of this is that she enjoys getting information from outside of her own rarefied bubble of an existence, and that should be applauded, I totally agree on that.

And last, also a very telling, in my opinion, detail in the interview is how she underlines the fact she herself "feels American."

Very revealing. This is a person who grew up outside of the US mostly, in places like Paris and Hong Kong. With this clear statement of "being an American at heart" she seems to want to underline the fact she doesn't feel she belongs to this upper caste of, let's face it, privileged people whose very purpose in life hinges on a medieval and undemocratic concept.

Which is exactly how most Americans seem to think about royalty, if they give it any thought at all. The States has its own fair share of vacuous royalty in people like Brad Pitt or Paris Hilton or whatever, but the prevailing attitude in America is that if anyone deserves admiration, it's those who worked harder than most and made a success of their lives against all odds. This seems to be the exact message MC seems to want to convey.
 
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Bella said:
I agree with alot of what you said, Princess Olga. I tend to think MC holds a bit of resentment towards the "ruling" royal families, perhaps because it only makes her position less important or because she might feel her husband (and his family) were cheated out of their destiny (for lack of a better word) and probably because her son will never become king which she probably feels is his birthright.
Bella, interesting points, that's definitely a probable explanation too. She probably loathes having to hang out with people she deems no more talented or special than anyone else, but all the same these people still get thrones for <their> kids! MC in all likelyhood, must have been a tad envious in this regard, that's understandable. However, I do think she's moved on mentally from that, I sense that by the fact she's so gung ho about building up her own clothing empire!

Bella said:
However, if you take anyone out of their situation, they'd be lost. Including herself. [..] As for being born into a priviledged position (rather than working for it), you really can't blame anyone for that. I once read a comment about the Prince of Wales where someone said 'you can't blame him for the life he was born into just as you can't blame someone born into a less fortunate life.' Or something like that. [..]It's what they do with their advantages that really matters as well as the knowledge that (alot of times) their words and actions can have a positive (or negative) effect on those around them.
Very true, and the Prince of Wales in fact is a great example in point of someone who could have spent his ample days bathing in the luxury and privilege he was born in, and what does he do? Stick his neck out for organic farming, before it was popular, and against ugly post modern architecture that's so unlivable but shoved down the throat of us common folk because we certainly couldn't fathom the 'fascinating intellectual visions' behind many of those concrete and glass monstrosities?

Charles uses a lot of his power for causes he's passionate about, and he puts his money where his mouth is, i.e. into a profitable organic farm of his own. I think Robert Miller would approve! :)

But what folks like fred of denmark or alexander of the netherlands are doing for the greater good besides cutting ribbons, and flying around the world to talk about how scarce a source water is (while hawking solutions that would benefit the big corporations of the globe mind you) or flying around the world to participate in sailing competitions, besides that, I haven't the faintest, actually, and neither, probably does Marie Chantal, hence her gutsy public criticism.
 
princess olga said:
Charles uses a lot of his power for causes he's passionate about, and he puts his money where his mouth is, i.e. into a profitable organic farm of his own. I think Robert Miller would approve! :)

But what folks like fred of denmark or alexander of the netherlands are doing for the greater good besides cutting ribbons, and flying around the world to talk about how scarce a source water is (while hawking solutions that would benefit the big corporations of the globe mind you) or flying around the world to participate in sailing competitions, besides that, I haven't the faintest, actually, and neither, probably does Marie Chantal, hence her gutsy public criticism.

Robert Miller would also approve of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates who are giving most of their money to charity. Their children are not inheriting the bulk of their money. Angelina Jolie also give a third of her money to charity and Caroline Kennedy also gives to charity and volunteered to help the public school system here in New York.

I don't know what the royals in Europe do so I won't pass judgement. But there are wealthy role models in America that they could look to.

By the way, I too detected resentment in Marie Chantal's article regarding royals, but I agree that she probably has gotten over it. But I would love to know how she feels about Mary Donaldson or Mari Mette (sp).

Also her comment about being an American is typical. My parents are from Puerto Rico and I was born and raised in New York. I look ethnic so when people ask me about my ethnicity, I say my parents were born in Puerto Rico and I was born in New York. Like me, I think Marie Chantal feels no attachment to her mother's homeland so she and I both consider ourselves American.
 
Time for a new thread, which can be found here

Thank you all for your contributions.
 
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