General News about Frederik, Mary and Family 9: May - December 2011

[Nordic]

Originally Posted by dazzling

From reports so far, Mary will stay in Australia while Frederik is in Vietnam. I doubt they will spend Christmas in Australia, that would mean they will spend about a month in Australia (official visit & private visit).

IIRC, B-B wrote that they would be back in Dk mid-December.

[hrhNJ]

Not sure if this goes in general news or current events, but here goes!

Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary attended the 60th birthday party of Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen:

Photos

[Lumutqueen]

All black for a birthday, seems odd. Thank you very much for the pictures.

[ANNIE_S]

Who is Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen? Is he a friend of F&M? (Just curious )

[grevinnan]

Alexandra and her husband attended as well and she looked very lovely.

[AnnaNotherThing]

Originally Posted by ANNIE_S

Who is Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen? Is he a friend of F&M? (Just curious )

I think he is an actor/celeb...and maybe it is a case of Frederik is friends with Jarl's younger wife, so they all have become friends in turn...

Originally Posted by Lumutqueen

All black for a birthday, seems odd. Thank you very much for the pictures.

Most of the guests were wearing black and they looked like the arty/eccentric types...and arty/creative types favour black...And Mary's arty black was teamed with pretty alternative (earrings) for Mary anyway...Green and black beads, Mary went wild with her accessories!!!

[nwinther]

Originally Posted by ANNIE_S

Who is Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen? Is he a friend of F&M? (Just curious )

Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen is an actor/director and TV-presenter as well as a TV-magnate (or as close as you come to that in little Denmark). He's also a socialite associating with many of the established TV- and movie-stars in Denmark.

I have no idea what his relations to the Crown Prince couple is, other than perhaps having met them at any number of social functions.

[Muhler]

Thursday is upon us again and another issue of Billed Bladet has hit the streets.

The Q&A this weeks deals with:
Did QMII undergo a surgery in order to shorthen her thigh bones?
What was the menu at M&F's wedding?

We have a story about Mary and the Christmas Mark Fundation.
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums...ml#post1335793

The Hubertus Hunt is featured as well.
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums...ml#post1335793

We have a brief coverage of Joachim and Prince Henrik going hunting.

The UNICEF event is well illustrated with photos, but there is little substance in the text as the royals didn't say that much.
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums...ml#post1335808

We have a well covered report from Joachim and our Marie's visit to Japan, with an interview coming up next week.
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums...ml#post1335927

And we have this:
Summary of article in Billed Bladet #45, 2011.
Mary of Frederik hyldede Jarlen - Mary and Frederik celebrated (*) Jarlen. (**)
Written by Casper Nielsen.

Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen has several times attended royal parties and as such Mary and Frederik were invited to his 60th birthday. So was a wide segment of who's who within the Danish entertainment and media industry.
M&F would have been familiar with most of them, among them Mary's LiW, Tanja Doky. Her hairdresser, Søren Hedegaard and his spouse Preben Christensen and Ellen Hillingsøe.
The guests started to arrive from 18.00 or so. Mary wearing a tight black dress.
Also Countess Alexandra with her (unshaved) Martin. She wore a present from her husband in the shape of a short white fur jacket.
After the dinner Mary and Frederik went on the dancefloor and they left the party at 01.45. The party itself continued until early morning.

- FasterB, UserDane and anyone else in the know: How old is Nina Klinker Stephensen? She still looks like a teenager.

(*) Celebrated as in being cheered, almost triumphant.

(**) Wordplay. Jarl = earl. Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen is known as Jarlen = the Earl.

[Viv]

The relationship between Jarl Friis Mikkelsen and the CPly couple has not been revealed to the general public until fairly recently!

One of the privileges of being a royal is that on a national scale you can invite whoever you want and the person will accept your invitation unless he or she is a flaming republican or seriously ill!
Maybe JFM has a court jester-ish role in the circle of friends?? IMO he is clever and witty on screen and apparently off-screen as well. He wouldn't be invited to court if he were a shrinking violet !

viv

Originally Posted by Muhler

FasterB, UserDane and anyone else in the know: How old is Nina Klinker Stephensen? She still looks like a teenager.

Nina Klinker Stephensen was born on July 5th 1968 according to Wikipedia. Oh yes, this former sweetheart of CP Frederik is ageing with style!

As for the Unicef meeting: the captions go:
"A star team is born" (all four)
'Kate and Mary enjoyed the company of each other".
"New friends" ( Mary and Kate)

The most useful information in the article is about the significance of the poppy and Remembrance day!
viv

[Muhler]

Is she that old?

Thanks, Viv

Originally Posted by Viv

Nina Klinker Stephensen was born on July 5th 1968 according to Wikipedia. Oh yes, this former sweetheart of CP Frederik is ageing with style!
viv

[gerry]

So Muhler, I was intrigued by Jarlen and used my best Danish to read his wikipedia entry that tells me he is a stage performer. However, ''jarl'' means ''earl'', does it not? Therefore, please enlighten me if M and F were at the party of a fellow aristocrat or merely a beknighted tv star?

[Muhler]

That's right. Jarl is just a first name in Danish. A bit unusual nowadays.
Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen is as nwinter points out just a TV-personality.

The last Jarl = earl we had in DK was in medieval times and they were always related to the king. - To try and keep them under control.

[Muhler]

An article where Mary's stylist, Anja Alajdi talks a bit about working for Mary: Marys stylist: - Jeg kalder aldrig kronprinsessen ved fornavn - De Kongelige

Translation of article in sn.dk
Marys stylist: Jeg kalder aldrig Kronprinsessen ved fornavn - Mary's stylist: I never adress the Crown Princess by her first name.

For nine years Anja Camilla Alajdi has been working as Crown Princess Mary's stylist, and through the years the close cooperation has developed into a friendship, where they also see each other a private occasions.
Despite a cooperation and friendship spanning many years, Anja Alajdi maintains her professional approach - for example she is not using informal you when addressing the Crown Princess, while working at Amalienborg, she tells in an interview with Pleasure, the lifestyle magazine of Børsen. (*)
- "I have my coffee in the staff lunch room (**), just like the rest of the staff. I am part of the staff, when at work and it may be that I'm a friend another day, but then it's a different invitation. I know my place and that, I believe, is my strength. You will never hear me address the Crown Princess by her first name either", says Anja Alajdi.

In 2002 (***) she was employed as a full-time stylist for Mary Donaldson, who at that time acutely needed advise for the wardrobe. Since then Mary Donaldson has become Crown Princess and a style icon world wide.
Nowadays Anja Camilla Alajdi only go to Amalienborg a couple of times a week, when the Crown Princess needs help finding clothes for official tasks.
Naturally Anja Alajdi also has other customers than the Crown Princess and together with the friend and goldsmith Marianne Dulong she has a jewelry company in the name of the friend.

She is aware that the cooperation with Crown Princess Mary has gotten her many more costumers, but she still get furious inside, when people ask too many intimate/personal questions:
- "You don't know what people can come up with in regards to asking questions. Is the Crown Princess paying for her clothes herself? Do you dress her every morning? And worse. People can be so indiscreet and there are things you just don't talk about, so I get that kind of questions shut down quickly", says Anja Alajdi.

(*) Børsen, a financial magazine. Equivalent to Financial Times.

(**) Actually kaffestue = coffee room. Another word for a room used by a small group of employees to have their lunch, a cup of coffee, a chat and sometimes meetings. Substitute with a word in your own language.

(***) No mistake. the article says 2002.

I've placed this article here because there isn't a staff and associate thread. Perhaps one should be created?

[Emmily]

Muhler, thanks for posting this article. I assumed that Mary had a stylist but couldn't remember ever reading anything about who that might be. This is interesting to read about the friendship that has developed.

[Tarlita]

Wow, didn't know that Anja was advising HRH Mary since the very early days of 2002. And hasn't she done a good job. Lets face it Sydney summers are thongs or flip flops, you might know them as, and shorts and cropped T's. Compare that with European Haute Couture and one needs HELP!!. The magazines here have often mentioned Anja as her stylist, so we were always aware of her. But to have her help long before the engagement, means someone had their head screwed on right. Anja deserves a medal for the good consistent work she has done over the years, especially as it shows so well on her client.

[IloveCP]

Kinda funny how there close friends but she does not call her by her first name!

[Muhler]

Yes, I thought that was interesting as well. (Responding to Tarlita's post).

They were engaged in late 2003. Frederik proposed shortly before.

But if a stylist was hired fulltime in 2002, it indicates that Mary was considered very, very serious princess material around that time.
That their relationship was deeply committed earlier than we may have thought.
And that Mary may have quietly started in princess-school in 2002.
- Frederik simply must have been involved. He and Mary lived together in his flat at Amalienborg at that time. And I don't know how Mary's financial means were at that time, but hirering a full time employee is not cheap, so I think Frederik at the very least footed some of the bill, not to mention expences for some clothing and so on.

So does a timeline like this sound plausible:
2002: M&F realize that they will marry.
The preparations for her to become aquainted in earnest with her future role, including a make-over, start.
So that Mary can get a glimpse at her future life and role before Frederik pops the question in Rome in 2003.
A sound policy, because when Mary is officially presented at engagement-press conference, she is already prepared, though inexperienced.
Now ready for the next more intensive part of the royalty-training, which she, at least in my eyes, has completed by now. So that she is now an experienced and confident royal.

I hope and believe a portrait book of Mary will be published next year. Perhaps such a book will cast more light on their pre-engagement period.

You are welcome, Emmily

Originally Posted by IloveCP

Kinda funny how there close friends but she does not call her by her first name!

At work, sure.
I don't think Anja Alajdi address Mary with Your Royal Highness and the Crown Princess in private, nor do I think they use formal you in private.

I understand Anja Alajdi. I believe I would do the same thing in her place.
You may be personal friends, but you still salute the rank on the parade ground, if you get my meaning.

[Nordic]

Originally Posted by Muhler

They were engaged in late 2003. Frederik proposed shortly before.

But if a stylist was hired fulltime in 2002, it indicates that Mary was considered very, very serious princess material around that time.
That their relationship was deeply committed earlier than we may have thought.

IIRC, Frederik commissioned the ring long before the engagement. Mary met Queen M spring 2002, and got the "green light" (as she has said herself) and it was decided that she could and would move to Denmark.

It sounds odd, that Anja would have been a stylist since 2002. There are other short interviews, where she has been mentioned as a stylist from autumn 2003.

[AnnaNotherThing]

And Mary began learning Danish in 2002 BEFORE her engagement, so there must of been some incentive for that kind of pre-emptive commitment...And maybe the difference in the Anja/stylist issue is that pre-engagement Anja's contribution was that it was probably considered 'friendly advice' but once the engagement became official that advice from a friend became 'employment of a stylist'...

[nwinther]

Hiring a stylist may have been initiated by Frederik or someone at court, just like I'm sure the court have footed that bill.

It may even be seen as a sort of "test" - like the language-teacher getting in rather soon - "are you in this for the long haul? Can you accept these terms". You don't propose in that situation and then later find out that she's uninterested in learning the language, insists on wearing jeans and T-shirts etc. etc.

She has to have a "taste" of that before you can go into wedding negotiations.

Even if that isn't the case, it's not outlandish to attach a stylist of your own. It's not like she's a full-time employee. Many women see stylists for certain occations. Sure, it's not cheap but it's seldom an every-day occurrence.