William and Kate on glitzy California trip

Small entourage reflects sensitivity to British budget cuts:

UK: Prince William and his new bride Catherine will host a black-tie celebrity reception to promote young British filmmakers in the highlight of their trip to California next month, royal officials said Wednesday.

The trip from July 8-10 — which immediately follows their first official tour as husband and wife to Canada — also features charity work including a meeting with inner-city children and a polo match. “The visit will support the interests of the United Kingdom through the prism of the royal couple’s interests,” said Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, William’s private secretary.

William will give a speech at the red-carpet dinner on July hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) at the Belasco theatre in Los Angeles. The prince is the organisation’s president and the event was staged to connect the best young British talent with Hollywood’s “movers and shakers”, officials said. He will also play at the charity polo match in Santa Barbara. Catherine will award the winners’ trophy. The couple will visit Inner City Arts, an organisation helping children from a deprived Los Angeles neighbourhood, and meet US military veterans. The United States and Britain are the two biggest contributors to the NATO force in Afghanistan.

Catherine is taking her hairdresser on the trip, one of seven aides travelling with the couple. Royal officials said this was a relatively small number, which reflects their efforts to appear sensitive to Britain’s budgetary crisis.

The North America tour will be their first since their wedding at Westminster Abbey on April 29, which was watched by an estimated two billion people around the world and about one million on the streets of London. AFP