‘BREAST’-KEPT SECRET: Kate Middleton and Prince William keep it casual in Guadalcanal yesterday on the couple’s Jubilee tour as their operatives fight to contain a spreading nudie-pics embarrassment (bottom right). (Barcroft Media/Startraksphoto.com)
It’s World War III between the British royals and Italians.
A magazine owned by disgraced Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi plans to publish a boatload of topless Kate Middleton photos, infuriating the already-embattled royals.
The publisher of Italian mag Chi promised the photos would hit newsstands today and vowed that “not even a direct call from the queen” would stop presses from rolling, Britain’s Daily Mail reported.
It’s expected to be a 26-page special edition, filled with breast-baring shots of the pretty vacationing duchess.
French magazine Closer last week was the first to print the controversial shots, which were taken from hundreds of yards away as the royal couple relaxed at a relative’s vacation home in the South of France.
Closer and Chi are both published by Berlusconi’s media group, Mondadori.
Lawyers for the royals are planning to seek an injunction in a French courtroom today in hopes of stopping the presses, the office of Prince William said.
“Any such publication would serve no purpose other than to cause further, entirely unjustifiable upset to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who were enjoying time alone together in the privacy of a relative’s home,” said a spokeswoman for the prince.
On Saturday, the Irish Daily Star published the 13 pictures that ran in Closer.
Prince William’s legal eagles also want French police to investigate whether any laws were broken when the photographer used a long lens to snap the private pictures.
A royal source told The Times of London that family members are eager to hunt down the photographer.
“We are keeping our options under review but, clearly, there is a limit to how much action we can take,” the source said.
“It’s limited by time and resource. But if there is a proportionate response we can find, we will do.
“Our focus remains on dealing with the paparazzo — if we can identify him or her — and the civil action we have already brought against Closer.”
The normally aggressive British tabloid press has lined up solidly in the royals’ camp on this issue and has refused to print the pictures.
The move by the Irish Daily Star to run the images could have a huge impact on its future.
Richard Desmond — publisher of the Daily Express and Daily Star in Great Britain and co-owner of the Irish paper — said he had been angered by the Dublin tabloid’s decision to print the Kate pictures and vowed to take “immediate steps to close down the joint venture.”