Entertainment

The duchess of raunch

Kate Middleton

Kate Middleton (WireImage)

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At SoHo club W.i.P. during the wee hours of Wednesday morning, in front of a crowd of hipsters, British burlesque dancer Katrina Darling pranced onstage to the sounds of the British national anthem, resplendent in a red corset, crown and a Union Jack bustle lined with ermine fur.

After a beat or two, the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” shook the room, and the act really got going. To the strains of “God save the queen/the fascist regime,” Darling began to undress — revealing two huge, elaborate cat tattoos on her milky white arms (as it turns out, Darling is the proud owner of seven cats).

PHOTOS: KATRINA DARLING

By the time the patriotic anthem “Rule Britannia” came on, she had stripped down to nothing but nipple tassels and a crown-embossed scarlet merkin (which is like a wig for your Kensington Gardens).

Perhaps Prince Harry — who has been known to frequent the London location of racy club The Box — would have appreciated the salute, but the queen would not be amused.

Darling, 21, is a distant cousin of Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge. And truth be told, there’s more than a passing resemblance between the two beautiful women; both share delicate facial features and the same long brown locks. (Although Darling’s hair is a wig — she recently shaved off all her hair after dyeing it one too many times.)

While her royal cousin has yet to visit NYC since her wedding to William last April, this marked Darling’s first trip to the city, and to the United States.

So far, she’s a fan of the Big Apple.

“You can’t perform topless or have anything showing downstairs in the UK — oh, your backside is fine,” says Darling. “But here you can do pretty much anything you want. New York is out there, man. It’s a totally different book altogether, and I love that.”

It’s also a welcome change of pace; the attention she’s been getting in England for the past year has been overwhelming, to say the least.

Last April, a British reporter discovered Kate Middleton’s family tree and started digging; it turns out Darling’s grandmother and Middleton’s great-grandfather were brother and sister — a connection Darling hadn’t known about.

“I didn’t have a clue,” says Darling. “It’s not like I am going to ring [Kate] up and ask her around for a coffee.”

And her “God Save the Queen” bit? Purely coincidental. “I’ve been doing my ‘God Save the Queen’ act for years,” she says. “I thought the act would be a fun way of playing with the idea of the monarchy.”

But Darling’s career was, not surprisingly, catnip for the British tabloids. She rang the Buckingham Palace press office to ask if it could stop the story from running (it couldn’t), and refused to give an interview. Despite this, she quickly became an Internet sensation.

It was a new experience for a girl who’s always thought of herself as an outcast. “I was in the group with the nerds and the losers, who are the people on the outside looking in,” she says of her teenage years.

“I was at this club last night [in New York], and there were hipsters everywhere. I thought, ‘I am always going to be that weird girl in the corner.’ ”

Darling grew up in Sunderland, in Northern England, with two sisters and a brother; her parents work for a catalog distribution company and are “total squares.” She played in bands with her friends, on drums. When she was 17, she sneaked into a burlesque performance at a local dive bar and loved it. “I thought, ‘That looks like so much fun, I want to put my own slant on it.’ ”

Inspired by burlesque performers like Dirty Martini, Anna Fur Laxis and Ms. Tickle, Darling began to perfect her own burlesque act in Sunderland bars and clubs, two weeks after she turned 18.

And perfect it she has — Pippa Middleton and her famous posterior aren’t the only ones in the family with certain, er, assets.

“I like [my act] to be a bit more conceptual rather than, ‘Da-da-da, there’s the money shot — see you later, guys,’ ” explains Darling.

“There has to be some talent

behind it. But I am not massively out there sexually. I am quite shy really. When it comes to somebody who I actually care about and worry what they think, I can’t just switch it on and be this seductress. I can’t take myself too seriously.”

The royal family is ramping up its p.r. campaign ahead of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine the palace would like to put a stop to Darling’s performances.

“No, not at all,” says Darling.

“I am not doing anybody any harm.”

When fame came calling last year, she took a few months off. “It was not a natural environment to be in,” she says. “I needed to get back to some normality, so I got a house and settled down a bit. It’s nice to have somewhere to go home to.”

Indeed, come tomorrow morning, she’ll be back home in Sunderland, making tea with her boyfriend, she says — her herd of seven cats following her about the house.