Tom Cruise Steals the Show With Kate as Harry Battles a Tech Snafu

0:03 Caloroga Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Palace Intrigue. I am your host, Mark Francis. Prince William began his day struggling with a cash register and ended it in black tie alongside Tom Cruise. Kate joined him for the evening premiere wearing jewellery with connections to two generations of royal women. The Princess of Wales paired a purple Jenny Packham gown with pearl drop earrings that belonged to Princess Diana and and the late Queen Mother's amethyst sautoir necklace for the London premiere of Digger. The appearance came amid renewed attention on Diana following the publication of her brother Charles Spencer's memoir, but neither William nor Kate offered a public response to that controversy during the engagements described in the report, nor was there an explanation linking Catherine's choice of jewellery to the headlines. At Leicester Square's Odeon Lux, the emphasis was on film and charity in a reunion with Tom Cruise, who last attended a premiere with the couple for Top Gun Maverick in 2022. Before their arrival, the actor said, I just love them. They are lovely people and I have great respect for them. Cruise greeted Kate with a kiss on each cheek and helped her on the steps outside the cinema. His familiarity with the couple briefly made one formal introduction unnecessary. Marcus Wright, a chief executive of the film and TV charity, joked, So my one job was to introduce the Prince and Princess of Wales to you, but you beat me to it. William and Catherine also

1:36 posed with Sir David Beckham and his sons, Romeo and Cruz, before meeting members of the film's cast and creative team, including Riz Ahmed. That meeting connected the red carpet occasion with the subject William had been exploring earlier in the day, how people build and sustain careers in film. At Act One, a community cinema in West London, the Prince met young filmmakers and asked about streaming, artificial intelligence and the pressures facing those trying to enter the industry. It's a lot of risks, isn't it? Maybe more so than a lot of jobs, he said. That's when your belief in yourself is so important, that artistic vision, otherwise there must be so many headwinds, keep going is really important. The venue itself offered an example of what local commitment can achieve.

2:23 According to the Telegraph, more than 100 volunteers helped turn a former library into a two-screen cinema, cafe and community space. William asked how that success might be repeated elsewhere. Then he took a turn behind the counter, where his enthusiasm for serving popcorn ran ahead of his familiarity with the payment system. Sorry, I've made this very slow, he told waiting customers. I apologise. As he tried to find their memberships, he explained, It's not my first till, but it is my first time on this system. One customer reminded him that their film was about to begin. I'm going to let the professionals take over. I don't want you to miss it, he replied. Tom Cruise had a compliment for William and a helping hand for Kate. Great jacket, the actor told William. At the moment, attracting much of the attention was simpler. Cruise taking Catherine's hand to help her down the steps outside the Odeon Lux in Leicester Square.

3:18 The greeting was warm. Catherine and Cruise exchanged kisses on the cheeks and Metro reports that the actor spent longer chatting with the couple than the schedule allowed. As expected, the Wales Cruise appearance overshadowed Prince Harry's return to the United States. Prince Harry has taken his campaign on children's online safety to New York, warning that artificial intelligence raises questions that go beyond how much time young people spend looking at a screen. Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, Harry argued that the next challenge concerns the relationships children form with technology and whether those developing it will be held accountable. Harry framed this appeal around fatherhood and his conversations with bereaved families, saying, I come to this as a father, one who has shared countless conversations with other parents as they mourned the loss of their children to recklessly built technology. Social media learned how to capture our attention. AI is learning how to enter our relationships.

4:16 It doesn't just want your attention, it wants your attachment. We have spent years trying to loosen technology's grip on children's attention. We cannot wait another decade to discover what happens when technology has a grip on their relationships. Hundreds of faces, hundreds of lock screens, hundreds of children who should still be here. The good news, we proved pressure works. The bad news, we proved how long we are willing to wait. His appeal included greater transparency, meaningful choice, standards and accountability with affected families and young people involved in the discussion. Harry's warning about artificial intelligence was interrupted by a more immediate technology problem, a faulty teleprompter. Harry had been speaking for seven minutes when he had to stop.

4:59 He returned to finish his address around 40 minutes later, turning the interruption into a joke. Hello again. So AI got into my speech, so I was asked to come out and finish it. Interesting to see what it was so concerned about. A spokesperson for the Duke confirmed that the interruption was caused by a teleprompter fault. On his substack, Royal Insider Deep Crown writes, Of all the outcomes one might have forecast this year, this week's contest of calendars was the least mysterious. On one side, the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Leicester Square premiere of Digger with Tom Cruise taking the Princess by hand on the steps of the Odeon, On the other, the Duke of Sussex in New York, addressing the Clinton Global Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and the Safety of Children, I did not need to ring anyone to predict which of these would lead the papers. I suspect nobody at the Clinton Global Initiative needed to either. In my years of experience, the diary was treated with a seriousness that outsiders found faintly comic.

6:00 Dates were discussed months ahead. Private secretaries compared notes across the households. so that one member of the family was not opening a hospital wing on the afternoon another was doing something the cameras would find more interesting. The purpose was not modesty, it was spacing. The press can photograph only one thing at a time with any enthusiasm, and a well-run organisation makes certain each engagement gets its own day. It is dull work, it is also the reason the institution rarely trips over itself. The Duke left that machinery behind, and with it the ability to set his own calendar. He now works almost entirely on other people's platforms. Invictus, Wellchild, the Clintons. Each has its own timetable, its own priorities, and no particular obligation to consider whether the Princess of Wales will be standing next to Tom Cruise that evening.

6:48 A man who left in order to set his own terms now has less command of his diary than a junior minister. More palace in just a moment. With Megan being spotted with Ellen DeGeneres, with one absurd headline suggesting the choice of venue was somehow a slight at Jeremy Clarkson, the tabloids took a look at Megan's current circle of people to hang around with. While Tom Cruise did not make the list, Ellen and wife Portia provided an existing connection from Megan's life in California, while longtime friend Marcus Anderson offers another link through Soho House. The Beckhams are apparently on Team Wales these days, so they are out.

7:28 The Independent's Charlotte Cripps suggests Simon Cowell's family could be a natural fit, but argues that neighbours with close ties to Charles and William may be cautious about being drawn into the family divide. Rachel Bowie, writing in Pure Wild, tells us, The mum group chat is sacred, and Meghan Markle has every right to be pissed. She explains, I was shocked, not by the tabloids who amplified her personal info, but by the parent who violated... what's meant to be a safe space. After all, there's an unspoken rule here. The school WhatsApp chat is not just home to our phone numbers and emails. It's also a place where parents' addresses and Venmo handles live, as well as children's photos, allergies, and yes, lice outbreak information. The minute I'm added to one, I suddenly feel responsible for the collective privacy of every family who joins. That's not to say I won't verbally discuss any drama that plays out. It's just that I would never screenshot anything and share it outside the chat.

8:29 Etiquette expert Micah Meyer agrees. School group chats should be treated as a trusted and private space, she says. Parents join them to share information about their children, schedules, and school with the reasonable expectation that what is shared within the group stays within the group. Passing along someone's phone number, screenshots, or private messages without permission is a serious break of that trust regardless of who the person is. And there you have it. If you'd like to email us, our address is thepalaceintrigue at gmail.com. If you're on Spotify, leave us a comment. If you're on Apple, hit that button that says listen uninterrupted and get the show commercial free for just five bucks a month. We appreciate your support. I'm Mark Francis. My thanks to John McDermott. This is Palace Intrigue. Good time.