How the royals became cool

THE other day, Cheryl Cole had a lovely dream.

“I married Prince Harry and was a real-life princess,” she said. “It’s true. And Charles was my father-in-law.” The last bit sounds like every girl’s nightmare, but that’s not important now.

More important are the ramifications of this dream. Until very recently, pop stars didn’t dream of marrying members of the royal family, still less blab about it. The royals were too tweedy and facially equine for such dreams to do anything but damage a pop chanteuse’s fanbase. But all that has changed. How? There are two possibilities.