Wax models of William and Kate
went on display at Madame Tussauds in London Wednesday, and were immediately
swamped by onlookers keen to get close to the "royal couple."
The figures, which cost more than
$230,000 each to make, are shown in copies of the outfits they wore when they
announced their engagement in November 2010, complete with a replica of the ring
once worn by William's mother Diana, Princess of Wales.
"Since the royal wedding, guests
from all around the world have been asking where is Catherine? We want to come
and have our photo taken with her," said Madame Tussauds spokeswoman Liz
Edwards.
"So we've recreated the iconic
moment where they announced to the world that they are in love with each
other."
William and Catherine unveiled
in wax
A team of artists and model
makers spent four months working on the couple. Kate's hair alone took six
weeks, each individual strand of real, ethically-sourced human hair inserted by
hand.
"It's really important for us
that when people come and stand next to them, that they are seeing a piece of
that real person," said Edwards.
Unlike the subjects of most other
Madame Tussauds waxworks, the company said William and Kate did not "sit" for
their figures, but St James's Palace provided all the key measurements, and the
finished pieces have been given the royal seal of approval.
Other versions of the models will
go on display at Madame Tussauds' attractions in Amsterdam and New York, and in
Blackpool, in northern England.
In each city, "Kate" will be
shown in a different outfit: A lilac Alexander McQueen gown worn on the couple's
U.S. tour in New York, a black lace Temperley London dress worn to a film
premiere in Amsterdam, and a Jenny Packham gown worn at a charity dinner in
Blackpool.
Early reactions to the new
figures suggest they are set to prove almost as popular as the real thing.
"Unfortunately I don't think
we'll ever get to meet the real ones," one visitor told CNN. "This is definitely
a good substitute."
"It's great," said another. "I
can't see the difference between them and the real people."
Madame Tussaud was born Marie
Grosholtz in France in 1761, and learned to sculpt wax as a teenager -- her
early subjects included Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin -- and went on to become
a favorite of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
During the French Revolution,
she was imprisoned, and later commissioned to create death masks of many of
those put to death on the guillotine. In 1802, she brought her waxworks to
Britain and toured the country before settling in London, where she lived until
her death in 1850./cnn.com/
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