The truth about royal film premieres in Leicester Square, London, UK

Royal film premieres

These red carpet events are not your regular London film premiere as royal guests are invited to attend the movie screening.

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A Royal film premiere has been around since the 1940s in Leicester Square, London and most often held at the Odeon cinema. These red carpet events draw huge press and publicity from world press covering each and every royal film premieres.

The leading actors typically wear a striking black tux and the actresses, a glamorous dress of course with full accessories.

Most recently as I took my seat at the royal premiere of Top Gun: Maverick, a live stream from outside played on the movie screen above us showing Tom Cruise offer his hand to the high-heeled Duchess of Cambridge to walk up a flight of stairs. I knew what was about to come.

On Thursday, May 19th 2022, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the special royal charity premiere of the sequel Top Gun: Maverick in London’s Leicester Square as first reported on MarkMeets. As the couple walked the red carpet into the event, Cruise greeted them, who introduced them to some of the cast and crew before guiding them into the screening.

During a brief moment captured by the British press, Cruise made the gentlemanly gesture of offering Kate his hand to help her up the steps. She was wearing a figure-hugging Roland Mouret gown and Prada heels, making the small set of stairs difficult, so she kindly accepted the gesture.

But, this brief moment had fans wondering if Cruise was “allowed” to touch a royal family member. Kate Middleton quickly reacted when Tom Cruise supposedly broke royal protocol, It’s long been rumored that you can’t touch a royal family member. And it’s a well-established rule that you can only take the Queen by her hand if she has offered it on the red carpet.

When it comes to the duchess, she may have been aware of this rumor or assumed protocol about touching royals. So, she quickly reacted after Cruise helped her up the stairs.

After the sweet moment, Cruise released Kate’s hand, and then she subtly moved her clutch purse into the hand he had been holding. When they hit the next set of stairs, Cruise was unable to grab her hand again. Kate handled the situation with such grace and elegance that her reaction to Cruise’s supposed gaffe was almost unnoticeable.

The premiere was hosted by Paramount Pictures and The Film and TV Charity, which supports professionals in Britain’s film and television industry. The screening marks the 72nd Royal Film Performance put on by the charity in its nearly 100-year history,

What are the rules about touching a member of the royal family?

While there are many royal rules and traditions, there are no “official rules when it comes to touching a member of the Royal Family,”.

“It’s more down to what’s acceptable in society or not,”. “I think there are a lot of things that are perceived as royal etiquette or royal protocol that we assume might be the case but aren’t actually.”

If Kate had a problem with Cruise’s gesture, she wouldn’t have given him her hand.

“It could have been far worse,”. “The worst would be for her to trip downstairs at a royal film premiere.”

The royal editor concluded by saying the royals’ rules are all about common sense. It’s fine to give someone your hand to help them up the stairs. But rushing up to hug William or Kate would have been “inappropriate.”

I started attending in the early 2000s but before you think it was a great freebie I must stress that as these events are in aid of charity even celebs pay for their seat, circa £200-£500. Event by 1990s the cost of a seat in the balcony a couple of rows behind Princess Di, Her Majesty The Queen, or whoever was representing the Royal Family would cost £250 from memory. Plus, in order to qualify for such seats you were obliged to attend each year regardless how awful the chosen film.

Many films I have attended have received a royal film premiere london of ‘No Time To Die’ (We were the official online streaming partner worldwide on MarkMeets.com),and the movie received a standing ovation – much to the pleasure of the stars attending.

One film that I felt only got a polite applause was the Star Wars movie The Phantom Menace. Due to the thousands of fans gathered, my driver had to drop off my friend and myself outside a pub just outside the square. It was an unsettling to have to walk along the created corridor, so I suggested we time it right. After all who wants thousands of people looking at you, with a number recognising me from twitter for posting all things showbiz including hundreds of celebrity meets. So I timed our long walk so we were few paces behind Robbie Williams, and naturally everybody looked at him, which was great.

The only problem with the Odeon was you had to walk down the balcony stairs on exiting just as the other patrons were leaving the stalls and naturally looking up to spot stars. In front of us was Mark Hamill and I said to myself ‘please don’t stop at the base of the stairs to sign autographs’ as I knew what would happen. It became a scrummage and the rest of us could not get past, hence the waiting time for our cab went up somewhat, but then again it was fun.

Having personally been invited to attend the premiere of Narnia with guests I invited Peter Dickson, John Adeleye, Merlin from BGT, Craig Stevens and my boys One Direction and there were thousands of fans waiting outside. He was under contract to Elstree Studios and was later ‘amused’ to find out the studio paid him less than the lighting camerman on his film.

An A-list star told me he also encountered a problem with the crowds when he was invited to the premiere of one of his Elstree-made film musicals. In those days cars dropped off the stars outside the Odeon. On this occasion the police were so concerned about crowd control they waved his car on so he never got to attend!

The last premiere I attended at the Odeon still allowed to let us be dropped outside for the film.

Kate Middleton and Tom Cruise, Prince William and Kate Middleton attended the most recent Royal London premiere of ‘Top Gun: Maverick in Leicester square.

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Scott Baber: Senior Managing editor

Manages incoming enquiries and advertising. Based in London and very sporty. Worked news and sports desks in local paper after graduating.

Email Scott@MarkMeets.com