Kate's Vogue cover: royal humanity or cynical PR?

q's pop culture panel weighs in on the worthy, contentious, and mind-boggling stories from the week in arts and entertainment. Opinionated and irreverent, our panel takes pop culture seriously (but not too seriously).

Today's panellists are Stephen Marche of Esquire, journalist Rachel Giese, and filmmaker Charles Officer. Today, the "corridors of power" edition:

• Politics: Divided reaction to Larry Wilmore's use of the N-word at Obama's final Washington Correspondents' Dinner. "You're opening up a space for guys like Piers Morgan...[and] let's not even open that up," says Officer. "If you're gonna go there with the president of the United States ... you have to stick it," says Giese. Plus, rave reviews for U.S. President Barack Obama's comedic chops. 
  
• Rock royalty: Backlash to "Oldchella" — Coachella's upcoming music festival featuring Rolling Stones, The Who, and Paul McCartney. "This was the music of youthful rage and now you're commodifying it as a nostalgia product," says Marche. 
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• Royal royalty: A laid back portrait of Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, is going from Vogue cover to London's National Portrait Gallery. "Suddenly you have this very telegenic, charming generation that are scrambling to make the royalty relatable," says Giese. "They were the first people who were famous for no reason ... so in fact this is something very old, just reborn on the cover of Vogue this month," says Marche.