LONDON – Critics say a new made-for-TV, Wills-and-Kate movie is so bad it may end up being a cult classic.

“William and Kate: The Movie” treats the Windsor dynasty as daytime soap opera. The low-budget, rushed-to-completion movie is getting plenty of attention in Britain, for all the wrong reasons.

Additional Photos

Actors Camilla Luddington, left, and Nico Evers-Swindell star in the TV film “William & Kate,” a quickly made production churned out to air just prior to the April 29 wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William. The Associated Press

“So bad it’s awful, toe-curlingly, teeth-furringly, pillow-bitingly ghastly,” was the verdict Friday in The Guardian newspaper, which concluded the flick was probably destined to be a smash.

The movie chronicles the university romance of Prince William and Kate Middleton, who in real life met and fell in love while studying art history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Airing before the April 29 royal wedding in London, it was directed by Mark Rosman and produced in the five months since the couple announced last November.

Critics have not been impressed with Rosman’s ability to capture the nuances of Britain’s eccentric, distinctive royal family.

The Guardian pointed out that the movie was shot entirely in the Los Angeles area, with poorly done British accents, countryside scenes that looked like California instead of Britain, and London buses driving, incorrectly, on the right side of the street. The acting was described as wooden or worse.

But that won’t stop if from debuting in the United States on Lifetime on April 18 and in Britain on Channel Five on April 24. After that, the movie is to be sold as a DVD, possibly finding a niche among the legions of royal wedding memorabilia collectors.

London Evening Standard critic Richard Godwin said American critics “panned this movie as a cheesy chick-flick” but predicted the English will end up cherishing it because the movie is so outlandish.

It stars New Zealander Nico Evers-Swindell and Camilla Luddington, who portrays Middleton as a highly emotional young woman determined to snag a prince no matter what the obstacle.

Singer hopes wedding song is a hit for charity

LONDON — George Michael is giving the gift of song to Prince William and Kate Middleton — and anyone else who wants to download it.

The musician is making his cover of Stevie Wonder’s “You and I” available to download for free and hopes fans will make a donation to the Royal Wedding Charity Fund. Michael debuted the song Friday on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight.”

Sheen toasts funeral ashes for Toronto fan

TORONTO – Following his streak of bizarre antics, Charlie Sheen closed his first Canadian tour stop by toasting the ashes of an audience member’s dead husband.

After an hour of frenetic conversation between Sheen and comedian Russell Peters during the actor’s “My Violent Torpedo of Truth” show, Sheen called out to the audience for a woman whose husband died two years ago to come onstage. Sheen said he read about her in a newspaper article.

The otherwise raucous audience in Toronto’s Massey Hall fell silent as Wendy Newman took to the stage, clad all in black and carrying a vessel. Newman told the show-goers that her husband died of a heart attack and the only way she got through her difficult period was by watching DVDs of Sheen’s former sitcom “Two and A Half Men.”

When she learned the celebrity was coming to her home city, she snapped up tickets. She then posted a message on Sheen’s Facebook page asking if she could bring her husband’s ashes to the show and have Sheen raise a glass in honor of her husband of 19 years. And he did. Well, a glass of non-alcoholic cider, since Sheen has said he’s put an end to his drinking or drug use.

Related Stories