Kate Middleton sprays a dancer with perfume on Tuvalu on Tuesday. (Arthur Edwards)
The suspension of the editor of the Irish Daily Star for publishing topless photographs of Kate Middleton and the outraged reaction in the Middle East to the Innocence of Muhammad film are both connected.

Kate flashing her boobs while thinking she was in a private setting, and a lunatic filmmaker making a perfectly appalling film about the prophet, fanned flames and crises across the globe that no sane person could even remotely have expected.

But there they were, rioting and killing in Arab countries and furious reacting in media all over the world to Kate’s topless shots.

In both cases the overreaction was so intense, the global hue and cry so startling that it defied all logic.
I watched the Innocence of Muhammad film on You Tube, and it is quite possibly the worst piece of filmmaking I have ever seen.

It is incoherent, lacking in plot and laughable.  It makes The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes look like Oscar material.

Except no one was laughing when millions took to Arab streets all across the Middle East and proclaimed death to America.

God knows we get blamed for enough in that part of the world, but pretending we had anything to do with the film or that it was part of some master plan to make Muslims look bad is ridiculous.

I’d have nominated the film for the Raspberries, the anti-Oscar ceremony, as worst film ever made and moved on.

Equally, Kate’s topless shots have brought down a wave of hysterical outrage that is hard to fathom.
It was a case of “off with their heads” from Buckingham Palace on down.

Porn king Richard Desmond, who owned multiple porn sites and magazines, was the most hypocritical of all.

He wanted the Irish Daily Star, which he half owns, closed down after they published the pictures – which by the way are almost impossible to decipher because they are shot from so far away.

There is nothing worse than a pornographer and a royal family in a fit of righteous indignation, but two points come to mind.

Kate must surely know that she is scrutinized everywhere at all times – that is what she bought into when she married the future king. Stripping off outside was not a great idea to begin with.

Secondly, why is she not fair game when every other young woman of note or big boobs, from Page 3 girls on down, is wide open for tabloid exploitation?

Rest assured if it was Rihanna – and remember her in the cornfield in Northern Ireland? -- the coverage would be massive and utterly intrusive.

One law for the royals and one law for every other woman it seems.

In both the responses to the Muslim film and the royal boob shots, we have had a massive overreaction that speaks ill for reasonable debate on issues such as cultural and sexual stereotypes.

We all need to take a bottle of chill pills and relax when such issues become so inflamed.  The tragic consequences when we don’t are all too plain to see.