NOW ONLINE! Middleton, William (Photo: Getty Images)
Facebook may be an American invention, but across the pond obsession with the social networking site has reached fever pitch, prompting British Vogue to dub it "a Social Register for the twenty-first century."

If it strikes you as a bit extreme to cast the apparently democratic Facebook as the new black book for high society, think again, implores the article in the mag's December issue. According to writer Nicholas Coleridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton feverishly check their profiles, albeit under pseudonyms.

And other boldfaced names have followed in their footsteps, with the likes of Jemima Khan, Sienna Miller, Alain de Botton, and, er, former Vanity Fair writer turned Graydon-slayer Toby Young, who had 623 friends at press time, relentlessly poking each other and no doubt inviting one another to be pirates.

One can only hazard to guess what the royals' status updates look like. Perhaps: "William is balding and reading 'The Big Book of British Smiles'...Kate is contemplating making tweed a must-have in 2008!"