If there are awards given out for prank calls, this one should win top prize this year (and possibly this decade). Two Australian radio jocks got ahold of the phone number of the ward where Kate Middleton is being treated for severe morning sickness brought on by her pregnancy. Pretending to be Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth, the shock jocks easily get a naive nurse to divulge all kinds of details about Kate's condition, including that she hadn't "retched" yet that day and that "Wills" had left the hospital the night before. The hospital where Kate is staying confirms the incident happened and is "a foolish prank we all deplore" -- but to be honest, it's kind of funny.

What makes the prank great is that the two radio jocks, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, make the worst Queen and Prince Charles ever. Neither sounds remotely like the two monarchs. And Mel, playing the Queen, repeatedly refers to her "Corgis" and chastises "Prince Charles" to "go walk the Corgis."

In response to the nurse's contention that Kate must be having a hard time "sleeping in a strange bed," Mel cracks, "Well, it's not the Palace, is it?"

None of this, nor the obvious giggling going on in the background (the jocks can't seem to believe this is really happening), alert the nurse to the fact that she may not really have Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles on the line. I actually get the feeling pretty much anyone could have called up and she would have blabbed. She just sounds like a sweet woman who has zero idea that she's dealing with a major celebrity and the lengths some people will go to to get information about her.

I find it odd the hospital didn't prepare their staff at all for a possible breaches of privacy. It would have been simple enough to give Kate's friends and family a password they'd have to say before nurses could divulge information.

I hope the poor nurse doesn't get in trouble, but that hospital needs to get it together. With lax security like that, it's only a matter of time before some Prince William impersonator makes his way through the halls of the ward and into Kate's room.

At least according to what we hear from this nurse, it sounds like Kate is on the road to recovery!

Take a listen to the call. Do you think it's funny or despicable -- or a little of both?

 

Image via Tom Soper Photography/Flickr