Emma Cowing: Pippa Middleton's party poses sound a bum note Published on Wednesday 18 April 2012 01:34 WELL, of course there were dwarves. Of all the details that have emerged from the 18th century themed party thrown by French aristocrat Vicomte Arthur de Soultrait last Friday that was attended by Pippa Middleton, the fact that guests were greeted by three dwarves lounging on a sofa for their "entertainment" seems, somehow, par for the course. Like the dwarf-throwing Mike Tindall before her, Middleton last weekend managed to cause a sea of red faces within the royal household after turning up at the somewhat risqué society party in Paris and then, rather more seriously, being photographed the next morning in a convertible with a man brandishing a pistol, which may or may not have been a fake. This, it turns out, may be almost irrelevant for the French authorities, for even if the pistol - which closely resembles a Sig Sauer P226, used by numerous law enforcement and military organisations as well as by personal bodyguards - is not real, those involved in the incident could be jailed for two years. Middleton is likely to be called as a witness. Oh dear. Nary a year ago Middleton was gearing up to become the nation's new sweetheart, or so the tabloids would have had us believe. Complimented for her trim figure and pretty smile (because heaven forfend we judge a woman on anything else), a minor obsession in the popular press with Pippa's posterior meant that she was soon a regular fixture on front pages, in gossip columns and style sections. Not that Middleton did anything to discourage the attention. Suddenly, post-Royal Wedding, she started popping up at a number of high-profile events, signing a £400,000 deal with Penguin to write a guide to hosting the perfect party and enjoying freebies from the likes of car manufacturer Peugeot. Throughout it all she has remained strangely mute, a woman whose face is ubiquitous but whose voice most of us have never heard (although I'm going to take a punt and guess that she probably doesn't sound like Cheryl Cole). It has also become increasingly hard to ignore the fact that even though she is given endless coverage, is related to the woman who will one day become queen and seems to spend her time consorting with the super-rich (and by the looks of recent events, the super-stupid) most of us have absolutely no idea what she does for a living. The rich, of course, much like the corgis and that abysmal hair-do of Princess Anne's, have always been with us. But in today's belt-tightening, recession-swamped world, we'd really rather not have their antics rubbed under our increasingly pinched noses. Ironically, Middleton's sister knows this only too well. Hence we see her and Prince William flying on budget airlines, shopping at the Co-op and recycling outfits, while Pippa, for want of a better phrase, eats cake. Meanwhile, the decadent, louche France of the 1700s, as depicted at that ridiculously party, is long gone. France today is a country that lives under the shadow of terrorism, where just last month Mohamed Merah shot dead seven people in the south-west and two men were arrested in Paris at the weekend in connection with four murders carried out with a pistol over the past five months. Brandishing a firearm is never OK. Laughing horsily at someone brandishing a firearm isn't really OK either, no matter how pretty you look while doing it. It's the sort of behaviour you would condemn 17-year-olds for, given its gross immaturity and insensitivity. In a bunch of over-privileged people in their late 20s and 30s, it is despicable. In some ways, of course, it is natural - expected almost - for the famous to have a wayward sibling. Bill Clinton had Roger, nicknamed "Headache" by the US Secret Service for his penchant for getting into trouble, while Madonna has brother Anthony, who has spent time living on the streets. Perhaps then, it would be almost forgiven if the Duchess of Cambridge started to refer to her little sister not - as the tabloid's have dubbed her - "Her Royal Hotness," but as a "right royal pain in the backside." Pippa darling, your 15 minutes are up.