PEOPLE Magazine has been getting its ass kicked since the beginning of the year by Us Weekly on exclusives: Justin Timberlake’s engagement, Drew Barrymore’s pregnancy, Michelle Williams/Jason Segel first photos as a couple, to name a few. Each time, PEOPLE follows with a story half a day, sometimes a full day, later with “sources” of their own confirming what Us Weekly scooped earlier. I wonder then if their new cover has anything to do with them sucking sh-t on celebrity headlines for several months.

Here’s this week’s issue celebrating the one year anniversary of Will and Kate’s wedding. Baby news is a big seller. Royal baby news and the arrival of a new prince or princess, even more so.

Is she then?

Is Catherine Cambridge carrying the heir?

Well, it’s the difference between a question mark and an exclamation point, isn’t it?

This is a tactic commonly used by the lesser publications - Star, In Touch, Life & Style - to attract the attention of those who don’t bother reading punctuation, but seldom by PEOPLE. Unless they are desperate.

IS SHE PREGNANT?

I don’t know motherf-cker. That’s why I’m paying you $3.99 to find out. Are you telling me or what?

The closest they come is to say that William and Catherine may be cancelling a trip to Africa and that the Palace has been increasingly touchy about pregnancy questions. In other words, the whole story is a “make a story”. Just in time for Easter.

Us Weekly meanwhile is declaring definitively that Kate Cambridge is NOT expecting and has nothing to announce. I tend to believe their version more than PEOPLE, if only because I really can’t see Mrs Cambridge waddling around the Olympic events looking any less lean than the athletes.