The American Tour... this isn't going to go well is it?

[WineIsMyCarb]

I think that in the first instance planning some sort of hearts and minds land grab over the Sussexes is foolish when Meghan is herself American and the Sussexes are based there. Why not leave well alone and throw a bells and whistles diplomatic smorgasbord for the president (or the next one, frankly, if Biden carks it) at the next opportunity. Or go to Canada, where you'd get loads of 10 years later photo compares and you are (or will be) actually the head of state there.
Also why Boston? If anything it's the anti UK monarchy state historically and Bostonians are not as (platonically) romantically taken than, say, (sweeping generalisation alert!) Midwesterners by the Royal Family.

I'm sure it's to flood the papers before Harry's "poor me" autobio comes out but surely there must be a premise on which they're going?

And now they have their 'touch down' moment marred by more racism accusations (quite rightly, what that lady in waiting said and how she behaved was absolutely appalling).

Difficult to see how they can bring this back round tbh.

What everyone else think?

I am on for an hour just now with a cup of tea. Takes 10 minutes to read Twitter and post a post as I am sure you know. It always surprises me how major news that is critical of the Royal Family can be all over twitter and here it is silence.

@DriftwoodOnTheShore I think it is strange that people who are strangers to the Royal Family profess to love them, can diagnose their personality disorders, etc. They are strangers.
We know when Philip said something racist yet again in public. But we have no idea what he was really like.

I think it went very well.

As a dual citizen and supporter of both countries, I have to say I don't think there's a 'battle for America'. That 'battle for America' is all manufactured by media outlets to sell their column inches. Certainly the PsOW don't need to be validated by the US.

As others have observed, it's not a State Visit (capitals for UK nationals) but even if it were, the PsOW would be well received - even now, on an unofficial visit Biden has made time for them.

I think most Brits would be disappointed to learn how little the UK matters to most of the US. When UK politics is not going well, very few Americans notice. Likewise, I think UK republicans would be dismayed to learn that the Americans who are interested in the UK are fascinated/obsessed by the royal family.

Relieved to see MNHQ have had a purge of your posts when your squad didn’t call you out on your distasteful and relentless posts.

I do not care a fig to be honest about what the rest of the world think of the Royal family. If it was improving my life in any sense of the word, then that would be a different matter.

Haven't The Times been doing this for at least the last 100 years?

I think it's odd to profess to love them when you don't know them as well. It's as silly as strangers constantly criticising them with no real idea of what went on, isn't it?

I hope I never sink as low as to revel in other people's unhappiness, but you carry on.

To be fair Americans only think about America in the main, I don’t think they take a huge amount of notice of other European countries internal politics either, not just the UK.

I don’t really know. I read it, as I said. But they have bigger seats, more space for luggage, greater amount of luggage space etc. I guess one person in first class burns more fuel and uses more resources on a plane, much like the people who fly first class often do on the ground - consume more, bigger homes etc.

But I’d be happy to hear from any aeronautical experts or climate experts that could tell me differently.

Here you go, I googled it and this came up first. Taken from a bbc article, not the one I originally read, but makes the point. Titled:
Should we give up flying for the sake of the climate?

“ It is also better to book an economy ticket rather than go by business or first class. A first class ticket on a long-haul flight emits, on average, four times as much as an economy seat on the same plane, as the chart below shows.”

It lists the reasons.

I didn’t know this happened. The only coverage I saw in Australia re earthshot awards was on a Saturday night news program. (it was on because husband was watching The World Cup and news followed -although there was probably some coverage of it on other Chanel’s too.).

It showed Caroline Kennedy and mentioned ‘Hollywood stars’ - interviewed Rami Malek quickly, and there were shots of Catherine and William. I thought that Catherine looked like a Hollywood star - very glam. But no mention of awardees not attending. They ‘practice what they preach then’, which is great.

personally I’m torn. I feel it’s very important to bring as much attention as possible to the climate crisis and to direct as much money as possible so we can stop catapulting to our own destruction. Australian First Nations women received over a million dollar grant from earthshot to help in their work to fight, and hopefully solve (fingers crossed) coastal erosion. But I’m just not comfortable anymore with people flying to give and attend awards. I’m actually not all that comfortable that people fly for holidays now we know what it’s doing to our planet. Family reunions I understand. And a lot of business people fly, but for some it is an excuse for ‘jaunts’ (not all). And although jfk came from Boston it seems that a lot of the stars and big name charity people do not live there. And Caroline, holiday stars, royalty etc are VIPs (eye roll here,) but as ‘very important people’ it’s more ‘do as we say, not as we do’. Now, that was ever true.

Hopefully one of the earth shot awardees is someone working on making air travel greener.

I don’t take a ‘morbid delight’ but I do often feel some passing amusement when they are shown up as not quite being the people they would have us believe.

I’m quite a bit older than most on mn , I think. I come from a time where, in Australia, how the Royal Family were portrayed to live (no affairs, trouble free marriages, stiff upper lip, you made your bed so now you lie in it, don’t complain, dress modestly, etc etc etc) very much informed how the common people were supposed to behave. When people didn’t behave that way they were a ‘disgrace to family and community.’ And all this time royalty was going about doing all the shit they pretended they didn’t do and which could be hidden from us.

Even more seriously is that they symbolise empire and colonisation and they’ve never once apologised for what their ancestors did, nor admitted that they still benefit from it today.

So, when they fall over their own hypocrisy I do find it to be momentarily amusing, I admit. .

I think most Brits would be disappointed to learn how little the UK matters to most of the US

I think most Brits don't care. And it works both ways. UK media is saturated with coverage of US elections but most Brits aren't interested. Nothing personal.

William is a sad sad man. Did you see what he had the EarthShot members do? go and cry to Netflix...

If they truly wanted attention to be on the finalists, why weren't they flown in?

I guess if you flop that hard, you have to blame anyone but yourself.

The Earthshot awards was essentially taping for a reality show. Excerpts from the Boston Globe..

The audience seemed puzzled. The invite to Friday’s Earthshot Prize ceremony promised a “glittering affair” with performances by Billie Eilish and Annie Lennox. But really what they’d been summoned to was the taping of a TV show starring the Prince and Princess of Wales.

The royal couple, wrapping up a three-day visit to Boston, were on hand to award more than $5 million to people with ideas to save the planet, or at least delay its immolation. And as the cameras rolled, the crowd was there to cheer on demand. Enthusiastically.

Taking photos with friends on the appropriately green carpet, Jasmine Rigueur, a member of the Student Government Association at Bunker Hill Community College, said she doesn’t know why she was invited, but she accepted immediately.
“Honestly, I’m here to see Billie Eilish,” Rigueur said, unaware then that Eilish would only be appearing on a screen. “It’s just a plus to have the prince and princess here, too.”

Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Burke was in uniform, but he said he wasn’t working. As a member of Mayor Michelle Wu’s cabinet, he’d been invited to attend and was excited to see Lennox perform.

“That’s who I’m looking forward to, not the royalty,” he said. “My wife’s killing me because I didn’t get a second ticket.”

Or maybe not. As the crowd walked out of MGM Music Hall, a phalanx of enormous SUVs were idling on Lansdowne Street, emitting who-knows-how-much CO2 while they waited to whisk the royal couple away.

If they truly wanted attention to be on the finalists, why weren't they flown in?

The 15 finalists (3 for each of the 5 categories) quite literally came from all over the world - the Middle East, China, Australia, India, Africa , the UK etc. And they are organisations, not individuals. It’s not like the Nobel prizes where one individual is being celebrated for their career achievements. The pioneering work of each of the organisations is being highlighted, and via the prizes, funded and supported to upscale.

It would be nice if the representatives were actually there, sure but given the cost and number of airmiles it would need to achieve this, I can see why it makes more sense that their work and initiatives are highlighted in video format, which can show us far more about what they actually do.

(The contradictions on this topic also amuse me.

Mumsnet: “OMG did you see that Earthshot only spent £5m of its £14m expenditure last year on prizes, and the rest was running costs! Outrageous!”

Also Mumsnet: “OMG did you see that Earthshot didn’t pay for flights and accommodation for representatives of 15 organisation scattered across the world organisations to fly to Boston so they could be personally present while their work is shown and talked about! Outrageous!” 🤣).

I literally have no idea what you're on about here? Someone complained about the trailer?
What's William got to do with that?
You seem to specialise on trawling random sites and posting any old gossip that's in anyway negative about the RF. It completely invalidates any legitimate criticism.

Anyway, from the coverage I've seen it seems to have gone very well. John Kerry, Caroline Kennedy, several notable celebrities and the POTUS. Everyone we were told decided not to bother going did in fact go.
I saw several positive news reports on the finalists and the work they're doing.

I literally have no idea what you're on about here? Someone complained about the trailer?
What's William got to do with that?

Two members of Netflix’s own climate focussed scientific advisory board, and who also have links to Earthshot - Christina Figueres is one of its trustees, the other sits on the panel that evaluates the prize nominees - openly complained to Netflix about its piggybacking marketing campaign, by releasing its trailer for Meghan and Harry at the same time as the Earthshot awards. Tatala obviously feels that these senior and expert figures, with links to both organisations, would only have done so because William asked them to.

Two points occur to me about that. Firstly, hundreds of people and commentators rolled their eyes and expressed their distaste for Netflix’s predatory marketing campaign here, so it’s not like this is an outlier view - or one that these two executives would not able to come to of their own volition. And these two are exceptionally well placed to tell Netflix that they are unimpressed, given they have actual links to the company. And secondly - even if William did ask them to raise it (for which there is no evidence at all), they were obviously happy to do so, and do so publicly. It’s highly unlikely they would have done so if they didn’t agree with the matter. They have no reason to be beholden to William.

@MrsFinkelstein and @Serenster you really must stop letting the facts get in the way of a good story - @tatala becomes very agitated ( or frothing to use a MN word) and as she is busy posting exactly the same comments on several threads , she has a lot to do !

Thank you for that. I had to go search because the screenshot wasn't clear.
I saw several other commentators say similar.
This link has the whole article.
archive.ph/2022.12.04-000837/www.thetimes.co.uk/article/netflix-advisers-attack-distracting-harry-and-meghan-trailer-650n5vl7t#selection-945.0-949.19

I said what I said, William going to Netflix to cry is utterly pathetic. He will be overshadowed for the rest of his life.

No he won’t

I really don’t think he will !

In 10/20 years, William will be King, and Meghan and Harry will be on a housewives franchise, wind tunnel frozen faced and complaining about how the monarchy treated them (yawn)

once a season they will take out the much worn Hermes blanket and cry salty tears from their left eyes into it for the cameras

That view just doesn’t stack up against the facts, tatala.

We already know Meghan’s podcast went downhill in terms of ratings, week on week after people listened to the first couple and were not sufficiently engaged to keep listening. We also already know that Netflix decided the best bet for the Harry and Meghan show was to drop it with very little notice and a big “ambush” campaign, literally to piggyback of the publicity that the Prince and Princess of Wales were already getting due to their trip to the US. That does not sound to me like the strategy of an organisation that is confident that their production can stand on its own two feet.

Also, as I’ve mentioned before, in order to continue to thrive they will need to produce a lot of content every year in order to pay Archewell’s bills and fund their lifestyle. They have their big splash now - Archetypes, the Netflix series, Spare - but what is next? What will be their projects for next year? Pearl has already been scrapped, Heart of Invictus has not been scheduled and their announced nature programmes appear to have dropped off the slate entirely. In the meantime they keep cycling through the content producers at Archewell, with more currently “moving on”, perhaps suggesting that it’s not a stable organisation. It will be interesting to see what happens next.