The "Where's Meghan" Question Has Been Definitively Answered ...

[MrsMaxDeWinter]

She's been busy!

I hope that those who expressed concern will be happy to know that she has been working with the Archewell team on their just released Impact Report.

Meghan and Harry are polarising figures but there is no doubt that they have galvanising power to get projects, both little and big, off the ground.

Harry, with William and Kate, was a co-founder of the Royal Foundation in 2011. They had a start-up fund of just under 5 million pounds, of which 1.3 million pounds was given away in grants.

10 yrs later, Harry and Meghan set up Archewell, with start up funds of 13 million dollars, and give away three million dollars in grants.

As with both foundations, the reserve is carried over.

The range of their projects is interesting, from working with the Vaccine Alliance to raise private sector contributions to distribute vaccines, endowing academic fellowships, working with partners in resettling refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan, working with World Central Kitchens, to smaller projects like the Uvalde community playground and park and a really cute project to a small charity that gives free hair braiding to young black girls in Texas.

archewell.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Archewell-Foundation-Impact-Report-2020-2022.pdf

I am so pleased for them, their advisors and staff as this is a dream start for any start up. I have long been sceptical that they may have spread themselves too thinly, so I am glad to see they are now focusing on just three areas, as they find their groove.

I really don't think you can compare Meghan to Reese.

When Reese started her career as a producer, she was an A list, Oscar winning actress with a net worth probably in the hundreds of millions. She knew from the inside how the industry functions, and had extensive contacts at the highest level. She also had a husband who worked in the industry.

By contrast, Meghan was part of an ensemble cast in a cable TV show which filmed in Toronto. Then she married a prince.

So they really are not in the same position. Not close.

I really don't think you can compare Meghan to Reese.

Exactly my point. RW's career is irrelevant to this discussion.

Busy bee 🐝

It is hard to think that the author of the Bench would bring the right touch to make a successful engaging romcom.

There will be endless quality material from Meghans own love story no doubt.

It's really interesting how many actors make the move into executive producer. I had an idea that several did this. In my little deep last night it was interesting to see how many women did this - it seems a way to guarantee work and ensure creative control of projects. They used their acting careers to spring board them into this - which is what Meghan will do.

Many actors with mid range shows have taken the line into this work - actors in shows contemporary to the reach of Suits; Alison Brie (Community, Mad Men), Issa Rae (before she became super famous - her great web series and Insecure), Natasha Braunstein (Orange is the New Black) and looking over at the men (there are hundreds) but I will pick James Roday Rodriguez (Psych - OMG did I love this show).

The more I read into this I thought this is actually the best thing for them to do. It is risky if it is film EP - the financial risk is eye watering but I think if they do TV EP, they should be fine. Will be intrigued to see how they get on.

"By contrast, Meghan was part of an ensemble cast in a cable TV show which filmed in Toronto."

Several actors in ensemble casts have made the foray into a smidgen of executive producing - it's not an unheard of quantity.

The USA Network is a great station on cable that many people watch - I watched Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, The 4400 and Fairly Legal when I lived there. More recently Mr Robot was highly rated - also aired on USA. It's a fairly standard channel (along with AMC (MadMen), FX (Nip/Tuck) and the SciFi channel(Eureka)) and not obsure.

Many TV shows set in Chicago, Boston, New York or Philadelphia are actually filmed in Toronto mostly because of the low filming cost

Several actors in ensemble casts have made the foray into a smidgen of executive producing

I'm not quite sure what "a smidgen of executive producing" is, but my point is that Meghan is definitely not 'in the same position' as Reese Witherspoon, as another poster claimed. Reese was far better positioned to launch a producing career, for all the reasons I mentioned above.

@IcedPurple

i used Reece Witherspoon as someone to aspire to. She’s been incredibly successful. I see she dropped out of Stanford to follow her career, but that’s one of the Top 5 university’s in the US

often actors in an ensemble show get to produce episodes (probably contractual) - eg Ellen Pompeo and various ER cast members etc

There are other contemporaries of Meghan I mentioned who have done EP work - I named them in an earlier post.

@skullbabe

I think these ensemble episodic ‘EP’ roles are often negotiated as part of their contract, sometimes the actors look to direct episodes too

For example the two main suits characters got producing credits on suits and they also got to direct episodes (I didn’t check the whole list)

I remember reading decades ago that the first person to gain executive producer status in a TV series with Larry Hagman in Dallas. He wanted an increase in salary, and they were happy to do so considering his popularity at the time, but couldn't do so without increasing everyone else's salary at the same time, so he given the role of executive producer, which meant he did nothing extra, but got a nice chunk of money. Don't know if that's true.

There may have been previous example, but those were probably things like actors wanting to try their hand at directing.

Yes, there is a huge difference in directing and EP. Most stars do move behind the camera to direct at various points in their careers. Not as many move to an EP role.

@skullbabe I actually agree with your opinion on their trajectory. But I think we will see The Tig again soon.

I expect she will start the Tig soon too.

If that happens, we can definitely expect lots of threads sneering and tearing it apart because if Reese Witherspoon or Kate or anyone else started The Tig it would be more successful. 😅

@MrsMaxDeWinter

i suggested Reece Witherspoon as she has made the successful transition to producer, Meghan could learn from her, she’s a friend of Ellen’s as well apparently. No need to be so snippy.

I’ve previously said I expect her to restart the Tig, again Gwyneth Paltrow has the goop so could give advise and she’s also a friend of Ellen

Give me Dolly Parton any day. Her Imagination Library from the Dollywood Foundation helps millions of childrens with books. Just love Dolly..
H&M could model their Foundation on hers although hers has been going over 30 years.

Even children in UK benefit from these books, in 2018 she celebrated the millionth book being sent to children. What an achievement.

I love Dolly she’s a really talented musician (I’ve seen her live and was blown away by her performance)

Her foundation is amazing, listening to her talking about growing up you can see her vision to help people with books, staying in school and being able to better yourself.

Shes gifted over 190 million books which is an amazing achievement. it’s no surprise that Jeff Bezos has gifted 100m to her foundation as it’s purpose is clear, consistent and successful.

Oh wow @Ohnonevermind I am so jealous you have seen her live, how fantastic. I just love her music, and she does so much for others, and never gives up. She's an icon.

Something to agree on at last! I love, love Dolly, and the imagination library is a fantastic project.

Here for the Dolly love!

Maybe Dolly will unite us all.

She should be the meditator not the Archbishop!!

Mediator even, though I hope she is a meditator too!!

That’s a plan! Dolly is awesome.