H&M vs Backgrid

[PicturesOfDogs]

H&M have apparently ’demanded’ pap footage from Backgrid, according to TMZ.

Their lawyer has replied with the following:

In America, as I'm sure you know, property belongs to the owner of it: Third parties cannot just demand it be given to them, as perhaps Kings can do. Perhaps you should sit down with your client and advise them that his English rules of royal prerogative to demand that the citizenry hand over their property to the Crown were rejected by this country long ago. We stand by our founding fathers

Court case #6 incoming?

https://amp.tmz.com/2023/05/18/prince-harry-meghan-markle-demand-photo-agency-give-them-footage-of-chase/

This is a problem of their own creating - they have been controversial and lax with their behaviour. They have lapped up the attention on things like the Oprah show and H's book and other TV appearances. You cannot now suddenly say STOP I don't want that anymore.

As for charity work there are MASSES of people in the USA who do all kinds of things behind the scene and you never see them in situations like this because they go about things quietly and behind the scenes. They lead private lives. H and M seem to have this constant need for publicity but only on their terms. It doesn't work like that.

if everything happened as they say then they need to seriously be sacking their security, they should have had various contingencies, a skilled driver who is not fazed, if it was as dangerous as the first statement who puts a cab driver in the middle of that.

Agree. It sounds like the most ridiculous decision ever " I know let's put you in a taxi with a driver we know nothing about and with clear open windows"

@Sunshinegirl82 Spot on

Their head of security worked in the secret service guarding Obama.

It’s very strange.

It couldn't be a set up could it? It's very embarrassing for their security. No sane person would agree to that.

This Pr stunt has put them on the front pages, for sure, but it's also exposed them as people who love to exaggerate non stop.

I just don't see how it can work if one person is full of trauma about media and photographers while their partner has spent her whole life pursuing fame and attention.

I've often wondered this. Clearly two people who married with little idea of the agenda of the other.

If you're a celebrity, it's a part of the deal that you will have unwanted attention from photographers. It's always been the same, you just have to accept that or not court publicity. I go out and no one photographs me 😂

Harry and Meghan need to stop channelling his mothers death into publicity stunts like this.

I will probably get shot down for saying this but I have this feeling that Harry tries unconsciously to replicate situations that his mother experienced in order to feel aligned with her . I think he craves to be identified with her and to experience what she experienced. It’s very sad. From reading Spare, he is seems a very lost confused soul with little insight into himself or others. Insecure, paranoid and with feelings of abandonment. I don’t think he has a clue what he’s doing really.

In addition Meghan had only an outsiders view of what real fame meant before she married into the RF. she only had her experience of being a little known actress in a third rate programme few had heard of before she met Harry. Her whole adult life had been spent craving the limelight and wanting fame. To her, that means designer clothes, speeches, people thinking she’s amazing . It’s the oxygen she lives for. Harry on the other hand has had that all his life and wanted to escape from it. Instead he’s been sucked into her world of celebrity friends, PR stunts and a hunger to be front page news. It’s the antithesis of what he wanted before he met her. Somehow he’s been persuaded that he wants what she wants. Car chases and paparazzi attention keep them on the front pages and take the attention off the RF. whether that’s intentional or not is another question.

I think you have a point, @Birchtrees . Some of Spare certainly read like that. He does seem to have unresolved trauma in spite of counselling and treatment.
He was trained at Sandhurst as an army officer and fought in the front line. As a senior royal he also underwent some specific anti terror and kidnap training.I would have thought that all this would equip a person to deal with situations which may be hostile and/or relate to personal safety.
That it doesn't, underlines a more serious problem.

It's funny that a week or two ago we were hearing that Meghan was leaving the royal stuff behind her (DM used Meghan 2.0) yet the Sussexes try and recreate Diana's death. Harry regularly moans about the accuracy of media reports yet didn't issue a correction when people were confused about what happened. They could have avoided flak by sticking to the facts like they were scared (taxi driver agrees) and the paps were relentless (took 2 hours to get home and they even waited while the group were in a police station)

The internet has named where they were staying and it's an apartment that they've stayed in before and features on the Netflix documentary. Presumably it's known by the media who owns the property and it's not of public interest ie info that the DM would pay for. Since they've been associated with that address before, they wouldn't be hard for the paps to find.

I also think it would make a lot of organisations reluctant to get involved with them. Reputable charities and businesses usually steer clear of that sort of thing.

Well the mouthpiece Omid Scobie released a video saying despite all the trauma of Diana's death and this near catastrophic incident which must have been so triggering for William and Charles, no one had reached out the M&H.

So this is also a stick to beat the royal family. No change there.

And of course because the royal family are racist, they didn't reach out because Meghan is biracial?

The looking for grievances is just so tiresome. Why do they need to run to Omid Scabies with their whining constantly? It’s so childish.

Maybe the royal family "reached out" privately? Who knows what was said. Or by whom.

I agree, Maireas. It’s all speculation.

(Although given Harry revealed in detail his conversations with Charles and William at Prince Phillip’s funeral in Spare, and then filmed his reaction to getting a text from William after the Oprah interview in their Netflix show, I can’t imagine there’s a great deal of enthusiasm amongst his close family for “reaching out” right now)

Well, it would certainly make you cautious, @Serenster and you'd feel worried about misrepresentation.

The Royal Family probably haven't ' reached out' because nothing actually happened.

Maybe Harry has said not to contact him unless it's to apologize for what he considers their wrongdoings?

Honeymoon definitely over.

I think what they want is something they can never have. A lucrative public "celeb" style lifestyle with press that they control and that is all positive, combined with a completely private personal life that is never discussed negatively. That's just not possible. You cannot completely control your press. They want to be universally loved, but no one is. You cannot be a public figure with a completely private life. You can have a "mostly" private life, but some of it has to be public.

nypost.com/2023/05/20/meghan-markle-and-prince-harrys-brand-is-totally-off-base/

That's a very interesting article, Mrs Finkelstein. The author is also "biracial" as they say in the US..

Well omid scobie says they didn't and he has a hotline to the couple. Wrote the book, lied in court about meghans involvement, etc. so if he says so, I expect it is actually from them, although no guarantees as he often comes up with similar shite to have a pop at the RF.

From the NY Post article linked above:

There is nothing new about the Sussexes overstating their importance. But the East Side “car chase” takes their obsession with image inflation to confounding new levels.

Ultimately, as I wrote years back, the biggest problem with Meghan — and Harry, to a lesser extent — is that she wants to be a role model, but simply has no role. Sure, Steinem may deem Markle influential, but ultimately, who really cares?

By now they’re back in their Montecito, California, bubble, hiking and yoga-ing and organic-ing away, blissfully and blithely convinced of their own importance. The Sussexes may perceive themselves as relevant, but true players don’t need car chases to keep their audiences enthralled.

Ouch.

Obviously it's all speculation but assuming the comments about the RF not reaching out are true, I'm inclined to think that the fact that a comment has been made about the issue which can legitimately be connected directly to H&M might well be why no reach out has occurred.

The RF are not new to this game, I'd imagine discretion from those close to the RF is absolutely fundamental to any meaningful relationship with them.

H&M have not been discreet and I can imagine that there is now concern in the RF that having any contact with them whatsoever will be spun and manipulated and so the safest thing is to have no contact at all. That was always going to be a risk with H &M's chosen approach.

Well H and M didn’t reach out to her father when he had a stroke because he unforgivably breached their privacy so why K & W or KC reach out after having their privacy breached with Spare?