Continuing HR article, Netflix

[Twistybranch]

See all these wise posters, lots of what we have said has been ‘confirmed’ by other sources

article in the DM:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-13874743/Harry-Meghan-Hollywood-turns-Sussexes-ALISON-BOSHOFF-venom-schadenfreude.html

https://archive.ph/xgEdv

One senior Hollywood publicist tells me: 'First of all, everyone industry-wide, EVERYONE reads The Hollywood Reporter. It's really striking that WME did not stop this running.'
She adds: 'WME normally – you would think – would have been threatening and denying access to other stars. Was this done here?

Thats exactly what we all thought! it’s strange how they are letting this stuff out.

As we have all seen in recent days, the dark art of covering up and killing stories- look at Al Fayed and what he got away with. So WME have done nothing???

Also, Harry attending an event in his own because Meghan is sick. No. This is part of separating their ‘brands’- I doubt she will attend any future events like these with Harry.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13875773/sick-meghan-markle-prince-harry-kevin-costner-charity-event.html

Seems like the wheels are falling off to me!

I think the 'not my job to coddle people' remark is particularly ironic and unself-aware considering Meghan's performative pain on that tour when 'no-one had asked her if SHE was OK'!

It must be someone's job to coddle her, I assume.

Some really insightful comments on this thread . Fascinating.

Very good point!

When you add it all together:

• nobody asked me if I'm okay
• not my job to coddle people
• the Palace didn't throw me to the wolves, they fed me to the wolves - presumably a riposte to the palace not batting away all negative press at all times
• expectation that all online chatter be shut down on the world-wide-web (perhaps it is for Kate, and she was comparing herself to that treatment )
• clinging on to titles
• The Office Of...
• faux royal tours
• the wedding guest list
• $100m deal with Netflix and $20m from Spotify and $20 from Penguin Random House
• 18 members of staff leaving their employ, constantly dogged by rumours of awful behaviour on film and photo shoots
• blowing through $1m in clothes in her first year in the royal family
• being told by (paid) advisors in Hollywood that they could be worth $1bn if they left the RF and came to California and did this and that deal [great for them, they took their cuts and have moved onto their next clients]
• the Time magazine front page photo with Harry standing behind her
• Harry always standing behind her, ever the spare, even though he's why she is where she is
• endless repetition of the same drivel to the point where it's being listened to that matters rather than what's being said (my voice, being heard, my truth, my knowing, seat at the table, blah blah blah - she says this openly)
• the instant glow-up upon reaching Montecito, with nothing but high-end designers from then on in
• having been surrounded in her 20s and 30s by women who look like they have it all and always feeling she doesn't, as a supporting cast member on Suits and found of the Tig blog, living in rented accommodation and "borrowing" clothes from her TV sets and photo shoots
• etc etc etc

I think she had what Americans call "smoke blown up her ass" around the time she got engaged. The attention she must have received, plus palace staff pandering to her every wish and calling her ma'am/your highness, will have been every single Christmas, birthday and anniversary come at once. Endless fuel for a narcissist who must have felt that she was finally getting the recognition she always felt she was destined for. She's inhabited that role ever since with an entitlement that's really quite breathtaking. In my personal experience, this is always proportional to the size of hole inside a person that profound insecurity and lack of self-worth create. It can never be filled. There will never be enough.

I wouldn't want to be her for all the tea in China. She's stuck in a prison entirely of her own making.

I wonder if Thomas Markle Jr was pretty accurate when he sent a letter to PH a month before the wedding saying:

“As more time passes to your royal wedding, it became very clear that this is the biggest mistake in royal wedding history. Meghan Markle is obviously not the right woman for you - she is a jaded, shallow, conceited woman that will make a joke of you and the royal family heritage.”

Wow , I had forgotten about that . Sounds like he is lot shrewder than I thought.

What I get really curious about is I wonder what Harry thinks about her now. I mean, I know she is the mother of his children, he must love her and cherish her etc and when we dearly love our spouse we see some of their faults through a loving, bemused sort of lense. But in my marriage, which is a very loving one, DH and I absolutely know when one of us is out of order. If I was bullying our staff and stopping around like a right diva, DH would not be impressed, he would not find it endearing. I feel Harry looks embarrassed by her in some interviews/Netflix clips I've seen. But that could be a false interpretation. I know hes supposed to be not the brightest, but I cant help but wonder if the scales have fallen from his eyes a bit. I started to wonder that when she was swanning off overseas alone to tennis matches etc when Archie was only a couple of months old. From things he said, it seems Harry was very emotionally invested in the idea of Meghan being this incredible, natural mother. But she leaves the children A LOT, sometimes they have both been absent for a couple of weeks, and they are only babies. I just wonder if he is disillusioned at all.

That’s exactly what turned out to be the case.

He’s stuck in it with her and I can’t see a way out for either of them .

Regarding how H views her behaviour, I remember the experts on the Behaviour Panel discussing the curtsy scene on the NF documentary. They all firmly agreed that H had made eye contact with someone off camera and his expression was one of contempt over her behaviour. He didn't like it at all. Also in the OW interview where she told the tale about secretly marrying three days before the 'spectacle for the world', H stared firmly at the ground, even when Oprah looked at him for affirmation. He knew she was lying. I wonder what he thought of it.

Man that Josh Kettler comment is shaaaaaade!!

"Warmly welcomed" = they were polite to me on my first day but that was about it

"Very dedicated and hard working" = they run around a lot desperately getting involved with anything and everything but the lasting impact ain't up to much

To PP's wondering why WME didn't jump on Hollywood Reporter and pull out the big guns to get them to water down or axe their piece - WME would only do that for their valuable clients.

Wow! I never knew about that. He and Samantha tried to tell everyone at the time. No one fucking listened!

I think she had what Americans call "smoke blown up her ass" around the time she got engaged. The attention she must have received, plus palace staff pandering to her every wish and calling her ma'am/your highness, will have been every single Christmas, birthday and anniversary come at once. Endless fuel for a narcissist who must have felt that she was finally getting the recognition she always felt she was destined for. She's inhabited that role ever since with an entitlement that's really quite breathtaking. In my personal experience, this is always proportional to the size of hole inside a person that profound insecurity and lack of self-worth create. It can never be filled. There will never be enough

I commented on this before, @Onlyonekenobe, and completely agree - especially with the highlighted bit

As said it completely baffles me to see Meghan described as "confident", when IME this is the very last way truly confident people behave. Put simply they don't need to, because they have enough security in themselves to enjoy the success of others too

And then some claim that H&M are living their "best lives" ...

The way she spoke about her wedding o disdainfully and scathingly on OW was sickening. The wedding she made damn sure cost the UK taxpayers as many millions as possible. In a country where we have had forced austerity for years and so many families living in poverty.

I have gone back and looked at the Five Friends article in People in 2019 - where five of Meghan’s friends “spontaneously” went to People to set the record straight about the press coverage Meghan was receiving, and her relationship with her family. Reading it now, the quotes and themes sound…awfully familiar to her former employees current quotes. So clearly she had used her preferred PR tactic previously, even when the Palace Comms team wouldn’t do so.

An L.A. friend recalls spending a few days together while Harry was out of town: "In the room she made up for me, there was a candle lit by the bed, cookies by the bed, slippers and a robe. We were the only two in the house. It was our time. She made the most lovely meals. She made tea every day. It was raining and muddy outside, so the dogs got all dirty, and she's wiping them off with towels. How much she loves her animals, how much she loves her friends, how much she loves feeding you, taking care of you—none of that has changed."

"I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Meg is a team player," says the Duchess of Sussex's former costar. "But even when she takes a back seat, she’s a leader of group morale. She would always do spirit boosters for the crew on-set—for example, having gourmet burgers delivered."

"She sends so many thank-you notes, all in her beautiful penmanship," says her L.A. friend. "In any room she's very conscious of making sure everyone's included. There are people who have met her once, even years and years ago, and they always remember exactly where they were when they met her and exactly what the conversation was, because she so thoroughly engages."

"She is one of the most selfless people I know," says her former colleague. "A couple years ago, my son was at the beginning of a special-needs diagnosis. Meg screeched her life to a halt and used every resource she could muster for me: got me into a doctor in L.A., got me alternative doctors, called me, sent things to my hotel room. It was like a five-alarm-fire focus of her life to help me and support me."

It's so thoughtless and ungracious. I think what she was aiming for was a way to say all she ever wanted was Harry because they were in love and she was never interested in the bling and the riches and the status etc. She was hoping the American audience would respond to her 'girl next door persona' rejecting those stuffy Brits.

She's just so bad at expressing genuine emotions though. What she could have said was.

"One thing we've never shared is that three days before the wedding we had a rehearsal of our vows with the Archbishop - he came to our cottage and we went out into the garden and practiced the words we were going to say. It was a very sweet moment and he even did a little blessing for us.

We were so grateful to have our beautiful public wedding - it was amazing to share that gorgeous day with our family, friends and the support of everyone who watched and came to Windsor to see it.

But I also think how special that intimate moment in the garden was when it was just the two of us sharing our vows."

You can give Oprah a little exclusive and be grateful and gracious at the same time. And not give the poor Archbishop a small heart attack when he hears that you've said he performed a backyard wedding in secret and then a fake big public wedding three days later.

@Serenster

All those purported acts of kindness just look like ways to ensure she is still the center of attention. Always in whichever person's consciousness (apart from the normal things like wiping down wet dogs, getting a guest room ready: hardly anything remarkable!).

Even when she's taking a backseat, she will spend $100 on some burgers to ensure she still gets attention and praise.

Florid thank you notes: thanks, but look at my extra special thanks. A text won't keep me in your mind.

Engaging so thoroughly: this is very different from "I really enjoyed talking to her". It says "they always remember exactly where they were when they met her and exactly what the conversation was, because she so thoroughly engages". Put me in a room with Donald Trump and I'll feel the same way, I imagine. So carefully worded.

Special-needs diagnosis: this sounds like someone making something all about you. I could quite easily have done all of these things for my friend who has just received an ADHD diagnosis for her son (a process I've actually been through, Meghan didn't even have a child when this was printed) and is now weighing up whether to put him on meds. I have of course chatted with her, listened to her, made suggestions. Would I think to send gifts, bring my own life to a halt, call her hotel room, assume she can't research doctors by herself in her own son's best interests, presume she has the time and mental space for me? I'd feel predatory and patronising doing any of those things, and overstepping.

Everything reads in a very different light now. It's like it was all there the whole time, hiding in plain sight.

Hold onto your butts (one of my favourite lines from Jurassic Park):

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13892271/Harry-royal-return-Meghan-humiliation-MAUREEN-CALLAHAN.html

🤢🤮

Haha! An iconic line that.

Last November, she said (directly her) that she had things on the slate that she was really excited about and couldn't wait to share with us
And nearly 11 months later? Zilch.
I suspect she’s probably getting increasingly desperate to be in the spotlight and failing. It wouldn’t surprise me if she does something like a ‘tell all’ interview or book, what’s she got to lose?
I think Harry is so far out of his depth now that somehow getting back into the Royal family is his only option, he certainly seems to have little else meaningful in his life apart from the children and being dragged around in Meagain’s desperate wake.

Serenster, interesting to have a reread of that, so predictable to hear it again almost verbatim. She comes across as grandiose and manipulative, however then she can dump family and friends at the drop of a hat, and try to destroy the reputation of her sister in law and father in law.

I still find it amusing how their prediction of how damaging the racist revelation would be if it was revealed who the person was,, well, that never played out as they planned it to, on the contrary it backfired spectacularly on them.

Don't know how she can keep protesting that she really is a nice and kind person when we have all seen the person who she really is.

If she did a “tell all” book about the RF. though, firstly, would she have anything new to say and secondly, would anyone believe her? The only “tell all” she could now would be about her marriage to Harry and that would obviously be the end of it 🤷‍♀️

It would also be pretty awful for their DC, and she surely wouldn't do that.

Even the worst of the War of the Wales didn't involved kiss and tell

She already has a deal with Penguin Random House, or rather she and he jointly. And she already threatened to tell all in the The Cut interview where she purposely told the journalist that she hadn't signed an NDA with the RF.

She wouldn't have to do a kiss and tell. It wouldn't be specifically about Harry, I don't think she'd do that to her children or wish to take on the RF so directly. It would be (yet another) whine-a-thon about all the deprivations of her high profile, her mistreatment at the hands of the press, how she's been vilified and generally misrepresented, a laundry list of clapbacks, how she's going to go forward with joy and love blah blah blah. It would be a long-form written riposte to everything she thinks has been erroneously written about her, ever, anywhere and look exactly like everything we've ever heard from her. And sadly, because so much blatant rubbish has been written on the internet by weirdos (same as anyone else, anything else) she might even come across as semi-credible. It would be very tasteful. Lots of photos of her. All beige and white and black and white (the photos of her aesthetic, not her herself), hardback, glossy, a bit like the Melania book probably. There'll be a bit of merching undoubtedly, because why waste a good opportunity. You can see it selling.