POLO

[Sunblessed]

Ha! They really are trying their damndest to make out they’ve not made a trashy reality show!!

https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/prince-harry-meghan-polo-netflix-series-rich-famous-stereotypes-1236243547/

POLO is now on NF. I don’t know if I’m brave enough to watch though!

He wrote an (as yet unpublished) book called "Royal Spin" that are being picked up by Universal for adaption for TV. Described as follows in People:

"With the British monarchy reeling from a wave of scandals, young American politico Lauren O’Connell is plucked from the White House to breathe new life into the Buckingham Palace communications team and help end the royal family’s streak of bad press. But in an institution steeped in tradition and strict protocol, change isn’t easy — or welcome. It turns out the Royal Household can be just as messy and confusing as Capitol Hill," a logline reads.
"Faced with never-ending culture clashes, displeased royal aides with intimidating titles, and risky new love interests, this fish out of water is determined to prove she’s got what it takes — and might even find herself in the process," it continues.

I'm going to guess they will cast a mixed race woman for the role, with a William lookalike as the love interest 😂

Veinticinco de Mayo is a town in Argentina.

I have a lot of sympathy re the awkward hands thing because I have struggled with that when public speaking or in front of an audience. But you can get training to learn to deal with it.

You can see that Kate’s had a lot of training in this area and sometimes it makes her look a bit too formal or stilted. The hands down by your sides looks a little unnatural for civilians as we are more used to seeing poses like that for those in uniform.

The bonus though is that it prevents photographers catching you mid flail or people editing dozens of clips of you grabbing onto people.

You have to be able to admit to yourself that you need help though to accept the training - I don’t think Meghan admits to herself that she needs lessons in anything.

Her hands remind me of animals - completely separate from her - like they’re out of her control. You see her in videos and they’re out and hanging then moving then back then clutch! It’s so odd.

She can’t be still, can she? You see so many of these clips where she’s turning from person to person, smile on and off, hand clapping or picking random things up, clutching onto people, moving them and herself about. It really is quite odd. I don’t think I’ve seen it so frequently from any other person in the public eye.

Not at all, no, this would go against everything ever done in the world of media marketing, and would be completely counterproductive.

If you sign a content and distribution deal with NF, or any company, the company will promote every project in its own right. Every single one. Especially if the content is as disparate in subject matter as H&M's has been. They've had a biographical series, a show about veterans, a show about leadership and a show about a sport. Cooking to come. On paper these will all appeal to very different audiences and so NF would, in the normal course of business, be promoting every single one heavily to different audience segments in order to maximise the number of new subs across different audiences. That is how the business model works. That is why I'm saying that the lack of promo for Polo is commercially counter-productive. The only reason I can think of for why NF is being so coy about Polo is that they fear that promoting it might do more harm to their business than good. I don't know why they would think that but have theorised it might be due to fears of bad PR on the animal rights thing. Or maybe NF execs were disappointed by the final edit.

I also disagree with a previous poster who said that it looks like NF is throwing its weight behind the cooking show. I'd say the opposite seems to be happening. The show was filmed in summer '24, NF does not sit on material, again their model is predicated on flogging their top line which means pushing out new content asap. If they wanted to throw weight behind it they would have put it out in Q4 2024 to take advantage of the US Thanksgiving-Christmas period which is when cooking shows and grocery spend it highest. Not in calendar Q1 which is the high period for diet/health journey/fitness material.

Of all their NF projects, on paper I think that the cooking show has the least chance of mass commercial appeal. I've posted why I think this at length on another thread but to summarise it's because the food/lifestyle/home-making market in the US is highly fragmented and regionalised, and the current trend is towards tradcore/homesteading, which I don't believe Meghan would fit at all.

She’s got to decide who she actually is and try and stick to that line. Is she a feminist championing women’s issues and rights ? Is she a ‘humanitarian’? Is she someone who lives to cook and a great mother? Is she part of the greatest couple ever heard of , madly in love and moving in synch with her hubby/clutching his hand and propelling him around the room? Is she an actress/performer? Is her role to inform and guide everyone else less blessed by special insight and understanding? Is her role to make jam ? Because I don’t think she actually has a clue who she is in real life. I appreciate that it’s possible to be many things simultaneously, but I think she’s a total chameleon who just makes things up as she goes along.

Or maybe she is just muddling along like the rest of us fhs trying to work it out? Nothing wrong with that. And it is possible to have several things going on at the same times.

No one is perfect. Not even members of the RF. It’s quite easy if you are born in to royalty and great wealth to have a very strong and secure sense of identity. Not so easy when you are moving between different worlds.

Never forget their promise in Covid for Archewell to be the true source of information people could trust. Mad.

and using grassroots media, LOL, that pivoted very quickly to US tabloids

If she's just 'muddling along like the rest of us' maybe H&M should stop endlessly bigging her up with all the crap about 'my magnificent wife' (from H) and 'my philanthropy' (from M), and put the lid on M's very publicly 'investing' in exploitative ventures like the Cesta bags (scandal alert: see today's exposé of the below-poverty-line pay of the women workers).

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/meghan-markle-backed-cesta-collective-accused-paying-rwandan-women-pennies-700-bags-1729545

Thanks @WinterCrow I saw this and really think a great deal more due diligence was needed, clearly, because this is a scandal.

From the Daily Mail

'Until September, Cesta's website had boasted the company was 'proud to pay 500-700 per cent times the national average salary of Rwanda' – a claim that was removed some time after Meghan's investment was announced. After this was queried by the MoS, the company's lawyers said the change came as 'a reflection of their commitment to refining how they communicate'.'

ETA if anyone can explain to me what "refining how they communicate" actually means in this context, I'd be grateful.

The sad thing is that this was a perfect opportunity to give women in poverty a real and tangible lift that could make a true difference, but no, pay them a pittance and shout your virtue from the rooftops. Awful. Nauseating, not just Meghan but everyone involved.

I think it means that they did not actually do the hard work of working out what they were getting involved with other than a nice little soundbite that they thought made them look good, and now it's all come to light (and stuff they and their minders should have clocked earlier on) they would like for it to all go away, because we who question them are just stupid haterz. And racist to boot.

The piece work aspect of reminds me of Victorian women in the East end of London making matchboxes.

I agree it was such a good opportunity to lift these women up, but it sounds really exploitative. The quotes from Cesta sound absolutely heartless. There may be some DM spin here, but it doesn't look good.

The irony is that they could pay the women artisan makers properly and still make good profit on those bags. There seems to be a choice not to.

I think this situation is really very tragic all round as this expose will likely get the brand cancelled/blacklisted as unethical so that it commercially fails and those ladies lose their livelihoods.

I cant see them paying them more and spinning that sufficiently to save the brand.

This is really disappointing to read

But she was an actress so wasn't doing that all the time in Suits was she ? I don't know as have never seen it as it's not my kind of thing.
It's like a nervous energy thing.

Yet she never spent a 25th May there while in Argentina

it is basically a polite way of saying that they have been caught out and forced to tell the truth

It means, "We have now stopped lying."

Appalling, yes.

But Rachel has form for unethical investments:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9433581/Meghan-Markle-coffee-firm-bought-oat-milk-company-Chinas-police-state-Xinjiang-province.html

If I am honest , and if these reports are true , I think Meghan wanted to be seen as a business angel for womens' businesses but has not done the due diligence herself nor have any of her staff. If so - just lazy.

But that has always been the issue, surely? The gap between what is claimed and what is shown.

If she had been the feminist activist then I would have been cheering her on. But over and over again it has become apparent that the claims aren't genuine.

I don't think someone who was a genuine feminist activist would have chosen to 'hit the ground running' as a working royal. There would have been too many questions about how that fitted in with a hereditary monarchy. It could perhaps have worked, with carefully selected causes over a period of time.

But the 'most amazing love story of our generation' and 'fairytale wedding' vibes weren't exactly feminist activist 101