Is there another couple like the Sussexes Part 2

[veraswaistcoat]

With this new authentic Insta post where Meghan positions herself as a go between in securing some signed merchandise I think there's still plenty to discuss.
This is a new image. No make up. Carefully edited insta. New lips. Is this influencer territory? Mention of " my husband and l " Echoes of the Queen ?

@RecoIIectionsMayVary I don't know where my missing (B) went! It was there when I wrote it, honest. It must be the barometric pressure*, or eddies in the space-time continuum.

*My dad's diagnosis of all known childhood ailments.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it transpired that the Billie Eilish video wasn’t filmed in her own house at this point.

Sounds just like Pippa Middleton’s book Celebrate in TV form, them? Except that never claimed to be “magical”.

From the Penguin Random House blurb: “Celebrate is a one-stop guide to entertaining throughout the British year. It contains a myriad of personal tips, favourite recipes and useful decorating ideas. Practical but full of fun it guides readers through the planning stages to the events themselves..”

(Pippa got absolutely slaughtered by the press, reviewers and commentators for her book, of course - good luck Meghan!)

I don't think these latest reports are telling us anything new about Meghan's Netflix show are they? It's about ideas as opposed to actual cooking or baking.

How to entertain is a pretty crowded market. She will have to have something amazing and fresh to stand out from the crowd.

Remember the time Delia caused a run on cranberries? I can't see Meghan having the same effect on petals for cakes.

I flicked through Pippa's book in the queue in Waitrose once I think she briefly had a tie up with them at one point. At one point she said if you have lguests for Christmas Dinner why not try a Turkey - Honestly I swear that was as near as dammit what she said - if anyone has it then happy to be proven wrong. It wasn't even if you have lots of guests there will be more meat on a Turkey.

Reader , I put it back on the shelf.

I did laugh as the conversation moved on to Sesame street

There was also the gem of a tip about stocking up on ice if you are throwing a party!

Pippa was ahead of her time. Basic life skills books are popular.
One of our local libraries did an "Adulting" series of programs aimed at Millennials. One program demonstrated how to sweep a floor.

Ah it's the first sentence that cracks me up. "It's a very magical guide..."

Surely being magical is like being pregnant, you either are or you aren't. You can't be slightly magical or very magical, there aren't grades of magical. It's not like muggles and mudbloods.

But no, not our Meghan! She's not just magical I'll have you know - being an ordinary sort of magical is for commoners! Meghan is VERY magical don't you know. The ghost of Princess Diana gives her life advice while she's doing yoga. Seals sing to her, South Africans dance in the streets. She's a SUPERIOR form of magical! Her sorcery extends even to elevating the humble pasta.

Honestly the pompous superficiality of that quote is just sending me, lol

Yes, I've always thought it's more of a 'lifestyle' thing rather than a step by step cooking show.

It sounds incredibly twee though, and like something you'd have seen maybe 15 years ago. The #pippatips comparison is a good one.

Also, why isn't she using the extra time she had to promote the show? Maybe not directly, but building up a relevant 'persona' by maybe sharing little anecdotes or 'tips' on her Instagram? Now that I type those words, it just strikes me how silly and out of touch the whole thing seems. And I don't think the recent breathless tshirt video is going to help her create some sort of aspirational image.

So it’s not really a cooking show…it’s the art of being the hostess with the mostest. How throughly progressive of you Meghan.

isn't this similar to the type of thing Kirstie Allsopp was doing years ago?

I can’t imagine Billie Eilish will be best pleased with the association.

Yes, it suggests that she wouldn't have thought of donating if Meghan hadn't asked. And then only a couple of measly t-shirts.

The real A Listers are probably talking to the people at the top, the Mayor and the Governor, and saying what do you need, how can we help, and not needing to splash it all over social media.

Thank you @RecoIIectionsMayVary, that Sesame St clip is one of the best things I have ever seen, better than the original. I love that they bothered to make Paul left-handed 😂

I'm still trying to get my head round the idea of a teen girl losing her entire house in a natural catastrophe and, faced with the loss of her home, her pets, her bed, her room, her devices, her books, her family snaps, turns her nose up at all of this and makes a beeline to check on her Billie Eilish t shirt.

I've seen mention elsewhere that Meghan has a tin ear and a brass neck. This toe curling video released so soon after the Disaster Tourist fiasco appears to validate that description.

Maybe Meghan should try to get on one of these Celebrity Master chef type things.

Life skills - yes. Pippa also described how to do an Easter Egg hunt (an adult hides easter eggs for the children to find - the eggs should be low down and within the reach of children

£400k advance for this . Mind you if it avoids the "Sandra , Sandra ! Do you really think you should be hiding those Easter Eggs on the roof ?" scenario ,well, maybe worth it. 😄

I do think Meghan needs to find something she is really good at & cut back on jumping on bandwagons , seeming to be overtly promoting herself. Also if she could find an authentic voice which was likeable that would help.
I believe Lisa , Jeremy Clarkson's girlfriend is thinking of a Goop style thing but I doubt it will be glitzy and I think she is quite funny at times.

I thought she was with WME or something? Unless it's both?

Another start up being used for something like this puts me in mind of Lemonada, and if it's got to the point where these are the only ones who'll be associated with her you have to wonder if things are even worse than they appear

@veraswaistcoat - Well at least if it were now there would not both she and Gregg Wallace on it - that would be a bridge too far

Thank you, GiveMeSpanakopita; on the back of all the posts I've just watched it and thought it was just me

I mean it's the sort of thing you do when your house has burned down isn't it ... not hunt desperately for important papers, passports, family photos, etc, but just some trashy souvenir T-shirt

The whole thing has no more credibility than anything else she does ...

WME is talent management - bookings etc

Three Gates is PR - tasked with promoting Meghan's humanitarian work, brilliance and all round fabulousness to the world at large

I can't stress how unusual it is for someone as famous as Meghan to engage a start up one woman band for PR

A much younger child, maybe. Someone who's neurodivergent, sure.

I very much hope that Meghan would have the sense not to drag a ND person into a worldwide media frenzy without their and/or their parent's permission.

I do think Meghan needs to find something she is really good at

Possibly, like most people, she is competent at various things, but not really good at anything. And instead of being willing to take time to learn and put in the effort to become really good at something, she jumps from one thing to another, and it all looks so shallow, and she's way past the age where she should still be doing this.

It's quite sad when you consider that if she had stayed as a working royal and focused on a couple of causes and put in the work, by now she would have real influence and have access to the top people in any field.

Instead she's blagging merchandise and opening boxes on Instagram.

This sort of expenditure has its roots in the 60s and 70s: it's American "soft" propaganda. It's how you get entire generations of Egyptian kids and teens to speak English with an American accent (rather than the accent of the just-ousted British, or <shock> an Egyptian accent), be familiar with American foods and street names and clothes and cities, songs and nursery rhymes etc. It lays the foundations of an adulthood of warm feelings to all things American, to spending money on Coca-Cola products rather than the local equivalent, yearning for all things Disney and to see New York City one day and becoming so dependent on the American dollar that now you're bribed and bullied into taking Gazans into your country against their and your will but for the lining of the pockets of the American president's son-in-law. It's worked (certainly worked on Harry to the extent of moving there lock, stock and barrel - as a Prince of the realm!). It's the same thing we're seeing today with British Reception-aged children starting school talking about trash cans and garbage, sidewalks and horseback riding. They're totally over to the American side by the time they're teens. We can thank Instagram and TikTok and Youtube for that. So yeah, why spend tax dollars on the propaganda when your mates, Mark and Elon, can actually make tax free money out of us instead, tax free money they're going to hand over to get you elected.

(Sorry, rant over, no more politics from me!).