Let us all discuss the news and great doings issuing from Montecito

[Uricon2]

WTF Ghana? Just why?

I think the problem with them was that they thought they were indispensable. The Royal Family couldn’t be without them.

It’s such a shame because they really could have been an asset, but they wanted to take a different path and now they’re a subject of ridicule and as unpopular as they are.

I agree @Uricon2 Meghan really wants/wanted to be seen as the new Diana and I think Harry wanted that too.

Possibly @RecoIIectionsMayVary , but the average American doesn't give a rats ass about our monarchy!
Her marriage was a bit of entertainment for some but even if they had stayed all interest would have petered out !
We are far more interested because it's our country our history! 🤷‍♀️

Exactly. That's what they can't comprehend. Diana was criticised, it's just that there's been this strange sanctification after her death. I find it peculiar that you'd want to be a very high profile public figure, say many controversial things, yet expect no criticism at all?

Meghan is experiencing the usual ups and downs of life as a public figure.

Well, it was one huge up, peaking on their wedding day, and it's been relentlessly down ever since!

I agree from BP, to Valentine Low, to The Times, to The Hollywood Reporter, to Access Hollywood to Vanity Fair ..... all reporting the experiences of bullying of dozens of individuals by MM over many years. I can a class action lawsuit coming her way. I am sure there are charismatic Sherbourne type lawyers in LA trying to pull this together behind the scenes.

She's just not a people person, lacks the warmth and empathy that Diana had.

I think the other thing she underestimated was that Diana was the first "glamorous" member of the RF we'd had in a long time , so she was different and I think that sparked a lot more interest. I know the Queen and Princess Margaret could be pretty glamorous in their time but I'm knocking on a bit and that was even before my time 😊 Also & I do agree Diana took a while and some rocky times but to be fair that photograph of her shaking hands with the AIDS patient did genuinely I think raise awareness of HIV / AIDS (I am old enough to remember the public information film with the gravestone from my late 20s - I think I'm remembering that correctly. ) Certainly a cut above laying flowers at Uvalde and touring ruined houses in Pasadena.

But yes I think her untimely death did preserve Diana in aspic to an extent and was a big part of the myth.

edited for spelling memo to self - use preview.

That final summer the articles about Diana were very critical. She was spending the holidays with her rich playboy boyfriend on his yacht. Her sons had been at boarding school and she wasn't spending time with them.

The rebrand is not going well at all.

The Hollywood reporter writing about the backlash over the name, As ever.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/meghan-markle-lifestyle-brand-as-ever-same-name-small-business-1236141410/

I wonder what the Netflix Execs are thinking right now about all of this….

Fair point MissFenella 😊

I think anyone who wasn't around / alive at the time (pre 1997) forgets how much Diana was criticised by the press and how many very odd things she did before being deified in death. Just a few:

Making silent calls to Oliver Hoare, a married art dealer
Attending a heart operation because she was in love with Hasnat Khan
Going out with married Will Carling, his wife said she didn't stand a chance
Having an affair with James Hewitt while married to Charles

I know Charles was also having affairs but I think we should remember that Diana was a not very bright aristo and she messed up sometimes, she really did. The press were about to turn on her (Private Eye were already scathing) and then she died and hey presto, Saint Di.

Ah, as I was typing several people said the same thing about Diana!

Probably not a lot. I suspect they knew they were dealing with a person who is problematic. The trailer for With Love, Meghan is very polished and shows what Netflix are capable of. Does anyone think the As Ever noise is having a negative impact on Netflix?

Agreed. Diana came across as warm and caring. Meghan is always acting and because she's not a particularly good actress, it's obvious.

I know Charles was also having affairs

Affair, singular. And IIRC, Charles only returned to Camilla AFTER Diana had already cheated on him with James Hewitt.

Netflix Executives

😂 @Mylovelygreendress 🤣

I wonder if Harry realises that Diana would have probably continued to prioritise William, being mother to the future king was important to her.

There was a LOT of bad press about her that summer indeed and I believe quite a few critical articles hastily pulled on her death. I don't know, perhaps she'd have pulled it back had she lived, I've read she had plans to expand her charity work in different directions. I'm pretty certain she'd have avoided the commercial missteps we're talking about currently though, not least because they are so cack handed it beggars belief at times.

I also think Harry/Meghan have seen some of the gilded approval for things about Diana that have been prominent since her death and IMO very worthwhile (landmines, HIV/AIDS awareness) but without looking at the flip side, which was that she did screw up and appeared to be very unhappy for a lot of the time she was famous. Perhaps William and Kate may have realised that that level of interest and adulation comes with a very dark reverse and can be a poisoned chalice, because they are doing things differently.

The Hollywood Reporter turning against H&M (which they first did towards the end of last year) is as incontrovertible a sign as we're ever likely to get that H&M are done in Hollywood.

The Hollywood Reporter is Hollywood/showbiz LA's village voice. And Hollywood is nothing if not conservative, meaning that they'll only kick you when they're absolutely sure that you're down, permanently down, never likely to get back up again.

Any hopes of regaining the kind of glittering career trajectory H&M had in January 2020 is therefore gone. Their A-list Hollywood career is dead. In fact, I'd even go so far as to stay that it's a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. It's kicked the bucket, it's shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible.

It is an ex parrot ex career!

I picked up a copy of the DM (I know, shudder) that was lying on a table in a cafe whilst i was waiting for someone. There was a double page spread on Meghan absolutely slating her.

The same was said about her doing the As Ever promo video herself, though I can still hardly believe it; even if it was a rush job because someone had leaked the story I'd have thought they could find a videographer in LA of all places

Unless of course they've completely run out of anyone prepared to come on board ...

If they really were paid a fortune then I don't imagine this will have done much good for the career of whoever signed them up originally, but beyond that they may be just counting the days until they can get rid

I don't pretend to know the Hollywood world, but if they're anything like most Americans they'll simply move onto the next thing instead of dwelling on past failures ... ironically not unlike Meghan herself

That wouldnt be possible though if PH was filming wasnt he in Canada at the time; unless this was scripted, filmed, edited before they went.