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Netflix chief promises “complete package” from Harry and Meghan
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is understandably talking up his big talent, $100m signing. He told CNBC’s Squawkbox of what to expect from Harry and Meghan, “It’s gonna be epic entertainment—so excited about that deal. They’re smart—they were shopping it around across all of the major companies, and I think we really put together the best complete package, and we’re going to do a wide range of entertainment with them.”
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We should not expect to see the couple on camera. “The real focus for them is on being producers and on building a production capacity, so that’s the key thing,” Hastings said. Their lack of experience producing anything doesn’t seem to have been off-putting. “They’ve developed a great eye for story, and we’ll be working with them on that basis,” Hastings said.
We can expect the couple’s productions to premiere in 2021, Hastings implied. “I think it’ll be some of the most exciting, most viewed content next year.”
For their part, Harry and Meghan have said, “Through our work with diverse communities and their environments, to shining a light on people and causes around the world, our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope.”
Curiously, biographer Omid Scobie, co-author of Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, revealed that he is filming with Netflix this week too.
Scobie posted on his Instagram page yesterday that he was “shooting a little something with Netflix”—although didn’t share any further details.
Queen leaves Balmoral early
Holiday plans disrupted by Covid? Join the club, your Majesty. The queen and Prince Philip plan to leave their Scottish holiday castle, Balmoral, and move to Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate, where Philip has a five-bedroom home. The queen would typically remain at Balmoral until the second week in October.
The Daily Mail reports: “Palace officials are in the process of creating a special ‘bubble’ between Sandringham and Windsor Castle. This is so that when the queen returns to the castle in early October and ‘commutes’ to her limited duties at Buckingham Palace, she and Philip can still travel between their residences to see each other.”
Royal Christmas canceled?
Yet another casualty of Covid looms into view: the Royal Christmas. With Britain imposing a blanket ban on gatherings of more than six people in a desperate attempt to try and stop a resurgent coronavirus, it seems unlikely the family will gather for the traditional lunch with her family in Sandringham, unless the rules change.
This, in turn, means the public catwalk of classic British style that is their march to church on Christmas Day will fall by the wayside too.
A courtier told the Mail on Sunday: “Any sort of church attendance on Christmas Day is highly unlikely under the current guidelines. There is no desire to create crowds and over the years, the Royals’ walk to church has become more and more popular.
“It is now something of an event, so this year will need to be looked at very carefully. Perhaps it could be ticketed, as the church does stand on private land, but there could be no interaction.”
The queen and Prince Philip have been living together with a small bubble of staff and limited interaction with other family members since April.
Prince Andrew to be “airbrushed” out of Philip’s 100th
Prince Andrew is being “airbrushed” out of events being planned to mark his father the Duke of Edinburgh’s 100th birthday next June. He will not be invited to major celebrations and organizers have been told to avoid pictures of him in a photo exhibition, the Sun reports.
An insider said: “There is a warning from up high to play down Andrew. He will be included as little as possible. It’s not whitewashing history because you can’t leave him out entirely. But it will not make a big deal of his relationship with the Duke of Edinburgh over the years. This is obviously proving difficult because he is his son and it’s playing down his role in the family.”
Andrew has also been sighted at Balmoral, variously having “crisis talks” with the queen over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, according to the Sun, and then lunch with her and Prince Philip on the Scottish estate, according to the Daily Mail.
Paying off the mortgage early
Harry and Meghan are said to be delighted to have paid off the £2.4 million ($3.1m) of public money spent on their Windsor home. A source told Vanity Fair: “The couple are ‘very relieved and very pleased’ to have been able to pay off the debt so quickly. There was no requirement [from the queen] for them to pay the money back but it was important to them that they did, and after the Netflix deal they were in a position to do so. I think this is quite a significant moment for them.”
The next target for their critics is the pair’s titles, and professional Meghan-baiter Piers Morgan is leading that particular charge. In an interview with the Sun he said: “It’s great they’ve paid back the Frogmore money, it’s great they’ve paid Charles back the cash, but they’ve kept the titles.
“If you really want to find freedom, and you really want to divorce the country, why would you keep the titles ‘Duke and Duchess of Sussex?’
“I’m from Sussex and I bet I’ve spent more time there over the past week than they have in their entire lives, and yet they want to trade off their royal names to get all this money.”
Meghan celebrates Smart Set anniversary
The first anniversary of Smart Set, a collection of workwear aimed at supporting women re-joining the workforce, beckoned this week. The collection was designed by Meghan Markle in collaboration with charity Smart Works, and Meghan spoke to a few Smart Set clients to celebrate the anniversary.
The women told Meghan their work-life stories, and Meghan told the women: “People can say that so much of Smart Works is about the clothes themselves but it’s really not ... all of that stuff is the exterior but it's what it does for you on the inside that ends up being the best accessory. It’s the confidence, it’s what is built within, that is the piece that you walk out of that room with and walk into the interview with.”
Money matters
A leaked four-page document reveals Harry and Meghan’s rules for any speaking engagement, including that they have the final say in who introduces them.
The couple have signed with The Harry Walker Agency and the Telegraph revealed a leaked ‘Virtual Event Request Form’ which states: “The choice of Introducer and Moderator will be at the final discretion of the Speaker.
“The Fee will need to be paid directly from the contracting organization’s account.” The Telegraph adds that the couple stipulate the fee will need to be paid in advance.
Very wise.
Princess Diana, 5, ‘waited on doorstep’ for her absent mother to return
Princess Diana suffered greatly during her parents’ break-up, waiting on the doorstep for her mother to return, her younger brother Charles Spencer said in an interview describing an “agonizing and ruptured” childhood in the Sunday Times Magazine.
In 1966, their mom Frances Spencer abruptly walked out on the family for another man, promising her youngest daughter, the future Princess of Wales, that she would “come back to see her.”
Diana Spencer, then only five, would “wait on the doorstep for her, but she never came,” said Charles.
Spencer, 55, also spoke about his sister’s death on BBC radio and said the memory of it on its anniversary still has the ability to “take him out at the knees.”
This week in royal history
Happy birthday, Prince Harry! The no-longer senior royal tuns 36 on Tuesday, ensconced in his new life in California, signed up to make TV and movies with Netflix, and determined to challenge his media tormentors alongside wife Meghan Markle.
Unanswered questions
What “epic” TV and movies are Harry and Meghan making for Netflix? Will we see the queen in public soon, after cutting her Balmoral break short?
Correction: This article has been amended to state that Harry and Meghan repaid £2.4 million (approximately $3.1m) of public money spent on their Windsor home.
