Oh, I kind of wish I could see Harry’s face when he unveiled that plaque.
He doesn’t exactly look happy. I mean, “grandson of the Queen”…at that point why even mention it? It’s like he was never there.
I bet we’re going to get many more shots of Meg’s belly cupping once they move away from Invictus. I bet she’ll be looking forward to it every opportunity.
It’ll be anything for attention. Even Lainey said today she thought this tour already felt long. They’re not doing a good job highlighting the charities or activities since they’ve focused the press on their PDA, love story, and pregnancy. So everyone is over it already. I’m sure Harry will perk up a little bit being around Invictus for a few days, but then it’s off to Zika Land–okay, Tonga and Fiji–via a 3 or 4-hour plane ride.
It’s only October 20th in Australia now, so that means they have another ELEVEN days of this tour. These two will be beyond melted cheese at that point. I think it’s inevitable that the stress of this tour is going to start showing, probably after or on the 22nd.
It’s ALL self-promo about Meg’s biography and her cooking and yoga hobbies. It’s the Tig Tour, complete with recipes! It’s the one royal tour that makes me grateful that there’s a huge time difference and I can sleep through most of it.
Yep, I’m seriously wondering what all their pr people are doing. Is it a vacation for them? KP usually has three paragraphs in their press releases detailing (i) the charity, (ii) what they do and how, (iii) a short comments from the charity leader and one of the participants talking about the effectiveness of the charity, and (iv) something linking the charity with the royals’ interests. That stuff then ends up on all the articles. Yes, it usually ends up at the bottom of the articles after all the clothing and cute pic/anecdote info, but it’s usually there. This time the charities barely get a mention.
I’ve given up trying to figure out what the Formula 1 kids were doing (some kind of after school program?). It looked interesting and I wanted to know more, but there was no info anywhere.
This is what they put out about the beach cleanup (I’m using People Mag because Simon Perry is the king of copy-paste)
No beach cleanup happened, and the anecdote with the participant was all about how awesome Harry was.
I wouldn’t say there’s no work involved. It’s different work from a regular 40-hour per week day job. All the normal “work” happens behind the scenes. Tour is regular pr work, and I’m sure there are a lot of publicists who could tell you that they do “work” even if it’s not work similar to your own.
Harry and Megs aren’t doing a good job of that work though. They’re supposed to be highlighting Australia and charities and the good work of other people. But they’re just making it all about them.
But I have to admit, I AM hoping Jess shows up to an engagement in her skin-tight spandex and trout lips. The brf is safe in Will’s hands and these two baby-sex-cake baking idiots are hella entertaining. It’s like a Keeping Up with the Kardashians spin-off.
I think they usually send out press releases to that effect. Harry and Meghan’s press releases are just different.
It appears to me that Meaghan is changing how the KP press officers that work for Harry and Meaghan perform their PR. PR for W&K is still typically work focused in a traditional royal manner. However, Meaghan and Harry’s PR seems to be taking a turn towards typical celebrity PR tricks.
Even Rhiannon Mills, Sky News’ royal correspondent, commented on Monday that the royals typically did not make such announcements before major events or tours in order to not detract from their work. In other words, the baby announcement on Monday was not normal for the BRF.
The press always focuses on the crappy stuff–the clothes, the “looks of love,” the pda etc… The royals used to be really good at using that to attract attention to their work and the charities. That’s why we have had all of that diplomatic dressing and country-specific jewelry. It’s also why Kate’s charity work is tied to her art degree or her family or her love for sports, Will’s is tied to Africa and motorcycles, and Harry’s was tied to Africa, his mom, and the military. They know the biographical stuff brings media interest (particularly the Di stuff).
The problem with Harry and Meghan is that they don’t tie the biographical stuff to anything. She visited a fracking girls’ schools, similar to the one she attended as a child, which would have been a great way to tie in the biography stuff to an actual worthy cause. But what they did do? They embargoed it and focused on banana bread.
it has been this way since that Myna Mahila essay where she forgot to link to the charity.
It’s not just you. This has been a complete snooze fest. Her fans seem to be really excited about mundane stuff like binders, banana bread, and umbrellas, but to me this is like watching my cousin’s Instagram vacation pics, except my cousin dresses better, does more interesting stuff, and takes better pictures.
I wonder if part of the problem is that we don’t have very good pics. Tim Rooke and Chris Jackson are opting for Meghan’s preferred black-and-white pics and the monochrome palette makes this more boring than usual.
Rooke posted some of his old Harry pic and the different between then and now is striking–uniforms, landmarks, bright colors, and animated expressions before and monochrome pics, anonymous locations, neutral clothes, and stiff social smiles now.
I’m very amused by the coverage though. The bar is set so low at this point that they praise her for closing the car door. Even I am sitting here typing “well, at least the dress was ironed and the hair was kind of combed.”
Protocol is one of the many subtle way they signal to the public that they are “different”. If harry (and meg) continue to rebuff the protocol they will contribute to the crumbling facade of the Royal Family and it’s eventual demise. 2/2
Exactly! At this point, how is Meghan any different from Priyanka? She has a title and taxpayer funding and that’s it.
And I think that’s why interest is flagging right now. What makes the royals interesting is precisely the fact that they have to follow all of these rules. It’s clear that Meghan is not subject to anything, so what’s the point.
I know! We haven’t seen mudslinging like this since the War of the Wales. People are comparing the brf to Scientology!
I see the Meg fans are working themselves into a froth over Kate’s (admittedly modest) patronage track record. They seem to think this is still a competition. That’s adorable.
Yes, there was a chance Meghan would be able to bury the nude pics, sex scenes, ditched boyfriends, etc… under a stellar charity record, but, thanks to her family and her own crap decisions this summer, that is no longer the case. For some bizarre reason she decided to counter her family’s attack with tons of couture fashion ops with the royal family instead of focusing on her charity work. Now she’s going on another huge fashion show down under.
Even if she went on a huge charity spree, she still wouldn’t be able to make up for the huge family drama, million-dollar wardrobe, and lack of UK brands. And, let’s face it, there is no huge charity spree coming up. She could have (and SHOULD HAVE) done that this month, but decided to hype up her tour fashion instead. The only events where she has looked happy have been the ones with royals or celebs. Her trademark look during charity visits is “wtf am I doing here.”
Meghan isn’t interested in the charity part. She built enough of a resume to bamboozle people into giving her this position and now she’s done with it. She’s interested in fashion and celebs and that will be her focus from now on. Yes, she’ll do enough work to meet the minimum requirements, but that’s it. This is what she has done in every single job she has had. That’s why the blog was so freaking half-assed.
She’ll probably step up the charity stuff in a year or so, when she starts getting antsy and looking for an exit.
I’m probably forgetting some. I’d say the stupidest (and most revealing, retrospect) was the one about hating the Apaches. They’d spent tons of money and pr on him and he destroyed it all in one second. They were honestly upset with him too, because the heli program was a concession to the fact that he insisted on going back to the front. It’s very telling, however, in restropect. I think he always felt that they were trying to make him into something he wasn’t.
I think the general public (as opposed to her rabid fans and equally rabid haters) had positive feelings toward Meghan because they felt that (i) Harry loved her, (ii) she had actually worked for a living, and (iii) people were genuinely excited to see a racial minority join the royal family. I think they were willing to overlook the social climbing and Diana worship rumors due to those two things.
So I think she really shot herself in the foot when she decided to start her royal career with a slew of events that highlighted her ambitious social climbing and Diana obsession (royal appearances and tours, couture fashion, family drama, and celebrity friends). It’s almost like she was going out of her way to prove the haters right.
I think the hardcore sugars are here to stay, and I expect they will get more and more rabid as Meghan flounders. That has been my experience so far.
I suspect the tour will be meh, but I doubt the media will report that she “needs major help.” Her problem isn’t that she can’t show up and shake hands. Her problem is that the planned tour stops mind-numbingly boring, the clothes are repetitive, monochrome and ill-fitting, and all she does is hold hands with Harry and pose. Yes, there’s always a chance that there will be a major disaster, but I doubt that as they will be surrounded by people whose main job is to keep that from happening. I think their main problem is boredom. Meghan is by far the most repetitive royal I have ever seen, and I used to bitch about Kate’s lace dresses nonstop.
When I think of what made Will and Kate’s first tour (to Canada) amazing, I remember how Kate picked Prince Edward Island based on the Anne of Green Gables books, and how professional she looked in her navy Smythe blazer (Canadian brand!) as they boarded the plane. The Cambridges positively embraced the official events, attending a citizenship ceremony, Canada Day, and the Calgary Stampede. Kate looked amazing in her recycled engagement dress and red maple leaf hat and she rocked the maple leaf brooch like nobody’s business. She wore Canadian Erdem freaking everywhere (tbh, they weren’t that bad back then), posed with Anne of Green Gables, and even dressed up like a Calgary cowboy.
Yes, they had cute couple moments at the helicopter training, the French cooking classes in Quebec, and the sea dragon race, but what I remember most about this tour was that it was a celebration of Canada, including its natural beauty, history, and diversity. LOL, and the “Marilyn moment,” of course.
Kate launched her tour with a bang, with sources telling the DM that she’s personally chosen Prince Edward’s Island because she loved the Anne books. I remember this causing quite a stir at the time and this is still one my favorite parts of their Canada tour.
It’s a stark contrast to the Harkle schedule release, which left people scratching their heads as to why they’d picked some of the stops and why they were skipping out on Invictus. I’ve been wondering why I have such a strong feeling that this tour will be a dud, and I think the underwhelming release of the schedule is part of it. This does not feel like a celebration of Australia, or event the Commonwealth. It feels like a celebration of Meghan and Harry.
It’s already dying down. I know it doesn’t feel that way because I post every little thing that comes up, but this is actually slowly winding down. Here’s how Meghan’s summer went
Interesting, no? The Irish tour barely made a blip. Her birthday was noteworthy because it was the first time she was seen after her Dad did his interview. Her best events other than that were the engagements with HM and Kate. The other big interest event was the hideous Oscar de la Renta gown. Weirdly enough, Hamilton barely gave her more press than the new dog and the Clooneys gave her no press at all!
I obviously follow this compulsively and post everything I see, but don’t let that mislead you. The outside interest in flagging.
It’s the kind of suit (minus the satin top) that you would wear when you want to come across as powerful and authoritative. I don’t think it was the right outfit for this event at all.
She’s making really strange outfit choices. The Hamilton dress was more “date night” than gala and this was more TED Talk than anything else.
Yep, it has always worked in the past and he’s probably very confused as to why it’s not working any more.
I don’t think he realizes that he had a huge backlog of sympathy thanks to his mom’s fantastic press instinct and that walk he did behind her coffin. Meghan doesn’t have that. Add to that the fact that a lot of people think that she is a cunning opportunist taking advantage of a not-so-smart prince and you have a recipe for disaster.
In many ways his own past works against him because the public knows him as someone who is impulsive, stupid, and has very bad judgement. That was a characterization that they reinforced over and over again to explain drugs, Vegas, and leaving the Army. Now Meghan shows up and, well, it’s only too likely that he messed up again.
But most of it, I think, is because the gap between expectation and reality was so huge. She presented this image of a perfect co-parenting family with a woke dad and caring mom and that crumbled. She told everyone she was a fashion authority and now she can’t dress herself. She published thoughtful and articulate essays and now she can’t be trusted to say anything. She claimed she was only interested in humanitarianism, but as soon as she married she skipped out on charity trips and went on epic shopping sprees.
They seem to think that as long as the guy doesn’t have access his stories aren’t marketable and I’m not sure they are right. Thomas has a garage full of pictures and tons of stories about Meghan’s childhood, career, and relationships that are legitimately newsworthy. Jessica Hay is still selling stories about Kate and she NEVER had access.
This will never end, no matter how much they ghost him.
I don’t see the upside for her at all. The reason she scheduled all of these royal events and splurged on all that couture is that she wanted to be hailed as the best royal who ever royaled.
She fully expected a magical roll-out in perfectly “modernized” royal outfits all crowed with a post-pregnancy Grand Slam celebration with her bff. Like that anon said, she was going to be the brf’s sexy Audrey Hepburn adding Hollywood glitz and glamour to the brf.
Instead, she got articles about how the royal family had killed her style, endless “broken protocol,” and “missed the color coordination memo” articles, an overshadowed Irish tour with panned political commentaries, a pat in the back from Kate when Serena lost, and her family crapping over everything. In two months she went from being Amal Clooney’s bff to double-dating with a Jonas brother.
I don’t see how much worse this could have gone for her, honestly. I know it feels like nothin is “sticking,” but it’s like with the Diana-worship stuff. It didn’t stick for a long and then BOOM it was everywhere.
Richard Palmer on the current situation, family drama, KP errors, Meghan’s ghosting, internet trolls from both sides. I’m still amazed that Royal Correspondents are speaking out the situation couldn’t be more clear nevertheless it seems the vicious circle is not stopping.
Wow, I’m shocked at this. Meghan’s sugars are threatening the reporter’s relatives, wtf???????
I’m also surprised that he had the guts to blame Harry and the KP statement for this treatment. I think he’s absolutely right, but I’m surprised to see a royal reporter calling it out so blatantly. It’s so ironic that Harry and Meghan, who complained so loudly about social media trolls and who, for the love of mercy, legit have a huge anti-bullying campaign in their name, ended up creating their own vicious troll army.
BTW, I think the royal reporters contributed here by interacting with and retweeting the trolls. Raise crows and they’ll peck your eyes out, as we say in Spanish.
I’m also surprised to see him compare the Markles to all the other royal-ish personalities who have made money on the connection. I don’t think he mentions Pippa and James, but they should be on that list too. True, they were more classy about it and their cashing-in attempts were mostly ineffective, but they still tried. They were all criticized for it, just as the Markles are being criticized.
I was wondering why Meghan and Harry’s engagements were so effing boring compared to all the other royal engagements. He explains that the royal reporters are not allowed to listen in. That’s why we don’t get cute quotes, interactions, or any substantive information and it all looks like a useless fashion show. Harry and Megs are really shooting themselves in the foot with this one.
That last one is huge, imo. Palmer seems to think that they may get something more substantive, particularly on the charity front, in the fall, but I very much doubt that. They will get another nothing-burger forum with some crap “Girls Together” umbrella being unveiled.
I think the royal reporters know the reality, but were overjoyed by the “hero Harry” pr drive and are happy that the royal family is getting more attention. This is, after all, their bread and butter.
I think they know it’s all an act, but they want the act to be successful because they profit from it. That’s why they were all so complimentary about Meghan’s supposed “ease” with the media coverage and the supposed professionalism that she was going to bring to KP. Unfortunately, right now the act is failing, the professionalism was her Hollywood pr agency and not her, and the whole thing is falling apart.
Oh, lots of organizations would work with her just for the press. The problem with Meghan is that the press is all about her. You kind of have to create your own press so you get some coverage. The only coverage Meghan will give you is when you say something nice about her. That’s how the famine memorial visit turned into an exhibit on how much Meghan knew about the Irish and the Mandela exhibition turned into a testimonial on what an amazing activist Meghan was. We didn’t even get a quote on what Meghan thought about the man who was honored.
The only organizations that did this right were Reprezent and Social Bite, who are actually media savvy social enterprises. The one who fared the worst was the poor STEMettes who ended up with a huge photo op on how Meghan is inspiring little girls to go to Hollywood and become actresses, which is kind of the opposite of what STEMettes does.
I think the clothing expense is really going to bite her in the ass.
I have no clue what they were thinking. I expected her to pick some charities and start doing black-slacks-and-messy-buns visits after the wedding. Instead, she scheduled a ton of royal events and maxed out Charles’ credit card on couture that wasn’t even freaking British. Her appearances were all celeb or aristo events. Her leaked stories were about all the houses the Queen was giving them. She skipped out on all of Harry’s charity and fundraising events (event the Sentebale Africa trip!). The only one she showed up for was the Sentebale polo fundraiser and that was just to have a kiss pic that would overshadow Tom’s interview.
I don’t understand their post-wedding strategy at all.
I doubt it’s a coordinated strategy, however. I feel like it’s more that her family knows her and they’ve been in this situations twice before. They know what she’s going to do.
Tom Sykes is on a roll defending Megha’s decision to ghost her dad now.
You know it’s about to ‘go down’ when you’re actually slowly whispering “oh my goood”. Daddy’s got an in with the UK press now. It’s official. The Sun is his UK TMZ.
No response wringed from RoyalMeg or KP out of his Saturday & Sunday exclusives in The Sun, so now the old fox is shooting warning shots with a sharp loaded shotgun! LOL, good heavens. He’s basically going, ‘oh you thought this was embarrassing? Pick up the damned phone or I’ll show you embarrassment.’ He’s really much better at this media game than his daughter.
I mean…, “If I chose in a month, or couple of months, to go to England — I want to see my daughter. I’m thinking about it. I don’t care whether she is p***** off at me or not.”
And, “I still want to meet the Queen. If she’ll meet Donald Trump, why not me? (!OMG!) I’d like to be treated by the royal family like Meghan’s father. I should be regarded with the respect of any other father of the bride.”
Well you go daddy-o! LOL. Dear oh dear…
Here’s to him actually doing it. Can you imagine the brouhaha he’ll cause with Fleet Street chomping at the bit? The poor (literally and figuratively poor!) father, pictured outside of KP gates, not being let in, pouring his heart out to his darling daughter through the press in an attempt to reach her. Fearing she’s being held hostage in there; smothered into silence under a mountain of £€$£€$£€$ bespoke swag. DANG! Do it Thomas Markle Sr. Doooo iiiiiiit!
Thanks for sending this in. It’s turning into quite the soap opera.
It would actually be a big chance for her. She could have a public reconciliation, introduce him to the Queen, and then leak that she’s now talking to him but being very careful about what she says because she knows he’s talking to the press. That would neutralize him.
But it sounds like she’s going to try ignoring him, which will just make him rant and rave. That’s going to look pretty funny when she decides she wants to do charity again and starts going on Heads Together events telling people that “we must all help” the mentally ill and families in crisis and there should be tons of support and no stigma.
They are going to get blamed anyway, by Tom Markle of all people. It’s hilarious because Richard Kay had insiders saying that the staff was desperately trying to get Meghan to make up with her family and she just refused to do so. Now they are getting blamed for it all.
I think the main difference is that a Hollywood celebrity can live in the publicist bubble forever, but royals have to interact with the real world. Meghan sold everyone this Hollywood humanitarian image and now that’s crumbling down.
Well, that’s what I don’t get about this sudden “toxic parenting” talk. Tom was supposedly a saint (amply documented in Meghan’s speeches, essays and social media) until early May 2018.
Yep, it’s interesting how they use the language of abuse, but her dad was apparently fantastic to her until the tabs started circling and he got no media guidance from KP.
So, basically now that Mio has stupidly set up a rationale that Megs needs to separate herself from her father, we can probably expect that Tom Sr. is going to come back with everything that he did for his daughter growing up and beyond. Attempted ghosting isn’t going to work this time. Shall we take bets on whether or not Tom Sr. is going to appear on Good Morning Britain? Whether or not Meg’s previous Instagram posts will appear?
Just sayin’…cause this girl gives Fleet Street a lot to work with…
They seem to have tabled that until the fall, which is a really bad decision, imo. Its hard to argue that she wanted to devote her life to charity when she basically spent her first year as a royal attending celeb events and spending money like crazy.
Sykes is going on and on about how the criticism is racist and classist, but I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. I think the Brits have a very clear view of how they want their royals to behave–they are supposed so be well-groomed representatives who follow the rules and focus on charity and making the UK look good. He talks about how the critics feel that Meghan isn’t “People Like US” but I think the criticism is mostly about Meghan not abiding by middle class rules about behavior, respect and thriftiness. If Meghan had, say, announced right after the wedding that she was picking Reprezent, Social Bite, and Stemettes as her charities (to pick her most high profile pre-wedding appearances), and had then scheduled a bunch of charity visits dressed in Marks and Spencer tops and Strathberry bags and shown up to Harry’s non-celeb polo tournaments in Zara dresses, we would be having a very different conversation right now.
House of Brat 