Harry & Meghan 8: Time's Most Insufferable

[LilaMae]

1 hour ago, tabitha2 said:

Welp. Meghan has taken to getting  private phone numbers via  Kirsten Gillibrand and cold calling female republican senators. While using her Royal title. It’s not only inappropriate but going down like a lead calling apparently. Susan Collins said she was happy to talk but cares more about what the citizens of Maine think and Shelley Moore Capito thought she taking a blocked number call from Joe Manchin. 

Just never learns how not to shoot herself in foot does she? 

I'd be pretty pissed off if my colleagues were giving out my private phone number to randoms.

There were rumours that Meghan was interested in entering politics, and this fits in with that theory. If she does go that way, I can't see how she can continue using the title "Duchess of Sussex". 

[Four is Enough]

Duchess of Sussex got no sway in the good ole U. S. of A.

 

[tabitha2]

But but … she was poor! She had to eat at SIZZLER for Gods sake! She alone understands the pain of the masses. 

[DalmatianCat]

1 hour ago, LilaMae said:

There were rumours that Meghan was interested in entering politics, and this fits in with that theory. If she does go that way, I can't see how she can continue using the title "Duchess of Sussex". 

Meghan needs to take a page from Angelina Jolie’s book and choose a cause, work it, support it, and stick with it for years…then people will be interested in her opinion. Right now the only thing Meghan has that makes her stand out from any other former C-list actress is her royal title. So far none of her causes have been original (or lasted past the newest bandwagon…if they have we haven’t heard about it).

3 hours ago, tabitha2 said:

Susan Collins said she was happy to talk but cares more about what the citizens of Maine think and Shelley Moore Capito thought she taking a blocked number call from Joe Manchin. 

The senator has a point…it’s not like Meghan votes for her…or presumably has influence over anyone who does.

[louisa05]

9 hours ago, tabitha2 said:

But but … she was poor! She had to eat at SIZZLER for Gods sake! She alone understands the pain of the masses. 

To be fair, that was only when they couldn’t get a table at Musso & Frank. 

[just_ordinary]

13 hours ago, LilaMae said:

I'd be pretty pissed off if my colleagues were giving out my private phone number to randoms.

There were rumours that Meghan was interested in entering politics, and this fits in with that theory. If she does go that way, I can't see how she can continue using the title "Duchess of Sussex". 

I really can’t see that. I mean, we all have seen the American elections in the past. The battleground is relentless. She is too easy of a target. H and the children would have to enter the stage. The competition would drag up every saucy scene from her acting career, every interview given by her family, every one of H missteps (hello drugs, LA and Nazi costume), point out that they wear titles from exactly the country that the American Independence is all about, use every conspiracy theory, every dirt real or made up. H would be a massive liability- especially as he hates the press and there are very longstanding theories that we never see the children because he doesn’t want to (that we won’t see much of his children has been indeed speculated ever since the birth of Prince George). There is no way for her to win any important position. And I highly doubt some local senate seat would be her aspiration. 
To me, it looks more as if she wants to establish herself as a political background power. A celebrity with lots of influence. Getting all the praise while others have to do the frontline work. 
I agree with @DalmatianCat if that’s what she wants she needs to focus on one field/issue and put in years of work- even when it’s unpopular. That’s how to build up a profile and gain respect. 

Jumping from issue to issue following the “trend” does not help exactly. I mean wouldn’t Spotify be perfect to give the topic paid parental leave a massive spotlight? There are thousands of people (with and without jobs outside of social media) the manage to come out with regular, relevant content. I really don’t get what their problem is. They have a good sized team, they only have to read out a script in a mic at home. They could easily only do introductions while having guest speakers on topics. That could mean 35min/week work for them.

Edited November 7, 2021 by just_ordinary

[WiseGirl]

20 hours ago, DalmatianCat said:

Meghan needs to ...choose a cause

No evidence of this yet. Only cause they've been working on is to line their pockets with money. His cause is selling out his family in future books for money.

From all their deals have they actually produced anything? Anything tangible?  Anything productive? Anything for anyone else but themselves?

[LilaMae]

2 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

No evidence of this yet. Only cause they've been working on is to line their pockets with money. His cause is selling out his family in future books for money.

From all their deals have they actually produced anything? Anything tangible?  Anything productive? Anything for anyone else but themselves?

A 30 minute Christmas podcast for Spotify. The Apple TV thing on mental health that Harry did. There's also a couple of things supposedly in the pipeworks for Netflix, the Pearl programme that Meghan is doing with David Furnish, plus the Invictus Games documentary from Harry. 

I suppose it depends on how long it usually takes to get things produced. They signed the Netflix deal over a year ago. 

[just_ordinary]

3 hours ago, LilaMae said:

A 30 minute Christmas podcast for Spotify. The Apple TV thing on mental health that Harry did. There's also a couple of things supposedly in the pipeworks for Netflix, the Pearl programme that Meghan is doing with David Furnish, plus the Invictus Games documentary from Harry. 

I suppose it depends on how long it usually takes to get things produced. They signed the Netflix deal over a year ago. 

But apart from Pearl (which might be cool) their videos have been with them front and centre. Apple TV was less mental health than free attention and PR for the people on the show. It was another way for H to tell HIS story. Invictus could be done with the perspective of the competitors, completely without H. There is no need to for him to be in front of the camera. Otherwise it’s about HIS great project. The Podcast was actually not the worst idea, but they should have either found a better balance between celebrities and “unheard/new” voices or push out more content to ride the wave it created.

Their turn out for their real jobs is really really bad.

[louisa05]

16 minutes ago, just_ordinary said:

But apart from Pearl (which might be cool) their videos have been with them front and centre. Apple TV was less mental health than free attention and PR for the people on the show. It was another way for H to tell HIS story. Invictus could be done with the perspective of the competitors, completely without H. There is no need to for him to be in front of the camera. Otherwise it’s about HIS great project. The Podcast was actually not the worst idea, but they should have either found a better balance between celebrities and “unheard/new” voices or push out more content to ride the wave it created.

Their turn out for their real jobs is really really bad.

 I cannot imagine that one 35 minute episode fulfilled their Spotify contract or that Spotify anticipated that they would only produce one episode in ELEVEN MONTHS. 

Everyone else would get sued for that. 

[just_ordinary]

Just now, louisa05 said:

 I cannot imagine that one 35 minute episode fulfilled their Spotify contract or that Spotify anticipated that they would only produce one episode in ELEVEN MONTHS. 

Everyone else would get sued for that. 

Absolutely! I think they are coming out with new stuff around Christmas again. But if it isn’t finally a cohesive strategy with regular content, I would definitely sue them if I were Spotify for breach of contract or similar.

[Coconut Flan]

Quite possibly no contract options will be exercised.  That's the usual path with these ventures.  No payments are made until content is produced so the production company doesn't incur huge losses.  The only bills paid are for actual costs incurred.

[LilaMae]

42 minutes ago, louisa05 said:

 I cannot imagine that one 35 minute episode fulfilled their Spotify contract or that Spotify anticipated that they would only produce one episode in ELEVEN MONTHS. 

Everyone else would get sued for that. 

Apparently Spotify are expecting at least a 6 episode show by the end of the year, which doesn't give them much time.

[louisa05]

3 hours ago, LilaMae said:

Apparently Spotify are expecting at least a 6 episode show by the end of the year, which doesn't give them much time.

They better get on that. But I feel like they have less attention span than the average gnat and have long since moved on from podcasting. 

[PoppyPeace]

On 11/7/2021 at 6:00 PM, louisa05 said:

They better get on that. But I feel like they have less attention span than the average gnat and have long since moved on from podcasting. 

Do they have any podcasts they have recorded that I can listen to? 😬

[louisa05]

31 minutes ago, PoppyPeace said:

Do they have any podcasts they have recorded that I can listen to? 😬

They did one episode 11 months ago to launch their podcast. Nothing since. Media reported a $100 million contract for it. 

[PoppyPeace]

8 minutes ago, louisa05 said:

They did one episode 11 months ago to launch their podcast. Nothing since. Media reported a $100 million contract for it. 

😳 Ewwwww

I am sorry, I don’t know what to say to that! 

[FrumperedCat]

2 hours ago, louisa05 said:

They did one episode 11 months ago to launch their podcast. Nothing since. Media reported a $100 million contract for it. 

#WorldsMostExpensivePodcast

[just_ordinary]

5 hours ago, louisa05 said:

They did one episode 11 months ago to launch their podcast. Nothing since. Media reported a $100 million contract for it. 

They didn’t get $100 million for this single podcast though. They signed a contract that could accumulate to a $100 million to deliver content over time. It’s unclear how much the contract is actually worth- there has been no official definite statement, it’s all estimated. And it’s unclear what time frame was negotiated, how much content they would have to deliver to get the whole amount, or if it has to reach a certain audience size consistently……

I would guess they got a hefty signing bonus and something for the first episode. I highly doubt Spotify gave them the whole money without anything in return. Same for Netflix. Their contexts might be worth a lot by I don think they have been able to really cash in already. And there will be production costs. And they have to pay their employees somehow……

[louisa05]

5 hours ago, just_ordinary said:

They didn’t get $100 million for this single podcast though. They signed a contract that could accumulate to a $100 million to deliver content over time. It’s unclear how much the contract is actually worth- there has been no official definite statement, it’s all estimated. And it’s unclear what time frame was negotiated, how much content they would have to deliver to get the whole amount, or if it has to reach a certain audience size consistently……

I would guess they got a hefty signing bonus and something for the first episode. I highly doubt Spotify gave them the whole money without anything in return. Same for Netflix. Their contexts might be worth a lot by I don think they have been able to really cash in already. And there will be production costs. And they have to pay their employees somehow……

I never meant they did get the full amount. The post was worded badly. But there’s no way that Spotify made a contract that allowed them to produce only one episode in 11 months. Their most popular podcasts are producing content between 1-4 times a month. If the single episode was intended as a sort of preview of what was to come later, Spotify would have marketed it as such, but I doubt Spotify  would have ran a preview and been planning no additional episodes for a year. It is simply highly unlikely that one episode in 11 months meets the terms of that contract. Especially given how much Spotify hyped both the deal and the episode. 
I think on this one, we may have to consider admitting that H&M dropped the ball. 

[tabitha2]

Did they ever even have the ball?

[viii]

If they ever had a ball, it was a juggling ball. I think they threw podcast out there without any real thought on it because podcasts are the trendy thing to do right now and they were hoping for something to stick since majority of all their other plans fell through. 

[Xanariel]

I agree that Spotify and Netflix probably didn't pay them the numbers the press reported up front. Their singular podcast episode did pretty good numbers as I recall, so Spotify was probably happy with that. Pearl has some decent figures involved, so will probably be successful once it's got off the ground. 

There's been a lot of talk that the Sussexes were aiming to model their approach after the Obamas who signed similar deals - I don't know what the Obamas' output was in the same timeframe? 

As for the recent news, I don't think Meghan intends to become a politician. She is obviously pretty protective of her family's privacy and I can't see her wanting to give the Republicans carte blanche to dig through their history. 

I assume she's again maybe looking to model herself after the Obamas - a force who isn't necessarily holding a political position herself, but whose voice has a lot of sway and who helps bring together groups to get vital legislation passed when she thinks it's necessary. 

[viii]

13 minutes ago, Xanariel said:

As for the recent news, I don't think Meghan intends to become a politician. She is obviously pretty protective of her family's privacy and I can't see her wanting to give the Republicans carte blanche to dig through their history. 

I assume she's again maybe looking to model herself after the Obamas - a force who isn't necessarily holding a political position herself, but whose voice has a lot of sway and who helps bring together groups to get vital legislation passed when she thinks it's necessary. 

Agreed - I don't think she's aiming for politics at all. There's far too much to dig up there. 

[EmCatlyn]

5 hours ago, viii said:

Agreed - I don't think she's aiming for politics at all. There's far too much to dig up there. 

She may have vague ideas about an ambassadorial position someday with the right president.  But not immediately, for sure.  Running for office doesn’t seem to be her style.

I agree that she is more interested in the attention and status of being a “political influencer” without the responsibility.

Basically, they want a quasi-royal life but in America and with the freedom to express their (her) political opinions.

I think her getting senators’ private phone numbers and so forth is totally out of line.  As for the title, as a US citizen she should stop using it.