The Hollywood Reporter’s September 12 report on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry has led to what some analysts are calling a “sharp waning influence” in “the shred of popularity they had left.”
The in-process freeze-out is so cold that the Duchess of Sussex’s agent, Tinseltown heavyweight, and head of Meghan’s agency WME, Ari Emanuel, did not even “use his clout” to kill the “hit piece” in one of, if not the most popular publications in Los Angeles.
This led a “senior Hollywood publicist” to dish, “Everyone, industry-wide, reads The Hollywood Reporter. It’s really striking that WME did not stop this running. WME normally — you would think — would have been threatening and denying access to other stars. Was this done here?”
A senior TV figure, of which Meghan is a veteran, spilled, “It was only a matter of time before the industry Press started taking shots. It’s hard to find anyone with a good word to say for their film and television credibility.”
After Emanuel threw a lavish post-Emmy Awards party for Tinseltown elite at the Waldorf Astoria the evening of Sunday, September 15, the Duke and Duchess were nowhere to be found among the invited guests.
About the Duchess specifically, a former Sussex employee dished, “Everyone’s terrified of Meghan. She belittles people, she doesn’t take advice. They’re both poor decision-makers, they change their minds frequently. Harry is a very, very charming person — no airs at all — but he’s very much an enabler. And she’s just terrible.”
But perhaps the “worst takedown yet” in Hollywood for the “royal rebel duds” came in the exclusive Hollywood insider website, Puck, which recently ran a story on the “worst deals” of the peak, streaming TV era.
The site stated, “The streamer is not expected to renew its five-year, $100 million deal signed in 2020… Meghan’s passion project, the animated kids show Pearl, had already been canceled.”
This led a Tinseltown producer to share, “I don’t think mainstream Hollywood ever took them seriously. From day one Archewell felt to most industry onlookers more like a brand building exercise than a genuine production operation. Netflix were handing out vanity deals like candy at the time and so everybody just shrugged their shoulders and assumed their company wouldn’t get much done despite the generous backing.”
They continued, “But even Harry and Meghan naysayers would have been shocked at how little they’ve actually achieved. And in the more austere climate of the industry in 2024 when thousands of people have lost jobs and the entertainment industry economy is struggling, there’s now a genuine dislike and distrust towards them by some.”
The Duke and Duchess’ Netflix contract expires one year from now. Meghan’s team has pushed back against The Hollywood Reporter story, describing much of it as “fabrications.”
