AMANDA PLATELL: With Harry all but written out of her new show, is the now stultifyingly dull Prince Harry surplus to requirements for his ambitious wife Meghan?
She magnanimously delayed the launch of her highly anticipated Netflix series With Love, Meghan, because of the devastating fires in Los Angeles.
But it turns out that what we expected to be Meghan’s cooking show actually has no cooking apart from chopping the occasional lettuce, no recipes and, more bewilderingly, no Harry.
Yes. Despite the fact that few would have heard about the TV actress Meghan Markle had she not married a prince, Harry makes only a token appearance.
According to those who have seen previews, Megs is joined by her make-up artist and a few friends we’ve never heard of.
It’s not a cookery show but a lifestyle series where Meghan ‘shares personal tips and tricks, embracing playfulness over perfection’ as the hostess and is gushed over by her besties.
Prince Harry only makes a token appearance in wife Meghan Markle’s highly anticipated Netflix series With Love, Meghan
The Duchess of Sussex magnanimously delayed the launch of her Netflix series because of the devastating fires in Los Angeles
Oh, and she’s a hostess not in her and Harry’s Montecito mansion but a photogenic rented property nearby nestled in acres of lemon groves and avocado trees. But wherever filming takes place, shouldn’t Harry be there? Normal couples share the load in the kitchen. It’s not all left to the little lady any more.
So why is Meghan sidelining her husband in what insiders say is their last chance to fulfil their $100million Netflix deal – now hanging by a thread?
Why is the former Apache helicopter pilot distinguished by two tours in Afghanistan only appearing as a brief add-on? With Harry all but written out of her show, is the now stultifyingly dull prince surplus to requirements for his ambitious wife Meghan?
Harsh questions, I know. But I raise them only because Harry’s absence seems to be the most noticeable feature of the entire series.
Charles and Camilla will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in Italy where they’ll meet the Pope – a reminder of how far Charles’s married mistress has come and how curious it is for the pontiff to welcome them given the Catholic Church’s disapproval of divorce.
Front on, Angelina Jolie looks sublimely beautiful in a simple silver satin sheath dress at the Santa Barbara film festival promoting her movie Callas. She is wearing no jewellery and minimal make-up.
Yet the rear view holds a another story. Her backless dress reveals she’s covered in Buddhist tattoos supposedly to achieve happiness and ward off evil spirits. So how exactly did that turn out for you, Ange?
Didn’t you and Brad Pitt have matching tattoos done at the same time – just three months before you separated?
Front on, Angelina Jolie looks sublimely beautiful in a simple silver satin sheath dress at the Santa Barbara film festival promoting her movie Callas
But her backless dress reveals she’s covered in Buddhist tattoos supposedly to achieve happiness and ward off evil spirits
Westminster wars
The Archbishop of Westminster reveals MPs have spent more than a hundred times longer debating the ban on fox hunting than the Assisted Dying Bill. Strange priorities where they are more agitated about the death of an animal than a human being.
Starmer’s insistence that he didn’t break Covid lockdown rules meeting his voice coach beggars belief. Surely you were required to wear a mask when meeting people outside your bubble? I know, having had voice coaching (little good it did me), that it requires heavy breathing and expulsion of breath – and it can’t possibly be done with a mask on.
One hundred days on from the Chancellor’s Budget and the Bank of England warns of stagflation, slashing our economic growth forecast by half – all as a result of Rachel Reeves’ disastrous tax hikes. My forecast is she’ll be out within one hundred days.
A sitcom to love
How can it be that among the endless offerings on TV of serial killers and detective shows, up pops the life-enhancing BBC series Amandaland?
It’s about divorced, social-climbing mum Amanda (Lucy Punch) who’s forced to relocate to the less-than-salubrious area of South Harlesden in London. She insists on calling it SoHa.
Her mum is played by Joanna Lumley. Beneath the comedy it’s a beautiful, tender story about a mother and daughter’s love – which is exactly what we all need.
Hilarious that the woke Oscars, desperate to give their first best actress award to a trans woman, Karla Sofia Gascon, are left red-faced after her racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic tweets are revealed.
She described George Floyd as ‘a drug addict’, said Islam was ‘a hotbed of infection for humanity’ and Hitler ‘simply had his opinion of the Jews’. Gascon says she won’t withdraw from the Oscars. Clearly a big character – will they find a dress her size?
Trans woman Karla Sofia Gascon described George Floyd as ‘a drug addict’, said Islam was ‘a hotbed of infection for humanity’ and Hitler ‘simply had his opinion of the Jews’
Sky News’ iconic £600,000 presenter Kay Burley, 64, who was there at the launch of the channel in 1989, is stepping down to spend more time with… her holidays, she says. Kay was one of the original ball-breaking female presenters who smashed the glass ceiling for others to follow.
Feisty, fearless and – as she said in her farewell speech – with ‘over a million minutes of live TV news, more than anyone else in the world’ behind her. Modest to the end – you gotta love her!
Is this a Swift end to friendship?
The actress Blake Lively is ‘horrified’ her friend Taylor Swift has been dragged into the lawsuit in which she accuses Justin Baldoni – her co-star and director in the film It Ends With Us – of sexual harassment.
Taylor reportedly ‘feels used’ by Blake and is furious that she’s ‘leveraging her name’ in threatening text messages to Justin.
It’s all very distressing for squeaky clean Taylor, who will surely soon be Shaking Off Blake as her bestie.
The actress Blake Lively is ‘horrified’ her friend Taylor Swift has been dragged into the lawsuit in which she accuses Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment
The jury is out on the Princess of Wales’s declaration that she wants to be known for her causes – not her clothes.
This week she wore a brown ensemble as she took children in a minibus to the National Portrait Gallery to ‘use different emotional skills’. Sorry Kate, well-intentioned as you are, kids do not expect a princess to look like their hard-worn Mum.
Anne’s our plucky Princess
Was it right to keep the seriousness of Princess Anne’s concussion a secret after her accident with a horse? I suspect no-nonsense Anne, 74, was the one who wanted it kept private. She said she was ‘grateful in a weird way’ to remember nothing ‘because you can just carry on’. And long may she do so.
The University of the West of England has issued trigger alerts to students about content in Shakespeare. Romeo And Juliet, for example, has warnings about ‘death, suicide, violence and knives’. Given the explosion of knife crime, all these tender young kids should read the play – to learn it always ends in tragedy.
