Throughout Prince Harry’s Spare, there’s a palpable love from Harry to his father. While Harry at times describes Charles in unflattering ways, throughout the book, you can absolutely feel how much Harry cares for his garbage, dogsh-t father. Months after Spare’s publication, palace “sources” even admitted as much, basically saying that King Charles felt like he dodged a bullet and that Spare could have been a lot worse for Charles. Of course, the official position from Buckingham Palace is that Harry is persona non grata, that Charles is deeply hurt that Harry exposed Camilla’s machinations, that the entire family feels “betrayed” by Harry (after they betrayed him). Well, now one of the king’s closest friends has gone on the record about Harry’s “cruelty.” Yes, HARRY was the cruel one, according to these people.

The man said by some to be the king’s best friend has given an astonishing interview, excoriating Prince Harry for “hurtful” behavior of “the cruelest” kind toward his father. The extraordinary interview with Sir Nicholas Soames was released by Times Radio at 5 p.m. local time on Wednesday, just as the country was entering the final furlongs of coronation preparations and with Harry due to arrive in the country any hour for the coronation on Saturday.

The explosive allegations matter because Soames, while not explicitly named as a surrogate for the king, had likely been authorized to speak by the king’s office, and appeared to have a talking point that Harry’s behavior, in publishing a memoir and giving interviews that have attacked the family, had deeply wounded and upset the king.

While the royals have tried hard to starve Harry of the oxygen of publicity so far, Soames’ pre-emptive strike on his character represents a rare moment of naked PR realpolitik from the palace. The days of pretending Harry isn’t happening to this coronation will come to a shuddering halt the moment Harry, who is expected to step off a plane from L.A. sometime Friday and make a beeline for his soon-to-be-vacated home Frogmore Cottage, is spotted on British soil.

Soames’ comments matter. A grandson of Winston Churchill, he is a sufficiently close friend of Charles, who he has known since he was 12, that he asked Charles to be his best man at his wedding and served as equerry to him. He described himself as “entirely partial” in the interview, saying, “I love him and admire him very, very much indeed.”

Soames told Times Radio, in the course of a 30-minute interview praising the king, “In respect of Prince Harry, I just think it’s the most tragic. I mean, I can’t put myself in the position where my own son, if he did something like that to me, it would just be the cruelest… and one would mind.”

He added, “Of course, the king was very, very sad,” and said the situation was “tragic,” adding, “But, we all have families. We’ve all lived through it. But it was a terrible blow.”

Soames loyally supported the king’s decision to invite him, however, saying, “I think it would have been a great pity if Prince Harry hadn’t come to his father’s coronation. And he is coming and I just hope that we can keep all this in proportion. This day is about the king and the queen, not about Prince Harry.”

Soames was asked later in the interview how Queen Camilla felt about Harry but dodged the question saying he hadn’t discussed it with her, returning instead to how Harry’s public attacks on the family had affected Charles, saying, “Of course it was hurtful, you could see it, written all over his face. Put oneself in his position. It was just painful beyond words.”

[From The Daily Beast]

“While the royals have tried hard to starve Harry of the oxygen of publicity so far” – the palace has been openly briefing their press allies about all things Sussex for months. The palace happily put the Sussexes front-and-center during all of the coronation hoopla because it was a distraction from how grim, drab and uncharismatic the rest of the Windsors are. There’s an acknowledgement, somewhere, that Harry and Meghan are the stars. “The days of pretending Harry isn’t happening to this coronation will come to a shuddering halt”– again, the palace has made everything about Harry. They even authorized King Charles’s BFF to speak ON CAMERA about Harry just before the coronation.

Photos courtesy of Instar, Avalon Red.

Love, love, love all of the thinkpieces about the British monarchy ahead of the coronation. I acknowledge that some of the predictions of gloom and doom are palace-approved – they want to set the bar very low (in hell) so that King Charles at least meets expectations. But mostly, it feels like every editor gave carte blanche to their reporters to write anti-monarchy screeds and the result is column after column, report after report of why this coronation sucks and King Charles is showing everyone why he’s a crappy king. The Daily Beast published one such screed from royal historian Clive Irving, and it’s all about how King Charles is dreadfully out of touch.

King Charles III’s coronation shows a man who has lost the plot: Piece by piece as they are disclosed, the details of Saturday’s crowning in Westminster Abbey show a monarch seriously out of touch with his subjects. Whether this reflects his own insularity or the work of courtiers trying to pump up the pomp and circumstance as part of a re-branding based on a kind of zealous flag-wrapped nationalism is unclear. It may well be a combination of both, in which Charles is being willingly manipulated into a more assertive role as head of state than his mother thought right.

The oath of allegiance: Nothing more clearly warned of this that his agreeing to the idea of making a brazen break from the protocols of Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. In place of the tradition of requiring only aristocrats to pay homage to the throne, at the same point in the cathedral ritual all of his subjects will be invited to take a personal vow of allegiance to him, “in heart and voice to their undoubted king”—a move with more than a whiff of the “dear leader” in North Korea.

Republican rhetoric or the actual national mood? Comments from republicans reflect that people are only now discovering that the king’s personal wealth has soared to almost obscene levels while their own, at best, has barely moved in 15 years. The coronation occurs at a time of rising destitution – former Prime Minister Gordon Brown listed 7.5 million households in fuel poverty, 14 million living in damp or substandard housing, 400,000 children without a bed of their own, and nearly 10 million people cutting back on food for want of the ability to pay for it.

People are mad about the coronation quiche: It is against that background that Charles and Camilla chose quiche for the traditional coronation dish to be served at street parties—Elizabeth II’s was coronation chicken. They offered a recipe for it: “a crisp, light pastry case and delicate flavors of spinach, broad beans and fresh tarragon.” It is in such banal details that the condescension of the king and queen consort is revealed and becomes most offensive—in effect, this is the “let them eat quiche” coronation.

Viceroy Charles: Today, King Charles seems to struggle most with the loss of that public deference to the throne. He’s always believed in the simple superiority of royal rank, no matter that in his case it is automatically bestowed, not earned. As soon as he puts on a uniform, with a carapace of medals and heavy with trimmings of gold braid, he seems reinforced in his own sense of stature, if not exactly a commander-in-chief, an imperial viceroy with a striking resemblance to his uncle and mentor Lord Louis Mountbatten.

The vanities of the king: Of course, the king’s merits have yet to be fully tested. The missteps of the coronation could be just a bump in the learning curve. But calling for blind allegiance not simply to him but to the Windsor “heirs and successors” is a cringe-making demand that reaches back to the vanities of George III.

[From The Daily Beast]

Not a reference to Mad King George! Oh well! I’ll admit, I didn’t think the coronation quiche was that big of a deal. It made Charles look sort of elitist, but he’s a king, isn’t elitism part and parcel? The more pressing concern is absolutely how much personal wealth Charles has inherited and how little transparency there is around any part of the financial aspect of the monarchy. I also think it’s telling that Charles and his advisors really bungled the whole national-oath-of-allegiance thing. You knew it was bad when even the die-hard royalists were criticizing it and saying that they would never make that pledge.

Oh, and South Africans want the Star of Africa back.

Some South Africans are calling for Britain to return the world’s largest diamond, known as the Star of Africa, which is set in the royal sceptre that King Charles III will hold at his coronation on Saturday https://t.co/1qH9cJ6SUx pic.twitter.com/ceYDn5uFSy

— Reuters (@Reuters) May 4, 2023

Photos courtesy of Instar, Avalon Red.

In case you’re curious about this site’s plans for tomorrow morning’s coronation, just know that the Chubbly starts at 5 am EST. So… no, we won’t cover it live, but we’ll have a Chubbly Open Post going up in the morning, followed by some coverage later on Saturday and probably into Sunday. Considering the weather is supposed to be pretty awful in London tomorrow, I imagine the arrival photos at Westminster Abbey will be pretty grim. Speaking of grim, the Mail is obsessively detailing Prince Harry’s travels into the UK and the private plane they believe he used. This level of detail could have been better spent on Rose Hanbury or the king’s hidden fortune.

Prince Harry may have already landed in the UK for his 24-hour visit for King Charles III’s Coronation – leaving his wife and two children at home. This morning a private jet from Van Nuys airport in California landed at Farnborough, the airport closest to Windsor Castle. Van Nuys is just an hour from Harry and Meghan’s Montecito mansion, but it is not yet known if he was on board.

It the duke has used a fuel-guzzling private jet instead of a commercial flight, it will raise yet more questions about Harry’s campaigning on climate change, an issue which he said at the UN last year had left him feeling ‘battered and helpless’.

Tonight Harry is expected to spend a final night at Frogmore Cottage after his father decided to evict him and his American wife just days after the release of his memoir Spare.

The Duke of Sussex will see his father King Charles III crowned at Westminster Abbey. But there is speculation he will have no formal role in the service and may even be sat several rows back from his brother William and other working royals.

Royal commentators have considered whether he will even be allowed to fit within the processions to the Abbey. They have also suggested that he could face ‘uniform humiliation’ as he may not be allowed to wear his military garb. It is understood the duke will only be in the UK for around 24 hours so he can get home for his son Archie’s fourth birthday, which is the same day as the Coronation.

The aircraft that landed at Farnborough is a 2019 Gulfstream G550 fixed-wing two-engine business jet with 20 seats on board. A new Gulfstream G550 costs $62million, while preowned models retail from $14million. It is owned by NantWorks, a California-based parent company of firms in the biotech, healthcare AI and mobility industries. The founder of NantWorks is Patrick Soon-Shiong, a surgeon and pharma billionaire who owns shares in the LA Lakers with his wife. He is believed to be close to the Bidens. NantWorks has worked with Global Citizen, with Harry and Meghan attending one of their Vax Live events to promote Covid-19 vaccine efficacy worldwide. Dr Soon-Shiong has also supported Global Citizen, opening a plant and health facility that aims to produce by 2025.

[From The Daily Mail]

The Mail’s editors are not alright. They can’t even decide what they’re mad about. Harry is using a private jet! Harry won’t be allowed to wear his uniform! Harry is only staying for 24 hours even though we’ve made it perfectly clear that we want him to stay longer so we can treat him like sh-t! Harry has rich friends! Harry is being evicted! Jesus H. I hope Harry is surrounded by good energy and he makes it through this 24-hour mess.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

There has been a lot of hilarious focus on just how many aristocrats were snubbed for coronation invitations, but did you also know that King Charles snubbed his extended family? It’s true. Not just Pamela Hicks and India Hicks (the daughter and granddaughter of Charles’s mentor Lord Mountbatten), but it looks like the second-cousins and third-cousins haven’t been invited either. It looks like these names were left off the invite list: Lord Nicholas Windsor, son of the Duke of Kent, Lady Amelia Windsor, granddaughter of the Duke of Kent, and Kenouska Mowatt, Princess Alexandra’s granddaughter. I bet Prince Michael of Kent’s children, Lady Gabriella Kingston and Lord Frederick Windsor, are also not invited.

They have been welcome guests at every major royal occasion throughout their lives, but a generation of Windsors have been surprised to discover that they are not invited to King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Coronation. I can disclose that the grandchildren of Queen Elizabeth’s cousins – including Lady Amelia Windsor, who was named as the ‘most beautiful member of the Royal Family’ by Tatler magazine, and the King’s godson Lord Nicholas Windsor – will not be at Westminster Abbey on Saturday.

And friends claim some of them are ‘furious’ at the snub. ‘They can’t understand why they haven’t been invited when they were invited to every other state occasion,’ one pal tells me.

In a reference to Prince Harry’s attacks on the Royal Family, the friend adds: ‘They have never put a foot wrong and been the souls of discretion yet have been cast out. It’s not right.’

Zenouska Mowatt, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth’s cousin Princess Alexandra, confirms that she is one of those not invited. ‘I’m not going to the Coronation, but I’m really looking forward to watching it [on television],’ she tells me. She was on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on the last occasion that Meghan Markle was, at Trooping the Colour in 2019. Zenouska, 32, was so close to the Queen that Her Majesty made a point of being photographed with her at Windsor Castle in March last year when she was in failing health, six months before her death.

The Queen was pictured inspecting a collection of china made by the luxury goods business Halcyon Days, for which Zenouska works. ‘It was a really lovely event,’ she tells me at a Coronation celebration at the Garrison Chapel in Chelsea, West London. ‘Everyone had very fond memories [of the Queen]. She was a very kind individual. Any time anyone spoke to her, she would make them feel like one in a million.’

She says her mother, Marina Mowatt, 56, who became known as the ‘royal rebel’ in the Eighties when she became pregnant outside marriage, is invited tomorrow, as well as her grandmother. Zenouska insists that she holds no grudges about not being invited herself. ‘It’s going to be fantastic and everyone is so excited,’ she says.

Some of the royals not invited are attending their own party. ‘I’ll be with family anyway,’ she says. ‘My street is doing a street party.’

She will be in good company. Last month, I disclosed that most of Britain’s 24 non-royal dukes had not been invited to the Coronation, as well as lower ranks of the nobility. The Duke of Rutland was one of the many left dismayed and bewildered. ‘I have not been asked,’ he told me, saying he did ‘not really understand’ why. ‘It has been families like mine that have supported the Royal Family over 1,000 years or thereabouts.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I feel like this will become more of a slow-burning issue once we see all of the people who were invited and where they’ll be seated. Like, those dukes, earls, viscounts, lords and royal-adjacent second cousins are going to be massively pissed when they see the extended Middleton and Parker-Bowles clans featured prominently. I bet there will also be some salty tears shed when they see how King Charles has prioritized diversity window-dressing – God knows, Charles despises his mixed-race relatives (including two of his grandchildren), but he’s going to make an effort to put a few Black people in the second row, I’m sure.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Carrie Fisher, whose death I still have not recovered from, received a posthumous star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood yesterday. How that honor eluded her in life, I’ll never know. But appropriately, on May the 4th, General Leia joined Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and her mom Debbie Reynolds on the famous path. None of Carrie’s siblings attended the ceremony. The reason I know that is because Joely, Tricia Leigh and Todd Fisher all complained about it ahead of the event, pointing the finger at Carrie’s daughter, Billie Lourd, for not inviting them. Joely and Tricia Leigh issued a joint statement on Instagram, calling Billie’s decision “misguided” and claimed they’ve only been loving and supportive to mean ol’ Billie. Todd went straight to TMZ and said, “It’s heartbreaking and shocking to me that I was intentionally omitted from attending this important legacy event for my sister, Carrie.” So after having her uncle and aunts completely pulled focus from what was supposed to be her mom’s honor, Billie spoke up. She issued an official statement saying her uncle and aunts all capitalized off her mother and grandmother’s deaths while she was grieving, with no warning to her. And now, she said, there is no feud, there simply is no relationship. Here is Billie’s full statement:

I have seen the postings and press release issued by my mother’s brother and sister. I apologize to anyone reading this for feeling the need to defend myself publicly from these family members. But unfortunately, because they publicly attacked me, I have to publicly respond. The truth is I did not invite them to this ceremony. They know why.

Days after my mom died, her brother and her sister chose to process their grief publicly and capitalize on my mother’s death, by doing multiple interviews and selling individual books for a lot of money, with my mom and my grandmother’s deaths as the subject. I found out they had done this through the press. They never consulted me or considered how this would affect our relationship. The truth of my mom’s very complicated relationship with her family is only known by me and those who were actually close to her. Though I recognize they have every right to do whatever they choose, their actions were very hurtful to me at the most difficult time in my life. I chose to and still choose to deal with her loss in a much different way.

The press release Todd Fisher gave to TMZ and the posting Joely Fisher placed on Instagram, once again confirms that my instincts were right. To be clear — there is no feud. We have no relationship. This was a conscious decision on my part to break a cycle with a way of life I want no part of for myself or my children.

The people who knew and loved my mom at Disney and Lucasfilm have made this star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to honor her legacy possible. This moment is about Carrie Fisher and all that she accomplished and what she meant to the world. I’m going to focus on that. May the 4th be with you.

[From Yahoo]

Billie is pretty clear in her statement, there’s not much to add. Obviously, the Fisher siblings are trying to whitewash their complicated relationship with Carrie now that she can’t correct them. I didn’t read any of their books, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn Todd absolutely exploited her death for his own benefit. I don’t know much about Tricia Leigh, but Joely I always thought was pretty solid with Carrie. However, they all clearly broke Billie’s heart when she was trying to process the loss of Carrie and then Debbie. To shame her for this publicly is all the evidence I need to tell me Billie made the right choice.

You’d think Billie’s statement would be the end of it but Todd just can’t help himself. He issued a rebuttal because an opportunist is gonna opportune:

We made every attempt to speak with Billie’s team regarding the invitation prior to making any public comments. Keeping the focus on Carrie Fisher, let’s put our differences aside for the hour long ceremony and move on from there. I was told It was a no go and why would I want to heighten level of emotion for his niece, going further to say if I showed up, she would not.”

I never capitalized on either Carrie or my mother Debbie’s deaths, and in no way meant to hurt Billie, and that is the truth. Billie’s father was well aware months in advance of my book, which, was a loving and truthful homage to the incredible lives, not deaths, of Carrie and mom and the 60 plus years I spent with them both.

[From Yahoo]

Isn’t it Billie’s call to say whether Todd hurt her or not? Because clearly, he did. And passing the buck to Billie’s dad does not absolve anyone of blame, here. Lord, I had no idea how much Billie went through on top of the pain of losing the two most important women in her life. Of course I didn’t, because she was classy enough to keep her dirty laundry out of the press, unlike the Fisher kids who obviously grieved in dollar signs.

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Photo credit: Cover Images, Getty Images and via Instagram

Here are more photos from the Prince and Princess of Wales’s tube-ride and visit to a Soho pub on Thursday. Several things occurred to me as I was looking through these photos again. One, whenever Kate repeats one of her old coats, I’m reminded of the fact that she used to be much more enamored with buttons. She’s honestly been phasing out a lot of her button-intensive fashion, but every now and then, we get a button throwback. I wonder if post-coronation, we will see a glorious return to BUTTONS. Secondly, Kate’s wig isn’t even the same color as the rest of her hair, which makes me wonder if she got a new hairpiece for the coronation. A Coronation Wig.

Many people are excited to see what Kate wears for the coronation. I’m still confused about the dress code, and I’m sure I’m not alone. For the regular people in attendance, the dress code is basically business-dressy and I expect the women to dress like they would for a royal wedding? But I think the dress code is genuinely different for royal women. No one can “overshadow” Queen Side Chick, and there’s so much talk about Kate not wearing a tiara. But will she wear a gown or will she wear a coatdress or what? Well, People Magazine has an exclusive but these people don’t have any new info:

Kate Middleton might not have an official role at King Charles and Queen Camilla’s coronation, but all eyes will be on the Princess of Wales — and what she’s wearing.

“I think Kate will wear something thoughtful that will in some way show her loyalty to King Charles,” Bethan Holt, fashion director at the Daily Telegraph tells PEOPLE. “She will recognize this as a huge moment, and I think we’ll see something that sets her apart from the crowd. It’s quite nice for her in a way that she can really make this her own, as every time she’s on a tour, either the Queen or Diana has been there before — and there’s an expectation,” Holt says.

So what will Princess Kate wear? “McQueen would be the obvious choice, although I think it would be interesting if she went for a younger designer or an unexpected name,” says Holt, author of The Duchess of Cambridge: A Decade of Royal Modern Style. Holt adds, “While tradition would lean towards a full-length ivory gown, so many rules have changed. She might just surprise us!”

While the coronation robes of both King Charles and Queen Camilla have been confirmed, there has been no mention of a robe for Kate — although in 1902, the then-Princess of Wales, later Queen Mary, did wear one for her father-in-law King Edward VII’s coronation. A modern twist might be a gown incorporating a cape, a style Kate has worn numerous times before.

“A cape would be amazing. She wore a beautiful Jenny Packham caped dress at a state banquet last autumn with jeweled detailing that would make a great template,” says Holt.

“I’m really hoping to see references in Kate’s coronation outfit to her role as Princess of Wales,” Lauren Kiehna of The Court Jeweller tells PEOPLE. “The incorporation of symbolic jewelry, like Queen Alexandra’s Three Feathers Brooch, or the inclusion of national symbols like the leek or daffodil embroidered on her dress, would be a lovely nod.”

[From People]

See, I don’t think Kate will wear a white or ivory gown. I doubt she’ll wear white and I doubt she’ll wear anything full-length – I think that style is being reserved for Queen Camilla. Kate will want to stand out though. Maybe red? And no, she won’t go with some new, young designer. She’ll go with one of her old faithful designers – the house of McQueen or Catherine Walker.

Incidentally, it’s still amazing to me that Kate still doesn’t have a private secretary. I know she’s lazy and she does next to nothing, but it’s absolutely bizarre that she can’t keep senior staff. She’s been without a private secretary since last September!!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

The series finale of Succession will be 90 minutes long. It better involve another game of Bitey. I also need to see Roman & Gerri finally consummate or something. [Dlisted]
Martha Stewart loves being considered a bombshell. [Towleroad]
Kim Petras & Nicki Minaj have joined forces. [OMG Blog]
Describing that Gwyneth Paltrow–Call Her Daddy interview as “legacy gossip” is cracking me up! It’s so accurate though. [LaineyGossip]
Here are all of the movies coming out on Blu-ray this month. [Pajiba]
Republicans want abortion bans but they don’t want anyone to hear them talk about or debate those abortion bans. [Jezebel]
Taika Waititi & Rita Ora – a power couple or no? [Tom & Lorenzo]
A list of all the celebrities skipping the coronation. [JustJared]
Cristo Fernandez is such a treasure. [GFY]
International true-crime stories which should probably get a Netflix doc. [Buzzfeed]
I’m still in awe of Michaela Coel’s Schiaparelli gown. [RCFA]

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My new favorite thing this week is watching all of the international press outlets go “hey, there’s going to be a coronation on Saturday, we should do a piece about how the British monarchy is in crisis and everyone hates the new king and queen.” Just article after article, column after column, poll after poll of that. Especially in the British commonwealth. Stephen Marche wrote a “view from Canada” of the “absurd” coronation for the Guardian, and I just wanted everyone to enjoy some highlights:

Charles the Third: “Say it out loud and try not to snicker: “The coronation of Charles the Third.” In a time of post-post-colonialism, of anti-racist iconoclasm, a time in which the very notion of gender as a legitimate distinction is contested, and Christianity has been reduced to a scandal management system with costumes, a 74-year-old British gentleman will ride a fancy carriage to an old church where a few other elderly British gentlemen in gilded dresses will declare him emperor, patriarch and head of state because God says so.

An unpopular event: The coronation cannot be described as a popular event. In April, various polls gauging the public mood around Charles’s ascension found that only 15% of the British population were “very interested” in the coronation. In Canada, where I live, the majority of citizens are in favor of severing ties with the monarchy altogether (up to 70% in Quebec). The crown itself seems embarrassed by all the fuss. The coronation ceremony has been curtailed, and will last a little over an hour, we’re promised, as opposed to the three hours allotted for Queen Elizabeth II.

The economy: For Canada, the absurdity of the coronation is basic: we are not a British colony, but we have a British king. For the British, the national pride supposed to underlie a coronation has been exposed and harried: UK GDP cut by 4%, a lost £100bn a year in output, the pound losing a fifth of its value, all since Brexit. It’s hard to celebrate when inflation is at 10.1% and the Bank of England has to raise interest rates again, especially when it costs £100bn.

The vanity of the British people: As of April, only 34% of Britons still believe that Brexit was the correct decision. And underlying the recognition of their error is a dawning realization of the failure at its root: the British people – not the press, not the politicians – failed to understand their place in the world. Nostalgia and vanity, and ultimately self-deceit, led them into a calamity which seems, at the moment, impossible to recover from.

A preposterous king: This week, on his fancy carriage ride, Charles will be surrounded by many preposterous objects. He’ll be holding the world’s largest diamond on the end of a stick. He’ll be wearing a hat with a ruby that Henry V wore into battle. He’ll be sitting on a chair over the Stone of Destiny, a stone English kings stole from the Scots almost a millennium ago. The real absurdity will be deeper, for both Canada and Britain. Charles is a symptom of twin identity crises: the man represents us, but it’s hard to think of anyone less representative. I mean, it’s all fun and games, but his face is going to be printed on my money.

[From The Guardian]

I love this line: “the British people – not the press, not the politicians – failed to understand their place in the world. Nostalgia and vanity, and ultimately self-deceit, led them into a calamity which seems, at the moment, impossible to recover from.” I keep thinking about just that, while it’s easy and convenient to blame the reactionary right-wing British press machinery for causing all of this, the fact is that the British public has gotten it wrong. It’s the icky little truth which everyone tries to ignore. Hannah Rose Woods wrote a guest column for the New York Times which included this too:

Britain in 2023 is a country on the edge of Europe that is grappling with its imperial past and confronting an uncertain future. Since the Brexit campaign in 2016, invoking the “greatness” of Britain’s history — by name-dropping the Battle of Agincourt or Winston Churchill, for example — has become rote for politicians on the right who want to articulate a vision of Britain’s future outside of Europe. And, perhaps precisely because Britain’s future outside of Europe seems to rest so much on its past, there is an increasingly hard and humorless edge to conversations about British history: a patriotism that will admit no criticism. Attempts to re-examine Britain’s imperial history have been dismissed as “trying to do Britain down,” promoting “a woke agenda” or “cringing embarrassment about our history.”

But this slimmed-down coronation is still set to cost the British taxpayer millions — though the exact figure will not be made public until after the event, it is reported to be around $125 million. For many, that the coronation is happening at all is a sign of a country in denial and clinging to past grandeur. For others, any concession to the present is too much to bear.

[From The NY Times]

It’s like a international therapy session, really. About a populace’s collective denial about what is really happening to them and what all of this actually looks like to the rest of the world. Woods is absolutely right about the way British people speak and think about their country’s history too, which is also something America is grappling with. Although, to America’s credit, we’re having a lively national debate about our history and Black history. Is the UK having a similar national conversation?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Instar, Buckingham Palace.

The Writers Guild went on strike this week and no one knows how long the strike will last. The last WGA strike (in 2007-08) lasted 14 weeks and had a profound effect on television, films, awards shows and Hollywood unions at the time. Back then, people understood why the WGA went on strike, but the aftermath wasn’t great – the WGA ended up weakened overall, and the strike was a big reason why we’ve seen a proliferation of reality programming in the years since. This year’s strike feels a lot different – younger people are more pro-union, there’s a better cultural understanding of just how much money writers make for studios, networks and streamers, and there’s a better understanding of just how big “the pie” is, and the unions want their slice. Keep in mind, SAG-AFTRA is standing with the WGA because the actors also know that they’re getting screwed out of a lot of money too.

So, it absolutely feels like there’s a lot of momentum on the WGA’s side and hopefully that means that studios, streamers and networks will come to the table. One of the immediate effects of the strike is that all of the late-night shows – so dependent on the writers’ room – have shut down. Most of the late-night hosts are also WGA members, like Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. There was some talk about how Fallon wasn’t doing enough for his striking writing staff, but the trade papers report that both Fallon and Seth Meyers met with their people and assured the writers that they would get paid and still have healthcare (for now).

NBC late night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers will help cover their staff’s pay during the Writers Guild of America strike.

Staffers for Fallon’s Tonight Show and Meyers’ Late Night learned in meetings Wednesday morning that NBC will cover two weeks of pay for workers on the two shows. Fallon and Meyers will personally pay their teams for a third week; health insurance for employees of both programs is guaranteed through September, per a source close to the two shows. NBC didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Along with other late night shows, The Tonight Show and Late Night were among the first productions to shut down after the WGA began picketing on Tuesday.

According to tweets from Tonight Show staffer Sarah Kobos, the three weeks of pay weren’t initially guaranteed: “At a meeting Jimmy wasn’t even at, we are told NBC decided to stop paying us after this week and end our health insurance after this month if the strike is ongoing,” Kobos wrote Tuesday. “They won’t even tell us if we will technically be furloughed. Just active employees who aren’t paid.” Kobos then shared news about the extended salary and healthcare coverage guarantees Wednesday morning.

Meyers, speaking on Late Night on Monday, said: “I love writing. I love writing for TV. I love writing this show. I love that we get to come in with an idea for what we want to do every day and we get to work on it all afternoon and then I have the pleasure of coming out here. No one is entitled to a job in show business. But for those people who have a job, they are entitled to fair compensation. They are entitled to make a living. I think it’s a very reasonable demand that’s being set out by the guild. And I support those demands.”

[From THR & Deadline]

Fallon went to the Met Gala on Monday and I saw a clip of him answering questions about the strike on the carpet (I’m including it below). Fallon honestly didn’t sound like he had given the strike much thought at that point, but I guess people got to him over the next 24 hours. I’m glad NBC is guaranteeing two weeks of pay, and that both Fallon and Meyers are promising a third week, if that’s what it takes. I hope that the relevant parties can come to the table and work sh-t out a lot faster than in the last strike. We’re honestly living through a golden age of television/streaming/content – the writers are merely asking to be paid fairly for what they’re bringing to the table.

Last night a lot of A-list celebs were asked if they support the writers’ strike.

Jimmy Fallon said, “I wouldn’t have a show if it wasn’t for my writers, I support them all the way.”

Who else supports the strike? Thread. pic.twitter.com/EjlRWiRXd3

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) May 2, 2023

Screencap from Late Night with Seth Meyers, photo courtesy of Cover Images.

Oh, the royal rota was in a tizzy on Wednesday because Omid Scobie appeared on ITV’s This Morning and he fact-checked some of the royal stories going around, specifically about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Scobie has been hard at work on his latest book, Endgame, so he hasn’t been writing his weekly Yahoo column. He’s mostly been keeping his exclusives to himself. While it’s always been clear that Scobie has an “in” with the Sussexes, he is not their “de facto spokesperson,” especially since they genuinely have a spokesperson at Archewell. If they wanted to release information, they would do so themselves. What Scobie is good at doing is simply offering a more realistic and well-sourced perspective on what’s happening in Sussex World. Some highlights from Scobie’s interview:

How much Prince Harry communicates with his family: “Obviously this is the first time he has seen his family face to face since the release of [Harry’s memoir] Spare. But I don’t think people know there has been a somewhat regular pattern of conversation between him and his father since the release of that book.” Scobie said that while they had not “discussed the details and the points that he wanted to go into,” Harry “has had contact with his dad.”

Harry spoke to his father about the Frogmore eviction: “They lose the keys to that any week now, and he would have spoken to his father about that.”

Harry’s relationship with William: “There has been minimal contact since the queen’s funeral.”

Why Meghan is skipping the coronation: Scobie dismissed claims that Meghan had decided not to attend the coronation due to it being on the same day as son Archie’s birthday, saying she was instead motivated by a desire not to overshadow proceedings. He said: “She is aware just how much of the spotlight goes on her when she sets even a foot near the story. It’s portrayed as intentional. Should she come over and just stand next to her husband, the commentary and the narrative of the day would have been very different…[The family] would rather the attention didn’t go onto her. If you look back at some of Harry and Meghan’s biggest problems, it was all down to the fact that the attention was always on them at times when it shouldn’t have been.”

Why Harry waited to confirm his attendance at the coronation: “There was never any question on whether he would want to come or not. It was a question at one point on whether he would be invited, I think. From what I understand, the Sussexes had to wait for some time to really get the confirmation whether they were 100 percent welcome at this event… [but] for Harry there was certainly no question about [attending]. Ultimately he is fifth in line to the throne. He is a councillor of state. There is a serious constitutional reason for him to be here, and he takes that seriously, even though he’s not a working member of the royal family.”

[From The Daily Beast & Page Six]

Somehow, Scobie’s version of Meghan’s reasoning makes the Windsors and the British media sound even more pathetic. Like, Meghan decided not to come because everyone is obsessed with her and can’t stop focusing on everything she does. And that’s the truth too, which makes it so funny, and of course Scobie would describe it that way. As I’ve said dozens of times already, the tone was set on the day QEII passed away, when Charles banned Meghan from Balmoral and then briefed the media about that ban for the next four days!! QEII was dead and the first thing everyone was focused on was “where’s Meghan, are we snubbing Meghan, what’s Meghan doing, how does she feel about being snubbed?!?!” Unhinged.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.