Over the weekend, Lily James cancelled her appearance on the Today Show, where she was supposed to be promoting Netflix’s Rebecca remake with Armie Hammer. It sounded like she just flatly cancelled the interview, and like she did so because she didn’t want to answer any questions about her very public affair with married man Dominic West. While I think it’s always going to be good advice to “go dark for a while” when a celebrity is caught up in some kind of epic cheating scandal, this also came at a rotten time for Lily’s promotional schedule. As it turns out, she’s also cancelled her appearance on The Graham Norton Show too:
Under-fire actress Lily James dramatically cancelled her appearance on the Graham Norton Show on Monday, after she was spotted ‘passionately kissing’ married co-star Dominic West during an intimate weekend in Rome.
The star, 31, was scheduled to be a guest on the BBC chat show on Friday to promote her Netflix drama Rebecca, alongside music legend Bruce Springsteen, actor Matthew McConaughey and British singer-songwriter Sam Smith. But her appearance has been dropped, following further revelations about her liaison with West, 50, in the Italian capital last weekend – with Lily’s Rebecca co-star Kristin Scott Thomas featuring instead.
A press release sent out by show representatives on Monday stated: ‘Lily James will appear on the show at a later date.’
This fascinates me from a “how the PR sausage is made” process perspective. If Lily had been the wronged woman, if she had been cheated ON, then I have no doubt that she would have kept her schedule and Netflix would probably add even more appearances to her promotion. That is the narrative people want on talk shows, the “wronged woman,” the Jennifer Aniston archetype (I still remember, so clearly, Aniston’s first post-divorce appearance on Oprah in 2005). But the Other Woman doesn’t get the same welcome on the talk-show couch. Still, I would have thought that Graham Norton’s show would be an ideal “friendly interview” for her first post-affair appearance. Should we be worried that Lily is becoming the Nu Sienna Miller?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Oh she’s definitely the new Sienna Miller.
I dunno, Miller courted the paps from the very beginning – James pretty much has been under the radar until the past few months but it does seem her private life is messy and until now it has been kept under wraps. Wonder who she p!ssed off.
Yikes. If I were Netflix I would NOT be happy about this.
Honestly, celebrities (usually) have the power to request they not be asked about certain subjects. For something like The Today Show or Graham Norton, I doubt they would’ve thrown her any hardballs, so it just reeks of unprofessionalism to flat-out cancel.
This is what I don’t get. She has to be seen at some point and this is drawing more attention to her in a bad way. Surely they could agree talking points in advance and nothing that would embarrass her? Netflix must be so annoyed.
She may not have that level of power…but Netflix certainly does. The number of projects they do and the level of celebs they potentially have out for promotion? If they said that question was off limits and to “focus on the film”, it’s not likely she would get a rough ride. Morning news shows might push back on that; but chat shows literally known for being good natured? Nah.
She needs new advisors. Hollywood doesn’t care about your morals until it starts costing them money. Flaking out on publicity for a personal mistake is a quick route to that “unprofessional” label, fair or not. Her people need to regroup and rethink.
Yeah, but focusing on the film isn’t all that helpful when she’s playing the other woman.
Granted, as the second Mrs. de Winter, she’s the other woman to a dead woman, but still James would have to be a very skilled interviewee to walk that tightrope without giving an unintentionally cringe-worthy soundbite.
I was going to say that Norton keeps his show fairly light. If her people asked not to talk about the ‘incident’ I am sure they would have.
Given that this is such current gossip, I can kind of understand her canceling, it would be this cloud looming over any interview. But I’m sure Netflix isn’t thrilled that their promotion of their project has gone down the drain due to this.
Perhaps it would loom over the interview, but I did mention in the other thread that I feel the people who flip on The Today Show don’t necessarily intersect completely celebrity gossip watchers. My mom watches the Today Show and always tells me about stuff she sees on there. She has no clue who Lily James is, but would definitely tell me if she saw an interview with an actress starring in the Rebecca remake.
The thing is, now Graham Norton is definitely going to make a bunch of jokes about this. That’s what he’s done in the past with stars that have pulled out last minute. Had she come on the show, he would’ve made a couple mild comments that she could’ve laughed at and said nothing and then she would’ve been done with it.
I don’t have strong feelings about her sleeping with a married man who seems to also be a dirtbag, but I have SO much judgment about her letting some drama d*ck interfere with her priorities. If she can’t brazen it out, put on a great outfit and strong red lip and keep her commitments (for a dream career she is very fortunate to have) then she needs to recognize that she clearly is not about that side chick life and behave accordingly moving forward.
Agree 100%
This. Put your big pants on, blacklist questions about him and the affair and get your bag sis.
Not everyone is Hugh Grant. What he pulled off on Leno after his arrest is incredibly difficult to do, and maybe Lily needs more coaching before she can try.
But at this point, if she hides away and seems affected by it and is papped being very low-key and normal, and eventually does an subdued interview in a very friendly space, I think people will feel some sympathy and let it go. She seems younger than she really is so I think she’d being able to push it off as youthful stupidity.
The photo from Graham Norton looks better, lol.
I don’t feel sorry for her. At all.
But I do wonder if West would cancel his appearances too if he had any scheduled at the moment. I would say yes but then I think about that freaky photo op with his wife and I’m not sure.
Ok, I know this isn’t the point– but what about the manager’s — Angharad Wood — complicty? They both have the same one and she was at the lunch in Rome with them. If I was Dominic’s wife, I would demand she be fired. That said, after doing some quick research on the manager, she is married to an Italian movie star, so the paparazzi in Italy know her — maybe they were following her, but got James and West as lagniappe, as we say in Louisiana.
Lagniappe! 😍
Yeah I don’t have any intense opinion on her being a side chick other than it’s bad judgement to go on vacation during a pandemic with your married coworker/lover. She’s not the married one in this scenario and I don’t know what he told her about the status of his marriage.
However, this is not good for her career. To be canceling appearances during a promotional tour…yikes. I’m curious if her Netflix contract stipulates a certain amount of promotion and if she can get in trouble for canceling. I’m more interested in the business aspect of it honestly.
She’s ruining her career, and all for an old dude who’s going to go back to his wife because she’s old nobility money. Cha!
The Sky mobile ads she’s in that are currently running are something else-“Isn’t it nice to share things you normally can’t?” 😳😂
What?! God, that’s hilarious!
Actions have consequences girl.
She doesn’t owe the public an explanation.
The thing is, with the right spin, she could TOTALLY put herself out there as the ‘wronged woman’. Lily was not the married person in all of this. Who knows what separation/almost divorced story he told her? And then, after being caught, he left her high and dry. He thrust his “happy marriage” in her face, when he did the photocall and stupid note. That said to the world that Lily meant nothing to him. The fact that she’s avoiding any kind of spin suggests, to me, that she genuinely had feelings for that horrible man.
Hear hear