Remember back in June, when the Duchess of Sussex made a surprise appearance at the Yankees baseball game in London? Prince Harry was always scheduled to go, but Meghan surprised everyone by showing up too. There were great photos of Meghan and Harry meeting the teams and receiving cute baseball-themed presents and it was just a splendid photo-op which dominated all of that weekend’s royal headlines. A few hours after the photos came out, Kensington Palace made a sudden announcement – on a Saturday evening!!! – that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would be going on a royal tour of Pakistan this fall. The passive-aggression jumped out. It was so petty: the Cambridges simply could not allow the Sussexes to have all the headlines.
Well, we all saw this coming a mile away. Today, Meghan is launching her SmartWorks clothing collection, her latest big project which is actually a very clever scheme to help one of her patronages and help lower-income women get cute and appropriate work attire. Well, we can’t let Meghan to get ALL of the headlines today, can we? Did you know that Kate actually took a meeting with a big director yesterday???
The Duchess of Cambridge had a sit down with the director of Love Actually, Richard Curtis, to discuss a new mental health project on Wednesday. While she and her husband, Prince William, are well known for their own mental health initiative, the Heads Together campaign, it is understood that the royal pair will be contributing to one of Richard’s projects. While the details have yet to be revealed, the director, who also directed Four Weddings and a Funeral and About Time, spent time with Kate at Kensington Palace to discuss the idea.
Mental health is an issue close to Richard’s heart, as he previously opened up about losing his sister to suicide. Speaking about the tragic loss in 2017 at the Public Health England conference, he explained: “I was so privileged and we had so much money and so much access and still couldn’t do anything. I can’t believe what it must be like for someone whose relatives aren’t in that situation and they have nothing.”
I just…I mean, it’s super-obvious. Maybe it’s meant to be super-obvious. The Cambridges aren’t trying to hide their attempts to step on the Sussexes’ newscycles. Nothing has made the Cambridges more KEEN than some competition. And it’s so Meghan-specific too – before Meghan, Harry was doing a lot and he had his own projects (Sentebale, Invictus Games) and sure, William might have been a bit petty about Harry here and there. But it really was about Meghan’s entrance into the fold.
As for the Cambridges’ collaboration with Richard Curtis… I’ll save my thoughts until we see the finished product. Is Kate ever going to reveal that Broken Britain project/initiative/campaign? We’re coming up on a year since that was announced. And it’s been about seven months since Kate threw herself a palace party for the vague “project.”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Isn’t that a bit… Hollywood?
@Beli: Richard Curtis is British. So sorry, not Hollywood as you claim. He is also the founding member of Comic Relief, a British charity aimed at fundraising for Africa and Britain. Here in the UK, Red Nose Day is a popular fundraising campaign that leverages British comedians. The idea is to get people to laugh more. Richard Curtis created a sequel to Love Actually- Red Nose Day Actually as part of the fundraising campaign. He also lost his sister to suicide several years ago, and is a passionate mental health advocate. So this collaboration with Heads together is not random, it totally makes sense.
Thank you for the information. I agree that this sounds very well matched & makes complete sense.
To be clear, my tongue is wedged firmly in my cheek here.
@Beli – I think most of us got it, lol.
Evil Owl- I totally agree this is a great fit.
But, come on- Curtis may be British, but makes films for Hollywood studios with HW stars like Julia Roberts. It’s Hollywood. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s okay to admit; nobody’s mad about it. We just see the double standard. If Meg was doing this for a project, she’d be eviscerated.
@Rapunzel: This may sound like nitpicking but Richard Curtis has consistently made mostly British movies with British actors/actresses. The Julia Roberts movie that you referenced (Notting Hill) is made by a British producer with a predominantly British cast & filmed in Britain. So please try not to claim him as mainstream Hollywood. A simple Google search of his filmography will save you the trouble.
There is still an undeniable Hollywood connection to it.
Evil Owl- it’s not nitpicking, it’s nonsense. Curtis makes films for Hollywood studios. The man helped write Spielberg’s War Horse, and worked on the sequel to Mama Mia (Meryl Streep, fgs!). It’s Hollywood and that’s okay…why are you defensive and parsing over something literally nobody is mad about? Nobody cares if the Cambridges are Hollywood- we care that they don’t get criticized for it when Meg/Harry do.
Reminder- Elton John performed at Diana’s funeral, and one of the most famous photos of Diana is dancing with John Travolta. And the Cambridges, if you remember correctly, couldn’t even wait a year after marriage to make sure they used their celebrity to visit Hollywood itself. Remember them flying hours out of the way from their first Canadian tour just to hobnob with celebs and play polo? If you don’t remember, that’s because it’s literally not a big deal for royals to mix with celebs/hollywood. Unless you insist on denying reality, that is.
I think most people know that when the DoS is berated and intentionally misrepresented for being too “hollywood” or consorting with too many “hollywood” people, they are talking about “celebrities”, not Hollywood, itself (prime example, Sir EJ). In the case with this duchess, if the shoe fits, she should just wear it. But, we’ll see how this gets treated in the British press.
You don’t have to live in Los Angeles to be “Hollywood.” Curtis makes mainstream movies, not art films, and most of his work is as hacky (and sexist) as the average studio action film.
Less planning and more doing from the Kate and William would be a welcome change,
@Beli: Sure. You do you, girl. But I still like my facts. And as an ISTJ, especially so.
@Evil Owl. Speaking of facts, I hope you don’t put much importance on the MBTI.
Though it was fun looking up what it meant to be an INFP!
“While the details have yet to be revealed” That phrase is starting to sound like Kate’s mantra. It is said about every project she announces.
Of course it is, but there will be many people who will pedantic and obtuse and pretend that Curtis is an unknown director who never stepped foot off the island.
@Hope: Yup, MBTI is about natural preferences, not a template for how I will act in every situation in my life. I think playing to my MBTI type on a gossip site is harmless. It’s not like I am staking my professional reputation on it. And most people know that correlation is not causation, including me.
To be fair, this was not announced. It appeared on the Court Circular
It could’ve been added to the court circular tomorrow instead of today knowing full well RRs would write about the meeting.
As W&K engagements are often added to the CC after the event has happened? Obvious as to why this was published now.
The Cambridges are always planning to plan to do something, aren’t they?
Its like the line from spaceballs. “What are you always preparing for? Just go!”
Ha! Love that stupid movie.
And, here, CBrs have been combing the internet, looking for evidence of the Broken Britain initiative and “we ain’t found sh*t”.
This is Richard Curtis’ project though so it’s likely it will actually come to fruition.
It’s when Will and Kate take the lead that we have to wait and see if anything actually happens.
They’ve learned from last year though to not announce some massive, unwieldy project that Kate’s not going to see through.
It’s a change from the yearly announcement of Kate’s keeness. Now we get the yearly undermining of Meghan.
While Meghan and Harry actually follow through.
Why do anything when you can get all the good publicity just planning to?
It’s so obvious at this point that it’s laughable. It was almost exactly a year ago when the cookbook was announced/released and right around that time we got the story that Kate was planning the initiative to save Broken Britain. Now, the same day as the capsule collection, we get this announcement? Like I said, it’s laughable at this point.
If they were actually announcing “something,” like an actual initiative or program, I don’t think it would be as obvious. But an announcement that Kate met with a movie director and they are teaming up for “a new mental health project” – yeah……that’s an obvious attempt to step on the newscycle.
(plus, is Kate a celebrity or royalty? This seems very Hollywood to me!!! She needs to decide!!!!!!)
Yes, whatever did happen to that Broken Britain initiative that was going to be launching in the new year? That announcement was a year ago.
Here the Cambridges really should take a leaf out of the Sussexes’ book. Announce the project when it launches, when the work’s been done, when there’s something tangible to show.
I get that they can milk the praise endlessly for announcing they’re thinking of planning something, then being keen to plan something, then planning to plan something… But they could do some actual good in their position.
But then that means they’d actually have to DO something.
And wouldn’t that be something…
Yeah and I think they really believe this announcing strategy is working for them. They are not accountable to anyone apparently and truly just coast on pr strategies and games. An article like this will get published and the stans and sycophants will praise them to the skies.
Also for the first time I’m thinking Kate’s plastic surgery is starting to look overdone. She looks bad in the pics above.
Can’t have her BIL making MH programs with Oprah Winfrey so she has to make one as well with a BRITISH director. The racism is so very obvious.
I’m thinking that on this one, it was a smart choice for Kate. If anyone should go British all the way it’s the FFQC.
Also, it’s interesting that this comes after Prince Harry announced that he was working with Oprah on a program on mental health. And people got all up in arms about Harry teaming with Oprah on a project that probably will have global impact.
I’m sorry if this is off topic or has been discussed and I missed it, but with all the Brexit mess and people not liking the royal family over there, is there any chance the royal family stops being a thing? Thoughts on how they would handle it?
The Brexit mess has damaged the monarchy’s reputation permanently. As the Queen and the government have suspended Parliament, people know Parliament is fighting back to save their democracy. As one poster quoted on Twitter: The Queen Did Not Save Us! ……So why should the British people sing God Save The Queen? It’s obvious that the outdated monarchy will be drastically reformed or abolished if Brexit happens and the UK breaks up!
Boris Johnson’s move really dragged the Queen into a political mess. It would still have been a mess if she had refused his request, just a different kind of political mess.
As I understand it, Britain doesn’t really have a written constitution but that makes it rather vulnerable to a man like Johnson who don’t care about the unwritten rules.
What happened to Broken Britain? Or Heads First? This “Kate and William meet with X about a new mental health project” announcements, with little follow-up, is tiring. In a few months Kate will be pregnant again and we’ll never hear about this again.
Or more likely, Curtis will write and direct a lovely PSA with all the actors he works with, and Kate will host some star-studded party introducing it in a few months.
I can only imagine a PSA like that showing Hugh Grant looking flustered and floppy and saying, “The thing is… Mental health. It’s very important.” End of PSA.
William has been doing Heads First over the summer…
I told myself I was going to refrain from commenting on royal threads unless it was about fashion but I’m breaking my rule one day later.
I’m going to be forever in the camp of I think we care more about them, than them of each other. I also think that they dont get to pick when they announce things. I really believe that the palace thinks that if they can keep the fued rumors between Kate and Meg that we wont be watching Pedo Andy.
Cathy Cambridge, House of Middleton, First of Her Name, Queen of the Coat Dress and Lower Lash Eyeliner, The Rightful Queen of Do-(so so)Little and Protector of the Button Brigade…
It ain’t about you today booboo
@oh no, I laughed!! I’ll show myself out.
Love this comment!
Perfect comment!
Her Royal Buttoness is keen, so very keen. I LOL’d at this: “While she and her husband, Prince William, are well known for their own mental health initiative, the Heads Together campaign. . .”. Yes, that’s what you’re well known for, not coat dresses and dad dancing. And you launched that campaign wearing headbands with Prince Harry back in April 2016, over 3 years ago.
Love it.
Lol….how clever! 😉
Wait, I thought she was only the Duchess of Coat Dresses, did she get a promotion?
Ding, ding! You win, LOL!
Typical Cambridges giving Rebecca English an exclusive on something that’s not even done yet to piggy back or just draw attention away from something Meghan has actually completed.
Last year “broken Britian” which we haven’t seen anything to heard a peep about since, now this. Typical dolittles.
They didn’t give her an exclusive. It was in the court circular yesterday evening and other reporters got the same vague information about the project.
Typical Rebecca English reporting something as her exclusive that is not really an exclusive.
Poor Cambridges, now they look so provincial compared to the interest and global coverage that Harry and Meghan receive. It’s what they deserve
If they look provincial it’s because of her damn ugly dresses.
I have fairly mumsy taste, but even I can no longer defend her clothes. As she has lost weight, her clothes have gotten uglier.
“It is understood that the royal pair will be contributing to one of Richard’s projects”
So it’s not even a project created by the Cambridges. They’re always coattail others ideas LMAO
So really Richard took a meeting with Kate to see if she wanted to join one of his projects. Sigh.
And what’s up Richard Curtis? Why are you letting yourself be used like this?
If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that keen-ness actually is all around.
hahah @Tourmaline I see what you did there, good work!
Kate should stop doing this. Only the stans and the racists get anything out of this behavior.
Just pretend to be supportive and stay below the radar. She’s not going to win this. People are increasingly fed up (but not bored) with how Meghan is being treated and they’re paying attention.
The stans are right that Kate doesn’t need to compete but she’s petty and vain enough to try.
Announcing does not equal working Mr & Mrs Keen.
Also they probably forgot to mention that the meeting lasted 3 hours, And she stayed the whole time! Gold star sticker for her!
Did she HAVE to announce this vague, barely mapped out initiative today when Meghan was doing a launch? She may be an ideas person, but has difficulty fleshing them out and following through. Nah. That’s an F from me.
Its embarrassing
I know a lot has been said about the duchess-feud (lol) and the rift between the brothers, but I always get the feeling that it is primarily that William does not like Meghan for whatever reason
Personally, I think William doesn’t like Meghan because he is intimidated by her, her opinions, her work ethic and I imagine that she doesn’t put up with his passive-aggressive ” teasing” of Harry. Meghan really is the polar opposite of the wife William chose,
Right, I mean William chose a wife who put her life on complete pause from university graduation until engagement (2005-2010). She was very careful to do nothing that would scare William off or inconvenience him in the least. Thus the half-hearted part-time work (mainly for her mom’s business) with plenty of time for travel, workouts, and nightlife when WIlliam beckoned.
That was even the line that she gave her employer/Carole’s buddy from Mustique -this is a quote from Belle Robinson, her boss at Jigsaw:
“Then she rang me up one day and said: ‘Could I come and talk to you about work?’ She genuinely wanted a job but she needed an element of flexibility to continue the relationship with a very high-profile man and a life that she can’t dictate. She’s going to be dictated to when she’s needed and not needed.”
Yeah. That’s a real quote. That’s the nature of the Will/Kate relationship and nothing like the Harry/Meghan relationship.
Some how I can’t imagine Mike & Carole being okay with this if Kate was dating the local mechanic. I can’t understand how any parent could encourage their daughter to accept this these types of expectations, of being “dictated to”. How is this being a role model for anyone?
She’s either a royal or celebrity she can’t be both !! Seriously though – obvious attention grab is obvious. Surprised she didn’t announce a pregnancy today tbh. The day is young though!
Billy is going to be pissed because he was at that trader show yesterday and all the talk is about how much Harry traded.
By the way they were both cordial to one another.
First Mary Berry and now Richard Curtis. Can Kate not get press attention for her causes on her own anymore?
I get why people are side eyeing the Early Years initiative, but part of said initiative is the commission of the study/studies that they’re using to inform future projects (and I think will eventually be shared?), which is what took place over the last year. Kate could and should definitely do concentrated one-off projects, but the Early Years initiative has always been portrayed as a very long term thing so I don’t have a problem with them taking time to lay the groundwork with research before they jump into planning programs.
Is the bar REALLY that low? It’s one thing to do careful preparation for an initiative, but when NOTHING comes from that initiative–no framework, no timetable, no vision statement, no nothing, and when there’s been a pattern of “about to do something” for 8 years, you really believe this? There’s already a ton of research out there on Early Year development, there’s no need to re-invent this wheel! Right now she needs to show up and do something or else admit this initiative simply doesn’t not exist, or it’s been abandoned, or whatever. Can anyone do what Kate’s doing and get away with it? “I’m working on an initiative and we’ll get to it…eventually…”
Like the sentence in the article, details have yet to be released. Details are never released when announcing her projects, ever. Does she announce and then hope we’ll all forget what she said? Does she go home feeling proud of herself and feel like she’s doing her duty to the queen by releasing an announcement? Does she honestly believe she is doing good for the country by ignoring everything she started in the past 8.5 years of marriage?
There was no need to go the media about this project on the Friday before the Together cookbook was launched. If they were still in the research phase then there is nothing to report. Instead we got a grand announcement about this major project with few details, and then as time went on and nothing concrete was announced in the “new year” we then started to hear about studies having to be completed first. Everything is now being reverse engineered to the gills to explain the lack of action. Besides, studies do currently exist about this topic and all it take is doing a search in a university database. But instead we get more excuses.
KP did not make an announcement about this project before the cookbook launch. It was a vague article written by one of the royal reporters who is always full of shite.
I didn’t say that KP made the announcement but someone went to the Daily Mail for them to print the story. No reporter would actually know about this without information from a KP courtier or Carole. And since Kate has thrown parties relating to this topic, it exists in some form.
Interesting that they chose a CELEBRITY in the film industry instead of a medical professional. I know who Richard Curtis is and the work he’s done but I thought the Cambridges were more down to earth and ‘normal’ and weren’t interested in flash and glamour. Oh well, a little glamour never hurt anyone.
I’m sorry but mental health is not what I think of when I hear ‘Love, Actually’. Sexism, unexamined privilege, fat jokes – yes.
Have not seen it, but there’s no way I would after reading a few pieces online like https://jezebel.com/i-rewatched-love-actually-and-am-here-to-ruin-it-for-al-1485136388
I love how she always has these vague “initiatives” where as the Sussex clan has these very specific tangible projects.
They should be beyond embarrassed at pulling this same trick ad nauseam. It’s always a grand statement with a side of “we’ll work out the details later”.
Her Royal Keenness is very keen to announce that she’s keen to contribute to a project… at some point. She can’t give any details but she’s very keen.
She’s becoming especially keen at announcing her keeness when the other Duchess is out actually doing, as opposed to announcing her keeness expecting to be praised to the sky gods for it. Its the same old same old from her – its all smoke and mirrors designed to hide her disinterest and laziness.
Soon she’ll launch her new theme song: “She’s so keen”.
Where are the results of these “initiatives”? That’s the difference between being a spoiled little rich girl who was cossetted by her mother and shadowed Normal Bill instead of learning how to work and get results (unless you call bagging Normal Bill “results”). Now Meghan worked hard and came up through a bloodthirsty industry but was determined to get results – and look what she’s done in a very short period of time. Taking a meeting with Richard Curtis is all well and good, and she’ll waffle around, another “announcement” will appear in the court circular, then she’ll get pregnant and take a year off while Mr. Curtis does all the heavy lifting.
The difference between Kate and Meghan is huge and I predict people who are “waiting” for Kate to change and actually “do” things will have a long wait.
You can teach skills and impart knowledge to people but you can’t teach things like attitude, work ethic and passion.
It’s been eight years. Nothing will change at this point because they have gotten away with doing so little for this long. There is no need for the Cambridges to change. It’s laughable to read how some people think she’s improved…. it’s mid September and she’s done 47 engagements. That’s pathetic. She was never on mat leave either.
I don’t know how she has the balls to publicize a mere meeting to get ideas, when she’s promised big things with the “Broken Britain” initiative and we’ve seen next to NOTHING. I’m disappointed no journalists asked her point blank about “When could we see any actual RESULTS from all your meetings and research?!” She’s just such a disappointment.
There is nothing wrong with the Cambridge’s teaming up with people in the entertainment world on projects.
I am just curious to see how the RR’s and crazy anti-Sussex trolls rationalize this project since they say the royals are NOT celebrities.