Do you appreciate Prince William’s effort to hype his big “inclusion” speech at the BAFTAs? William and the crack team of sycophants must have thought they were being so clever when they leaked that story to Dan Wooten at the Sun about how William would call out the racism of the BAFTA nominations in his speech and absolutely shock the room. Nevermind the hypocrisy of William speaking about race and racism at this point, but the idea that William would say anything which would shock the room… well, that’s very funny. As I predicted, William did the same thing all of those white bro executives do in Hollywood: made a mild and vague statement about how things aren’t fair for people of color. And that’s it.
The Duke of Cambridge emphasised the importance of diversity in the entertainment industry while delivering a speech at the Baftas, expressing his “frustration” that it still requires improvement “in this day and age”. During last night’s awards ceremony, which took place at the Royal Albert Hall, Prince William presented film producer Kathleen Kennedy with the Bafta Fellowship Award. While introducing Kennedy, the Duke – who holds the position of president of Bafta – said that Bafta is making a strong effort to “ensure that opportunities are available to everyone”.
“Both here in the UK and in many other countries across the world we are lucky to have incredible film makers, actors, producers, directors and technicians – men and women from all backgrounds and ethnicities enriching our lives through film,” the royal said during his address.
“Yet in 2020, and not for the first time in the last few years, we find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to ensure diversity in the sector and in the awards process – that simply cannot be right in this day and age.”
Prince William said that Dame Pippa Harris, chair of Bafta, and Amanda Berry, CEO of the organisation, share his “frustration” and “continue to work tirelessly to ensure that creative talent is discovered and supported…Bafta take this issue seriously, and following this year’s nominations, have launched a full and thorough review of the entire awards process to build on their existing work and ensure that opportunities are available to everyone,” he stated.
Oh, yes, Keen William got to announce that BAFTA is doing a review of the nomination process and the lack of diversity in nominees. That was his big moment which was intended to shock the room! Except it was never intended to shock the room, that was just hype. William is there to put a “concerned white face” on the systemic problem of racism in the British film community, and he’s supposed to do that without acknowledging that he IS part of the systemic problem and that all of those white people in the room are the problem. Colonizer, know thyself. And yes, Joaquin Phoenix’s speech about systemic racism, privilege and supremacy was a lot better. Ha.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Joaquin did it way better. And with less words.
truly ironic message given that the ultimate privilege expressing itself today in the US Senate has the potential to destroy us all. Nice to see that everyone’s ready to dismantle the system now that it isn’t working for anyone, but whatever it takes, let get it done.
As did Taika Waititi with his colonies etc.. references. The industry peeps were not there to be preached at by William, esp as they ALL know how Meghan has been treated by the UK tabloids and William/Kate sat back and did NOTHING. Why do you think a few of them made ‘Harry’ references.
#TakingBackTheGold He was brilliant.
William is a late to the party, this has been discussed for years now.
I didn’t watch — can anyone describe the audience reaction to the two?
Quiet. Very, very quiet, with some less than enthused facial expressions. No applause when they entered. It was a pretty telling reception, I thought.
This was really rich coming from King Willy.
Would have been much more powerful coming from Harry and Meg.
Well they quit.
Forced to quit, @Col: forced to quit
They left an abusive, rigged system and a racist country for the freedom of doing whatever charity work they want. No longer forced to pretend to be small to embiggen W&K. #SussexForTheWin
@ Col, I would have ‘QUIT’ also. Bully, uh Billy, typo but its staying, and Kathy got what they wanted. Deal with it…………….js
I only care about joacquin Phoenix.Not the man who drove the only non white royal into leaving England with her son and husband
William needs to clean up his own mess before preaching to others about theirs.
He and Kate were pictured giggling at the Megxit jokes. Shows their state of mind.
He and Kate were pictured giggling at the Megxit jokes. Shows their state of mind.
William and Kate did laugh, they could not have done otherwise. But what was most telling was that Kate looked over towards William to check if he was laughing too, almost as if to make sure that she was doing the right thing by laughing. William as usual didn’t even bother to glance at her.
I wonder about these two. Kate has no idea of the actual power she could wield in that relationship. I am still waiting for her to really use her power.
Meghan wielded her power and look what happened to her. Meghan had immense power and was not afraid to use it. William is a very ruthless man. He will crush any perceived ennemy and believes he can PR his way out of any negative outcome. Like a true narcissist (e.g. Trump), he sees every conflick as win-lose. No room for compromise.
The difference between Meghan and Kate is that Kate is a survivor while Meghan is a fighter. Kate wants to survive at all costs, while Meghan would rather die fighting than risk loosing her self-respect.
Kate would wield her power only if she feels she has nothing else to lose, or when she’s already gotten everything she wanted. Even then, she’s more likely to be passive-aggressive because she wants to always appear aggreable to avoid retaliation.
Kate has no power to wield. Much of her life depended on William’s whims. SHe could not control when he decided to propose, there was a chance he would not have if he had met someone else during the breakup. Diana was expendable and supposedly was set to be Queen consort when she married Charles. IF Diana could be cut loose, then future consorts can be also. Kate is passive aggressive but if William “meets someone else” he really wants, Kate would be history. Even her mother could not help if William does not want Kate and prefers someone else.
This speech was somehow supposed to make everyone magically forget that William played a key role in driving his half-black sister in law from the country? Sorry Wills, no dice. Joaquin did it better. And we will NEVER forget.
Ditto. If anything this makes William look worse, like he will only talk about racism in a general way and only when it’s not something that affects him.
He was completely overshadowed by Joaquin and Brad. Everything about the Cambridge’s last night was unforgettable and it showed.
Forgettable, Brit, forgettable.
The royal caucasity of it all.
I think the patronage should be rotated and given to different royals.
Everyone in that room knew he was a hypocrite and Brad Pitt made him a laughingstock too.
Indeed they did and it was glorious to watch them (the Cambridges) with their pretend laughing. The entertainment elite laughed at them and you can bet Big Willy and Babykins will not be there next year.
I held my nose and breath long enough to venture over to the Daily Fail, and as was expected, the shade Brad Pitts threw was missed on a lot of the Britts. Some got it and lashed out in anger. The rest, what can you say about that group?
I agree with LUCY, Joaquin’s speech was much better and PERSONAL. NormalBill had a bland statement & as expected didnt delve into how this has been a recurring thing since his patronage🙄
The BULLY has no right to say anything after how he treated his SIL & brother so..
I don’t get how the BAFTAs can be so racist if the president of the BAFTAs (William), the chair, and the CEO are all supposedly so “frustrated” about the lack of diversity and all of them really want it to be fixed. You three are in charge. You run the show. Whose fault is it if not yours?
There you go.
What did William do for the last ten years? Nothing. Is he going to pretend racism was just invented in 2020?
When Denzel Washington has never been nominated for a BAFTA, you know there is a huge problem. And that was happening years ago.
What does William ever do for the BAFTAs besides show up for a party or premiere?
Nothing – for several years in a row he never even bothered to attend the awards ceremony. I recall a story about how people (esp at BAFTA) were a bit salty over how little he does to support the organisation or the British film industry.
William has no interest in it and for Kate its nothing more than an opportunity to rub shoulders with celebs.
velvet slippers
Velvet colonizer slippers on him
Everyone knows last night was a dud and a PR flop. How can William talk about diversity when his own family and press, that is clearly up his ass and more, drove the one person of color to Canada. Mind you, I think many in that room know and saw how Meghan was treated. Remember, Brad Pitt is friends with the Clooneys as well. People talk and Hollywood was used against Meghan to abuse her. Besides Joaquin gave a better and certainly more heartfelt speech than William ever could. Everyday, Meghan and Harry show just how smart they were by leaving because that family has absolutely no self awareness, foresight or decency.
Emphasis on the decency.
People, and by people I mean the British Media down to online trolls, forget that Meghan had a life, career and reputation in Hollywood long before she entered into the Royal Family. And her reputation in the industry was of a woman who is kind, sweet and professional. Consistently, that is what everyone who has ever worked with her or encountered her has said about her.
Word always gets around the industry about how people are to work with, especially actors. Working on a tv for film set isn’t some typical 9 to 5 job. We’re talking 12 to sometimes 20 hour days (depending on what is being filmed). A person’s true self will always come out when working on a set. And, again, Meghan’s reputation has always been someone who was easy going, kind and, most importantly, professional.
This narcissistic diva talk about her has never passed the smell test when it comes to people who actually work in the industry. And now, when you throw in George Clooney, who is not only on the A+ list for life, but has publically stood up for Meghan in the press and is a friend to both her and Harry, well there you go. You can’t trash talk her in such a false way, and constantly keep using “Hollywood” as some kind of pejorative to do so, along with the racism of course, and then *try and hang out with the top tier eshelon of Hollywood after you do that and speak with any kind of authority about racism when you kept your mouth shut when it came to racism faced by someone in your own damn family.* William’s silence on the smears against Meghan spoke volumes, way more than any perfunctory speech he could ever give on the subject of racism.
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – MLK Jr.
In this instance, it was the silence of the Royal Family as a whole that spoke volumes. And that is NOT something they can erase by having William or anyone else in the family doing limp PR things like this.
Extremely well said. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
“People talk and Hollywood was used against Meghan to abuse her”
Bingo! Is it any surprise that a few of these folks took the opportunity to get a little dig in at the BRF when it has been insinuated that their profession makes a person “not good enough” to join said family?
That’s an angle I didn’t really think about until now. It’s obviously tone deaf for William or any BRF member to try to lecture about racism/diversity and opening up your space to POC when he and his family literally just bullied out the only POC to enter the family. But he was also addressing a room full of American actors when Meghan was denigrated for being both American and an actress. He’s trying to get a room full of actors to stand up when he enters the room, be in awe of his “patronage,” and feel special about being lectured to by a Prince, after he just kicked out from his family one of their own. Those people are Meghan’s people. It’s layers upon layers upon layers of hypocritical, ironic nonsense.
Dont forget the family motto; actresses are to have fun with, not marry
Do something and then talk about what you have done. Don’t be performatively woke when his SiL was the target of racism and William chose to stay silent so he could keep getting good press from those same RRs.
they kept shtum about all the passive aggressive racism directed at Meghan from the outset of her relationship with Harry. too little too late to now suddenly take a stand.
He was getting dragged on Twitter. People saw it for what it was.
I love that an AMERICAN who’s White Male privilege credentials could give Normal Bill a run for his money gave the REAL speech about the lack of diversity in the film industry.
Who advises these people? Did Normal Bill not think that EVERYONE in that room would be thinking about Harry and Meghan. Some of those people probably have more inside info than we’ll EVER hear. He’s lucky that they were too cowardly to not laugh in his bland, pathetic face.
That media used those very same Hollywood actors and entertainers to torment a fellow actor. For him to talk about diversity when the abuse of his own relatives was plain as day for anyone to see was absolutely bonkers. Hollywood absolutely knows and sees it.
True. One of the things that was constantly thrown at Meghan was that she was an American ACTRESS, as if that was something shameful.
The irony is that there was something wrong with being someone who had worked her whole life and was succeeding in an incredibly competitive profession, whereas being a member of a family that has lived off the people for centuries, or being a woman who had devoted her whole life to sharing a man not worth the effort, was admirable and desirable.
The acting community sees you Normal Bill and Keen Katie. We all know how eager you two are to associate with STARS. Let’s see how eager the one’s worth anything are to associate with you.
I would give anything if Meghan and Harry were invited to the Academy Awards or to Elton John’s annual party. That would make the haters howl. Piers Morgan might do himself a mischief.
Oh Piers Morgan would have an aneurism on live TV and I’d be front and center with popcorn and wine.
BTW – someone on Twitter called Big Wllie “Martin Luther Cream” and I’m laughing and now need oxygen
Oh God, that’s funny….Martin Luther Cream. I hadn’t heard that……👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Ha! ML Cream, hilarious! Talcum X is another funny one.
Poor William, overshadowed even by Phoenix LOL
TBH I’m surprised he said sth at all. So I’m not surprised it’s not ground-breaking…
Where was Will when Meghan was ‘straight outta Compton’ with a ‘dreadlocked’ mother who was ‘only 150 years away from slavery’ and whose ‘exotic blood’ gave rise to a child who was called a ‘chimp’? Anyone? Anyone?
Yaasss!! Preach!
Why would Will need to be there?
She has a voice of her own. And a husband.
And it’s not like Will has any power yet.
Take your issues up with the queen.
It’s amazing to me how much the powerful feminist needs men to speak for her.
Why would Will need to go to the Queen to tell her about his concern about Harry marrying Meghan?
Why would William need to interfere with the Sussexes setting up their own office?
William is this fantastic protective older brother, right? But when it comes to speaking about the racism his SiL and his nephew are dealing with … *crickets*
And to, it’s amazing how you use “feminist” as an insult, @JC.
It’s not about Meghan needing a man to stick up for her. It’s about the fact that William should have been appalled by the racism and voiced that concern. His nephew was likened to a chimp when he was only a couple days old! The entire family should have taken a stand against the treatment Meghan received and there is no excuse for their silence.
@JC Because they’re ‘family’. They have ‘loyalty’ for one another. William ‘supports’ his brother. He’s ‘worried’ for him. Etc etc, along with all the other claims about William’s lovingkindness.
Meghan’s ‘own voice’ got dogwhistles and death threats. The older brother, future future king as we’re constantly reminded, could’ve offered public support at any time but stayed silent
What a fabulous job he does as a human being, right?
Again, William stfu.
I am so annoyed at how Will gets a pass on his looks but Kate doesn’t.
His suit looks poorly tailored. His pallor is awful. If Kate lost her hair, she’d be forced to fix it no matter what. The sexism is so blatant.
As for his speech, I don’t expect heat from Antartica so I’m not disappointed.
Men in general have it easier than women especially in this regard, and I agree it’s unfair. When William’s hair left so too did all of his good looks (which for me were never that appealing to begin with, but that’s a personal preference). I have always thought that for all her missteps and faults that Kate is quite beautiful and absolutely the more attractive partner in the relationship. Obviously looks aren’t everything but considering so many people tear women down for it let’s at least recognize the fact that next to him (and often on her own), Kate is a regular supermodel.
Yes, I agree with you SASS. When it comes to looks Kate is beautiful and Will gets a lot of rewards from the public for being married to her.
His jacket was unbuttoned, he didn’t wear a vest or cummerbund, and his lapels always look shiny and wrinkled like he accidentally put a dry clean only jacket in the washing machine.
The jokes write themselves.
No lie. This malicious fool needs to just STFU and accept that he shot his own self in the foot by running off the best part of the senior royals working team.
I’m sure what was on the minds of every last person in that room, especially people of colour, was the blatant and deliberate failure of William and his family to take a strong stand against the horrible, heartbreaking treatment of his sister-in-law. Meghan and Harry were in that room in spirit if not body and I feel not one whit of sympathy that William and Kate were met with a palpable antipathy. They’re both useless wastes of air and bring NOTHING to this game but boring platitudes. He could have chosen this most important venue to deliver a heartfelt promise to change the while male privilege of the BAFTAs into a truly diverse organization, but of course that would make him look like the worst hypocrite on the planet so once again, he chooses the easy way out, mumbles a few useless banalities and pats himself on the back for being “woke”.
Am I the only one who thinks the timing is very strange for patron William to openly criticize his BAFTA patronage for lack of diversity, at this prime event in front of the world?
Why not in the months prior to the event? Surely he could have discussed it in the boardroom, in private and find a solution?
Either he and his PR team were aiming to boost his image as world leader, which he’s still failing to be. Or he is looking for an excuse to ditch the patronage after ten years of service because it is clearly not working to boost his image. Imagine the royal jokes next year…..! It can only escalate from here.
Yesterday he and Kate were the laughing stock and they were clearly not amused. In this Brexit age royal prestige is at an all time low. Many (right wing) Brexiteers on Twitter were not happy with William’s woke speech. He was their hope for a nationalistic royal revival.
So is William opting out?
That speech was William’s ham fisted approach of PR damage control over Sussexit and the fact that many people in the UK have come out and said the negative coverage against her was racist. He’s trying to pre-empt any accusations being flung his way and he saw the BAFTA situation as a perfect opportunity to paint himself as ‘woke’. He isn’t – its been reported on over the years that William is very conservative esp with his political views.
He’s set himself up. First it was football and now its the entertainment industry yet he continue’s to refuse to speak out against the racist UK press. Press that attacked his SIL while she was pregnant – he stood by and did NOTHING but yet speaks out against racism in football and the entertainment industry. Makes you wonder what the tabloids have on him, beyond trimming the Rose bush. The Royal Foundation has already been called out by auditors for financial mismanagement over how funds raised where being spent.
If William is as conservative as you say, why would he alienate his conservative base of nationalistic Brexiteers from him by giving this diversity speech? He needs their support.
Anyway the damage control has backfired on William and I foresee the Bafta patronage will be handed over (probably to a non-royal) to keep William’s hands clean in preparation of his role as Prince of Wales.
The transition may come soon. C&C and W&K will do a rare engagement together on February 11th. The new Fab Four? The direct heir PR machine is in high gear.
William’s staff is full of Brexit people who are all conservative so he clearly leans that way. It’s not a coincidence that there are no former labour staff members.
Who are the fools advising this fool??
Diversity is OK for every other firm, just NOT THE Firm.
Population control aka, ‘hey brown and black people, stop having kids’. Meanwhile his brood mare is onto baby number 3 and is pining for baby number 4.
Ugh. Stick to your strengths, DoucheBro, tending Rose Gardens, Clenching your Jaw and Dad Dancing.
We see the strategically placed black kids when Kate is ‘working’ now this. But dunces don’t realize they are dunces.
GOMI!!
Yes, I’m having a shite day.
Yes I saw a lot of people on social media warning William against going down the ‘woke’ route like his brother& SIL as well as some pointing out the hypocrisy in light of his all white staff& royal family’s treatment of Meghan. But a lot of media seemed to be praising it. He also met with Hillary Clinton which some thought would make the Cambridges new MAGA fans mad.
When earth shot prize was announced some were commenting on inclusion of Rosa Parks& saw comments that this BAFTA diversity speech was timed with US black history month. Maybe he wants to be black twitter trending lol especially if he he wants to be a popular global figure. Maybe he’s playing all sides to be a ‘man of the people’.
It’s like how people project that the Queen was pro Brexit or could be liberal as she apparently hated Maggie Thatcher& seemed to get on with the Obamas.
Well, I for one would be very interested in how the Cambridges have managed to institute policies and initiatives that support diversity and inclusion in their own households, as it is clearly such a deeply held belief. I’ll bet we could learn a lot from their example.
Classic case of “do as I say, not as I do”
Someone made the point that with Commonwealth youth ambassador Harry not a working royal anymore, the Cambridges need to appeal to the youth- in polls young people seemed to be consistently the demographic that supported/related to the Sussexes whereas the Cambridges seemed to be more relatable to older generation.
So perhaps William will get a lot more ‘woke’ to capture that group. Kate spoke of importance of girls education in Pakistan. Won’t be surprised if she softly leans into the girls/woman empowerment more. Things that the press sneered at the Sussexes for will be repackaged for the younger working royals.
When you go to The Daily Mail, most commenters didn’t get Brad’s “Harry” joke. The DM comments are: 1) that H and M are joke fodder and not taken seriously anymore;
2)that Harry is viewed as a trophy of Meghan that she brought back to the US. I don’t think the DM and its readers get it. The joke was on William and Kate, not H and M. Brad said he would be excited to take Harry with him to the US. That’s an obvious shade to W and K and they both knew it that’s why there was that awful smile and nervous laughter. The DM and its readers are twisting it to malign Harry and uplift the image of W and K after they were publicly and unabashedly humiliated to the world.