You know how King Charles is screaming at a pen right now about Netflix’s The Crown? You know that Charles has put the full weight of the palace behind a completely unhinged campaign to “boycott” a streaming show? Yeah, all of that free publicity has led to a huge uptick in Netflix subscriptions – Netflix has gained 2.4 million new subscribers ahead of the debut of The Crown’s Season 5. Netflix’s stock is climbing, everything’s coming up roses. Entertainment Weekly has put The Crown’s S5 on this week’s cover as well – you can read the full cover story here. All of the cast members talk about where they were when QEII passed away (most of them were working on The Crown’s Season 6 at the time) and Peter Morgan even addresses Charles’s dumb campaign against the show. Some highlights:
Peter Morgan on Elizabeth Debicki as Diana. “She is uniquely magnificent. It was a list of one. Had she said no, I might have had to reconceive the entire show.”
Dominic West on being offered the role of Charles: “I said, ‘You’ve got the wrong guy, I don’t look anything like him,'” West recalls. But there was another reason the actor demurred: “I was very conscious of Josh’s amazing performance, and his amazing success, and thought it was a bit of a hiding to nothing to try to follow that.” So what made West change his mind? “I thought about it for several weeks, and it was one of those things you can’t really get out of your head. [I] realized that you’ve got to give it a go because you’ll regret it if you don’t. He’s a fascinating man, Charles, and it’s a fascinating life, and a fascinating role. I mean, apart from anything else, it’s a huge show, and I loved the first four seasons. I realized that I could very happily live with this character for two years.”
Philip’s affair with Penny Knatchbull: Where previous seasons have detailed the Queen’s love of racehorses, season 5 explores Philip’s participation in the sport of carriage-racing and his friendship with fellow enthusiast Penny Knatchbull, played by Natascha McElhone. Jonathan Pryce declines to go into detail about how that might affect the bond between Philip with Elizabeth, but teases some behind-closed-doors turbulence between his character and Staunton’s Queen. “It was a wonderful relationship, a loving marriage, but not without a few hiccups, like every long relationship,” he says. “You’re going to have to wait and see.”
Elizabeth Debicki on Diana’s revenge dress: “It fascinated me how entranced people were with that dress,” shares Debicki. “When it became known that I had the part, I received these text messages saying congratulations, [but] there was also a huge amount of text messages about the Revenge Dress. ‘Do you get to wear the Revenge Dress?’ ‘Oh my God, you get to wear the Revenge Dress!'” The actress says wearing the outfit felt “very significant and quite powerful, but also it provoked something in me as an actor. I can’t really explain it. It’s pretty incredible that a dress would represent a moment in history, or that this human’s life would represent so much and become so iconic. So that was a big day on set for me!”
The Crown filmed the tampon phone call!!! Charles’ appearance in the documentary was part of a campaign by the Prince of Wales to rehabilitate his image after the embarrassment of 1993’s “Camillagate,” in which media outlets made public an intimate phone conversation between Charles and Camilla that had taken place years earlier and was recorded by an amateur radio enthusiast. At one point during the exchange, the heir to the British throne told his lover that he wanted to “live inside” her trousers. When Parker-Bowles asked if he was going to be reincarnated as “a pair of knickers,” Charles responded that it would be just his luck to instead return as a tampon. West explains that it was fascinating to revisit the controversy and re-enact the phone call with Olivia Williams — and that he found his own thinking reframed by doing so. “I remember thinking it was something so sordid and deeply, deeply embarrassing [at the time],” he says. “Looking back on it, and having to play it, what you’re conscious of is that the blame was not with these two people, two lovers, who were having a private conversation. What’s really [clear now] is how invasive and disgusting was the press’s attention to it, that they printed it out verbatim and you could call a number and listen to the actual tape. I think it made me extremely sympathetic towards the two of them and what they’d gone through.”
Peter Morgan on King Charles’s campaign against the show: “I think we must all accept that the 1990s was a difficult time for the royal family, and King Charles will almost certainly have some painful memories of that period. But that doesn’t mean that, with the benefit of hindsight, history will be unkind to him, or the monarchy. The show certainly isn’t. I have enormous sympathy for a man in his position — indeed, a family in their position. People are more understanding and compassionate than we expect sometimes.”
Yeah, what Peter Morgan says there at the end… it’s like he’s giving PR advice to King Charles. He’s saying to Charles: you should have tried a different tact with this, dude, you should have just said “it was a difficult time, The Crown isn’t a documentary, etc.” Seeing Charles get this freaked out about a TV show just emphasizes that everything Diana said about Charles was correct. And again, Morgan is not trying to take the Windsors down. Then again, he did make Olivia Williams and Dominic West film the tampon conversation!!!
Battle Royal. #TheCrown season 5 stars Elizabeth Debicki, Dominic West, and more take us behind the scenes of the show's most controversial season yet. https://t.co/uxGsq0rFxp Story by @ClarkCollis pic.twitter.com/KwLcNxudxt
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) October 18, 2022
Photos courtesy of Netflix, Backgrid.
-
- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki pictured on set filming scenes as Princess Diana for the new series of The Crown in London. Pictured: Elizabeth Debicki BACKGRID USA 20 JANUARY 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: COBRA / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki pictured on set filming scenes as Princess Diana for the new series of The Crown in London. Pictured: Elizabeth Debicki BACKGRID USA 20 JANUARY 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: COBRA / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Great. Charles probably had a major tantrum. I wonder if the reenactment will include Camilla trying to get Charles to say he loves her after she tells him a few times on the phone.
Was it not the other way around. I really cannot remember.
It’s something that picked up speed on twitter a few weeks ago but isn’t entirely accurate, that the second half of the phone call is all Camilla saying “I love you” to charles while he refuses to say it back so its all about Charles not willing to tell Camilla he loves her or something. But that’s not quite what happens. They exchange a few “I love yous” sort of halfway through (with both saying it) and then as they’re hanging up its just Camilla saying it. But its annoying bc when you read the transcript it just reads like one of those things where both parties refuse to hang up even though the call is over. Like SOMEONE JUST HANG UP.
Some writers analyzing the tape commented about how long it took to say he loves her after she said it a few times. I also noticed
He did tell her her greatest achievement is to love him and not the other way around. I also notice that Charles sympathizers keep saying she makes him happy not the other way around
@Tessa You’re correct. Their relationship works because they’re both willing to make everything about him 100% of the time. I don’t think it’s love so much as no other person was willing to sublimate their own needs for all time and constantly be reassuring him about how wonderful he is.
@Tessa, seriously??
“He did tell her her greatest achievement is to love him”
LMFAOOOOO I can’t with these two
And his response about her greatest achievement was to love him was after she said she had no achievements. It was the kind of transparent fishing for compliments that people normally do in relationships when they’re very young, though these two were in their 40s. And then Charles responded with just that. He’s not capable of loving anyone.
I think he’s acknowledging that he’s not easy to love.
OMG!!! I read somewhere that Josh O’Connor only took the role of Charles with the understanding that he wasn’t going to have to re-enact that conversation, so I assumed it wasn’t happening, but apparently they were just waiting for a different Charles, LOL. this is going to be AWKWARD.
And it was obviously a huge invasion of privacy for Charles and Camilla, so it seems that’s the angle the Crown might take? But it was also an incredibly personal and intimate conversation between two people who were married to other people, at least one of who (Diana) was not okay with the arrangement. So it was devastating for more reasons than just invasion of privacy.
Dominic West seems like he would tell a woman he wanted to be their tampon so I finally understand why they casted him.
*chef’s kiss* @Cava 24
Exactly!
He would not say that like Charles did. For him, it would be a sexual conversation. For Charles, it was whining “Waaah poor me poor me pity me pity me I am the most pitiable person who has ever or will ever existed waaah poor me” at his emotional support object.
Yeah, after all those photos of him making out with Lily James in Italy while his wife was at home, I’m guessing his sympathy for Charles & Camilla’s privacy being invaded comes more from his own personal experiences getting caught cheating, and not from acting as Charles in that scene…
ZING!!! All I can think is “of course he feels this way about the press after his own gross behavior was outed.”
The bots on comments sections of dm who keep bragging they stopped subscription to Netflix and it is doing great now will be incandescent
No one is boycotting The Crown for the likes of Charles, not even the most royalist of fans. Even Camilla will be secretly streaming it in Highgrove, in bed with a bottle of wine.
“I have enormous sympathy for a man in his position — indeed, a family in their position. People are more understanding and compassionate than we expect sometimes.”
Peter Morgan HAS shown Charles and that family an enormous amount of sympathy. He’s gone very easy on them. But at the same time, he can’t ignore history, and the 90s to know is much more well documented and regularly circulating in the public domain. Charles throwing shit fits isn’t going to make people look away or forget. He needs to own it and then demonstrate he’s learned and grown from it. He hasn’t but he totally could have faked it if he ever listened to those crisis experts they allegedly hired.
I also think that overall, the Crown has shown them a great amount of sympathy. The Queen’s coldness is explained away by her upbringing, the control the courtiers have over her, etc. Charles’ relationship with Camilla is certainly given the “thwarted young love” treatment, when that’s not the full story. Margaret is much more sympathetic. And so on.
But like you said he can’t ignore history. So he can humanize them, which I think is the point, to sort of show the people behind the headlines, but he can’t ignore what actually happened. The tampon phone call actually happened.
I sped through my recent rewatch of S4 (my fourth?) skipping to just the Charles and Di scenes. While they absolutely show how cruel Charles and Camilla were to her, they also give fair turnaround to Diana’s complete unwillingness to play by the RF’s rules while showing Queen Mum, TQ, Margaret, and Anne all being like “we had to. It’s what’s done.” It’s very sympathetic to the women having always towed the line while Di refuses to. If we weren’t already rooting for Di, we’d be more critical of her in that light.
The born ins like the queen and anne had more protection than the married ins. Anne did not want to keep up the marriage to phillips and was allowed to divorce and remarry. Prince philip was consort not monarch and the queen was in charge.
I know, but the show portrays them sympathetically is the point.
Didn’t Anne only divorce after her love letters became public? so its not as simple as “Anne was allowed to divorce and remarry,” especially since ultimately Charles did as well.
And yes @Bettyrose the show does portray them sympathetically, especially Anne and Margaret, and there is some criticism of Diana. I think the show does a good job of showing The Crown as an institution, and how that institution affects all who are part of it, for better or for worse, and how the members of that institution survive. they bend or they break, to borrow from a scene in Season 4.
Anne was no innocent but the thing is the queen did not insist she stay in the marriage and put up with it. I recall Phillips had a child with another woman during his marriage to anne.She and Tim Laurence married in the church of Scotland. She in a way helped pave the way for Charles although his situation was a lot more complex
@Bettyrose, I don’t know that we would be critical of Diana for not following the RF rules, just because the other RF women did?
My takeaway from watching The Crown was often “wow, the RF makes up these absurd rules, and then either moans about having to follow the rules they make up and could easily change, or they judge people (for instance, Thatcher & Diana) for not following the rules or understanding the point of them in the first place.”
So it just increased my sympathy for Diana: her refusal to follow these absurd rules made her one of the wise ones in my book.
Love how West reframes the phone call as making you more sympathetic to Charles and Camilla. It’s like Peter Morgan has given them all the talking points and they’re running with them in response to Charles’ temper tantrums. It’s like soothing a child,”Really, sir, you just need to chill.”
I think he does understand Charles, @Brassy Rebel. A couple of year’s ago one of the tabloids published pictures of him embracing Lily James in Rome while he was (and is) still married to his wife, Catherine.
He’s not wrong though – it was a gross invasion of privacy, and definitely not something that was in the public interest to that extent. Sure, they could maybe justify calling out the affair as public interest, but the transcript and whole call wasn’t necessary.
Sort of ironic for them to say it and then…still do the whole thing.
He’s not wrong about that. In fact, Prince Harry and Elton John’s litigation against the tabloids shows that those C&C tapes were really just the start of decades of similar invasions of privacy, particularly among entertainers like West. So I bet it’s very easy for him to empathize.
It’s very hard for me to have empathy for Charles having his privacy invaded when he has spent so much energy trying to stop Harry from pursuing the privacy lawsuits you mentioned. Jason Knauf who still works for William was allowed to break his NDA to try to help one of Charles’ new comms man’s former employer, the Daily Mail in their appeal against Meghan, even though he wasn’t compelled by the court to do so.
A former courtier and current nonprofit employee of a member of the RF doesn’t do that without signoff from higher ups in the Firm and for years we’ve heard bleating from the RRs about how the RF snd Charles in particular are not supportive of Harry defending himself and his little family from the tabloids and given the many instances of Charles and Camilla getting in bed with the tabloids we’ve seen recently i think there is truth there. Plus it’s very well documented how Charles used Harry and William to revamp Camilla’s image including having his henchman Mark Bolland leak every detail of William’s first meeting with Camilla just months after Diana’s death with Bolland admitting to a lot of it himself.
I didn’t say Dominic West was wrong. Of course, it was an invasion of privacy. But it’s obvious, at least to me, that Peter Morgan has given the cast talking points for media interviews. It’s not an accident that they’re all on the same page. They don’t think Charles is helping himself by melting down over a fictionalized version of history.
What I love about them filming the tampon conversation is that is one bit of dialogue that is actually NOT fiction. Hahahahaha. All that “It’s not a documentary” handwringing and now people are going to watch and go “No! They didn’t say that! Who would say that?!” and the media are going to be running articles about “Oh yes they did – here’s the original transcript/recording.”
And then, off the back of that, viewers are going to suspect that much more of the dialogue might be closer to fact than realised- even when it isn’t. Again. Hahahahaha.
A whole generation has been born since The Phone Conversation was big news. I suspect many younger people will not believe that that this actually happened. But you are correct that this is one dialogue that did occur and the royals can’t object. At least not on the basis of, “You’re just making 💩 up!”
I was a teenager at the time. Now I am 41.
My mother is a HUGE Dianalooney…the truth is: the only reason I am watching The Crown is that phone calls. Since the pilot I only wanted to see if they got there. And they did, now I can’t wait. I bet I am not the only one who wants to see the tv version of that mess.
For those who were not around in the early ’90s this is 1/1000 of that scandal. And never forget it was the pre internet era.
^^ This 100%
Netflix did this last time with some of the Diana and Camilla story lines and I suspect it’s what tipped Charles over the edge.
Now that Chuck has made such a big deal out of it being ‘fiction’, TikTokers will go into overdrive with the actual history.
What a time to be Kind and Queen….
How fitting that a supposed cheater in Dominic West is playing a proven cheater in Charles in Charge. I hope Charles feels the blow back for what he did to Diana.
Yes @Girl Ninja. https://www.celebitchy.com/684595/dominic_wests_wife_catherine_is_devastated_about_his_infidelity_with_lily_james/
I suspect that any hesitation about playing KC might be more related to DW’s private life than potentially having Crown related reservations. He’s a very good fit for the role.
Art imitating life. Both Charles and Dominic were revealed as philanderers and Lily James is Camilla, so of course Dominic is going to take a more compassionate view of Charles.
The taped conversation in itself did not cause the Parker Bowles to divorce at that point. It was Charles indiscreet confession of his affair with Camilla that caused the Parker Bowles to divorce.
“The 90s were not a great time for the RF.” 🤣🤣🤣 Gen-X here and we got ya! Put on some flannel, rock some grunge, and lavishly indulge in your misery. This brief window of peace and relative financial stability won’t last, so use this time to take a moment to lament the gloomy, sad world before the early 00s bring us to economic collapse and endless war, and there’s no time left to be gloomy.
I love it! Is Zima still around?
Think the kids are calling that White Claw these days. 🤣
Dominic west and Peter Morgan are showing C&C an enormous amount of empathy. Take it and shut up Chuck!
Actually, it was earlier seasons of The Crown that made me more sympathetic to Charles. But all those feelings are long gone for this Man Baby.
I love your CB name! My cat isn’t into TV, but loves this purr: https://purrli.com/
That is cool! Thanks for the link.
The crown even made it seem mountbatten and the queen mother teamed up to facilitate the Andrew and Camilla marriage. In reality the queen mother and mountbatten did not get along and Camilla really wanted to marry Parker Bowles. In this spin the crown did Charles a favor but the phone call is out there and so is Charles interview and the recent princess documentary. Dimbleby based his book about Charles upon documents from Charles and interviews with him. Charles did not want to marry Camilla when he met her
I think people are going to go to town with the tampon business when it airs. Those of old enough to recall that time certainly remember it. Younger people may have heard about it already, but seeing it will be something else.
The memes are going to be LIT! I still snicker at the thought that the King of the UK, who will appear on your coins and money, wanted to be a tampon inside Camilla. My first thought when I see a Chuck pound coin is going to be TAMPON!! (But I am petty AF when it comes to the nasty Windsors).
I’m petty, too! When I read the headline, honestly, I went full on maniacal laugh/rubbing hands in glee.
I definitely remember it, maybe because I live in a conservative part of the country, I was so shocked not just that tabloids published the text of their conversation but that Charles even said the word “tampon” or knew what a tampon is. In my social environment back then women themselves would barely acknowledge the existence of tampons much less say anything about them to a man or be joking about anything remotely related to menstruation.
Twitter is going to be WILD the night that episode airs!
So when is the new line of royal tampons coming out?
Anything to make a quick buck.
Also subject of a SNL sketch, Season 18 Episode 12, February 6, 1993. Mick Jagger was a guest and appeared briefly in the sketch as a butler, but I believe it’s Dana Carvey playing Prince Charles. Tampongate was very big news at the time. Didn’t imagine this ever coming back to haunt C&C so many years later (especially after all Charles’ efforts rehabbing Camilla’s image) but the timing couldn’t be better.
Love that Netflix is coming out on top, Charles may control the media on that Isle but he has no influence over American media. I am looking forward to the new season it is the one show I make sure to mark the release date in my calendar.
If rice is thrown at weddings, will they throw tampons at the Coronation??
Oh, I love it! I would absolutely love that for him! For both of them!!!!
LMAO
Yes!! HAHAHHA
I think the reason to include the fact that they filmed the “tampon” conversation is also to remind people that the series is based on things that happened, albeit Morgan’s interpretation.
People reading the criticism from a former prime minister and Charles about the supposed “inaccuracy” of the show will also see that this conversation was real, it was published and widely talked about.
@Jay, that’s a good point. It could be a very subtle clapback from Morgan to Charles and the BM screaming constantly for years that the show is a “complete FICTION!!!”
Anyone with two functioning brain cells knows it’s not a documentary; obviously Peter Morgan was not in the room every time all of these conversations happened, for the love of god. Of course it’s fictionalized. But this is a nice little reminder that it is, at its core, rooted in fact.
Hahaha! Christmas is coming early this year. I love how Peter Morgan adds enough truth and points out how KCIII could have reacted to the series in a more dignified manner. Instead we have the tantrum king unwittingly creating the smoke that points directly toward the fire.
Yes, he shouldn’t have commented at all. He only drew attention towards himself. And as if getting a former PM involved helps Chuck in any way. Why??
I’ve never watched The Crown, not my thing, but I believe Netflix ought to give C&C a free subscription for life because his hissy fit has bumped up numbers and subscribers.
So maybe a stinkin huge bouquet of Diana’s favorite flowers along with an appropriate thank you note for starters? A box of chocolates? Kleenex for the tears? Excedrin Migraine for what’s surely coming?
Diana’s favorite flower was Forget Me Nots. So I agree, that would be amazing!
Karl der Dritte should consider not raising the “This is old news flag” quite so often. Monarchies are very old news. Sovereigns not paying taxes are nearly as old. If he keeps bemoaning how everything is being rehashed then he might not like where that road leads.
This is karma for all the horrible things C and C did to Diana. Diana wasn’t a saint but she didn’t deserve this. Having his press surrogates and friends come out and bash The Crown is what led to the free advertising for the show and hashtag #TheCrownisaDocumentary trends on Twitter.
Diana was not a saint nor did she pretend to be one. I think it was a plus for her that she was human. I think the embiggening of some royal family members is worse.
“You know how King Charles is screaming at a pen right now about Netflix’s The Crown” Lol!
No more pens for C-Rex, crayons only! All those years of propping up Cam and ignoring his sons, will be further undone by a 10 episode show. By an American company that refuses to be bullied. C-Rex and co. should be grateful for any attempts to humanize the RF and are lucky that Peter Morgan isn’t giving them the same treatment they gave/are giving the Sussexes. With all these tantrums about season 5 they apparently forgot there’s a season 6! I wonder if Netflix will talk Peter Morgan into doing a few more seasons, at least up to TQ’s death…
That 25sec silent film clip from EW’s twitter is hauntingly effective.
YESSSS!
Peter Morgan has the right response. Charles would have been off never complaining and never explaining about the Crown. His crying has only brought more attention to the show.
It’s a true thing that happened. I’d be cringe, because it’s hardly poetry, but get a grip. The more he belly aches, the more numbers get racked up. I’ve never watched The Crown before but I’m going to binge the whole lot now.
Are we meant to forget how he and Camilla behaved? They deserve it.
I absolutely despise the tabloids . However I can also say I have zero sympathy for Chucky and Camilla. What these people did to Diana, Harry and Meghan, pales in comparison to their invasion of privacy. Chucky should have remained a faithful, loving husband to Diana and he won’t have to be in this pickle now.
I wish Peter Morgan would just come out and say it: Of course every character/person is portrayed with some degree of sympathy because, after all, the villain/antagonist in The Crown *is* the Crown, the institution, its demands on the human family that live ‘trapped’ within its confines, divided, pitted against one another, dehumanized, torn apart.
I hope the script follows the exact words charles uttered in real life. You can’t get more cringe or humiliating than that.
As noted in the comments above, Charles’ line to Camilla — “Your greatest achievement is to love me” — absolutely sends me.
What a self-centered, ridiculous thing to say!!!
And sure, the media coverage was exploitative, but come on! He imagined himself as a TAMPON. No sympathy from me.
I remember the Enquirer covering the “tampon call” it was big tabloid news at the time.
My thought was “Ick! He’s no Prince Charming” lol
No. Charles was always kind of a disappointment. And he was plain awful to Diana!
HeyKay, Just what are you including in “plain awful?” I would include manipulations (however you take that word, before and after her death–including making her two sons walk behind her coffin so he wouldn’t be stoned to death because of the public’s hate for him. Now there’s a man who will throw EVERYONE under the bus (and in the end that includes Camilla, of course) for his own good or his own perceived good.
Oh goody, the most disgusting conversation not about perpetrating real-life violence that I have ever heard. Not because it’s about tampons (who cares), and not because it’s sexual, but because it’s NOT sexual. It’s Charles rolling around in self-pity like a pig in **** while Camilla enables him. Also there’s Camilla transparently trying to get some kind of support or validation from Charles, and him being incapable of even realizing that’s what’s going on. It actually makes me feel a tiny bit sorry for her for a few seconds here and there.
Does anyone remember the SNL sketch about “TamponGate”? Mike Meyers played Queen Elizabeth, I think. Charles decides to go for it and become a tampon and Mummy supports his choice. It’s hilarious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwrzj_oMZ7c
In the news from Buckingham Palace today, tourists were reporting seeing large flocks of strange birds newly arrived at the London headquarters of King Charles and his Consort, Camilla.
As the gathering birds became quite the nuisance to both residents and visitors to the palace, a wildlife expert was engaged to survey the problem. Asked to comment, the expert was heard to say, “My. God. Its chickens! Hundreds and hundreds of CHICKENS!! And they’re roosting! “
Dominic West is SO much better-looking than Charles ever was. Charles should send him a thank you note for the fictional good looks he gives Charles. Just use the actual tape of the Tampon Conversation and have the actors lip sync it. Perfect accuracy right there.