It’s amazing to watch as Daily Mail buffoons went from “Netflix hates the Sussexes and never wants to see them again” to “nevertheless, the Sussexes have a new Netflix contract but we’re sure Netflix still hates them!” They never skipped a beat. They’re still desperate to convince themselves that Prince Harry and Meghan’s new contract is a harbinger of financial and cultural doom. There’s also a bizarre refusal to acknowledge that the Sussexes are in rarefied air, having signed a deal similar to deals signed by the Obamas and Tyler Perry. Anyway, Richard Eden at the Daily Mail has another “exclusive” you guys. His big exclusive: Harry and Meghan’s new Netflix contract is BAD! I’ll spare most of the overwrought hand-wringing, but here’s the main thrust:
These are trying times for the Duke of Sussex. Already estranged from his family and many of his oldest friends, he has now parted ways with the African charity he co-founded in memory of his mother. Yet Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, can boast of success in one particular area: public relations. This week’s public statement about their relationship with Netflix, for example, provides a masterclass in media manipulation.
On Monday, the California-based pair announced what would happen when, next month, that deal finally comes to an end. ‘We’re proud to extend our partnership with Netflix and expand our work together to include the As Ever brand,’ said Meghan. ‘My husband and I feel inspired by our partners who work closely with us and our Archewell Productions team to create thoughtful content across genres that resonates globally and celebrates our shared vision.’
This was widely reported as Netflix ‘renewing’ its deal with the couple. Speculation they would be dropped by the company had been proved wrong, it was gleefully declared. The truth, however, is very different. That lucrative 2020 deal, in which they were paid an agreed sum to make films and programmes, has not in fact been renewed.
Instead, what the Sussexes have been given is a face-saving, ‘first-look’ agreement in which Netflix has the option, but no obligation, to commission any project Harry and Meghan might suggest. Significantly, I am told the couple will be paid in full only if those projects are commissioned. So, there could be far less to the much-hyped new ‘deal’ than meets the eye.
As a showbusiness source put it: ‘This announcement is potentially an elegant way for Netflix to cut its ties with the Sussexes if they don’t come up with anything juicy and personal – such as their 2022 docu-series Harry & Meghan.’
Have the Sussexes received a retainer or an up-front fee? Yes, insisted their spokesman, although the size of any payment remains in question.
‘I can say no more owing to commercially confidential contractual agreements,’ he said.
A Netflix spokesman told me: ‘As you can imagine, and as with all the talent Netflix works with, we don’t discuss fees or deal terms.’
It’s worth noting that no credible person ever came out and said what the 2020 deal was worth, although I believe it probably was somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million. The “worst case scenario” for the deranged community is that Harry and Meghan got nine figures as a signing bonus/fee back then, and the Netflix contract was a lot bigger than originally reported. Anyway, it’s fascinating to watch them spin this new contract into a loss. Even by their most ludicrous calculations, the Sussexes made $100 million in five years JUST from Netflix, AND Harry and Meghan are getting an upfront fee for this new contract.
Photos courtesy of Netflix.
Wow, how Eden twists things around to suit his agenda. Harry’s “old friends” are not his real friends. If he means the ones who badmouth him. Eden does not blame Sophie for the Sentebale debacle. and calls the Sussex actually getting the contract “media manipulation.” Does he even believe the stuff he writes?
Eden’s “sources” are the voices in his head.
Those gutter rats sure have a lot to say about Harry and Meghan. The venom just drips from their tongues.
Eden had to come up with some garbage for his Thursday weekly hate fest
Lazy’s summer video is a good start. Followed by the freebie yacht by both heir and queen. He’ll get more listeners that way.
Eden wants the Sussexes to fail, what a sad reflection on his character.
I can’t believe they actually asked their spokesman how much the deal was worth. How on Earth is that any of your business? The audacity!! And I don’t understand why they keep trying to explain how having more freedom to shop around your ideas is a bad thing?
Let’s say Netflix says no to every single thing they introduce. Harry and Meghan have individually worked with Apple and Disney, so they could just go to them, or Amazon, or any other streaming service. Just like they were so sure after Spotify that they were done with podcasting, then here comes Lemonada.
And the thing about the friends is just them bitter that the new friends ( and old) that Harry and Meghan have won’t leak to them. That’s all that it is. Because it’s clear and apparent that Meghan and Harry have a pretty tight friend group in California, and that they still maintain friendships with people back in the UK. They have cut off the people that leak, so that’s as good as them having no friends to the British media.
They didn’t ask the spokesperson anything, Richard took the quote from the Variety Magazine interview Ted Sarandos did. Richard wants to act as if he has insiders but his reach is the same as yours and mine.
A few weeks ago Richard Eden was sure that Harry and Meghan weren’t going to get a new deal. Now he’s saying that he and the rest of the British press always knew that they were going a new one.
How long are they going to beat this dead horse! Get over it! Let’s hear about how bad your lazy leftovers are going to be!!
I still cannot understand so much hate for H&M!!! All they have done is be honest about the treatment, or rather abuse they endured at the hand of the courtiers, the Firm. So they “outed” the Firm ( and some in the family), showed them for what and how they truly are. They did not lie! How can these “Eden’s these so called royal experts feel such hatred for that? To the point of wanting to truly destroy H&M? Drive them to despair, destruction? Why can they not just forget about H&M? Allow them to live their lives far away and in peace. H&M don’t bother with the “Firm and family”, they go about their lives.
I cannot fathom this kind of evil, vindictiveness, sinister manoeuvres to destroy H&M! it’s depressing and tragically sad 😞
@Faraway — You have expressed a thought I have had for a long time but have been unable to adequately express. Thank you.
Whats alarming to me is that so many folks seem to be clueless about the firm’s history and modus-operandi and the fact that these havent changed in over 1000 years.
So let me spell it out: just as theyve done for 1000 years, the men in grey (as Diana so aptly branded them more than 25 years ago) are literally the ones in charge of the monarchy.
Betty (and before that, her father and the 40 monarchs who came before them) PLUS chucky and the same for Bully if the status quo remains, do not make any decisions without said decision being given prior approval by the men in grey.
The job of the men in grey, as it has been since 1066, is to ensure the continuation of the GRIFT that is and has always been, the raison d’etre of men who have historically preyed on England and later the United Kingdom.
Surely, folks have heard of what they do to members of the monarchy who step out of line?
More than anyone else, Prince Harry knows that his family of origin would love nothing more than to unalive his wife and kids. Americans and others who see this royal rift and equate it to behavior in “normal” families are so naive and clueless, its painful to watch.
” a masterclass in media manipulation” Does Eden not read his own pieces? He should start reading his own pieces and the DM to see a masterclass of media manipulation. However more and more people are able to see through this.
There will be always a link between Herry and Meghan and Netflix due to their cooperation with As ever.
Ah yes, im absolutely going to believe Richard Eden’s negative analysis on what has become a pretty standard industry practice.
Richard Eden is an attention seeking joke. And he says in his own article that neither the Sussexes or Netflix would confirm any details in the deal so that means anything he writes comes out of his own @ss. Be gone troll! And Richard, first look means the Sussexes can go to any other company and then that company can buy the show.
It is Richard Eden who is rummaging through the bins again in his determination to pretend Harry and Meghan are nearly down and out. Can anybody ever stoop as low as the RR determination to twist everything that happens to the US based couple as the worst thing ever? Meg and Harry left behind RR behind years ago and we can all see why they don’t miss them!
A “masterclass in media manipulation” is that the leftover royals in the UK have an agreement with the UK media to ignore the royals they and the public are financially funding to obsessively focus on everything that the two who left over five years ago and aren’t taxpayer funded are doing. Media manipulation is trying to make people believe that Netflix is so done with the Sussexes that they were going to dump them at the end of their deal and then backpedaling with this nonsense when they didn’t. Nevermind what two top people at Netflix have said or that if Netflix wasn’t happy with them and what they bring to the table there would be no reason to renew with them and they would have just ended the contract and moved on. Making these excuses after proving for weeks that they know nothing about anything regarding the Sussexes just makes them look desperate media manipulators and not Meghan or Harry.
All of this. Tell us more about media manipulation, Richard, as all the rota should be well-versed in it by now. What a joke.
“A Netflix spokesman told me: ‘As you can imagine, and as with all the talent Netflix works with, we don’t discuss fees or deal terms.’”
No spokesperson told anything to Richard. This was in the Variety piece exclusive Ted Sarandos did. Richard’s pipe dreams of wanting to act as if he has inside information is laughable. He didn’t even see this better new deal coming.
This is embarrassing as analysis – yes, the deal COULD potentially end in the future. That’s… how employment works. And yes, Netflix signed a “first look” agreement with them ( and many other creatives, too) which means that Netflix will get dibs on whatever the Sussexes produce and that’s when they’ll get paid money. Richard, despite working in media, is trying to make it seem like this is unusual. I know things are different in England, Richard, but I think even the readers of the Daily Mail would understand that you would usually get paid after work is commissioned, not before. Why would you pay for work that you haven’t asked for? Again, either he is exceptionally stupid or he believes his readers are.
I’m sure Eden himself has to first turn in his weekly column inches to the DM publishers before getting his pay cheque. Or is this where we find out that Eden has been writing this drivel as part of an extensive unpaid internship for years? Maybe someone should ask him about the details of HIS deal.
Eden thinks that all his readers are elderly with short term memory problems. He feels the need to keep telling them why they are supposed to dislike Meghan.
Actually, doesn’t Netflix pay for the right to have the “first look” at any projects its creatives conceive? So they have already got paid massively for that alone, PLUS they will get paid for the productions and reap more of the profits. That’s why these royal rota rats are furiously spinning the news of the continued partnership as a “downgrade” (the palace sources must have dictated this in their WhatsApp missives). Much like the emotional support polls, it seems that *someone* is in desperate need to be convinced that H+M are one deal away from being poverty-stricken.