January 2024 was a pretty rough moment for the Windsors. The Princess of Wales disappeared, with Kensington Palace issuing a cover story about a “scheduled abdominal surgery.” King Charles also went to the hospital for what was supposed to be some kind of routine prostate procedure. Keep in mind, on January 23rd, no one knew about Charles or Kate’s cancer diagnoses. On that day, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex popped up in Jamaica for the premiere of Bob Marley: One Love. They posed on the red carpet with Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness, and they also posed with Brian and Tracy Robbins. Brian is the CEO of Paramount Pictures, the distributor of Bob Marley: One Love. Tracy is one of Meghan’s close friends and part of Meghan’s mahjong group. Brian and Tracy invited their friends to Jamaica, you see. The British media had a full-blown meltdown over all of it. The Daily Mail hyperventilated, plates were smashed in various palaces, and the Guardian blasted William and Kate for being “soft-power kryptonite.” Good times. Well, guess which studio purchased Cookie Queens for streaming?

There was widespread bemusement when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex turned up in Jamaica in 2024 to attend a film premiere honouring reggae legend Bob Marley. Not only did Prince Harry and Meghan have nothing to do with the film but they were photographed on the night with the Jamaican prime minister, Andrew Holness, who had vowed to push ahead with plans to ditch King Charles as head of state.

To add insult to injury, the King was preparing for hospital treatment for an enlarged prostate at the time. The couple were there as guests of the film’s producer, Paramount Pictures chief executive Brian Robbins, and it appears that the courtship may have paid dividends.

For I can disclose that Robbins’s streaming channel, Paramount+, has bought the rights to Cookie Queens, a documentary of which Harry and Meghan are executive producers.

Paramount+ is a major rival to Netflix, to which the couple were signed when they flew to Jamaica.

Their five-year deal with Netflix, which was said to be worth about $100 million (£75 million), ended in 2025. At that point, the Sussexes announced that they had signed a ‘multi-year, first-look deal’ with Netflix, which would give the US streaming giant a first option on proposals from their Archewell production company.

They said it disproved claims that they were going to part company completely with Netflix.

Cookie Queens, which follows ambitious young Girl Scouts competing to sell the most biscuits, was given its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Meghan, herself a former Girl Scout, said she was drawn to the project after seeing early footage. However, it fared so badly on its opening weekend in US cinemas that it was beaten by a compilation of cat videos.

[From The Mail+]

They can’t even decide what they’re mad about! Meghan and Harry executive-produced Cookie Queens through their own production company, Archewell Productions, not through Netflix. The Sussexes stepped in as EPs after director Alysa Nahmias appealed to Meghan personally, as a former Girl Scout. Meaning, Cookie Queens was always done outside of the Sussexes’ Netflix contract. Clearly, other studios, directors and producers are interested in working with the Sussexes. And I’m glad Cookie Queens found a good home for streaming. And again, Cookie Queens’ theatrical box office receipts totalled $623,057. This year’s Best Documentary Oscar winner made about $1.2 million.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.