Smiling, graciously waving and elegant in a blue striped shirt, white jeans and dark glasses – the Duchess of Sussex made her surprise return to acting with all the deliberately applied polish you might expect.
Photographed on the set of the film Close Personal Friends, which is shooting in Pasadena, California, she radiated confidence. A well-placed insider told her favoured People magazine: ‘She seemed very relaxed and happy. She was very sweet and down-to-earth.’
The film, which stars Lily Collins, Brie Larson, Jack Quaid and Henry Golding, is a mid-budget, middle-brow romcom, tooled for the streaming era. It’s about two couples, one famous and one not, who become friends on holiday.
In many ways, this latest endeavour is a return to Meghan’s roots. The 44-year-old spent her working life as a jobbing actress, eventually landing a part on long-running legal drama Suits before giving up her career to join the Royal Family.
Yet the new role will not exactly be a stretch of her acting skills – for she is to play herself in a cameo role in the movie.
‘What version of her personality no one knows,’ snarked one of her not-fans in Hollywood to me yesterday. Another observed: ‘Playing herself! Even as an actor she is a narcissist!’
Whatever the truth of that statement, Meghan’s involvement in the film is rather puzzling.
For one might imagine that if someone was to dip their toe back into acting after a hiatus, knowing such a move would attract significant public attention, their relaunch role would be chosen very carefully. Yet this film is never going to be a cinematic blockbuster, nor is it an awards-fodder creative endeavour.
Meghan’s latest endeavour is a return to her roots. The 44-year-old spent her working life as a jobbing actress, eventually landing a part on long-running legal drama Suits before giving up her career to join the Royal Family (Pictured: Meghan Markle and Patrick J Adams on Suits)
And it is made – not by Meghan’s friends at Netflix nor by her own production company – but by Amazon MGM studios.
Meghan’s office decline to make any comment as to why this distinctly C-List film was chosen.
A source from the film studio told The Sun that this latest career pivot for Meghan (coming as it does after philanthropy, reality TV, jam-making, fashion, podcasting and being a ‘female founder’) represents a return to her true love, acting.
‘This is a massive moment for Meghan and signifies a return to doing what she truly loves. She has been swamped with offers, but this one felt right,’ said the source. They added: ‘Prince Harry is, of course, really supportive and quite simply wants Meghan to do whatever brings her joy.’
Elsewhere in California, though, many of her friends, and former friends, are dumbfounded, and take issue with pretty much everything in that apparently authorised briefing.
For it can be revealed that in all of the many hundreds of hours of meetings over years about the planned direction for Meghan (and Prince Harry), a return to her ‘true love’ – acting – has absolutely never been on the table.
Multiple sources tell me as much, and one even says bluntly that this must signify the couple being in financially dire straits: ‘This was never in her plan. This confirms it. They are poor.’
And this same source points to how dramatically this new role is a strategic about-face for Meghan, who has consistently said she would never return to acting.
In an interview with Variety magazine in 2022, she was emphatic about not acting again: ‘I’m done. I guess never say never, but my intention is to absolutely not.’
And she showed little regret at giving up acting in her 2017 engagement interview with Harry. ‘Keep in mind I’ve been working on [Suits] for seven years. Once we hit the 100-episode marker I thought, you know what, I have ticked this box.’
Little wonder, then, that my source says that ‘it is so embarrassing – both the project and the return’.
So why on earth has she agreed to go back on screen?
It’s true many are suggesting one explanation for the move is that the Sussexes are facing a financial crisis. The costs of maintaining their lifestyle – with a huge house and private security – are said to be at least $4 million a year.
But another source points out Prince Harry made a personal donation of £1.1 million to BBC Children in Need, to support projects tackling youth violence in Nottingham. The couple are also said to have made a substantial donation to relief efforts following Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica.
A source said Meghan’s new role appears a strategic about-face as the Duchess has reportedly consistently said she would never return to acting
If they were really in a pinch, that wouldn’t be happening, surely. Rather, a source with deep connections to the couple tells me that Meghan’s return to acting was something of an inevitability as her other professional dreams – from jam making to podcasting – have soured, seriously denting the coherence of her ‘brand’ identity along the way.
Meghan’s hyperactivity in trying so many various ventures, they say, cannot be seen as a good thing. In short, when nothing is truly succeeding, the desperate will try anything.
I’m told: ‘This must be so embarrassing for Harry. She has run out of options. Look how miserable Harry appeared when watching that baseball game [the Dodgers playing last week].’
Certainly, with super-agent Ari Emanuel in charge of Meghan’s new career, and Jill Smoller, Serena Williams’ powerhouse agent and friend, also on her team, the expectation was that their Archewell production company would get multiple filmed projects off the ground – and also that the Duchess would sign a number of commercial deals to assure their financial future.
But the offerings under their £100m Netflix deal were disappointing after the success of their tell-all Harry & Meghan documentary in 2022. Shows from Harry – The Heart of Invictus and Polo – were flops; while the lifestyle series With Love, Meghan simply wasn’t enough to rescue the sinking ship.
Meghan’s venture into commerce, with the As Ever brand, came bafflingly late, and was chaotic and botched. Products sold out instantly, and were restocked painfully slowly. The original name, American Riviera Orchard, had to be junked due to trademark issues after months of development. Plans to sell products in shops have yet to reach fruition.
As TV producers, too, the Sussexes disappointed: last September The Hollywood Reporter quoted a source discussing their ventures in this field saying: ‘Everyone’s terrified of Meghan. She belittles people, she doesn’t take advice. They’re both poor decision-makers, they change their minds frequently. Harry is a very, very charming person – no airs at all – but he’s very much an enabler. And she’s just terrible.’
And we shouldn’t forget Meghan’s return to acting follows confusingly close on the heels of her recent pivot into fashion, which saw her attend the Balenciaga show at Paris Fashion Week just a month ago and agree to be the cover girl for Harper’s Bazaar. She had claimed that people ‘associate me’ with beauty and fashion, which was a somewhat surprising claim.
And following all that, she also made an appearance at a Fortune magazine ‘Most Powerful Women’ event where she asked to be taken seriously as a ‘female [brand] founder’.
Pity, then, those trying to guide her behind the scenes.
Meghan Markle returns to her acting roots as she films a scene in the upcoming film Close Personal Friends in Pasadena, California
One source close to the couple’s operation told me after Meghan’s Paris Fashion Week appearance: ‘She’s got nothing to launch, nothing to announce and nothing to say.
‘It’s a mess. The Sussexes seem to be spiralling. They are throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.
‘It seems clear that she is desperate for attention, to be relevant, and for money.
‘My view is that in her heart of hearts, even though she never said it, she always wanted a return to acting. That’s why she brought him back here [to California] and not elsewhere. They could have gone anywhere, but they came to California.
‘The trouble with the move is that she’s not Gwyneth Paltrow. Gwyneth was an Oscar-winning actress turned entrepreneur. She has gone back to do a substantial acting role opposite Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, which is tipped for Oscars.
‘But Meghan has failed at being an entrepreneur and failed at reality TV because Harry won’t do any more of it, so this is all that’s left for her – a walk-on part as herself.’
Here I am back in California, celebrating a great week to be alive on Planet Markle. For not only has the Duchess of Sussex announced her long-awaited return to the screen, she has also launched a sparkling wine just in time for the holiday season.
Do we need any further excuse to pop the cork on a bottle of her As Ever 2021 Vintage Napa Valley Brut, boldly priced at £68?
Mmmm, yum! This is absolutely delicious. Cheeky, jammy, flinty and surprising on the nose, with top notes of bitterness and just a hint of tart. Not the fizz, but Meghan’s opportunistic re-emergence as an actress in what must be the biggest Hollywood comeback since John Travolta. That is worth raising a glass of something special, and lucky for me, As Ever as ever have come up with the goods.
Described on the website as a ‘curated blend of the finest varietals’, this new addition to the range ‘delights the palate with gentle notes of green apple and pear, accents of citrus and white peach, and a subtle hint of starfruit for balanced brightness and a crisp, elegant finish’.
The new role will not exactly be a stretch of her acting skills – for she is to play herself in a cameo role in the movie (Pictured, Meghan Markle and Patrick J Adams on Suits)
There’s more. This is ‘a fresh, complex sparkling crafted from Napa Valley pinot noir and chardonnay grapes using the traditional Méthode Champenoise… our 2021 Vintage Brut is a special wine from a favourable year.’
And if you are a complete nitwit who needs guidance on when to drink such a fabulous elixir, the Duchess and her team have that covered, too. ‘Ideal for celebrating an engagement, achievement, or reunion, this one-of-a-kind cuvee comes dressed to the nines in a matte black necker label embossed with a gold As Ever logo and gilded details.’
Starfruit! One of a kind! Crafted! Dressed to the nines! A special black label! To attempt to do justice to such a splendid bottle I have come to the Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, just to the north-west of Los Angeles, deep in Kardashian country near the famous family’s Hidden Hills and Calabasas homes.
At this heavenly hotel there is a huge pool surrounded by palm trees, a greenhouse that grows eight different types of oregano and a spa offering $500 lavender milk and honey massages. It couldn’t be more Meghan if it tried, right down to the dining options which include ‘balanced menu items for those who embrace the pursuit of optimum health’.
