WHAT a way to launch a brand! I can reveal that the homeware products which are to be sold by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, as part of her lifestyle range, are NOT going to feature in her Netflix cooking and entertaining show.
Sources who have watched a preview of her series – With Love, Meghan – say there is ‘no mention’ of merch in it.
Certainly you will see Meghan making and lighting candles, using edible flowers, tablecloths, wine, jam and honey. All items which it’s understood she will be selling.
But at no point does she mention, on camera, that you can snap them up from her homeware range.
The show will stream from March 4, at which point the brand will also go live. The situation seems to indicate a lack of strategic planning.
Could it be the result of a rush to get the show into production last spring? When cameras did start rolling, in a mansion near her home with Prince Harry in Montecito, Meghan hadn’t started producing any merchandise. Nor had she accepted Netflix’s offer to run the brand with her, as she now has.
The silver lining (for Meghan) could be that at the time, the brand was called ‘American Riviera Orchard’. But as Meghan explained in a video on Tuesday, the name has been changed to ‘As Ever’.
‘Last year, I thought: “American Riviera”, that’s a great name,’ she said. ‘It’s my neighbourhood; it’s a nickname for Santa Barbara – but it limited me to things manufactured and grown in this area.’
Alison Boshoff writes: ‘I can reveal that the homeware products which are to be sold by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, (pictured) as part of her lifestyle range, are NOT going to feature in her Netflix cooking and entertaining show’
The show will stream from March 4, at which point the brand will also go live
Actually, the US Patent and Trademark Office partially refused a trademark application for the name. Businesses are not allowed to trademark geographic locations.
Even the elaborate logo, which Meghan is said to have designed herself, was criticised for being ‘inaccurate’, since the letter ‘O’ for Orchard was not easily visible.
But her new logo also ran into trouble, after internet sleuths noticed that the design (two hummingbirds flanking a palm tree) bore a remarkable resemblance to the coat of arms of Porreres, a town in Majorca. The owner of a clothing business called As Ever NYC is also consulting lawyers.
This week the Duchess said of her fledgling brand: ‘As Ever, essentially, means as it’s always been, and if you’ve followed me since 2014 with The Tig, you know I’ve always loved cooking and crafting and gardening – this is what I do.’
Everything in the garden is… rusty
Monty Don (pictured) was surprised to discover his old home in London was being advertised by estate agents as having a garden designed ‘by Monty Don’
Monty Don was surprised to discover his old home in London was being advertised by estate agents as having a garden designed ‘by Monty Don’ . . . 36 years after he sold up.
The modest Victorian end-of-terrace home, between Islington and Hackney, was where Monty lived with Sarah Erskine (now his wife) in the 1980s, when they were jewellery designers.
He told an audience at his one-man show in Somerset: ‘The house we bought in 1981 for £30,000 was sold last year for £1.7 million. And it was advertised as having “a garden done by Monty Don” — which probably added three and sixpence to the value.’
He moved out after their third burglary, but said he was ‘just as happy in that 100ft by 30ft London garden as at any other time gardening since’.
He added: ‘Gardening is nothing to do with size, or money; it’s what you get out of it.’
One thing he did get out of it was a lot of scrap metal, as the previous owner used to buy cars for parts and ditch leftovers in the garden.
‘I was turning the soil and I would suddenly hit a bonnet,’ he recalled.
Celebs beware! Bear’s coming back for more
The programme, in which survival expert Bear Grylls (pictured) ‘hunts’ celebrities, was No 1 in the UK for Netflix in its first streaming week and is now No 2
Bear Hunt looks certain to return — with the production company behind it already advertising for crew willing to spend a month working on a show ‘in Central America’, starting next month.
The programme, in which survival expert Bear Grylls ‘hunts’ celebrities, was No 1 in the UK for Netflix in its first streaming week and is now No 2.
Presented by Holly Willoughby, it features Spice Girl Mel B, interior designer Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and former rugby player Danny Cipriani among the prey.
Launching it two weeks ago, Bear seemed confident that it would continue, remarking: ‘We’re only just getting going.’
Erin becomes a princess among thieves
Erin Doherty (pictured) plays Mary Carr, the bold head of all-female criminal gang The Forty Elephants in Disney+ series A Thousand Blows
Erin Doherty has come a long way from Princess Anne’s sensible tweeds and headscarves.
The Crown actress plays Mary Carr, the bold head of all-female criminal gang The Forty Elephants in Disney+ series A Thousand Blows, which streams from today.
The show, the latest from Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight, is based on real historical figures and focuses on bare-knuckle boxing and gangs in the East End of Victorian London.
Handy with a pistol and a knife, Doherty’s Mary (left) is a fearsome character. But she and the rest of the gang were upstaged by a pop band during filming last year, while shooting a scene involving a raid on Harrods department store.
‘This was a day when the Jonas Brothers were in town near our location,’ she said. ‘So there were big crowds outside, and we were wondering for most of the time: “What’s going on? Are people here to watch us raid Harrods?”
‘But no. They were just there to see the Jonas Brothers.’
Tom turns on the charm with his wingman Glen
Tom Cruise and Glen Powell attends the Korea Red Carpet for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ at Lotte World on June 19, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea
Tom Cruise was on ebullient form at the legendary pre-Bafta Charles Finch x Chanel party on Saturday.
There’s no one who brings quite the same positive energy as superstar Tom, who was directing his megawatt charm towards his many friends in the British film industry (by my count, he’s made 11 films mostly or wholly in the UK during his career).
There were backslaps, hugs and cocktails galore on the night – but no sign of his ‘date’, Ana de Armas, who was not among those at 5 Hertford Street.
Word is that the two of them are thinking about working together on a film, but there is no romance.
There was, however, a strong whiff of bromance – with Cruise, Top Gun: Maverick producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Glen Powell, who starred alongside him in that film as hotshot flyer Hangman, forming a mutual admiration society.
Powell has been making The Running Man in London. And Cruise is over here making an untitled thriller with Alexander Iñárritu at Pinewood — as well as editing the next Mission: Impossible film.
Powell gushed of their bond: ‘It’s the best! He’s such a great friend and such a great mentor.’
Before they made Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise arranged for Powell to watch a six-hour ‘film school’ video which he had put together.
He also personally flew Powell back to London from Pinewood studios in a helicopter one day – terrifying him by pretending the chopper was going down.
The 36-year-old Texan recalled: ‘Tom goes “Oh no, oh no!” and he starts dropping the helicopter over London. I was like: “Am I about to be the unnamed guy that dies with Tom in a smoking hole in the middle of London?”’
Cruise was a surprise guest at the London premiere of Powell’s Twisters last summer.
The two men will be working together again soon on a sequel to Top Gun: Maverick, which has been announced officially.
And the winner is… the BAFTA cocktail
The biggest hit of the Baftas may have been the Don Julio tequila cocktail — ‘La Musa Dorada’ — served in tiny brown bottles, and responsible for hundreds of wicked hangovers
The biggest hit of the Baftas may have been the Don Julio tequila cocktail — ‘La Musa Dorada’ — served in tiny brown bottles, and responsible for hundreds of wicked hangovers.
The concoction, created with the help of The Savoy, contained (in addition to aged tequila) a shot of amontillado sherry, two dashes of rose water — and a spritz of bergamot and mandarin perfume.
Don Julio was the ‘Official Spirit Partner’ of the event and also sponsored the Winners’ Bar, where the lucky few came to have their award masks engraved.
Speedy retreat from Blighty for Cynthia Erivo and Demi Moore
Cynthia Erivo (pictured), nominated for a Bafta for her role in Wicked, flew back to the US overnight on Sunday
Rapid exits from the UK for Best Actress hopefuls Cynthia Erivo and Demi Moore.
Cynthia, nominated for a Bafta for her role in Wicked, flew back to the US overnight on Sunday. And Demi, nominated for The Substance (but surprisingly pipped by Mikey Madison) returned on Monday.
It was the last day of voting for the Oscars on Tuesday, and the SAG Awards are this Monday (24th) — the final staging post before the Oscars on March 2.
After a confoundingly open race, momentum has now built apparently decisively behind Anora for Best Picture, with Demi Moore, Adrien Brody, Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldana also appearing unstoppable in the acting categories.
Jack Dee reveals the clients of his legendary Soho tailor
Jack Dee (pictured) is famous for performing in a suit, and he gets his made to measure at a legendary bespoke Soho tailor
Jack Dee is famous for performing in a suit, and he gets his made to measure at a legendary bespoke Soho tailor (popular with other comedians) formerly called Mr Eddie, but now renamed Chris Kerr.
Dee said: ‘It’s not called Eddie’s any more. It’s been taken over by his nephew.
‘I remember when I went in there once, and there’s this huge suit hanging up to be collected, and there was also this really little tiny suit. I said: “Who are these for, then?”
‘And he said: “The big one is for Robbie Coltrane. And the other one is for the PG Tips chimpanzee.”
‘I said: ‘Based on that, I’ll probably have a medium.”’
