Last month, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex—a.k.a. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle—signed a production deal with Netflix said to be worth as much as $140 million. I didn’t mention it here because there was no locally relevant reason to. Now, however, the Sun is reporting that among the content the couple will create is a reality show following them around for three months as they work on charitable endeavors. They did not confirm it to the Sun, but it certainly would make Netflix’s outlay more understandable. Why else would anyone pay that much for “documentaries, docu-series, feature films, scripted shows and children’s programming” from people with minimal producing experience?
Since the couple lives in Montecito, they seem likely to shoot here—a glimpse of their life will be the spoonful of sugar that makes the charity stuff more palatable. Their predicament is this: there’s only so much of their $14.65 million estate they’ll be willing to show (for security reasons, lest they foster resentment, and because they’re on the record as craving privacy), but there’s only so much disruption Montecito will put up with before the initial leave-them-be goodwill evaporates.
UPDATE: They say it’s not so. From People: “A spokesman for the couple denies the claims in U.K. paper The Sun, which said that the couple wanted to give people a “glimpse into their lives” while highlighting some of the causes most important to them. ‘The Duke and Duchess are not taking part in any reality shows,’ the spokesman [said].”
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