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Rumors of her The Gentlemen involvement have been greatly exaggerated.
Duchess Meghan Markle is an actress as well as a businesswoman.
As she looks to return to acting, some are using this to their advantage.
Did Netflix “leak” a fake rumor about her involvement in a show to boost interest? It sure looks that way.
Something about this only makes sense as a PR move
The Telegraph reports that Meghan is decidedly not in talks to join Guy Ritchie’s The Gentleman for Season 3.
Back in August, reports first came out suggesting that Meghan was neck deep in discussion to join the Netflix series.
This makes a lot of sense. Meghan is an actress, recently returned to the UK, and might bring a personal touch to a show about a duke who served on combat deployments in Afghanistan.
(Her husband, Prince Harry, is a duke who served on combat deployments in Afghanistan.)
However, there was never any confirmation of the talks. In fact, numerous reports have cast doubt upon whether any part of this was true.
“Some people in her camp feel she was used to help promote season two,” an inside source told The Telegraph.
The insider explained that this is “because they knew it wasn’t as good as the first season and had already commissioned a third.”
According to the source: “It’s the oldest marketing trick in the book: get a big name to read a script, then leak that you’re ‘in conversation’ with them when, in reality, nothing is particularly far along.”
The insider dished: “The whole thing left a bit of a sour taste in the Sussex camp’s mouth.” One would imagine so!
“Needless to say, Netflix got what it wanted: huge viewing figures for season two and a lot of publicity,” the source pointed out. (And, sure enough, Netflix renewed The Gentlemen for Season 3.)
‘The prospect of seeing her return to acting will drive big audiences’
By all accounts, Meghan is looking to pick up on acting.
Her kids are still young, but neither Archie nor Lilibet are newborns.
However, The Telegraph reports that Meghan is currently “very cautious” about reading scripts, not sharing them even with friends.
The fear is that news of her potential involvement in a show or film could leak.
Certain tabloids that cater to people who hate her — British tabloids, primarily — would have a field day, and could disrupt a project or sabotage her potential casting.
“Everyone knows that whatever Meghan’s first film or show turns out to be, it’s going to attract huge interest,” the insider cautioned.
“The prospect of seeing her return to acting will drive big audiences,” the source predicted. “And ultimately, someone — whether it’s Netflix, Amazon, or another studio — is going to make a lot of money from it.”
However, that won’t be the case if things leak and the project gets derailed before things come together.
Meghan has years of history of working with Netflix, but those business ties have waned recently.
Perhaps it’s time for her to star on another platform. It will be exciting to see where she makes her comeback.
