Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance (Lifetime) - General Discussion

[formerlyfreedom]

While part of me recognizes the ridiculousness of this, there's a part of me that can't help myself...

Quote

There is another British royal wedding coming and another Lifetime TV movie on the way about the romance that led to it.

The cable network is prepping Harry & Meghan: The Royal Love Story, a film that chronicles the relationship between Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle, who announced their engagement in November. The project was mentioned briefly Sunday by Lifetime head of programming Liz Gateley during the cable network’s portion of TCA.

Harry & Meghan chronicles the courtship and love story between a beloved prince and his new fiancé. The film will examine the history of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from the moment they met after being set up by friends, through their initial courtship when they were able to keep their romance under wraps, and ultimately the intense global media attention surrounding their relationship and Meghan’s life as a divorced American actress.

I will bring the popcorn, the Fug Girls will bring the fashion, anyone else in?

[Dejana]

Can't wait! Lifetime's William & Kate movie was so bad and cheap--I loved the UCLA campus standing in for St. Andrews, because Southern California and Scotland look so similar! Wonder if they're calling up Camilla Luddington and that guy  to reprise their roles. 

I hope we get dueling versions again but I can imagine Hallmark is debating whether they can get away with a Harry/Meghan movie that doesn't mention race at all, even in passing (she's starred in a couple of their movies but I know in one, two white actors played her parents). An American woman marrying a European prince is a Hallmark story come to life, so they would be stupid to skip it.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Dejana

[Atlanta]

I thought the W&K movie (I think it was the Lifetime one) did a better job with casting actors who look more like the real life counterparts and was more realistic. This one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_%26_Kate:_The_Movie

I'm sure they'll cast all unknowns, but who would be your ideal Harry and Meghan?

[formerlyfreedom]

True confession time; I actually own the Lifetime version on DVD. And when William and Catherine got married, my mom and sister-in-law prepared a little 'party in a basket' for my gathering of one - very little will get me out of bed before dawn, but a royal wedding will!  The proof below; that is the 'centerpiece' which resides in a place of honor on a bookshelf near my computer.

[Atlanta]

So who are we casting?? I really hope they cast a natural redhead for Harry. I think Matt Smith (The Crown) suggested Selena Gomez for MM. Ha ha!

[EyewatchTV211]

http://ew.com/tv/2018/02/05/lifetime-casts-prince-harry-meghan-markle-movie/

[Dejana]

She looks enough like Meghan for a quickly-thrown together TV movie and Lifetime has done worse than Vancouver (presumably) standing in for Toronto. For Harry, hopefully the dye job is subtle.

[Atlanta]

13 hours ago, Dejana said:

She looks enough like Meghan for a quickly-thrown together TV movie and Lifetime has done worse than Vancouver (presumably) standing in for Toronto. For Harry, hopefully the dye job is subtle.

She does favor MM a bit and, yes, Dejana, I hope they don't go psycho with the hair dye. Sam (a.k.a. Jamie) from Outlander is a good example of a well done red dye job.

[emjohnson03]

Did you see they released a photo of them on set? They actually don't look too bad to me....I'm gonna watch but I'm curious to see how cheesy and quick the dialogue is....haha!

 

Edited February 10, 2018 by emjohnson03

[BW Manilowe]

I'm not sure I think the Meghan actress is all that great; yeah, she's close, but there might've been/might be someone closer. And the Harry actor needs his hair color changed; too much brown, not enough reddish, I think.

I'm a big fan of Hawaii Five-0. Right before filming started for this season, they had to cast 2 new actors, to replace Grace Park & Daniel Dae Kim who chose to leave after each had a contract dispute with CBS involving the current season.

Anyway, to replace Grace Park (& her Kono Kalakaua character), they hired a young actress named Meaghan Rath to play new Five-0 member Tani Rey. Before H50, Meaghan is probably best known for a role in Being Human. Ever since I've been watching H50 this season, I've liked Meaghan. And ever since we've seen Meghan Markle, I'd swear there's some vague resemblance. Meaghan (Rath) also has the same first name, but with an extra A in it, as the soon to be British Royal. And she's also mixed race, like Prince Harry's fiancée. But Ms. Rath is Southern Indian (as in being from the subcontinent of India, not as in being a "cowboys & Indians" player), Austrian & Jewish. Here's her photo.

[In2You]

Cara Santana looks similar to Meghan. They should've cast her

[Atlanta]

He needs more red. 

[GaT]

On 2/10/2018 at 7:35 AM, emjohnson03 said:

Did you see they released a photo of them on set? They actually don't look too bad to me....I'm gonna watch but I'm curious to see how cheesy and quick the dialogue is....haha!

 

Her wig is HORRIBLE

[Dejana]

[In2You]

I remember Burgess from H2O:Just Add Water. Damn he looks old as he'll.

That chick does not look like Meghan no matter how many times they say it.

[BW Manilowe]

12 hours ago, In2You said:

I remember Burgess from H2O:Just Add Water. Damn he looks old as he'll.

That chick does not look like Meghan no matter how many times they say it.

The actress cast as the Duchess of Cambridge doesn't look that much like her either. The face is wrong; I can't describe how, but it is. Also, in real life, the Duchess apparently has green/hazel eyes; it looks like the actress has brown eyes.

The guy playing Prince William/the Duke of Cambridge, in my opinion, has too much hair on top (which is saying a lot), but I think it's closer to the real color than the hair of the guy playing Prince Harry. It also looks like he--the Prince William actor--has brown eyes; the real Prince William has blue eyes. 

The little girl who, I assume, is playing Princess Charlotte is too old looking (to me) to play a kid who's still not even age 3 as the real life wedding continues to be planned, & her hair is too dark brown, also a little too long, compared to the real Princess Charlotte (at least based on the pictures we saw of her that were released on her first day of nursery school--her hair seems to be a bit lighter brown in real life, & worn closer to barely shoulder length, than the hair of the actress who's playing her). The young actress' hair color does match/is close to that of the actress playing the Duchess of Cambridge, in my opinion (Princess Charlotte's hair color is said to really be closer to her mom's than her dad's), but it looks, in the pic Lifetime released, like the Princess Charlotte actress has brown eyes & Princess Charlotte really has blue eyes, like her dad, late Grandma Diana, Grandpa Prince Charles, & Uncle Prince Harry. While I'm not necessarily thrilled the little girl playing Princess Charlotte in the movie appears to be older in real life, I understand it was probably hard to cast her (& probably Prince George) properly, what with child labor laws mandating how child actors are treated on sets, how long they can work per day, etc.

As for Prince George, that actor's probably the most physically similar to the real person he's playing. At least he has the accurate (or close enough to it) blond hair color (& the style's almost right, too) & he has the brown eyes of the real Prince George.

[Atlanta]

Some new stills

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5492629/First-pics-Lifetimes-Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markle-movie.html

[Dejana]

Teaser:

[Dejana]

A couple of new teasers:

 

 

Hmmm, I hope they don't play it like Party Prince Harry wasn't looking to settle down until he crossed paths with Meghan. He was a huge party boy in his life, to be sure, but seemingly moved past that phase well before the fateful blind date. Also, when she said she didn't know much about the British Royals in their interview, I don't she meant literally not recognizing who he was.

 

Behind the scenes footage:

[bijoux]

I wouldn’t be surprised by changes, honestly. When you look at it, there’s not really a movie to be made out of their relationship. They were both single, got introduced and hit it off, and then fell in love. Which is really great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not a movie.

[Dejana]

Well, that could have been considerably worse and the movie went there with respect to race (since when can Lifetime original movies drop the n-word?). I'd just read about Queen Charlotte this weekend but was surprised the movie mentioned her. The leads gave it a good effort and he sounds a lot like the real Harry.  There was a lot of embellishment about the relationship, of course, someone probably intervened after filming started to make TV Kate less judgey so there was a 180 with her attitude about 30-45 minutes in, and I can't wait for the scandalized Daily Fail headlines about this vulgar American production portraying the proposal happening in bed and months before the official story of the roast chicken.  Also, is Prince Louis secretly an elephant, since this thing had Kate already being pregnant with him at Pippa's wedding, an event occurring 11 months before his birth?

Edited May 14, 2018 by Dejana

[Minneapple]

That...was better than I anticipated. Longer than necessary, in parts boring and embarrassing, but not totally awful. The Meghan actress was actually quite good.

[Spencer Hastings]

I had to remind myself that this was a cheap Lifetime movie because I was about to start throwing some major sideeye at Kate from under my fascinator.

It wasn’t terrible.  I could have done without the lion and the pointless drama over petty things, but it’s a Lifetime movie so it could have been a lot worse. 

[Duke2801]

Yea this wasn’t nearly the cringe/snark-fest that I was anticipating!

The two leads actually has some nice chemistry. I was actually enjoying their flirty sarcasm during their first “blind date.” I was also glad they didn’t shy away from the race issue. I mean, it was nothing groundbreaking or hard-hitting, but they didn’t gloss over it the way I thought a Lifetime made-for-tv movie might. 

[roseslg]

They made Charles extremely likeable.  My friend, who is a Brit, said I must be the only one who liked him.  I had to clarify that I didn't like him, but the movie made him seem not so ghastly.   Some of the bits were so ghastly and over dramatized, but it was fun.  It is a lifetime movie. 

[EdnasEdibles]

This was not terrible. But it also amused me how the movie was 100% made up of conversations that no one would have any idea what was said so it was pure fiction. I did appreciate all of the digs against Megan's sister. Is Bella a real person? I would assume not.  I do remember reading about that racist pin so I'm not surprised that it was included in the movie.

I am not sure what I think of "The ghost of Harry's mom visits him as a lion to let him know he will be OK" story that they added in. 

[Brn2bwild]

One thing I did like: they did not shy away from addressing the issue that Meghan was actually giving something (many things) up to be with Harry.  I feel as though the press has just glossed over her having to do things like shut down her personal blog because wheeeee, she's marrying a prince.

[Shaynaa]

A nice tough.  Bella I think it was touching Meghan's hair and asking her how she got it so straight.  White people touching black women's hair is a thing.  It is such a thing that some folks made a video game about it.  Brain Break: The Game That Teaches White People to Stop Touching Black Women's Hair

I liked the attitude Meghan had on the blind date.  I really hope she was something like that in real life although obviously we will never know.  In real life wasn't the date in Toronto?  And then they had another date the next day? Or night?  I'm kind of dubious that Harry would have seriously entertained living in Toronto or LA.  It's a nice thought but I have trouble buying he would be that selfless. 

Meghan has a habit of pushing her hair behind her ears when she's nervous.  She does this so much that she is doing it in the photo on the cover of Andrew Morton's book.  I guess that was too real for the movie.

[Duke2801]

6 hours ago, EdnasEdibles said:

This was not terrible. But it also amused me how the movie was 100% made up of conversations that no one would have any idea what was said so it was pure fiction. I did appreciate all of the digs against Megan's sister. Is Bella a real person? I would assume not.  I do remember reading about that racist pin so I'm not surprised that it was included in the movie.

I am not sure what I think of "The ghost of Harry's mom visits him as a lion to let him know he will be OK" story that they added in. 

She was not a real person. 

[EdnasEdibles]

39 minutes ago, Duke2801 said:

She was not a real person. 

Thank you! Very interesting. However, this fact check did not answer whether Diana has been reincarnated as a Botswana lion. 

[Duke2801]

15 minutes ago, EdnasEdibles said:

Thank you! Very interesting. However, this fact check did not answer whether Diana has been reincarnated as a Botswana lion. 

BWAH!! 

BRB - off to write a Letter to the Editor of People mag to inquire about this.  

[Enero]

10 hours ago, EdnasEdibles said:

This was not terrible. But it also amused me how the movie was 100% made up of conversations that no one would have any idea what was said so it was pure fiction.

Indeed! If this was what happened in reality their relationship was very much a whirlwind. One moment they're on a blind date, the next she's meeting his family and they're hurling towards something more permanent which made it very reasonable why some (not the racists of course) had reservations about the relationship.

That said, this was completely unbelievable. Being about 10 minutes into it I decided I was watching another one of those cheesy Lifetime movies about a prince falling for a commoner which had no basis in reality and just "enjoyed" the ride because as you said this was "pure fiction". 

The acting was surprisingly descent and the actors had good chemistry, but overall the movie was not much different from any other "romantic" Lifetime/Hallmark movie. 

Edited May 15, 2018 by Enero

[Scarlett45]

7 hours ago, Shaynaa said:

A nice tough.  Bella I think it was touching Meghan's hair and asking her how she got it so straight.  White people touching black women's hair is a thing.  It is such a thing that some folks made a video game about it.  Brain Break: The Game That Teaches White People to Stop Touching Black Women's Hair

I liked the attitude Meghan had on the blind date.  I really hope she was something like that in real life although obviously we will never know.  In real life wasn't the date in Toronto?  And then they had another date the next day? Or night?  I'm kind of dubious that Harry would have seriously entertained living in Toronto or LA.  It's a nice thought but I have trouble buying he would be that selfless. 

Meghan has a habit of pushing her hair behind her ears when she's nervous.  She does this so much that she is doing it in the photo on the cover of Andrew Morton's book.  I guess that was too real for the movie.

I KNEW there was going to be a hair touching moment in this movie and I almost yelled at the tv when it happened. 

I liked the movie. The casting directors did a good job with likeness (EVERYONE from Meghan’s Mom to Camilla), the leads had good chemistry, it was a fun time. 

 

I will be up watching the wedding live, BUT this is also the woman who flew to London (from Chicago IL) celebrate the Diamond Jubilee in 2012. 

[Drumpf1737]

Quote

I will be up watching the wedding live, BUT this is also the woman who flew to London (from Chicago IL) celebrate the Diamond Jubilee in 2012. 

2

I'll be in London for the wedding. Bucket list impulse.

[VCRTracking]

On 5/14/2018 at 5:40 AM, roseslg said:

They made Charles extremely likeable.  My friend, who is a Brit, said I must be the only one who liked him.  I had to clarify that I didn't like him, but the movie made him seem not so ghastly.   Some of the bits were so ghastly and over dramatized, but it was fun.  It is a lifetime movie.

There's an episode in season 2 of The Crown where young Charles is sent to his father's old boarding school and you can't help feel sorry for the poor kid(and hate Prince Phillip). Also amusing that apparently in the movie's version HRH is both aware of the show and isn't a fan!

Like in the two Will and Kate TV movies(from Lifetime and Hallmark) they make the late Diana and her memory a big presence. In the Hallmark version where William watches the famous 1995 interview, the actress playing Diana actually looked into camera to tell the future William if he finds the love of his life to always "protect her" and that's what gets him to propose. I thought nothing could top the cheesiness of that.

I was wrong!

Edited May 17, 2018 by VCRTracking

[Scarlett45]

6 hours ago, Drumpf1737 said:

I'll be in London for the wedding. Bucket list impulse.

Score. 

[Cocoa Puff]

This movie was so cheesey lol but entertaining

[Atlanta]

Some parts of this were sooo heavy handed. There's also no way Harry ever contemplated moving to Canada. Her contract ended after 7 seasons anyway. And what about the chicken proposal?

Edited May 15, 2018 by Atlanta

[Dejana]

6 hours ago, Atlanta said:

Some parts of this were sooo heavy handed. There's also no way Harry ever contemplated moving to Canada. Her contract ended after 7 seasons anyway. And what about the chicken proposal?

This movie recreated the official account of the proposal towards the end, just added an earlier version not fit for the introductory interview from the palace,  lol. It's been theorized among some royal watchers that on that trip (IRL, I think it happened around her birthday?), Harry and Meghan either got engaged outright or reached an understanding, basically, that they would marry, but first, she had to wind down her old life and he had to get permission from the Queen. So, being a movie, they went with a sexy version of this.

[Pickles]

On 5/14/2018 at 1:41 PM, Shaynaa said:

A nice tough.  Bella I think it was touching Meghan's hair and asking her how she got it so straight.  White people touching black women's hair is a thing.  It is such a thing that some folks made a video game about it.  Brain Break: The Game That Teaches White People to Stop Touching Black Women's Hair

I liked the attitude Meghan had on the blind date.  I really hope she was something like that in real life although obviously we will never know.  In real life wasn't the date in Toronto?  And then they had another date the next day? Or night?  I'm kind of dubious that Harry would have seriously entertained living in Toronto or LA.  It's a nice thought but I have trouble buying he would be that selfless. 

Meghan has a habit of pushing her hair behind her ears when she's nervous.  She does this so much that she is doing it in the photo on the cover of Andrew Morton's book.  I guess that was too real for the movie.

The blind date was in London. I believe it was at a private club. 

[Tdoc72]

On 5/14/2018 at 5:15 PM, EdnasEdibles said:

Thank you! Very interesting. However, this fact check did not answer whether Diana has been reincarnated as a Botswana lion. 

That was my favorite bit of casting!

[Atlanta]

Diana as a lion jumped the shark. LOL

[In2You]

On 5/17/2018 at 10:39 PM, Pickles said:

The blind date was in London. I believe it was at a private club. 

Wasn't it when she was in London to see Serena play?

[Pickles]

1 hour ago, In2You said:

Wasn't it when she was in London to see Serena play?

Gosh, I am not sure. Possibly. I know she did see Serena play in London.

[greekmom]

On 5/14/2018 at 8:40 AM, roseslg said:

They made Charles extremely likeable.  My friend, who is a Brit, said I must be the only one who liked him.  I had to clarify that I didn't like him, but the movie made him seem not so ghastly.   Some of the bits were so ghastly and over dramatized, but it was fun.  It is a lifetime movie. 

Agreed. And Camilla as well even though I dislike both of them. 

Agreed that the movie was over the top cheesy but the one line that really irked me was Harry commenting to Charles why he didn't marry Camilla in the first place. I would never imagine the real Harry or William making that sort of comment with everything that had happened to their mother.  Never said their mother was a saint but I thought the line was a bit crass.

[truthaboutluv]

On 5/23/2018 at 9:13 PM, In2You said:

Wasn't it when she was in London to see Serena play?

I don't think she was in London specifically to see Serena play but she happened to be there while Wimbledon was happening and she attended two of her matches. I think Meghan was in London for some Ralph Lauren publicity thing, where she hung out with the woman who would set her up on the blind date with Harry (or that's the speculation anyway, since they never confirmed it).

Apparently it's a woman named Violet who goes back to childhood with Harry and William because her father has noble blood and they mingle in the same circle. She apparently works in New York for Ralph Lauren and first met Meghan in New York at some Ralph Lauren event and they became friends. 

Edited June 3, 2018 by truthaboutluv

[Humbugged]

On 5/18/2018 at 3:39 AM, Pickles said:

The blind date was in London. I believe it was at a private club. 

It was at the main Soho House .There is a bunch of them now including Toronto where she was a member.

 

Nick Jones the guy who founded the club attended the wedding with his daughter as his wife Kirsty Young was anchoring the BBC coverage of the wedding

[Dr.OO7]

I've been rewatching it thanks to Amazon.

It's. . .not bad. As stated, the leads have good chemistry. It's certainly better than the next one, and although it hasn't been released yet, probably better than the upcoming third. They really should have just stuck with these two actors.

Unfortunately, pretty much every William/Kate/Harry/Meghan scene makes me since nowadays, considering how everything's turned out.