With Podcast Now History, Meghan Markle Plugs Into Hollywood’s Charity Circuit

It is a bittersweet rite of passage in Hollywood: once-popular actors, waking up to fine lines and fewer good roles on offer, start making the rounds of charity events, with the possibility of scooping up a product endorsement along the way. So unforgiving is an industry known to treat even Oscar winners like yesterday’s muffin that the swift rise and steady decline of former actress Meghan Markle’s foray into multimedia stardom was sadly predictable. Will any amount of kibitzing with bona fide stars spare the Duchess of Sussex from the reality that her once vaunted podcast is now just a heap of digital dust?Probably not. The nail fell in the coffin of the former “Suits” actress’s Archetypes podcast with a notice on the US Patent and Trademark Office’s website to the effect that the bid by Archewell Audio — the audio production company Ms. Markle created with her husband, Prince Harry — to trademark “Archetypes” as a name for podcasts “in the fields of cultural treatment of women and stereotypes facing women” has been officially droppedThat “abandonment” as the PTO lingo goes, did not occur out of the blue. In June Spotify, a digital music, podcast, and video service, and Archewell “mutually agreed to part ways,” effectively putting the kibosh on a podcast deal that Variety reported to be worth $20 million. “Archetypes with Meghan,” promoted as “a Spotify Original,” lasted for a single season. According to multiple reports, Ms. Markle did not create enough material to justify a full payout. Even after the power couple’s deal with Spotify collapsed, Archewell tried to renew its bid to trademark the name Archetypes with a “petition to revive” it filed with the USPTO. But, apart from corporate discontent with Ms. Markle’s limited output, the effort to claim an English word as her own might have been doomed from the start. That is because another company, called Project Miracle, had beaten the Sussexes to the punch by trademarking the word “archetypes” for business use in May 2018. In March 2023, the patent office rejected Archewell’s application on the grounds of “likelihood of confusion” with the existing trademark, though the action was “non-final.”Bureaucratic wrangling over a trademark name for a failed podcast project appears to be one more byproduct of Megxit, when after about two years of marriage Prince Harry and his wife Meghan stepped back as senior members of the British royal family. Since that time, the Duchess of Sussex has by fits and starts courted Hollywood royalty, which comes with a pecking order of its own. And she could be starting to find out that by seeking to have her cake and eat it too she is left with an empty plate. The duchess’s approach to Hollywood mirrors her engagement with social media: it is practically non-existent. Similarly, by ensconcing herself in the placid far periphery of Hollywood, a hundred miles away from it in Santa Barbara County, she is telegraphing an aloofness that worked better for Greta Garbo. That famously frosty Swede had the cinematic chops to call the shots. Another public appearance by Ms. Markle shows that she wants to be talked about, which to paraphrase Oscar Wilde is better than not being talked about. But showing up at a charity event hosted by Kevin Costner on the outskirts of Santa Barbara and mingling with former talk show hosts Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres really enough to spark a Monday morning watercooler chat? Not to knock Mr. Costner, whose last Oscar wins were for 1990’s “Dances with Wolves,” or others who attended Friday’s event, where a table could set attendees back $12,000. But a charity like One805 — a reference to the Santa Barbara area code — might be called a boutique cause, with “proceeds going towards supporting First Responders throughout the country.”It is not clear if or how any of the proceeds will be disbursed to emergency responders outside of Santa Barbara County, where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex live and where the charity is based. But contrast Ms. Markle’s one-evening show of support for the nation’s first responders — who are presumably already drawing salaries from their relevant federal or state employers — with the groundbreaking charity work of her spouse’s mother. By the time of her death at the age of 36, Diana, Princess of Wales, had proven herself to be an accomplished humanitarian, notably in the field of working to clean up the deadly debris left behind by landmines. Ms. Markle has yet to find her footing in any field, even though given her resume — which includes a star turn on the discontinued series “Suits”, and the fame that came with marriage to Harry — it theoretically should not be a daunting challenge. Speaking of actual suits rather than fictional ones, it Ms. Markle’s putative nemesis, Catherine, Princess Middleton, has been stepping out in elegant tailored suits recently. According to a royal style expert cited in Hello! Magazine, Kate Middleton’s image “has definitely taken on a more business-like feel ever since she became the Princess of Wales; her more serious wardrobe reflecting the gravitas of her heavyweight role within the Firm.”At the fundraiser in California on Friday night, Ms. Markle wore a loose-fitting black-and-white striped jacket which were it not for its Cruella de Vil-style high collar could easily be mistaken for a desultory faux-hip twist on the classic Snuggie. Sartorial misfires and hamfisted celebrity camaraderie aside, Hollywood is with few exceptions unkind to women in their 40s. The photos of Meghan at Mr. Costner’s feel-good charity fest show the duchess beaming but also defiantly not concealing visible wrinkle lines. In today’s inclusive and principled Hollywood no one is supposed to notice such things, but in reality everybody does. It is an industry that trades primarily on images — all the more so when you can no longer hide your own behind a (failed) podcast.

With Podcast Now History, Meghan Markle Plugs Into Hollywood’s Charity Circuit

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