Oh the who?manity

[MajGenl.Meade]

A Los Angeles mansion belonging to British model and actress Cara Delevingne has been devastated by fire.

The 31-year-old was not there at the time, as she is currently starring in a stage performance on London's West End.

BBC World News

[MajGenl.Meade]

The branding for American Riviera Orchard features a gold-coloured crest, with the word "Montecito" - the name of the upscale town where Meghan, Prince Harry and their children live near Santa Barbara, which is referred to as the "American Riviera".

A post on the American Riviera Orchard Instagram account features a brief, retro-style grainy video showing hands arranging flowers, Meghan stirring a pot in a kitchen, and a woman in a ballgown standing at the end of a long colonnade.

It remains unclear what exactly she is selling

BBC World "News"

[BoSoxGal]

A Los Angeles mansion belonging to British model and actress Cara Delevingne has been devastated by fire.

The 31-year-old was not there at the time, as she is currently starring in a stage performance on London's West End.

BBC World News

A single woman who lives with her two cats and just lost all her worldly possessions except, thankfully, the two cats who somehow survived the fire.

[BoSoxGal]

The branding for American Riviera Orchard features a gold-coloured crest, with the word "Montecito" - the name of the upscale town where Meghan, Prince Harry and their children live near Santa Barbara, which is referred to as the "American Riviera".

A post on the American Riviera Orchard Instagram account features a brief, retro-style grainy video showing hands arranging flowers, Meghan stirring a pot in a kitchen, and a woman in a ballgown standing at the end of a long colonnade.

It remains unclear what exactly she is selling

BBC World "News"

Sounds like the world famous Duchess of Sussex is returning to her Tig roots and selling lifestyle to the masses. Not unlike many who have come before her - Martha, Gwyneth, et al.

I admire Meghan’s ambition to work. Maybe it’s rooted in an unhealthy desire for attention, or maybe as the only child of a single mom, she cannot let go of the drive to work and earn no matter how many millions are already in the bank. Their security detail is doubtless expensive and even if they downsized they would need a lot of income and if they downsized she couldn’t sell lifestyle to the masses quite as effectively.

In any case I don’t see Meghan as any more useless and stupid than the thousands of other celebrities and influencers, and I tend to have a fair bit more compassion for her because the savage racist element in the UK has really vilified her to no end - including more than a few who run the Royal machine.

[ex-khobar Andy]

BSG gave us:

In any case I don’t see Meghan as any more useless and stupid than the thousands of other celebrities and influencers, and I tend to have a fair bit more compassion for her because the savage racist element in the UK has really vilified her to no end - including more than a few who run the Royal machine.

Agreed about the vapidity in general of most of those known as celebrities and influencers. "savage** racist element in the UK . . . " - well yes there is one but I don't think it is any savager than its American cousin. I read two UK newspapers daily - not cover to cover, I admit - and I do not recall knowing before the wedding itself that Meghan was half Black. If I had ever watched Suits I would have known because my understanding is that it's an element of that show. My recollection is that the majority of the UK press treated her as a breath of fresh air much as they did Diana and Fergie a generation ago and even Kate M whose parents were - gasp! shock! horror! - in business and not from old money. And the loudly complained-of speculation about the forthcoming sprog's skin colour depends entirely on context: new in-laws and grandparents speculate about hair (presence and hue) and nose and chin (ditto). Had the speculation continued with the thought (explicit or implicit) " . . . and if it's Black we'll send it to the kitchens" then of course it should have been condemned but there has never been any evidence off that.

**(Off topic) - before posting I reviewed this and I was surprised that most of it was 'strike through' text which I then removed. The culprit was this: I had copied BSG's quote beginning with 'savage racist element' but because I used it at the start of a sentence I had capitalized that initial 's' and placed it in square brackets which is normal style to indicate a minor edit to a quote, usually for formatting purposes. The BBS software interpreted that S in square brackets as the 'strike-through' command and behaved accordingly.

[BoSoxGal]

I guess you missed the ‘straight outta Compton’ and several other overtly racist headlines/stories in the UK tabloids.

If you want to see all that you didn’t pay attention to, there is a fair reporting of it in the documentary Harry and Meghan released on Netflix.

I read the Daily Mail and occasionally link through to other UK tabloids and the stories both before and after the wedding and especially post Megxit have been very ugly, with tens of thousands of nasty racist comments posted to the stories online.

Yes without doubt there is plenty of racial savagery here in the USA, but c’mon a great many of our right white wing citizens have roots in the UK. I think it’s fair to acknowledge that the UK has been racist longer than the USA and while very diverse it’s still and especially since Brexit plenty xenophobic. It may not be you or me, but we must be big enough to acknowledge our racist cousins especially when they are barking so loudly in the dooryard.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I think it’s fair to acknowledge that the UK has been racist longer than the USA

Well they've had longer to do it. And as a matter of fact, the UK had very few colored persons around until after WW2. Then . . . well, you're right. The working class kicked off when the West Indies folk and then the Pakistani people began to arrive in large numbers. A lot of rotten treatment there for sure. Began to subside when the people of color began to keep their stores open after 8pm and the great unwashed learned "well, they are useful eh?" Plus curry . . . very popular.

there is a fair reporting of it in the documentary Harry and Meghan released

fair and balanced I bet

Priceless!

Meghan - what a fox! I think she'd have been very popular with the hoi-poloi until the pair of them started throwing airs. And it was the tabloids who published the alleged news of someone in the palace speculating what color the children would be and igniting the "racist" storm.

I don't doubt there's a lot of racist a-holes in the UK. Granted. I never saw a black person in the UK until I moved to London in 1968 at the age of 17.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Yes I did miss the DM "Straight outta Compton' headline but my point is that this sort of opinion was not widespread and as I said "My recollection is that the majority of the UK press treated her as a breath of fresh air." I should probably have added 'much-needed' before 'breath' in that sentence. I think the majority of British people welcomed her and certainly did not see her as Wallis redux. Until she took poor old Harry (who, let's face it, is two pairs short of a full house) and persuaded him that he could be a Netflix multi-zillionaire without, of course, trading on his regal moniker.