The passage of time has provided a degree of relief. Since Meghan and Harry have stepped down as senior royals and moved to California, the fear that the Royal Family itself would be implicated has receded. Partly, this is because there has been a growing awareness within the general public that Meghan and Harry are both mavericks. They are also increasingly perceived in Britain as fragile personalities whose mental health demanded that they be allowed to do as they please. In America, of course, they are celebrated as freedom fighters who have broken free of the shackles of royalty and are now at liberty to pursue the humanitarian and commercial activities they were hampered from doing in Britain. In fact, this is only partly true. There is no better platform for humanitarianism than constitutional monarchy, but there have been human elements governing their departure which have received scant attention, especially in the American press. By Harry’s own account, he has struggled with mental health issues, and though Meghan has been less forthcoming in making admissions of that kind, the evidence of her blogs and their conduct suggests that she too has personality issues. It is these mental health concerns that have allowed the Royal Family and the powers-that-be at Buckingham Palace to cut them slack. What would otherwise have been intolerable has been made tolerable by these considerations, but the idea that being royal turns you into a victim entrapped in a cruel world where you aren’t even allowed to make money could not be more ludicrous. Even anti-monarchists accept that being royal is a great privilege.
CHAPTER 9
The palace had known, for a year before Meghan and Harry’s bombshell announcement in January 2020, that they were making plans to achieve what they would later call ‘financial independence’ by entering the commercial world. This was something no member of the Royal Family who was publicly funded had hitherto done, and that the possibility existed that Meghan’s ultimate aim was to enter American politics, which was also incompatible with her royal status.
They found out easily enough, because Meghan had flown to the United States in 2019 and met with the three leading members of her business team from when she was a jobbing actress. They were Nick Collins, Andrew Meyer and Rick Genow.
Nick Collins is Co-Head of Talent at the Gersh Agency, Inc., a talent and literary agency ranked sixth of the top agencies in the country. It is the only agency which has never diversified from its core purpose, the representation of acting and literary talent, although in the last decade it has taken active steps to plump up its divisions, which include Talent, Alternative, Books, Branding, Film Finance, Literary, Personal Appearance, Production, and Theatre. Its primary client base is what The Hollywood Reporter calls ‘a roster of steadily working actors whose faces might be more recognizable than their names.’ It has 2,000 clients, 175 employees with 75 agents and 16 partners, with offices in LA and New York. Founded in 1949 in the golden age of Hollywood by Phil Gersh, his sons Bob and David are the Co-Presidents and the Senior Managing Partner is Leslie Siebert. It also has a reputation for an aggressive left-wing political profile, and became involved in controversy when it fired one of its best known actors, James Woods, by email on the 4th July, 2018. He accused it of political bias, stating that they had stopped representing him because he is a Republican. Their signature clients are Kristen Stewart, Kyle Chandler, Adam Driver, J.K. Simmons, Taylor Schilling, and Patricia Arquette, who has such an impeccable liberal profile that she apologised publicly for having been born white and privileged, and took part in the Women’s March against President Trump.
Nick Collins started out as an assistant to Bob Gersh in 2005, since when his rise within the company has been stellar. He became an agent in 2007, a partner in 2015, and was appointed Co-Head of Talent in February 2018. His clients include Courtney B.Vance and Eric McCormack of Will and Grace. He is regarded as sharp, bright, reliable, and possessing great taste - something which matters greatly to the stylish and tasteful Meghan, though she makes an exception for her husbands, both of whom have been stylistic messes.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Andrew Meyer is listed, along with his partner Steves Rodriguez, as one of the top twenty five business managers in Hollywood. Meyer handles the talent while Rodriguez deals with music and production. The former’s clients include Ellen Pompeo and Kathryn Hahn. They have a reputation for being good managers. Like Gersh, they are capable and reliable but their clients are not generally of the first rank.
Harvard graduate Rick Genow is listed as one of Hollywood’s top hundred lawyers. He is a partner in Stone, Genow, Smelkinson,
