Something to consider: Prince William is likely trying to throw his weight around and bully the British Academy, an organization of which he serves as honorary president. William’s tasks as BAFTA president include “attending premieres” and “attending the annual BAFTA ceremony.” He barely does either of those tasks. The last time he attended the BAFTAs was in 2020, and people made jokes about him and the royal family and Prince Thin-Skinned couldn’t handle it. A month ago, we also heard that he was trying to bully the BAFTAs into moving their telecast off of the BBC, because he was so engorged with rage about the BBC airing The Princes and the Press. Now Eden Confidential has this very odd update: BAFTA CEO Amanda Berry is leaving her position, and it has something to do with William.
As president of Bafta, the Duke of Cambridge has had a big impact on the film and television industry, with his criticisms of the awards’ lack of diversity leading to a major shake-up. Now, however, the boss of Bafta, Amanda Berry, has resigned, with her critics claiming that she had become ‘over-familiar’ with the royals. ‘Berry is jumping before she was pushed,’ claims my source.
‘She’s been allowed to leave gracefully. Berry has rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way over the years and became far too familiar with the royals. She liked to give the impression that William and Kate were her friends.’
Berry, 60, who has been chief executive since 2000, was heavily criticised for handing the Doctor Who star Noel Clarke an outstanding contribution to cinema award this year shortly before sexual misconduct allegations against him came to light. The month after Clarke got the gong, more than 20 women came forward with claims against the 46-year-old.
Bafta suspended the award and Clarke’s membership, but was criticised for not having looked into his alleged conduct more thoroughly.
It followed Prince William’s criticism of the awards’ lack of diversity in 2020. Nominees in the four acting categories were all white, while no women were nominated for best director, for the seventh year in a row. Berry says she won’t leave for more than a year, with Bafta chief operating officer Kevin Price quitting first. ‘As we approach Bafta’s 75th anniversary, I have reflected on what I, Kevin and the truly brilliant team at Bafta have achieved, and it feels like the right time to plan to pass on the mask.’
A spokesman denied that Berry’s departure was connected to Clarke or her royal relationships.
I guess I don’t really speak the language of royal bullsh-t, but it feels like “she was over-familiar with the royals” is some kind of coded language for “she didn’t know her place” or “she told William to f–k off” or “she considered herself William’s ally and he tossed her over in some kind of unhinged power struggle.” Your guess is as good as mine, all I know for sure is that something big is happening behind-the-scenes and it involves BAFTA president Baldemort.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.
They way they are trying to frame it to make William the champion of diversity….my gosh.
It seems to have sunk in to them that he’s seen as a racist so they are scrambling to change the narrative even if they have to make it up. I doubt any of this has to do with him but who knows.
You sound perfectly right to me . Willy cares about diversity about as much as I care about him or his wife, which is absolutely no amount whatsoever
The same “I’m bored of racism” and “we are very much not a racist family” Bulliam is now a diversity champion?? Sure, pull the other one. I’m sure his own brother has plenty to say about that. On the other hand, as Harry rightly said, spaaace!
That’s what it seems to me as well. Thing is, we never hear or see anything anti-racist from him. Quite the opposite; there’s a lot of coded and not-so-coded racism from him (recently we had the complaints about African over population, the colonialism Cosplay Christmas card, the praise of the Craig family).
Until we actually hear some anti-racism from his own mouth, stuff like this is obnoxiously transparent.
Which makes me really wonder if Baldemort is worried that Harry is going to out him as the royal racist.
I don’t believe her departure has anything to do with the royals. The BAFTAS are an independant organization and sure they have to keep diplomatic relationships with the royals but that’s it. I doubt William was ever involved in the politics or the running of the organization. It sounds like a move to give credit to William if the awards are more diverse next year because he did a speech.
Agree. THR wrote about her stepping down a week ago. Richard Eden works hard to find ways to insert & embiggen the royals, especially W & K, into things.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/amanda-berry-stepping-down-as-bafta-ceo-1235062206/
I find this line very curious “ ‘Berry is jumping before she was pushed,’ claims my source”. Now in my interpretation this means that she was ready to do what the royals wanted.
I don’t think so either. But I do think William is trying to spin this to his advantage and make it look like he pushed her out because he’s such a big champion for diversity. *eyeroll*
When the 2020 nominations came out on January 7th, Marc Samuelson, a BAFTA chairman, criticized the lack of diversity along with other industry people, social media, etc. Will brought it up in his BAFTA speech in February 2020 after all the other outcry and coincidentally after pushing the Sussexes out. Since Eden seems to write the opposite of the truth, it looks more like Berry just wants to retire from the position and Eden wants Will to appear important and caring about diversity.
The Guardian has a number of articles about the Noel Clark story. I didn’t see where Berry was singled out for heavy criticism anymore than BAFTA as a whole.imo LOL, Will, champion of diversity and women.
Huh, “overly familiar with the royals.” That means two wildly different things in my mind, depending on how you look at it:
1) she didn’t “know her place” and was exactly that – overly familiar with the royals, not deferential enough, thought she and William were equals, defending him to other people who had some issues with his statements (no one needs to hear the prince of the “very much not a racist family” talk about diversity), etc. they want someone who could push back a little and she wasn’t doing that.
So kind of like the line from West Wing, where they set CJ up to lie to the press by not giving her the updated information because they weren’t sure if she could lie to the press. Here, they aren’t sure if Amanda can push back on the royals, and they want someone who can.
2) She “didn’t know her place” and wasn’t deferential enough again, but with the opposite result – she DID push back and refused to make an issue of the winners mocking the royals, or to have them sign that stupid “honor codicil” or whatever it was William wanted signed, and William instituted a…..a what? a power coup? That seems like too much work for him, he’s been busy enough smearing his black SIL in the press for years now, organizing the ouster of the BAFTA president seems like a lot on top of that. And does he even have the influence?
So basically i have no idea. Maybe this is just mentioned in context with William so that Eden can pretend he has more info than he has and that William has more power than he has. The more I think about it, the more I think this is the most likely scenario.
I would go with number 2 because I dont think a top exec at the Baftas for over 20 years would put up with bullsht from Willie. She pushed back and said to herself, I am 60 and would rather retire than deal with amateurs and joke royals who feign work.
I took it to mean that Bafta does not want to be seen as influenced by the royals in any way and this lady is too involved with Bill and Cathy.
I think 2. Isn’t this exactly what William did to Meghan? Pushed her out because she wasn’t awed by his magnificence?
Also, this rot about him have tremendous influence on the film industry and spearheading its diversification? Pffft!
I’d go with 2 as well. William pulled his bullsh!t, she kowtowed, and others got angry at the BAFTAs caving to Billy the Basher.
that’s the first theory lol! #2 is that she did not kowtow to him.
This likely has much more to do with the Noel Clarke stuff and the fact that she’s been in that position for 20 years and they likely need a change anyway. William is irrelevant to the British film industry despite his sycophants claiming otherwise.
How dare you Nic!! How dare you! The future future king is in charge of all!!! Everyone must bow down to him and do his bidding! Irrelevant! Well I never! *clutches pearls in distress*
William seems irrelevant to any project he takes on unfortunately. He and his wife seem to have the same world influence: none.
whatever the reason everyone is talking about this and not about rapist nonce andrew…so something is working!
So was she supposed to investigate award-winners? I thought a panel decided winners. She’s not law-enforcement, so why is she expected to investigate charges now? It’s a very confusing article. It makes it sound like she name-dropped the royals but didn’t really know them well. That makes it sound like William really is super-uninvolved as president. Is it supposed to make it sound like Will is getting rid of her because she of lack of diversity in the awards?
I read that Hollywood Reporter linked by a commenter. I think PW has nothing to do with her leaving; I think it’s more to do with her simply feeling it’s time to move on. She’s had quite a career. I think whatsisname is simply trying to insert PW into the narrative even though as royal patron he does sod all.
They were looking to make her look bad they even confused themselves in trying to blame her when it is the exact opposite.
This tells you the source is KP..
This is one of The Guardian’s stories (there is another one from May 5th).
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/apr/30/how-bafta-spent-two-weeks-grappling-with-noel-clarke-dilemma
The DM and other British Media/rotas/commentators really have a big pattern of revising history from older stories. Banking on people not remembering. I know, old news. Eden is the one that put out that bs story about recently revealed documents showing that the American Friends of the Royal Foundation of the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge (really long foundation name) raised all sorts of money after Sussexit. And fudged all sorts of numbers. The foundation hasn’t filed their 2020 990 yet. The 2019 990 wasn’t filed until March of 2021. $125,000 went to the Early Years thingamijig. ??? That was one expensive printer. Making Will (& Kate) look good involves a lot of fudgery.
I believe that Will thinks ‘diversity’ is another slang word for uni. Bill Dunderhead hears da versity and thinks of his St. Andrew’s days.
I don’t pay attention to BAFTA politics – did William really cause a shake up over diversity? That’s hard for me to believe, but I don’t know. And yeah, “over-familiar” along with ” she liked to give the impression that William and Kate were her friends” is an interesting reason for getting the boot.
William made a speech at the 2020 BAFTA Film awards calling for more diversity after people complained that all the nominees were white. And the speech was leaked to Dan Wootton days before the event.
Thanks Amy Bee, sounds like shake-up was already happening.
That reads like William definitely was throwing his weight around, pretending his is in charge insteqd of a figurehead who rarely shows up. She may have been pissed he leaked his speech to Wooten for PR, raised the issue, and William has been trying to get her out since.
@NOTA – I think you hit the nail on the head and the only “over-familiarity” may have been her giving Willnot a good bollocking for getting KP to leak to Wootton. Now he can put the anti-racism crown on his head without doing anything to actually deserve it or help END racism within the BAFTA elite.
Ah, the Woke William phase! From what I remember, William made lots of noise about how he would shock the voters with his speech about racism, but he ended up with some variation of being “disappointed” and “we must do better”, with no suggestions on how exactly that change might come about, or what the root of the problem was other than the optics.
I think this was around the same time as his “racism is so over, I’m bored by it” thing but can’t recall if that was this speech or not.
He was much mocked, especially because that same night Joaquim Phoenix had a much more powerful excoriation of privilege that kind of put him to shame by comparison. But would the academy ever be embarrassed enough to try to get rid of William as their royal representative? I mean, he barely attends the minimum of events. Or maybe… tinfoil tiara time…he was trying to influence the nominations, ensuring Cambridge-connected projects get nominated? Is that possible?
@Jay, yes! I remember that we could see how angry William was after Joaquin’s speech, because he knew he’d been upstaged before he even said a word.
And he couldn’t even improv and add “more powerful” language or whatever to it after he was up at the podium, because he’d already leaked it to Wooten! He is such an asshole, constantly shooting himself in the foot.
In any case, I’m annoyed that the whole thing comes across as “William is an outspoken champion of diversity!”
Which is strange because Kensington Palace was the only court not to release their diversity numbers.
Exactly Myra! The absolute gall and privilege to give this speech when he can’t even release his own diversity numbers! This doesn’t get talked about enough. What a complete jack*ass.
@Myra and @Jais, I agree, and it’s so frustrating that Bill is never called out for all of his bullsh!t. But I choose to believe that someday (hopefully sooner than later) he will be, and that it will be an epic takedown. I’m probably wrong, but a girl can dream.
We can see through you, Billy. We saw how you continue to treat your biracial sister-in-law and nephew and niece. Kindly f**k off with lecturing people on diversity.
Other than that, the article is weird. Awards are given out by vote, so how on earth is it Berry’s fault that award nominees and winners were white?
It says Berry has been CEO since 2000 and is 60 years old, so it seems to me like she reached a crossroads in her life and career and wants a change. I doubt it has anything to with William.
I was thinking that too – if she’s been the president for 20 years, maybe she just feels its time to move on.
Yeah 21 years is a long time in any job. She may have decided independently to move on and this royal angle is being brought in because William wants to feel powerful/like he’s got a lot of weight at the BAFTAs idk
If she just decided to move on then it’s even more appalling of Willie to throw her under the bus after 20 years of service, all so he can embiggen himself. He’s an awful person.
Yep. That’s the crux of it. He is an awful person.
The reason she left literally has nothing to do with William. He likes inserting himself into things that do not concern him and one day he will meet someone who’s gonna slap him down
She doesn’t look 60 to me, in fact I thought she was Kate age , so I was going to say he probably hit on her, she blew him off and now he is incandescent about it. Also maybe Kate finds her threatening because she appears confident and put together without rows and rows and rows of buttons.
Actually what I really think is she said to Willy boy. You don’t actually do anything for the baftas. He became engorged with rage and everytime she saw him after that he still looked raged about it.lol
That’s it exactly. And of course Willy boy’s go-to for KP leaks is….Dan Wootton. I wonder if she found out and they argued? That would be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Maybe she actually suggested to the board that they move the Baftas from the BBC to a lesser viewed station (at Burger King’s urging) and the board rightly gave her the heave-ho. I can’t believe that William is popular with that group — they laughed long and hard at the Prince Harry jokes. Remember William’s melt-down after that? I think those talented creatives want someone new who will blank the Burger King.
I don’t think William has any real authority over the BAFTAS. He is a ribbon cutter, of sorts. Just ceremonial. Berry’s departure might have something to do with Noel Clarke though. There could be truth to that.
I hate that dress of Kate’s. The prominence of the breast area is weird
She had it made special for an evening engagement in a conservative Muslim-heavy nation. Complaints were said to be sent through diplomatic channels about it. She went to all the trouble to have gold flowers on it, related to the flower of the nation, but took a bad cosplay leftturn in the execution.
Ooooff thank you. That dress has bothered me every time I see it in a picture. It reminds me of the top of an anarkali style outfit with an identity crisis. I recall the comments from local columnists about Kate’s wishy washy clothes during their recent India trip. In that case at least, the host nation didn’t seem to care that Kate was trying yo homage their traditional fashion into weird fusion outfits. The consensus was she looked terribly boring.
It is one of my favorites that she has worn but a disappointment because as NOTA noted, the audience was completely wrong for this dress. It boggles my mind she chose that dress to wear – very offensive. As usual, Kate did not do her research because she does not care.
I like it too but I tend to like her formal wear more than her everyday but even that’s graded on a curve. I prefer the one shouldered white dress in the last thumbnail though.
I am loathe to ever defend Kate, but I think in this case, a staff member should have known and been very clear with the designer about that country’s protocol, and the “requirements,” and then Kate could choose fabric, color, etc. A team of KP staffers even goes a few months before the tour to do recon, so it isn’t as if they couldn’t have made absolutely sure that Kate was dressed appropriately.
I mean, many people, certainly most of us here, would probably have read up on it beforehand just to get a sense of the place we were going to, out of curiosity and to learn a bit about the culture, but I doubt Kate gave it a thought until she stepped off the plane because she’s Kate.
I’m not absolving Kate, Lorelei. She knew she was going to a conservative nation. She chose to work closely with the designer on this gown. It was not up to her 22 year old stylist, chosen because she doesn’t challenge or outthink Kate, to be in charge of what a 35 year old woman wore.
I’ve said this before, but the puffy white fabric and the square yoke under the breasts makes it read very “beer maiden” to me, which totally clashes with the rest of the dress. If they had just used the same fabric for the entire dress and skipped the boob outline, it would have been INFINITELY better.
The same guy that refused to release diversity figures for his own household? Yeah, he’s definitely had a big impact on the film industry. Richard Eden is the ultimate groupie.
BAFTA politics aside, I notice that Ms Berry is 20 years older than Buttons McMutton and looks, if anything, younger. Dear me.
As pointed out above, it could simply be that she wants a change of pace after being at the job for 21 years but if we go down the gossipy route, “over familiar with the royals” could mean she thought she was W&K’s friend instead of someone they interacted with once a year in public. And her acting like that pissed W&K off so she went. But is that really enough to have someone leave their job of 21 years? I don’t think so tbh…
I am leaning more and more towards the retirement route.
Yeah – it sounds like a collection of things came together and someone decided to hang a bitchy Christmas bauble from the whole thing. 21 years in the job is a long time, BAFTAs So White needs a shake-up, the Noel thing was a total **** up and ‘thinks she’s friends with the royals’ is just putting the boot in.
It can’t be that bad as she’s not leaving for a year yet. If this is Willy’s way of trying to demonstrate that he has power then it’s a bit of a fail….oh, wait…
Amanda Berry just looked more polished and elegant on the red carpet. She diminished the kate.
She’s 60? She looks younger than Kate 😲
She looks fantastic. Far more chic and elegant than Kate could dream of.
I thought she was around the same age as Kate. 😬😬
She looks pretty great for 60, I agree! Poor Kate. lol
Liked to give the impression that W and K are her friends….
So was she bullying the BAFTAs into dropping the BBC (for her *wink* friends) and folks were like…..Stop It! If you’re going to enforce William’s policy over what’s best for the BAFTAs then leave.
It seems odd to couple this story with William at all, unless “overfamiliar” hints at some kind of corruption? Maybe Berry was purporting to speak for the royal family or set up some meetings, and overplayed her hand? Who knows.
It just feels to me like they setting up a reason for TOB not to attend the ceremony. And hey, maybe president of BAFTA could be a lovely landing spot for someone loyal to the Cambridges?
Someone ‘loyal’ who will ensure no awards for The Crown or any productions from Archewell.
Goodness knows there might be some former or disgraced royal/Tory staffers who might be clamouring for the job!
Stephen Case might need a job.
I can see Carrie Symonds trying to get her sticky little fingers all over this.
They boned.
Every little thing, taken together, leads me to this conclusion. I don’t think that the bonage I the reason for her leaving, and it may just be FOB kind of bonage (when in sight, hook ups just seem to happen) I think it just “rubbed everyone the wrong way”, as those things tend to do too coworkers, wives, and arts patrons.
“the duke of cambridge has had a huge impact on the film and television industry”
🤣😂🤣😂🤣
@Taris, same (:
She probably got fired for the jokes from the 2020 BAFTAs and any support for anti-monarchy shows. Overly familiar means she didn’t know her place. Not enough boot licking for their liking.
Oh Very interesting, I wonder if Harry was up for a BAFTA for The me you can’t see and William put his fott down, and that is why she is leaving . so much to spectlate on
@Lili, idk which shows are eligible, etc., but if it is in fact true that Harry was slated for a nomination but William interfered to have it stopped…wow. That would truly be an enormous scandal for William to overcome, much worse than any story about his infidelity, imo.
Why does it look like Kate was trying to get closer to her so she could feel like she’s smart/same level and then she switched to Will who’s really the one with clout. Also in the pics, she’s ignoring Kate. But these are pictures, the videos really tell the truth.
I think it’s a combo, she’s been there for to long, they want it fresh for 22, she overplayed something before and the sexual misconduct was the last straw. Honestly she looks more like a c. Jenner type to me in the top pic but has a better fashion sense than copykate any day. I also think that they added Will name to seem like they’re more powerful than they actually are. This is the whole reason why the rota in almost every article now mentions they moved the Xmas Carol to ITV, to make it seem like they’re doing more than what they actually are. will can’t put no one out with everyone knowing his secret. Will and Kate image hangs on they’re the future and they’re doing so much and has all this power. But the reality is so much different but as long as the public don’t know. It’s all good
Oh I see it coming from a mile away – the next CEO will be a POC and despite that individual’s achievements and merits, Bill will take credit for diversifying the org. It’s an easy win with little effort on his part.
Are we really supposed to believe that William, who can’t be counted on to turn up to most of the red carpet events, is pulling strings in board rooms? The only thing he’s been doing recently is begging for Royal Lodge & a second helicopter.
“Berry has rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way over the years and became far too familiar with the royals. She liked to give the impression that William and Kate were her friends.’” I think I’m halfway decent at reading royal/RR double-speak, so I take that to mean she was a problem for years, cozied up to the Cambridges & then tried to use that to avoid getting pushed out. And the BAFTAs were like, “nope.” At this point, the patronage relationship is more a favor to the royals than the organizations.
So. Is it just me? Or in that top picture, she’s not really smiling, but just gritting her teeth to get it over with?
Anybody else?
I thought that, too! Also, Willie looks like he’s pointing to himself and saying “Yar, I brought my ‘royal sceptre’ – it’s right here. Wanna see? HAR HAR HAR”
I’m kind of disturbed by the idea that non-legal organizations are supposed to do criminal investigations of people and then they’re held responsible for the criminal actions of these people. What is that??
They’re not supposed to do a criminal investigation. They don’t have the power to do so, nor has anyone suggested they ever did. There is no criminal investigation at all at this point.
Apparently what happened was the BAFTAs announced in advance that he’d receive the award, then they got dozens of emails detailing his alleged abuse. They said they didn’t have enough reason to investigate, so they gave him the award anyway. That prompted a number of women to come forward with more information about his alleged abuse, after which the BAFTAs took back the award & suspended his membership. They basically handled it in the worst way possible.
Why does his tux look so awful??
Because he’s wearing it on a day that ends in y.
That was snortworthy @ Lorelei! LOL
I wouldn’t be surprised if Willie threw his weight around and tried to get BAFTA’s to switch to itv. He seems to think he can just click his fingers and get what he wants. I don’t know if that’s why she left, but it seems like Willie might be using her departure as a warning shot to bafta that if he doesn’t get his way, he will continue to slander whoever he wants.
The reality is that Willie has been throwing BAFTA’s under the bus for the last 2 years ever since his diversity speech went down like a fart in a elevator. Then there were the jokes about the royals. It sounds like Willie and bafta have been engaged in some conflict for sometime.
Idk what’s going on with this but I do agree febpisces that will would like be able to use his position and make it look like he’s in charge of BAFTA. Is it me or does he seem to want to control it more or at least be present ever since Meghan came along. She’s an actress and from that world so William wants to be like look I can control this too. Honestly, my dislike of William may have created this scenario but it doesn’t seem too off base.
I bet she did suck up to William but then assumed he was her actual friend so he demanded her removal and the BAFTAs complied. I don’t know why people are inventing these scenarios where British institutions stand up to the royals when all the evidence we have is the opposite. All of these storied institutions are bootlickers.
The palace fiction writers are trying to rehabilitate Bill’s racist image, so they’ll latch on to any story they can to promote him as a champion of diversity. It’s not working though, the whole world saw what he did to Meghan, and we will not forget.
You have to be fluent in RWNJ to understand the point of Eden writing this, but it’s to position William as a critic of the woke BAFTAs who mishandled their own “woke” scandal and be seen standing up to liberal “Hollywood” by criticizing them for not leaving up to their own standards. With a reminder of William the Not Woke doing the Tories’ bidding by piling on thr BBC.
@Blujfly, I feel stupid for having to ask this since it’s probably something obvious, but what does “RWNJ” stand for?
Right wing nut Job
Thank you, Courtney!
Berry’s black dress with the translucent/netted sleeves is A-mazing. Absolutely stunning. Poor Kate, she gets outdone, fashion-wise, everywhere she goes.
I really hope she told William to f**k off, because some really, really needs to. He and his family think far too highly of themselves.
Are they being purposely obtuse with this article? William has a whole pedophile for an Uncle who is still living generously off the public’s teat WITH all his fraudulent medals.
Here’s my issue with the criticism of this woman. How are you going to try and come for her giving an award to someone BEFORE these allegations came out?
The entertainment industry on both the Salty Isle and here in America make me sick. They love throwing women under the bus for upholding what they all uphold, which is the patriarchy. And there is a long list of people whom we all tote as our faves who ALSO shouldn’t be getting awards or should be shunned, but because they are whatever trendy SJW idiotic thing us sheeples are supporting, they get away with the BS.
It’s all very faux outrage, and at the crux of it women’s stories who have are experiencing these horrible crimes against them are used for some glory points, but no work is really being done.
Shameful.