Before the Duchess of Sussex’s With Love, Meghan was released, Meghan-haters latched onto a particularly stupid criticism: that Meghan was “copying” Pamela Anderson. Pamela has been part of the gardening/reno/cooking space for several years now, mostly in Canadian-only shows. Pamela’s new cooking show – Pamela’s Cooking With Love – just debuted on Canadian television on February 26th, a week before Netflix began streaming WLM. Remember, WLM was originally supposed to air in January. I’m sure the haters still would have found a way to twist it into “Meghan is copying Pamela,” but given the fact that Pamela’s trailer and show aired first chronologically, that’s made it easy for smooth-brained people to scream about how, obviously, this is a copykeening situation. Well, now Pamela’s executive producer made a bitchy comment to the Daily Mail.
Pamela Anderson’s team has broken its silence following accusations that Meghan Markle’s new Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, closely resembles Anderson’s cooking show.
Hours before Markle’s eight-episode series premiered on March 4, Jesse Fawcett, the co-creator and executive producer of Pamela’s Cooking With Love—which debuted on Feb. 26—issued a statement responding to the backlash.
“We take pride in planting the first seeds—creating original, distinctive programming that audiences love—and it’s a compliment to see our work with Ms. Anderson resonate so strongly,” Fawcett told the Daily Mail.
Eagle-eyed fans of Anderson were quick to point out striking similarities between the two shows. Both series feature the celebrity hosts preparing meals for their famous friends in a cozy home setting, hand-picking fresh produce from their gardens, and placing them in wicker baskets before cooking. Many took to social media to accuse Markle of copying the actress’ concept, with one post on X receiving nearly 40,000 views.
Yeah, Jesse Fawcett just should have kept his mouth shut. Obviously, what Meghan is doing is not some new concept, but it doesn’t follow that she’s “copying” Pamela, or that Pamela owns the original concept. As I said in the previous post, Pamela’s show sounds like a Canadian version of Selena Gomez’s Selena + Chef, so maybe Fawcett should have given Selena her flowers for providing a roadmap to Pamela and “planting the first seeds.” And nevermind that ALL cooking/entertaining shows owe everything to the actual pioneers in this space like Martha Stewart and Julia Child.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images and Netflix.
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- Celebrities arrive at the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States Featuring: Pamela Anderson wearing Oscar de la Renta with Jimmy Choo shoes and Pandora jewelry Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 05 Jan 2025 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Time for someone from Martha’s crew to put out a statement now. Or one of the many others who planted seeds long before Pamela. Was giving Pamela the benefit of the doubt, but if this is how she lets her crew put out PR, won’t be watching her.
Same Im Canadian and was actually going to watch Pamela’s show next as I did feel kinda bad for her that Meghan’s show overshadowed hers although let’s be clear Pamela’s show (on cdn tv only) was only going to be pretty niche even here. I haven’t even really seen it advertised. But I’ll pass now. Planting the seeds? Pleeaaassse. Are we supposed to believe Meghan’s show was shot and produced in the week since Pamela’s show aired? Honestly stop.
Meghan’s show was shot in April 2024. He S2 was shot in Dec/January. So please whomever do your research and really if not for Meghan no one would have heard of Ms Pamela’s show lol!
@TINA I watched the 1st episode. For it’s producer to said, “We take pride in planting the first seeds—creating original, distinctive programming that audiences love…” was such a joke. The show’s formula is: inviting a famous professional chef to Pamela’s house to design, repare, and cook a meal for her gathering friends/guests at the end of the episode; Pamela adds her personalobservations & opinion throughout the show. That’s not a new concept, many cooking shows has done that. Most of time in the 1st episode, it’s chef Gregory did the prep & cooking. (I think he was starstruck? He giggled a lot. He definitely is used to doing cooking on TV.) The producer’s just bitter he didn’t get a big platform to air his shows.
P.S. The 2 shows are different. I like the vibe of Meghan’s show and it makes me want to try things. Did not see enough of Pam’s to give a fullopinion, but the 1st episode was long & not really “new” in cooking shows.
There was a little something from Martha about the one-pan spaghetti – that her recipe is the authentic one.
But I think martha explained she got it from somewhere? Anyway, I cook at least once a day too, for me, my family and for my friends on occasions, I hope my neighbours are not gonna say I’m copying them. SURPRISE Megz not the only one with friends! Pam has her friends too! Wow!!
It’s a cooking show people, relax. There are plenty of late night shows, talk shows… in the 90’s the oprah, sally jesse, ricky lake, jerry springer, phil donahue, etc etc and all the cooking shows, reality shows, who was complaining? Watch what you want and dont watch what you dont want. Jeez
Seriously? You can search online and come up with a multitude of recipes for anything, including one pot pasta. What makes MS think hers is the “authentic” one and only?
@StillDouches The difference is everybody feels entitled to take pot shots at Meghan for doing the same things many others do, including the RF. And it gets old.
Martha didn’t invent one-pot pasta and the only thing the recipes have in common are tomatoes and noodles. As Kaiser said, these types of programs have been around as long as television and even Julia Child wasn’t the first. Similarly there was Lena Richard before her and as far back as radio, cooking and lifestyle programming existed in the US and Europe. People coming out claiming Meghan stole their ideas are being ridiculous and comes from a large dose of racism.
@MrsBanjo – my grandmother used to listen to cooking shows on the radio. She had a notebook with ingredient names already written in Greek on the page and then she’d write down the amounts, but she never wrote down instructions because she knew how to make things. And because her English was limited, she gave the recipes random names. I remember Moon Cookies, which turned out to be some kind of walnut scone.
@Eurydice, oh that’s lovely! Yeah, I was thinking about my own grandmother’s and my husband’s family recipes that I was taught. Any written instructions that did exist were usually vague and measurements often nonexistent.
There’s plenty of traditional Italian one pot pasta dishes. I used to make a very niche one that came from a small village.
I saw the Martha one pop up on my reels maybe late december/early january but no clue when the actual video was from.
however, I am a normal person who did not think Martha invented one pot pasta (nor did I think Meghan did.)
The Martha Stewart one has been around a while. When it first went viral, I remember it being seen as something new. I think it was more doing spaghetti in a shallow fry pan than the specific recipe. That said, watching WLM, I was struck that adding greens really would improve the recipe. I always found the original lacking. The chunky cherry tomatoes just never felt like they went with the spaghetti. Thickening the sauce with greens would help the texture.
Also, when I saw the portion size, it made sense that she sent guests to bed with bags of popcorn and peanut butter pretzels.
I won’t be watching either, this hate is pure jealousy that so many people choose to watch Meghan’s lifestyle. I’m tired of this kind of hatefulness, I can’t control others but I can control what I watch and support, Pam is not on that list.
Buzzfeed has an article that tell us that Trailer for Pamela’s show first aired in Oct 2024, AFTER Meghan was DONE filming in July 2024. PLUS, Meghan show would have premiered before hers on Jan 15…So I have no respect for the pam team feeding into this and using (in my opinion) Meghan for publicity
The Fail are seeking out jealous haters to trash WLM for content and this fool obliged, hoping he will be get some press for Pam’s show. This guy is mad Pam’s show is not getting international attention.
Hopefully it won’t get a second season either..
Let’s also not forget B. Smith. I watched her show with my mom as a kid, because it was something that wasn’t really being done by black women outside of the very occasional segment on Oprah. People love to pretend that Meghan is stealing while it’s perfectly reasonable for them to do things that have existed before. What could be the difference I wonder?!!
Yes, this! Yes, B. Smith was a huge restaurateur and brand influencer in her own right in addition to being the first Black woman to grace the cover of Mademoiselle magazine, TV host, magazine publisher and major lifestyle influence to many… years ago I got to visit her restaurant in DC and it was amazing!
Taking credit for original seeds is a very big stretch seeing that the galloping gourmet (yep I remember him) and Julia Childs were the original seed planters even before Martha.
Omg, The Galloping Gourmet!! He was quite the hoot.
Yes he was!!
My sister and I were big fans of Julia Child, and watched her consistently on Saturday mornings on WTTW. This was in the late 70s, early 80s.
The galloping gourmet was late 60s into early 70s. I believe Julia was late 60s into the 70s also.
Julia Child’s show started in 1963.
I remember watching when I stayed with my grandparents.. they loved her.
There’s enough airtime for all these shows to find an audience and flourish.
*Gigantic eye roll*
There were some cooking shows even before Julia Child. I remember hearing one of Julia’s producers say that, at the time, one of the things that set Julia apart was that she didn’t just stay in the kitchen – she set a nice table, sat down and served herself. I guess it was revolutionary that a woman would focus on enjoying her own food, rather than just serving the family.
Widely acknowledged as the first, in the infancy of television was James Beard, who did the first segments on the early Today Show and let to the popularization of food prep and recipes on camera throughout the broadcasting.
Umm, okay, sure take pride in planting the first seeds of original programming….
Martha who? Ina who? Julia who? People need to start getting smarter about what to do when the DM reaches out. Simon Rex looks like a hero and a gentleman for not taking the bait. Whereas the ones who do take the bait and let whoever calls them up get them all riled up to the point of saying something snarky inevitably ends up looking like an uniformed and bitter person. Honestly, saying something like the enduring interest in lifestyle shows is exciting for everyone and we can’t wait for people to see what Pam has done seems like a better approach but hey that’s just me.
WLM filming for first season completed by July last year. Pamela’s trailer on Canadian TV dropped in October.
I don’t even really care who filmed what first. They’re lifestyle shows and they’re going to have similarities and draw inspiration from those who came before. Which is why it just comes across as disingenuous to talk about being the first to plant the seeds. Maybe he was just trying to be punny idk?
This complaint would be like me complaining that I can find twenty different tuna salad recipes! How dare all these ppl make tuna salad? Where are the original ideas?
It’s so dumb. None of these shows was meant to be a unique concept. It was meant to show each woman’s personal touch to it
Pamela’s team should avoid any interaction with the BM trash. Her show, which I haven’t watched, doesn’t compete with Meghan’s.
Knowing how salacious the press can be, Pam was a victim of that, she should avoid falling into this trap….She doesn’t need Meghan destroyed to be successful
To be fair, Pamela didn’t say anything. This person could just be speaking out of turn. And honestly I’m sure Pam’s show is cute and I’d still like to watch it. But the producer comes across as snarky which isn’t a great look.
Is Pamela’s show not about cooking vegetarian?
Bitchy men are the worst.
I mean, every guest cooking segment on morning shows is similar. Heck, isn’t this what happens when you visit relatives and cook together? Dear producer, you stole this idea from my 85 yr old mother-in-law! And my long gone Gramma!
I don’t know how long her show has been on but Home Grown featuring a black woman farmer based in Atlanta is in its 4th season on Max.
When fixer upper became a hit on HGTV, several shows featuring husband and wife duos were greenlit. I’ve yet to hear that these shows are rip offs. There’s even a show about twin sisters renovating homes but I’m not hearing “oh it’s a rip off of Property brothers”
That’s sounds like a show I’d like to watch…if I had MAX😪. Wonder if I can find clips on YT.
Her name is Jamila Norman and you can follow her on IG. 😄😀
Thank you! Will do. I’m apparently on insta now due to Meghan but rarely go on. I’m going to follow her though.
Jesse Fawcett should write Meghan a “Thank you” card for the free advertisement and attention for Pamela Anderson’s show.
Word! I didn’t even know she had a show. I guess only WW are allowed to have a soft life. I guess they think PA is more relatable????
I really don’t know what to say. Why is everyone losing their collective minds over Meghan’s show? It’s been news she was filming a lifestyle show since last spring but suddenly this is all brand new and she had spies somewhere in Canada? I don’t know much about Pamela Anderson since her 90s heyday. She hung out in the Ecuadoran Embassy with Julian Assange and stopped wearing makeup. Why would Meghan need to copy her when Meghan’s show clearly is drawing on her Tig roots,which go back to 2014, and was set to debut first? This is after they accused her of copying some other people who cook. No one is looking at these two women’s shows( where can you even find Anderson’s?) and thinking this is Sophie’s Choice. I have no way of watching Anderson’s show but good luck to her and her assh*le producer. Meanwhile looking forward to season 2 of With Love, Meghan, executive produced by Meghan.
Meghan isn’t copying Pamela. The larger argument to be made is that what Meghan is doing is not original (no one said it had to be). She’s adding influencer/aspirational content around cooking and other things to an already saturated field. Neither Pam nor Meghan is breaking the mould here with original content and ideas.
Whatever, there’s space for everybody. Hopefully, the derangers will give support to Pam’s show.
So Pamela producer is copying the Tig? How the heck is Meghan being accused of copying herself? I can’t with these people. Pamela, you are welcome because Thanks to Meghan people can now say Pamela who? Oh you mean the bay watch girl . Okay . So did you see that Meghan was in her garden this weekend. Like that’s just a fact. No one thinks about Pamela. Girl needs to sit down
This is so unprofessional of him.
There is nothing unique here and he knows it, rather it’s about each womans personality and chemistry.
He comes off as riding her coattails
This field is small, why badmouth someone you might have a chance to work with in the future?
There are hundreds of youtubers creating the same kind of content. Having done zero research, I have seen similar shows with Valerie Bertinelli, and Tiffany Theisen (sp?) where they cooked with and for friends. Joanna Gaines and Selina Gomez have cooking shows. Nothing Pamala is doing is original and it’s really a non-issue. Why does this kind of lifestyle show have to be a one and only? How many true crime, law firm or police procedurals are running alongside each other? I tell you; people are still really jealous/mad that Netflix paid the Sussexes so much money. Aside from the British tabloids that is where most of the seething comes down to.
Meh—producers always say stuff like this about their work. Jesse’s just excited someone noticed their show, even if it’s just the Daily Mail.
This producer should come out and apologize for taking claim for “planting the first seeds” when those seeds were planted by women and men who were around long before Pamela became known. Meghan, unlike Pamela’s producer, was giving credit to those who came before her and influenced her love of farm to table. That’s why she was fan girling during her final episode with Alice Waters. Meghan has talked about farm to table cooking long before she met Harry. She created the Tig and did much of the same things she’s doing now in her show. Meghan wasn’t copying someone whose show wasn’t even a known concept when she was filming WLM. She was doing what she has always done based on the influences of people we all have been influenced by growing up. This is another attempt to degrade Meghan and what she does, and it’s not working. The online posts by people who are genuinely inspired by WLM is what is needed now, not some producer taking ownership of something that has been around for decades.
Well said 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
It’s a shame the press is trying to pit two women against each other over nothing. And the producer is taking advantage of it for free press.
There is room for everyone for good quality cooing and lifestyle shows. I would watch Pam’s show if it comes to the US.
The producer is just trying to create buzz for Pam’s show on Meghan’s back. Not cool.
Whatever. We all know which one is getting more views so it’s fine.
I was today years old when I found out that Pamela had a show and I’m Canadian soooo
I’ve not been following Pamela Anderson in years. I had no idea she had a cooking show. Is this the first one? Her show is plant-based cooking so that sets it apart from Meghan’s since Pamela is vegan. I forgot she was all about animal rights. Thing is, Pamela isn’t the first celebrity to have a cooking show/cookbook and she won’t be the last. Selena Gomez also had her own show (Meghan’s show actually makes me want to watch Selena’s if anyone knows where to find it!). Gwyneth Paltrow did that travel food show with Mario Batali in Spain (I can’t believe that was 2008!). Chrissy Teigen has a million cookbooks. The list goes on!
I’m never gonna watch a show by that Assange-loving Pamela Anderson! I’m happy to see that she’s no longer looking like a blowup doll, but to try to garner interest on the back of Meghan and her show is very low, in my book.