For several years, Sofia Coppola tried to convince AppleTV to finance one of her dream projects: a miniseries adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country. Considering how AppleTV blows through money on so many projects no one watches, it was always so bizarre to me that they wouldn’t finance that adaptation from an Oscar-winner. All of which to say, I’ve never read the book and I was actually looking forward to familiarizing myself with the story via Coppola’s adaptation. Well, Graydon Carter is familiar with the Edith Wharton novel, and he referenced it in his Interview Magazine Q&A. Obviously, they asked him about the Duchess of Sussex again as he shills his memoir, and this is what he said:
Interview: THE MURDOCHS
Carter: “Iris.”MEGHAN MARKLE
“The Undine Spragg of Montecito.”PAGE SIX
“Glorious to read; often terrifying to be in.”TIKTOK
“I have a 16-year-old, and I can see why it’s completely addictive.”
Undine Spragg is the heroine/antiheroine of The Custom of the Country. In Page Six’s coverage of Carter’s latest attack on Meghan, they claim that Carter “bulldozes Meghan in five words.” Of course, they also got the name of the book wrong and misspelled Edith Wharton’s name, but hey. Would you like to hear what Sofia Coppola thinks of Undine Spragg? From a piece Coppola wrote for LitHub when she was adapting the book for a now-canceled Apple series:
Until I read The Custom of the Country, I had never met a literary character quite like Undine Spragg, nor encountered such an in-depth portrait of a classic antiheroine. Yet, we’ve all met women like her. We all know women who have transformed and reinvented themselves. Undine follows the trends carefully, without having anything unique to add, and unabashedly markets herself at the center of the world of high society that she longs to belong to.
I’ve always loved Edith Wharton’s writing, but The Custom of the Country is my favorite, and I think her funniest and most sly. As I’ve worked on adapting it into a screenplay, I’ve found it interesting to hear some men say that Undine is so unlikable, while my women friends love her and are fascinated by her and what she’ll do next. We’ve all seen her before, the way she walks into the room, her focus on men, and her ease with their gaze. We admire and are annoyed by her. While I’ve often worked on stories with more sympathetic characters, it’s been so fun to dive into Undine’s world and pursuits.
Published in 1913, originally in serial form for Scribner’s Magazine, each book of The Custom of the Country ends with anticipation for what and who’s next on Undine’s social-climbing quest. Wharton paints the picture of the ultimate nouveau-riche climber. We watch her like a car crash while at the same time we root for her. She does things we would never dream of doing, and it’s such a delight to follow along. Mixed with empathy and disdain, Wharton manages to keep us captivated, and makes us look at ourselves along the way.
While Undine sounds like a delight, her story does not sound much like the Duchess of Sussex. It’s funny that Coppola writes that men encounter the character with disdain, and maybe Carter’s comments are a larger reflection of how men perceive women and characters who succeed by their wits, intelligence, charm, beauty and vivacity. There’s this consistent false narrative that Meghan somehow “ensnared” Harry or that she threw herself into his path or social-climbed in his direction. In reality, Harry saw her on a friend’s video and did everything he could to throw himself IN HER PATH. He was the one chasing her!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
-
- 159945, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – December 4 – Graydon Carter attends 2017 Breakthrough Prize December 4th 2016 at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA (Photo – Drew Altizer Photography),Image: 513334552, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – DIRECT SALES ONLY- Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Drew Altizer, PacificCoastNews/Avalon
-
- 159945, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – December 4 – Graydon Carter attends 2017 Breakthrough Prize December 4th 2016 at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA (Photo – Drew Altizer Photography),Image: 513336327, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – DIRECT SALES ONLY- Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Drew Altizer, PacificCoastNews / Avalon
-
- DEN HAAG, 15-014-2022, Zuiderpark De Invictus Games is een internationaal sportevenement voor fysiek en mentaal gewonde militairen.Deze editie is in Nederland Zuiderpark, Den Haag. FOTO: The Invictus Games is an international sporting event for physically and mentally injured soldiers. This edition is in Nederlasnd Zuiderpark, The Hague. The Invictus Games is an international sporting event for physically and mentally injured soldiers. This edition is in Nederlasnd Zuiderpark, The Hague. Op de foto: Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex,Image: 683324627, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: (c) beschermde foto en verplichte volledige naamsvermelding tenzij anders voorafgaand overeengekomen of vermeld,geen gebruik zonder toestemming, alleen eenmalig gebruik, opslag in databank verboden, / Caption in file Info, Copyright marked, stricktly one t, Model Release: no, Credit line: Patrick van Emst / Avalon
-
- DEN HAAG, 15-014-2022, Zuiderpark De Invictus Games is een internationaal sportevenement voor fysiek en mentaal gewonde militairen.Deze editie is in Nederland Zuiderpark, Den Haag. FOTO: The Invictus Games is an international sporting event for physically and mentally injured soldiers. This edition is in Nederlasnd Zuiderpark, The Hague. The Invictus Games is an international sporting event for physically and mentally injured soldiers. This edition is in Nederlasnd Zuiderpark, The Hague. Op de foto: Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex,Image: 683324648, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: (c) beschermde foto en verplichte volledige naamsvermelding tenzij anders voorafgaand overeengekomen of vermeld,geen gebruik zonder toestemming, alleen eenmalig gebruik, opslag in databank verboden, / Caption in file Info, Copyright marked, stricktly one t, Model Release: no, Credit line: Patrick van Emst / Avalon
-
- The Hague, NETHERLANDS – The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan Markle, on the Yellow Carpet ahead of the Invictus Games. The Invictus Games will take place from 16 to 22 April 2022 at the Zuiderpark and are intended for soldiers and veterans in the service who have been psychologically injured Robin Utrecht. Pictured: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry BACKGRID USA 15 APRIL 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- The Hague, NETHERLANDS – The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan Markle, on the Yellow Carpet ahead of the Invictus Games. The Invictus Games will take place from 16 to 22 April 2022 at the Zuiderpark and are intended for soldiers and veterans in the service who have been psychologically injured Robin Utrecht. Pictured: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry BACKGRID USA 15 APRIL 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
I remember reading a comment on this site recently that argued angrily against the notion that Graydon Carter needed to call Meghan’s name to sell his books but omg what is this then? Why is she constantly being brought up apropos of nothing? I think she’s so strong because as Misan Harriman said the other day, she’s not killed anyone or started wars or committed genocide yet there’s this 24-hour mate machine against her. I’ve never seen anyone with a media hate machine against them like this. I’m glad Meghan pays them dust but it’s disheartening.
I remember that comment and it was weird. I follow popular culture closely. I never heard of this man until he talked sh*t about Meghan to sell his book. Harry’s memoir broke records. I doubt, his book is gonna achieve even half of that. That is why he is talking about her, but as far as I saw, nobody cares.
I am by no means trying to defend Graydon Carter, I think he is an absolute hack. However, it is very disingenuous to say he’s a nobody. He is a has-been. He was important and influential 15, 20, even 30 years ago, but not so much today.
@Laura, In the current popular culture, he is a nobody. He isn’t Anna Wintour whom people can recognize. I made the comment regarding the comment he is a big name who can sell his book without dropping off Meghan’s name. That isn’t true? Good or bad, everybody knows who Meghan is. I doubt, it is the same for this guy. It isn’t like he made one negative comment about Meghan because he was asked. He made multiple comments, because he isn’t getting enough attention while selling something. 🤷♀️
Yes, I remember that comment also. It was from someone who’s been here at least a little while. It was eye opening even for me, and I knew who Graydon Carter was, because @Laura is right, he was considered very influential in years past, as editor of VF starting in the 1990’s. “Has been” is a very apt description. I never read VF during the time that either he or TB were there, but my general sense was, he was highly thought of. But also like TB, the crap he’s spewing now makes me think that he 1) was overrated at the time; and/or 2) whatever he was offering at the time definitely had an expiration date.
Of course I agree with you about why he’s using Meghan’s name now, and that his book is unlikely to be successful. But a fair number of (older) people will remember having heard of him, even if you haven’t.
@Laura, it’s Carter’s misfortune that he decided to publish his memoir at a time when hardly anyone wants to read it.
Yeah, I remember it too. It claimed that this dude’s memoir is a best seller, that dude’s record at VF is the GOAT, and that dude doesn’t need Meghan for anything. The post was very weird, actually. It seemed like a deranger spewing tabloid drab, but IDK, I could be wrong TBH. Look this dude is a nobody, and that’s being generous to him. His memoir got a couple of favorable reviews but that’s it so dude figured laying it on thick on the Meghan hate will do the trick. I already predicted, it will be another of those flops that’s added to other haters’ flops, nothing new.
You can disagree with what someone says but having been a long-time editor of Vanity Fair (and before that a mag called Spy and I’m sure many other things) does not make someone a “nobody” even if it was in years past.
I didn’t make the original comment though I wrote that I somewhat agreed. But it could be age. I’m 54 and loved VF during Carter’s tenure. So his name is very familiar to me and I am on hold at the library for the book. I enjoyed his others and may have bought this book if he didn’t really show his ass during these recent interviews.
The only thing I’ll say is he’s not the one bringing up Meghan. He’s being asked, at least here and the other posted. But he’s not dodging either. He’s happy to talk.
@bqm, that’s funny I’m a bit older than you and I enjoyed VF only up until Carter took over. I think it’s a West Coast versus East Coast thing. With Carter it became very New York centric and highlighted a celebrity culture and people I really couldn’t care one wit about (and until featured in the magazine had never heard about) – the fascination with the Kennedys and people like the Fabulous Miller Sisters really were vomit-inducing to me. I’m not surprised at all if some of you have never heard of Carter. I had only heard his name because of the VF subscription that I ended up canceling when he took over.
She’s also not a pedophile/pedophile adjacent like her husband’s uncle, but somehow the BM has succeeded in gaslighting people into thinking that she’s much more deserving of their vitriol and hate.
The continued villainizing of the duchess is just astonishing. What the actual hell has she ever done to anyone.
I’ve got an answer to your rhetorical but actually quite specific question, Alicky: Zola, J’accuse, Dreyfus. It’s the same dynamic, albeit with absurdly lower stakes than the military espionage of which Dreyfus was accused. It turned out it was another officer — one more socially acceptable to French society at the time — who was in fact the culprit. In the meantime, Dreyfus had been cashiered, court-martialled, and banished to Devil’s Island, publicly humiliated, stripped, as Clarkson would have seethed, of dignity and ritually degraded. Why? He fit the bill. But he was in no way involved and was totally blameless of conspiring against the French military in which he served, in the very bitter aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war. I think England has taken a beating in terms of self-respect, self-esteem, self-worth, in so many separate ways, it’s impossible to catalogue them. I moved here in 2007 and I still find it endlessly horrifying how compulsively vengeful and thin-skinned these people are, and how petty their slights are, how many of them are imagined and self-inflicted. It’s like coping with a sibling who’s constantly keeping score, whilst never getting out from behind the gaming console. Like Will. Eye roll. Whatever Meghan has done, laughably, it’s just the drop that made the bucket overflow. You’d need to write a book to catalogue the ways in which these people have let themselves down. I’m actually working on it.
So well said!
@parkrunmum, interesting post. I’ll read your book when done. Name of book?
@parkrunmum I find your comment so interesting. My British hubs and I are considering a move to the UK. Would you recommend? I just got back from a visit and it’s gorgeous topogrpahy. I have a 10 year old and we are looking for home and community.
You should read the Mapp and Lucia series.
They certainty are out for her blood and all because she is a biracial woman who is being very successful and earning money when all their attempts to bring her down are failing miserably. And oh yes she married their white Prince and helped him heal and become an even better person. Harry met her and knew she was for him in all ways.
Undine sounds like Lazy.
Graydon adores Page Six which explains him.
I’ve read the book and on the surface it would seem to be more related to a woman like Buttons but the section I think they’re referring to is when Undine marries into French nobility but once there sees that they are dull and cheap.
She then manages to leave that marriage as she knows there’s more to life then living in a drafty chateau!
One of the classist criticisms set against Lazy and Carole is that their living rooms are perfect with fluffed up cushions and no tatty rags. This was during the height of the Rose rumours whose Norfolk home probably contains tatty tugs.
Anmer Hall is pretty modern and they had a massive taxpayer funded renovation of their KP pad so Lazy isn’t living in some drafty chateaux.
If that’s what Graydon is referring to, I wonder what is his home like and whether he’d live in NottCott. Drafty homes for thee, not for me.
That’s one of the critiques of the middeltons that I’m always meh about. Fluffed up cushions as opposed to tatty rags sounds absolutely fine to me. Nothing against a certain level of tattiness but using that as a level of gate-keeping seems like jealousy. And I mean that as jealousy from the cash-poor aristos.
Amner Hall was extensively modernized before it was given to Kate and William and there are photos of the kitchen prior to their gift. Kate went and renovated the kitchen unnecessarily despite the kitchen already being very modern.
Also we have seen some of the decor in some of the zooms. It was ugly country kitchen with plates on the walls. It’s not classicist to say she has bad taste.
And let’s not forget how kate renovated the KP kitchen twice because she didn’t like the purple walls. All at taxpayer expense. And she’s not even living there now.
All these Chads and Brads like this are so obvious — they bring up Meghan just to get attention. He’s not interesting enough on his own, so he uses her name for clout. Pretty pathetic.
I didn’t the last post about this character’s comments about Meghan, so I swear the first thing that occurred to me was, “Is this guy STILL talking about Meghan?” It’s shameless and so obvious that he’s like another Piss Morgan.
Change the pronouns around and that description of Undine fits how many men in the world? More misogynistic crap.
He should compare himself to u r i a h from David copperfield or Some other mean spirited person
I am surprised he didn’t call her Jezebel. He looks the type 🤷♀️
He truly sounds about the same as Tom Bower who I think did call Meghan a jezebel or at least an adventuress or something like that.
He called her “hussy” too 😭😭😂 They are still living in another century.
Maybe he’s tag-teaming with Tom.
Tom seems indisposed so it’s Graydon’s turn.
They want to live in a century where strict class divides are still a thing. And I mean for the upper echelons, I guess that actually is still a thing so yes their minds are in fact living in another century. I wouldn’t be surprised if Carter isn’t a source for Bower and vice versa. A circle loop for the ancients. I chose to not be as dirty as I could have been in that last sentence.
Well, I wish Sophia had been able to make that show! And Graydon Carter continues to sound like a boorish dinosaur. Some of these men are going to still be crying Meghan’s name over and over again on their death beds with the way they keep mentioning her.
Like a true royalist, Grayson Carter is obsessed with Meghan and can’t keep her name out of his mouth.
like Piers Morgan. we’ve seen this before.
Just look at him and he has the nerve to criticize anyone, but especially Meghan is true male narcissist arrogance, seriously does he own a mirror?
Ugly on the outside, ugly on the inside. The levels of projection because of his self-loathing…
All these people are acting like rejected suitors; “you left me now I’ll destroy you.”
This bitch helped cover for Epstein. We need to say this everytime his name is mentioned. Nothing this old gossip says has any value.
This! He folded quickly when pressure was applied to squash Epstein coverage. He’s a coward.
And Meghan is nothing like Undine Spragg — witness her circle of close girlfriends, to start (Undine only had eyes for men).
Another aspect of Kate. No girlfriends.
I love the novel, Custom of the Country!
I would for sure watch an adaptation!
I have dreamed of a modernized adaptation that would be loosely based on Kim Kardashian. What do you think? Could you see a version of Undine Spragg social climbing in the early aughts through reality TV, the new social media of the time, Hollywood, and shady politicians of influence? Can someone who is a writer please write this story?
Ooh, that sounds great. I’d watch both versions really; 100 years apart and not much has changed.
I find it so odd when Brits call Meghan a social climber cuz she’s literally living in another country and isn’t a part of their society. Is this code for they’re just mad she has a title?
I love the book and Sofia Coppola’s description is spot on. Undine is nothing like Meghan and also definitely did not succeed because of her intelligence or wit. She’s no Becky Sharp, but she is very pretty and very vain and superficial, as well as manipulative. It’s a very unlikeable character, the worst in the entire book, and yet het story is super interesting to read.
This guy just uses Meghan’s name to get attention.
Google graydon Carter’s wife. She is English and her father was The Queens private under secretary or some such close position… So Canadian Graydon Carter is just parroting the Tory vileness.
Ok like 5 people are going to understand this reference to The Custom of the Country and that illuminates half the problem with the people speaking like this about her, they live in a different world than the rest of us where they can’t keep up with the zeitgeist. Carter mourns the days when he could get a glossy 10 page spread about Kate Moss doing cocaine on camera like he used to be able to do (this was an actual Vanity Fair piece) and now he is irrelevant, so making random Henry James allusions towards a woman minding her own business only shows why he is no longer a force professionally.
Edith Wharton allusions, sorry. I always mix her up with Henry James.
A few years ago someone in the NY Times compared Meghan to Undine Spraggs, some writer, can’t remember who. It’s a shallow comparison. Carter’s not as original or witty as he thinks. I think, when Meghan’s show first debuted, a lot of critics were hoping to easily dismiss it as a lightweight vanity project. However, it has , if anything, continued to become a bigger part of the cultural discourse and opened up conversations about who belongs in certain spaces. The video with Gwyneth is a cultural moment and that spaghetti is everywhere. People like Carter or Tina Brown are gatekeepers and don’t like when people they dislike dominate the culture. It seems like it was easy to attribute Meghan’s influence to her royal status, but with this show doing what it’s doing, they seem threatened that she may have her own influence over here. They genuinely view what she does, regardless of what it is, as an aggression. Carter is totally clout chasing and it’s pathetic how he’s trying to raise his profile by leaning on someone else while trying to belittle them with classist, racist sexist stereotypes. That guy is using all the bad isms to go after Meghan. No one cares about the stale gossip in his memoir so trot out the hash opinion of Meghan. He’s no better than Bethanny Frankle.
It was Claire Messud.
Yes, thank you!
It’s a great story and I’ve read it many times — which makes me wonder if this guy has ever actually read it himself (maybe just the cliff notes). There are literally no accurate points of comparison — I guess both characters got married? Someone who’s built his (old, old) brand on ‘literary’ would theoretically get it right, so clearly he had his (to old, too irrelevant) reasons for using an inaccurate comparison that 98% of readers won’t understand anyway. Oh Graydon. Back under your rock, please.
If anything the Undine comparison works better for Kate. She is the dedicated social climber who looks to please men without and female friends.
Frowzy, bloviating, non-relevant fool.
Beetlejuice says what now?
Okay that made me laugh. Except Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice has a certain charisma that this guy lacks.
In his case, seems like there’s a lot of potential projection going in with his need to make his smug little comments regarding Meghan. He was a middle class kid from nowhere suburbia in Canada who slithered and charmed his way to the top of the money crowd within glossy mag & literary publishing in New York. Having been around the edges of that Spy, New Yorker, and Vanity Fair crowd at various times, I can attest it’s one of the nastiest, most cutthroat group of climbers imaginable. If he’s playing the game of literary character equivalents, then he’s Gilbert Osmond.
It is that “stay in your place” colonial mindset.
I wish Graydon Carter and his stupid hair would just go away. He, like Tina Brown, has lost his relevance but not his hubris, and continues to think his opinionating is important. It’s not and it’s called bloviating. All these types are taking cheap shots at Meghan to ride her coattails and gain some sort of prestige. It’s not working.
The book is excellent and Undine Spragg is a truly delightful character who seems vividly, wonderfully, terribly real. I didn’t know that Sofia Coppola had been trying to turn the novel into a miniseries – it’s a damn shame that hasn’t worked out because based on the excerpt above, Coppola really gets the character and the story and it would have been fantastic.
She is absolutely nothing like Duchess Meghan. Like, zero resemblance, other than that both are beautiful women I guess.
It almost seems like Graydon read the Cliff Notes and not the book.
No Graydon, you are wrong . Meghan is not Undine Spragg. Meghan is wealthy and successful in her own right, under her own name and with her own effort before and after marriage. Udine is a social climber who marry and divorced wealthy man .
The commentators and writers of the article obviously think it’s a good thing when a man knocks a woman down or beats her up with a bulldozer, as the article states. Maybe these people should all rethink their aggression so they don’t slide into criminality.
I’ve read all of Edith Wharton’s books and Custom of the Country is one of my favorites. I rooted for Undine Spragg because it was the social caste system that was the villain. She was doing her best in a world where women could only be born into or marry wealth. A far more dislikable literary character of the same era is Isabel Archer in Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady. I loathed her. If anyone hasn’t read any of Edith Wharton’s work I suggest starting with the short story Roman Fever. It’s a masterclass in short story writing and in my opinion a perfect short story with an epic ending. And anyone who thinks Meghan is a social climber should never forget that the BP called Kate & Pippa the Wisteria Sisters for literally YEARS.