Don’t get me wrong, The Crown has done very real damage to the Windsor clan. Especially Season 4, which served as a huge reminder of just how the institution completely mistreated a young woman in her late teens and early 20s. It was especially horrible for Prince Charles and Camilla, both of whom looked callous and cruel (because they were). But, on the other side… it could have been a lot worse. A LOT worse. If anything, I think Charles should be flattered that Josh O’Connor imbued Charles with so much posh pathos, and O’Connor was definitely flatteringly handsome in the role. So too with Emerald Fennell’s portrayal of then-Camilla Shand/Camilla Parker Bowles. Emerald has big, boozy, blousy, sassy blonde energy and she’s immensely likable. How many people were more interested in Camilla after watching Emerald play her?
I bring all of this up because Camilla met Emerald. It happened on Tuesday, International Women’s Day, at Clarence House. Camilla hosted a reception for The WOW Foundation, which runs the Women of the World Festival, and Emerald is part of it or adjacent to it somehow, I’m not entirely clear. To be fair, Camilla has handled The Crown the best out of all the royals. When Charles, William and the Queen’s courtiers were banging their heads against the wall and wailing about Netflix, Peter Morgan and, as always, Prince Harry, the Duchess of Cornwall kept her mouth shut because she remembers all of the f–king awful sh-t that went down and she knows that Peter Morgan is soft pedaling it. Plus, she probably sees Emerald as a potential drinking buddy. So Camilla was gracious meeting Emerald and Emerald was likewise gracious meeting Camilla.
The two women happily chatted, shared a few laughs and posed together for a photo.
“It was particularly nice to meet her today on International Women’s Day because, you know, she does so much for so many particularly female charities,” the actress told journalist Georgie Prodromou. Fennell, 36, then quipped, “I was nervous I might be thrown in the Tower — but so far, so good.”
Although Fennell wouldn’t share exactly what they spoke about, she was full of praise for Camilla. “She’s been in the spotlight for a long time and has always weathered it with grace,” the actress said.
Camilla, 74, also mentioned Fennell in a light-hearted moment that got lots of laughs during her speech at the reception. “For me, it’s very reassuring to know that if I should fall off my perch at any moment, my fictional alter ego is here to take over,” she said to laughs from the crowd gathered. “So, Emerald — be prepared!”
It’s fine. I’m not mad at either of them. It was probably awkward, but maybe not. Emerald has said that when the casting call went out for The Crown’s Season 3 and 4, every British blonde was trying to get in the room to be cast as Diana, but Emerald told her agent to get her an audition for Camilla. Emerald wanted to play Cam, is my point. And I do think the casting was good! Incidentally, the way Josh O’Connor sounds, I don’t think he wants to meet Charles.
GAH EMERALD’S PURSE I NEED IT.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 08: Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall during a meeting with Team ExtraOARdinary at Clarence House on March 08, 2022 in London, England. Team ExtraOARdinary rowed their 23-foot boat ‚ÄúDolly Parton‚Äů 3,000 miles from La Gomera in the Canaries to English Harbour in Antigua in 42 days, seven hours and 17 minutes to raise money for cancer charities Macmillan, Cancer Research UK and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.,Image: 667139122, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
The face on the purse 👜, I love it.
Yes, the purse is awesome.
Emerald’s whole outfit is awesome! And Camilla’s…looks like something Kate would wear, although hers would be formfitting.
Camilla made sure to introduce Emerald as her “fictional” alter ego. So she got her jab against the Crown in. I don’t think she’s as gracious as she wants people to believe she is.
It’s a fact that it is fiction, the producers have said so. It’s a pretty low key jab as Emerald was not the one in charge of making the series non fiction or anything, she acted her part. I thought she was okay in it (I love the series) but I really appreciate the movie she produced. It should be required viewing for high school girls imo
Did Charles and Camilla have an affair or not? It’s not a documentary, it’s a dramatisation of actual events. The need for CH to make sure that people know the Crown is absolute fiction, is nonsensical. Charles and Camilla would have been better sticking to the royal mantra never complain, never complain.
No the crown is not fiction. It’s based on true life events that DID really happen so I don’t get yr “its indeed fiction” statement.
The Crown is pure fiction — I can write a show about Angie and Brad and put in all sorts of things that “happened” but when I am inventing entire behind the scene conversations, motives, maneuvers etc it becomes fiction . Ask Pamela Anderson how authentic Pam & Tommy is. Based on does not mean historically accurate.
It really cannot be total fiction. Charles admitted his affair with Camilla publicly back in 1994. Diana told of her unhappiness about Camilla to Morton back in 1992. So it is not total fiction.
I guess, “grace” is ignoring the opinion of the peasants since they don’t matter anyway and then buying good press with “donations”. She probably skews her thinking to being in the right since she and PC were each others’ “true love” so what they did to Di doesn’t count. I would think more highly of her if she publicly apologized to PH & PW for how she impacted their lives and expressed regret for being horrible to another woman. It would make her charity for women seem less performative.
She has done work for women’s charities for years so I don’t find it performative at all — yes, she and Chuck were horrible, selfish, abhorrent people who placed their own needs above all else — that doesn’t mean she can never do good for women’s causes.
As for issuing a public apology to PH and PW – it is pretty clear they hashed all of that out a long time ago, my guess is before the wedding or it wouldn’t have happened. WE aren’t owed the spectacle of that apology.
What do you mean “it’s CLEAR they have it all hashed out?”
And no, whatever “pretences/advocating for women” Camilla Parker Bowles does IS perfomative. Until she owns her shit in both her and Chuckie’s destruction of young Diana, she can miss me with all her hypocrisy.
But WE are allowed her smirky looks at H&M’s wedding and when they were mentioned to her? And WE are allowed all the nasty things said about Meghan by the palaces to be made public? And WE are allowed to see her publicly make fun of Meghan for touching her abdomen while pregnant?
@equality — you are certainly allowed all of those things that you seek out .
But again , WE aren’t owed an audience to an apology based on a situation that doesn’t involve us in the slightest . Imagine demanding to watch your neighbor apologize to his children for cheating. His children wouldn’t owe you that .
My neighbor is an entirely different category. If he cheated the whole world wouldn’t watch the fallout in the media and his family wouldn’t be PUBLICLY humiliated. The point is if you want to be taken seriously as an advocate for women, you acknowledge things you have done, not try to bury them. And, since she actively participated in Meghan-bashing also PUBLICLY, it is hard to take her women’s charity seriously. I wasn’t “seeking out” those things but was subjected to seeing them publicized.
AN advocate for women would not make fun of her pregnant step daughter in law’s Meghan’s holding her baby bump.
It cracks me up that it’s an event for International Women’s Day and Camilla didn’t invite her own daughter-in-law. Seems like this would have been a perfect opportunity for Katie tag along; she wouldn’t have to do any work or preparation, just show up and shake hands and get credit for “work” on the Court Circular.
Personally, I don’t need more of their private family matters spilling into the tabloids. Camilla doesn’t owe us anything. If she has made peace with the actual family members concerned regarding her affair, that’s the most important thing.
“Personally, I don’t need more of their private family matters spilling into the tabloids.”
I hate to have to tell you this but they’re the ones spilling a lot of it, weaponizing it against each other in the tabloids, and they’ll be doing it for a long time to come.
Camilla’s dirty little secrets don’t concern me, but the use of taxpayer money to prop her up over the years because she did very real damage to a woman who actually had a legacy of doing good and inspiring others is distasteful to my eyes.
She had no problem showing her racism at the Sussex wedding. She’s not a good person.
I doubt Camilla has “made peace” with everything about what happened with Diana. William and Harry really had no choice in the matter. I think they have been polite and cordial to her but I really doubt Camilla went to them and confessed sorrow about how she treated their mother. I really really doubt it. Whatever happened behind the scenes is known only to them. But I doubt William and Harry “love” her. I don’t think Camilla thinks she did anything wrong. And I doubt expressed any remorse privately or publicly. And I don’t know how William and Harry stand hearing Charles sympathizers gaslighting Diana, after she died. Charles probably had an iron clad will made up so William would not have control over Camilla (re giving her funds).
Camilla and Charles I very much doubt would ever apologize. I don’t think they believe they did anything wrong, judging from what their friends Seward and Junor and Bedell Smith have written about Diana. Camilla gave an interview in 2017 where she had a chance to express remorse but did not just complained about her having to stay in the house because of fall out about the affair. I doubt Charles does. Camilla also was ready to walk into Diana’s 2007 Memorial service but was stopped at the 11th hour by negative public opinion.
That’s the most interesting jacket I have ever seen.
Agreed! At first, I thought it looked too big and weird. But the more I looked at from the from it looked good. I think it’s part cape?
This was a . . . kind casting decision. Emerald is talented and charismatic with a ton of presence. Camilla should be nothing but grateful about this portrayal as she did nothing to deserve it.
Absolutely. While Emma Corrin is lovely, she is not 100% more attractive than Emerald Fennell in the way that Diana was an angel to Camilla’s gargoyle. In fact, I find the actresses portraying them equally beautiful, so when Emerald as “Camilla” said something along the lines of “Diana” always being more beautiful and therefore will always be beloved by the public, I had to remember who they were actually portraying versus what was on the screen and suspend my disbelief.
Yeah, weirdly, I think Camilla handled the Crown the best. There was that bit put out last year about how she was going to watch it with a glass of wine – which, yes, did seem a bit “off,” considering the events depicted in the season – but was still better than Charles’ move of running to the minister of arts or whatever and trying to get a warning label put on the damn series.
Camilla definitely didn’t come off great in the season but I do think Emerald Fennell portrayed her with some warmth – it didn’t save or excuse her actions, but it was better than it could have been. I do think that the casting of Josh O’Connor saved Charles though. With as bad as he came across in the last season, a different actor could have made things so much worse. At the very least, he came across as very boy-ish so it was VERY easy to forget the age difference between them.
Every character on the crown has some depth and is well acted, Camilla is no exception. One of the series’ strengths is it doesn’t have good vs bad characters, everyone is interesting and thoughtfully written
Agreed and I think that’s one of its selling points for me (and probably for most people.) It brings depth to these well known public figures.
Yeah Josh O’Connor definitely helped make Charles a bit more sympathetic due to his looks and made it easy to not just forget the age gap between Charles and Diana but also that Charles is meant to be 40+ when the end of the season rolls round.
Will be very interesting to see the reaction to Dominic West however. Even if Morgan tries to give Charles more grace, West just has this very “smarmy” look about him as well his personal life… “exploits” so people might hate on Charles even more when S5 drops.
As much grace as Morgan has given Charles…you know this casting of Dominic West, smarmy face and expressions, messy side piece exploits and all….was intentional. Morgan has been in this game long enough to know what he’s doing with casting to drive a narrative.
You beat me to it.
Emerald did right by a woman who sure as hell didn’t deserve it.
Oh, where are my manners, Oscar Winner Emerald Fennell did right by a woman who sure as hell didn’t deserve it.
I think the sympathy was to Diana by the writers of the series. I think it would have been better if Camilla had not even commented publicly.
Emerald seems lovely. While watching The Crown, every time she is onscreen, I think to myself, “she’s far too pretty to be a believable Cowmilla.” I know she was portraying a younger version, but still: no dice. Maybe, as with the actor who played Charles, they cast much better looking people so the royals wouldn’t have such a hissy fit seeing their own terrible behavior played back to them. Of course, the royals STILL had a fit.
But I thought The Crown was an affront to the monarchy and something something Netflix something something Meg and Harry something something slap in the face something huge disappointment to the queen….. ?
It’s a role. I’m sure Camilla can separate the woman from the role. And it is a fictional representation of her. No point in blaming Fennell. OTOH, what the fuck is that jacket? Horrible. Love the purse.
Yeah, it took me a minute to figure out that jacket . I’ve seen better versions of cape jackets, but its really not a style I like over all. Meh on the purse too, for me.
Is that a face on the purse?? But seriously, it’s interesting.
Schiaparelli Anatomy Jewelry Bag:
https://www.schiaparelli.com/eshop/en/e-shop/accessories/bags/anatomy-jewelry-bag/p/pe21sa05s_999-taille
Emerald makes her look really good. Very pretty and talented actress! Nothing more to add lol.
Emerald has proven to be a talented writer/director and I hope we get to see more of her work in the future. Promising Young Woman was such a good movie that burned into my brain and made me think about it for days afterwards.
I was wondering why no one brought up promising young woman. That eclipses her role as Camila. She should be known for that, not for making Camila a better person in the public’s eyes (Camilla is not).
On the best day of her life Camilla never looked as good as Emerald.
Agreed!