\u201cI like recipes that take, like, four hours. I don\u2019t do fast recipes at all. I like to braise.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWow, that is so fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is it though? Is it? Netflix is clearly gambling that it is. The second series of With Love, Meghan is with us, albeit alongside the news that the Sussexes\u2019 new deal with the streaming platform is not another $100m (\u00a374m), five-year extravaganza, but a rather less spectacular first-look agreement that gives Netflix first refusal on any shows the couple create.<\/p>\n
Queer Eye fashion expert Tan France puts fresh bread in the toaster before making french toast to make it more absorbent. \u201cThat\u2019s so good for people to know!\u201d says Meghan. Is it though? Is it?<\/p>\n
Such questions \u2013 well, slight variations on that one question \u2013 abound as we return to see what Meghan is cooking up\/assembling from fruit, flowers, twine and name tags in a stranger\u2019s kitchen in Montecito.<\/p>\n
I may even voluntarily watch a lifestyle show by her \u2026 Chrissy Teigen in With Love, Meghan. Photograph: Jake Rosenberg\/Netflix\/PA<\/p>\n
The high point is probably Chrissy Teigen \u2013 model, mom, author and braising fan, with whom Meghan once worked as a briefcase holder on Deal Or No Deal \u2013 and an almost thrillingly insultingly brief appearance by her music mogul husband, John Legend. Teigen is good value, as the pair reminisce about lining up to have their false eyelashes put on by the Deal crew then peeling them off and dropping them in a bag on their way out at the end of the day, possibly to be used again. Teigen has tattoos of her four children\u2019s birthdates on her arm but some are too blurry to read, so she has to shout to John to check what they are, and complains about her knees as they squat to cut flowers in the garden. I warm to her considerably. I may even voluntarily watch a lifestyle show she presented.<\/p>\n
For Tan, Meghan produces lavender-grey lattes (\u201cDoesn\u2019t that just sound chic?\u201d) and after that the hits just keep on coming. Meghan has more fruit platters (\u201cGrapes create that bounty I was talking about\u201d). She has a passion for being a mum that was evident even in early childhood when she spent her allowance on a real diaper bag for her dolls. She has loving anecdotes about \u201cH\u201d (He said \u201cI love you\u201d first; she ruined a roast chicken for him on an early date because she failed to convert fahrenheit to celsius), Archie and Lilibet (they say \u201czebra\u201d not \u201czee-bra\u201d), and still issues no apology for calling the child Lilibet. She has an express flower-pressing kit, ie uses the microwave instead of 40 sheets of blotting paper and patience, which I find myself objecting to quite strongly. She used the phrase \u201cmoving meditation\u201d twice \u2013 which, if I have translated from Californian fahrenheit to British celsius correctly, means anything you take yourself off to do rather than filing for divorce. Not that there is any suggestion that such thoughts ever cross her mind. All is well in Meghan\u2019s world.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s still sprinkling flowers over everything, by the way. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a choice or a compulsion, but if you stand still long enough in (not) Meghan\u2019s kitchen, the chances are you will be covered in violets and served alongside a mug of grey foam to a nano-celebrity who is beginning to realise he has not been paid enough.<\/p>\n
Swiftly realising he\u2019s not been paid enough \u2026 Tan France in With Love, Meghan. Photograph: Jake Rosenberg\/Netflix\/PA<\/p>\n
It\u2019s so boring, so contrived, so effortfully whimsical that, do you know what? In the end, it does become almost fascinating. You find yourself wondering things you would never normally wonder, such as, what would it take for me to embark on making vegan macaroons? How large a part of Meghan wants to run screaming for the hills? How excited could I get about tiny eggs from silkie chickens? What if I were being paid the thick end of $100m to do so, before my original deal ran out?<\/p>\n
Above all, the real question is, what do you think Pippa Middleton makes of the whole thing? After the mauling she got for one little book about party planning, do you think she revels in the criticism Meghan\u2019s efforts attract or is pig-sick that she couldn\u2019t parlay her way into a lucrative series of her own? Or is she busy taking notes (\u201cA sourdough starter? Five years after everyone else has thrown theirs in the bin? On it!\u201d) and revering the flower-strewing powerhouse as a god? Bring me a lavender-grey latte and answers, please.<\/p>\n
With Love, Meghan is on Netflix now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI like recipes that take, like, four hours. I don\u2019t do fast recipes at all. I like to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-99866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}