Meghan Markle and Prince Harry named ‘biggest losers’ in Hollywood

The Duke and Duchess were savaged by Tinseltown’s annual list of ‘most embarrassing missteps’, while Aussie Margot Robbie continued her winning streak.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were named as two of Hollywood’s biggest losers in a humiliating take-down amid a year of humiliating take-downs.

Their royal star dimmed to new lows in Tinseltown alongside other failures of 2023 like Disney, superhero movies, and Twitter. They were outshone, meanwhile, by winners like Aussie Margot Robbie, pop sensation Taylor Swift, and streaming service Netflix.

But even by California standards, The Hollywood Reporter’s annual list of the industry’s biggest winners and “most embarrassing missteps” was brutal to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex amid a “pretty nuts” year.

Leading the loser’s circle is a bitter blow for Ms Markle, who has been spending the year planning her comeback in Hollywood, where the must-read showbiz Bible just said what the industry really feels about their efforts to “cash in their celebrity status”.

“After a whiny Netflix documentary, a whiny biography (Spare — even the title is a pouty gripe) and an inert podcast, the Harry and Meghan brand swelled into a sanctimonious bubble just begging to be popped — and South Park was the pin,” the magazine opined.

Harry and Meghan in their “whiny” Netflix docuseries. Picture: Supplied

“The show’s 20-minute ‘World-Wide Privacy Tour’ take-down in March was savage, and was followed by Spotify dropping Archetypes, with a top executive labelling the duo ‘grifters’.”

After their “sanctimonious bubble” was burst by South Park, the couple came in for further ridicule by The Family Guy, while the release of Omid Scobie’s Endgame further embroiled the couple in the royal family feud they’d largely put aside after the release of Spare.

So eviscerating was the trade-focused periodical in its assessment of the Duke and Duchess that it spoke outside its expertise to comment on the royal duo fleeing a “life of ceremonial public service” in 2020.

“Still, all the scorn and mockery beats otherwise having to attend 200-plus official royal family engagements a year, which sounds hellish,” the magazine concluded.

The Sussex’s annus horribilis was capped off by the release of the Archewell Foundation’s finances showing a massive exodus of wealthy donors to the charity.

The foundation’s 25-page report for 2022-23

Aussie Margot Robbie was one of Hollywood’s biggest winners. Picture: AFP

showed Prince Harry and Ms Markle worked one hour per week at the foundation, while in the past year, only two donors contributed USD 1 million ($A1.5m) each — down from the US $13 million ($A19.8 million) the foundation received in 2021.

While the foundation secured revenue of USD $2 million in the past year, the expenses of $2.6 million left a financial shortfall of USD $674,485 ($A1m) in 2022-23. The year before the foundation reported a USD $9 million ($A1.37m) profit.

On the flip side, Hollywood’s biggest winner, Margot Robbie, saw Barbie box office receipts push USD $1.5 billion ($A2.3bn).

“Margot Robbie not only starred in Barbie, but produced the film as well — and reportedly made $50 million for her efforts,” wrote the Hollywood Reporter.

“It may be ‘impossible to be a woman,’ but [Director Greta] Gerwig and Robbie proved Hollywood’s billion-dollar glass ceiling is very possible to break.”