Prince Harry and Meghan have quietly auctioned access to themselves to the highest bidder as a way of raising money, it can be revealed.
It’s said tickets to attend a dinner with the Sussexes go for around $100,000 (£75,000) a plate, as they use the company CharityBuzz to raise funds for their charity Archewell.
Up to now the charity has relied on anonymous wealthy donors, which has allowed them to make grants to their selected good causes.
Last night, a spokesman for Archewell confirmed: ‘We have partnered with numerous fundraising partners over the years and CharityBuzz has been one of them.’
A source explained that Archewell had used the company to support a fundraising dinner on World Mental Health Day.
CharityBuzz has raised $650 million (£485million) for charity since opening 20 years ago and has run charity events with George Clooney, Beyonce and Sir Paul McCartney.
Harry and Meghan founded Archewell in 2020 and last year the foundation have away more than £1million to charity
Paying to have dinner with – or access to – a working member of the Royal Family is seen as a no-no and one of Fergie’s many solecisms was to offer access to the then prince Andrew for cash. However, the Sussexes haven’t been working royals since Megxit.
The access to Harry and Meghan appears not to have been advertised on the company website, so may have been offered privately to ‘high rollers’ who have previously paid to rub shoulders with celebrities.
A source said of their association with CharityBuzz: ‘People will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to have dinner with them.’
Current offers include having dinner with Better Call Saul actor Bob Odenkirk for $10,000 (£7,500) and platinum tickets to attend the Grammy awards for $50,000 (£37,000).
Meanwhile, sources reveal change is afoot at the Archewell Foundation, with talk of staff ‘restructuring’.
The spokesman commented: ‘Yes, we are making some Archewell changes, and we’ll be sharing exciting developments regarding how we will deliver our philanthropic work moving forward, when we choose to. We look forward to communicating more in due course.’
Founded in 2020, the Archewell Foundation is the hub of the Sussexes’ philanthropic focus. Last year, it gave a total of £1,026,240 to charitable causes, and received £4,183,892 in grants – largely from one cash injection of £3,947,148, understood to have come from Fidelity Charitable, a US-based fund that also donated £789,415 the previous year.
The remaining income came from five anonymous individuals.
Orange is the new black for Timothee
Timothee Chalamet and girlfriend Kylie Jenner at the premiere of Marty Supreme in Los Angeles
Timothee Chalamet is throwing everything into the publicity tour for his ping-pong film Marty Supreme – including colour co-ordinated appearances with his girlfriend Kylie Jenner (pictured).
The orange they’ve worn refers to a plotline about orange ping-pong balls, by the way. His co-star Gwyneth Paltrow has been doing the same, turning up to the Seth Myers late-night chat show in an orange tracksuit.
The movie is based on the amazing true story of outlandish ping-pong star Marty Reisman. Director Josh Safdie has talked about how he hooked Chalamet in by passing him a copy of Reisman’s 1974 book, The Money Player: The Confessions Of America’s Greatest Table Tennis Champion And Hustler.
Reisman, who died in 2012, was the 1958 and 1960 U.S. Men’s singles champion and the 1997 U.S. hardbat champion.
A showman known as
‘The Needle’ for his slender build, he was famous for skills like splitting a cigarette in half with a ping-pong ball and playing blindfolded.
In the film, he’s called ‘Marty Mauser’. Reisman’s great friend and protégé Jimmy Pelletier tells me: ‘Marty would have been blown away by the film and absolutely loved it. The only thing that he would have had a problem with is that they changed the last name and they never contacted his daughter Debbie for permission.’
Changing the name of the player will have allowed the film’s makers A24 to avoid paying Reisman’s heir, Debbie, for the copyright of the book.
In a similar vein, incidentally, Wicked: For Good has the rights to the Wizard Of Oz book by Frank L. Baum and the stage show Wicked, but not the 1939 MGM Wizard Of Oz movie.
Which is why Dorothy’s slippers are silver and not ruby in the new film.
A sneak peak of Tom Hiddleston in the new series of The Night Manager
Tom Hiddleston doesn’t sweat, according to the director of The Night Manager.
Georgi Banks-Davies said: ‘We filmed the second series of The Night Manager in very hot places such as Colombia and Spain and Tom just didn’t break sweat. It was only when we put him behind the wheel of a Porsche sports car, with gears rather than an automatic, attached a camera rig to the side of the vehicle and made him drive fast in traffic that he started to sweat… a little.’
Tom returns as secret agent Jonathan Pine in series two of The Night Manager on BBC1 on New Year’s Day.
Stellan gets too close for comfort
The relationship between actors and directors can be close, but this is a new one.
Stellan Skarsgard says that he and director Joachim Trier were ‘like two dogs sniffing each other’ when they were discussing the movie Sentimental Value.
Skarsgard, 74, said: ‘When I got the offer to do Joachim’s film, he knew that I would say yes, of course.
‘I invited him to Stockholm to dinner. I insisted on paying, because I said, ‘I don’t want to owe you anything.’
‘We were dancing around each other like two dogs sniffing each other: ‘Can I trust you?’
The film is the Norwegian entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars.
Davina’s ex reveals he almost took his own life
Davina McCall with her former husband Matthew Robertson in 2013
TV presenter Davina McCall is newly married and enjoying wedded bliss with her hairdresser husband Michael Douglas. However, it can be revealed that her previous husband Matthew Robertson, 56, has been struggling.
The former Pet Rescue presenter was married to Davina from 2000 to 2017 and they have three children, Holly, 23, Tilly, 21, and Chester, 19. They met when she was out walking her dog.
Robertson had been working as an adventure holiday guide but his business went under during the pandemic. He is now running an organisation, Momentum Men, which offers guided trips but also produces podcasts and has a mission to ‘uplift and energise’ men via the ‘power of the outdoors.’
The venture was born after Robertson suffered a crisis as he was struggling after his split from Davina.
On the Momentum Men website, he explains: ‘In recent times my mental health crumbled in the wreckage of losing my father, a divorce, and a business crushed by Covid.
‘Conditioned stoicism and male pride stopped me from seeking help, and desperate to silence the storm in my head, I contemplated a tragic choice.
‘But the outdoor place I planned that tragic event emerged as a catalyst when nature unexpectedly became my guide on a journey back to health.’
In a podcast, he explains further how he reached rock bottom. He said: ‘There was a time when I nearly took my life and I believe that my late father stopped that from happening. In that moment I believed that he was there.’
Records at Companies House show that Momentum Adventure went bust with debts of £408,500 in August 2021. It is due to be dissolved on January 24 next year.
- Call the Samaritans on 116 123 or see samaritans.org
Lily’s still tempted by her vices
Lily Allen’s new album West End Girl has caused a sensation after she revealed intimate details of her failed marriage to the actor David Harbour
Lily Allen has been musing on her upcoming tour with the album West End Girl.
She said: ‘Being on stage and being vulnerable and being exposed and not having alcohol – I’m nervous. I don’t think there’s any risk of anything happening, but it’s a real adrenaline rush that you get when you’re on a stage and people respond to your words.
‘When you come off stage that adrenaline is rushing around your body and looking for a place to get out, and drugs and alcohol are really helpful with that.’
She adds: ‘When you take that out of the equation… I haven’t done it yet, but I can imagine that it will be quite hard.
‘There’ll have to be a routine that I get into or some kind of ritual to help me out with that space.’
You little devil!
Jacobi Jupe stars in Hamnet with Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as their ill-fated son
Jacobi Jupe was a revelation in the film Hamnet and the 12-year-old has just been cast in a new instalment of iconic horror franchise The Exorcist, alongside Scarlett Johansson, which will shoot in New York next year.
Jupe is the younger son of former Coronation Street actress Katy Cavanagh, and he’s not the first kid of Corrie to make it big: Cavanagh’s fellow cast member Sally Dynevor has seen daughter Phoebe go on to great things, including Bridgerton and the film Fair Play, and Bill Roache’s son Linus is also an actor.
