Collective hallucination of Meghan Markle teaming up with Guy Ritchie evaporates as quickly as it came

This is per THR, writing about reporting from former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Tina Brown, who wrote on Substack on Saturday (after breaking parts of the initial story on Friday) that Markle’s hypothetical offer to tread the boards again had been pulled back within hours of it initially making the rounds. “The backlash in the UK was so intense, it became untenable to go forward,” wrote Brown, who THR says is formally standing by her reporting—despite the abruptness of the turnaround on the previously reported rumor. In said earlier reporting, Brown claimed that getting a new gig was one of the reasons Markle was willing to accede to the couple’s recent plans to return to the fold in the U.K., where, instead of having to present herself as the world’s most neutral-tones-in-a-dynamic-way homemaker, she’d be able to get back to an old job she’s said she didn’t actually miss very much.

It feels worth noting amid all this ephemeral drama that Ritchie’s Nextlix series The Gentlemen hasn’t even aired its second season yet—it’s back on September 3—let alone been renewed for a third; we’re sure the show’s marketing team (and Ritchie) are just thrilled to be dragged into all this. (And while it’s difficult to find evidence of the society-wide “backlash” that Brown claims killed the alleged deal, we will note that the most recent post on the show’s Instagram account has been lightly swamped with people who really, truly care, in a derogatory sense, about whether Meghan Markle is in a TV show.) So, there you go, folks: A week ago, you had no idea Meghan Markle was being considered for a role on Guy Ritchie’s Netflix show, and now here we all are, right back in the same state. It’s like a time machine!