London — British royalty and the media can be volatile, as seen in recent weeks. After abdominal surgery in January, the Princess of Wales was absent, sparking online conjecture. A manipulated photo fueled the speculation, but a video statement from Kate revealed that she is being treated for cancer.
It reminds us that palace privacy and public curiosity and attention can clash. “Scoop,” a Netflix thriller depicting Prince Andrew's disastrous 2019 interview in reaction to sexual misconduct claims, provides further proof. Rufus Sewell plays Andrew and Gillian Anderson plays Emily Maitlis, who quizzed the prince for BBC's “Newsnight” on Friday (April 5
“The X-Files” and “Sex Education” actress Anderson, who played Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in season four of “The Crown,” returns to royal themes in the feature-length drama. Anderson argues the “complex” royalty-media connection requires rethinking.
Whether that’s (Prince) Harry and his cases against the tabloids and all of the truths around that that have come to the fore, or other aspects that are becoming more public knowledge, it probably needs a proper rethink,” Anderson told Press.
Prince Andrew agreed to be interviewed about his friendship with financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in a New York prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking, and a woman's claims that she had sex with Andrew when she was 17 and being trafficked by Epstein
A book by Sam McAlister, the persistent producer who got the interview, inspired “Scoop”. Actress Billie Piper tells the palace, “An hour of television can change everything.” Following Maitlis' calm but determined questioning, the prince refuted all claims, refused to demonstrate empathy for the abused young ladies, and said Epstein had “conducted himself in a manner unbecoming,” which many viewers found understated.
He said he was at a suburban Pizza Express with his daughter Princess Beatrice, thus he couldn't have been in a nightclub with his accuser on a date. An "overdose of adrenaline" during his stint as a helicopter pilot in the 1982 Falklands War prevented him from sweating on the dancefloor.
McAlister described the “extraordinary” experience of being in Buckingham Palace's interview chamber. At the London premiere, she stated, “As a journalist, and an ex-lawyer, I knew profoundly that he was doing something that would change the course of his life and the course of everyone in the royal family.
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