Netflix
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex and wife of Prince Harry, has been accused of plagiarism by a British author. Writer Mel Elliott has accused the Netflix animated series Pearl of having ‘striking similarities’ to her own books.
According to reports, Meghan Markle was named as an executive producer on the Netflix animated series Pearl as part of her $100 million development deal with the streaming service that she signed in July 2021.
When it was announced, Netflix described the series as being about a “young girl who learns to step into her power and finds inspiration from influential women throughout history.”
While the project never made it passed the development stage — Markle’s Netflix deal has largely been seen as a disaster — she and the streaming service now find themselves embroiled in controversy because of it as they’re being accused of plagiarism.
“Globally published children’s writer Mel Elliott, 51, from Hastings, has disclosed that she sent a legal letter suggesting a potential infringement of copyright in relation to her own creation – a little British girl called Pearl Power. The author and illustrator then followed up with two further personal letters.”
“Meghan is a feminist who sticks up for other women, so I was disappointed and confused to see how similar Netflix’s proposed show Pearl was to my own Pearl Power, who had been created seven years earlier,” Elliot told The Daily Mail. “Of course, I can’t know if anyone on her team had seen it and been inspired by it, but the similarities were too great for me to ignore.”
“What saddened me most is that, having brought the similarities between my Pearl and Meghan’s Pearl to the attention of Netflix and Archewell, my objection was never acknowledged – neither Netflix nor Archewell responded to me when I would have loved to have contributed and collaborated,” she added.
Markle’s $100 million deal with Netflix has resulted in just two projects so far, both of which were poorly received and accused of being tone deaf: a documentary series about her relationship with Harry, Harry & Meghan, and a cooking/gardening lifestyle series titled With Love, Meghan.
Content shared from brobible.com.