The royal family has once again used their outsized powers to silence Meghan Markle, though in this one instance, it appears to have been done for her benefit.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Aaron Korsch, producer and creator of the USA legal drama Suits, discussed the show’s resurgence this summer thanks to a little-known duchess who played paralegal Rachel Zane. (Well, that and the fact the series is streaming on Netflix). Korsch recalled the Firm meddling in the creative process of the show as Meghan started dating Prince Harry, and this anecdote is now one of those things I will bring up at a party every time the conversation dries up and I need something to say:
In the episode, Mike and Rachel [Markle’s character] were going to have a thing, and as a nod to my in-laws, we were going to have her say, “My family would say poppycock.” And the royal family did not want her saying the word. They didn’t want to put the word “poppycock” in her mouth. I presume because they didn’t want people cutting things together of her saying “cock.” So, we had to change it to “bullshit” instead of “poppycock,” and I did not like it because I’d told my in-laws that [poppycock] was going to be in the show.
Well, now we know where the word “cock” falls in relation to “shit” in offenses against the royal family. And presumably both of those things are more heinous than Harry wearing a Nazi costume or Prince Andrew presenting his, how do you say, poppycock in places they absolutely shouldn’t be. God forbid someone make them look bad by uttering a vulgar word.
According to Korsch, the royal family read through most of Suits scripts before they were shot. And while I know it wasn’t explicitly the Queen doing so, it’s sort of fun to imagine that, no? To think about Lilibet dying to get the insider info on Rachel’s ~spoiler alert~ affair with Logan? A leak like that could have done even more to humanize her than her corgi-collecting hobby.