Dear Gossips,
You may have noticed a headline this week about Gillian Anderson after she appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers and they played a behind-the-scenes video from the set of The Crown when, during a break from filming, she and Olivia Colman, along with other cast and crew, did a choreographed routine set to Lizzo’s “Good As Hell”. If you missed it, watch here.
Aside from this amazing insight into how Olivia Colman spends her time – with a group of friends somewhere in London, attending dance classes during which they learn dance choreo – what’s also interesting for those of us who care about award season is how actively Gillian seems to be campaigning. She was on Late Night, in part, to promote The Crown, two months after its release, but just days before the Golden Globe and the SAG nominations are to be announced. Gillian is expected to be one of the contenders in the Supporting Actress category, alongside series co-star Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Princess Margaret.
Netflix has submitted several castmembers for consideration in the same categories. While Gillian and Helena go head-to-head in Supporting, Olivia and Emma Corrin, who did great work as Princess Diana, are contending in the Lead Actress category. Josh O’Connor, however, will be the lone royal rep for Lead Actor. Given the series’ popularity and notoriety, especially this season, it’s quite likely that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will try to get as much Crown content in as possible. Which is great for Netflix…but maybe not so great for the British royal family. When shows and movies are nominated for awards, they always get a bump in viewership. And in this case, it means people will keep watching The Crown, or they’ll re-watch The Crown, and the conversation about how the Queen and her family behaved in the Diana days (like dicks) will continue. Maybe that’s why they keep slapping on their smiles and telling us that the Queen! Is! Just! Like! Us!
Because they’ll be hearing a lot about The Crown in the weeks ahead as we get closer to the Globes, the Critics’ Choice Awards, and the SAGs during award season. And then, even after the buzz around that fades away, production on season 5 of the series is expected to begin in the summer. Which is shortly before Pablo Larraín’s Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart as Diana, is scheduled to be released. Production on Spencer was supposed to begin this week in Germany; we saw the first photo of Kristen in costume as Diana a few days ago and here’s the synopsis:
“The Prince and Princess of Wales’ marriage has long since grown cold. Though rumours of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at Sandringham Estate. There’s eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game. This year, things will be a whole lot different.”
So they too are revisiting this controversial period, which inevitably will keep the heat on the British royals. And if they’re marking Spencer for a fall release, it means they’re hoping for awards contention next year – at the very least nominations for KStew’s performance. By then, if filming goes smoothly, season 5 of The Crown will be ready some time in 2022, and we already know that they’ll keep the focus on Diana and Charles’s deteriorating relationship and very public feud …
And you know what’s happening in 2022? The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. This is the timing that Netflix is presumably targeting, non? Netflix has NOT been intimidated by how bothered the British royals are about their hit property. In fact, they’ve doubled down on giving the Windsors the finger. Now with the rollout of all of this content that I’ve just outlined, how f-cking thirsty do you think the Queen and her family are going to get over the next year to counter all of this drama?
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
