Harry and Meghan being ‘frozen out’ by Hollywood elite due to ‘money fears’

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are being “frozen out” by Hollywood’s elite – including their own A-List neighbours – a top TV producer has told Daily Express US.

She says Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been completely ignored by iconic filmmaker Steven Spielberg as well as movie and television power players Rob Lowe and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who all have homes in Montecito.

And she adds that the royal couple are even getting the cold shoulder from near-neighbour and wedding guest Oprah Winfrey, who did not invite them to her birthday party this year despite her bombshell interview with them in March 2021.

Paula Froelich, who revealed the party snub on cable network NewsNation, where she is a senior story producer, declared: “My sources tell me it’s all about the money – and the big power players in Hollywood aren’t jeopardizing their businesses for Harry and Meghan.”

Ms. Froelich believes some Tinsel town titans are deliberately keeping their distance so as not to upset Prince William and Princess Kate, who might not be so keen to attend their launches and premieres in the UK.

She declared: “Everyone’s got a movie to sell or a Broadway play they want to debut on screen in London or (on stage) in London’s West End – and they know that William and Kate, who are the biggest celebrity ‘gets’ over there, won’t show if they think someone is friends with Harry and Meghan.”

Other major stars, Ms. Froelich added, are also fearful of the high-profile Sussexes spilling their personal secrets in public. She declared: “What if they dish on what’s in the refrigerator as well?”

This is a reference to a segment in Harry’s best-selling memoir Spare, in which he reveals how he and an unidentified actor helped themselves to a big box of chocolate-covered ‘magic mushrooms’ in the fridge during a party at the LA home of former Friends star Courteney Cox.

“My mate and I grabbed several, gobbled them, and washed them down with tequila,” the prince revealed, before going on to describe the hallucinogenic trip that resulted.

As a consequence, the actress was forced to publicly deny the chocolate mushrooms were intended for consumption by her guests, telling Variety magazine: “I definitely wasn’t passing them out.”

A senior studio source in strike-hit Hollywood confirmed: “He and Meghan have hardly become renowned for their discretion during their short time here and many are very wary of even interacting with them lest something said in confidence ends up in print.

“It’s easy to understand why the most powerful figures in this industry would rather keep their distance than risk the possibility of upsetting William and Kate into not attending their next big London premiere.”

This view was supported last week by royal author Christopher Andersen, who said in a new interview: “They’re not getting the kind of support now that they had when they arrived.

“Trying to carve out this new life for themselves in Hollywood, I suppose they expected the honeymoon to go on.

“But, as time has passed, more and more of their allies and friends and admirers have just fallen away because they see this as a kind of narcissistic romp through Montecito.”