Before the Duchess of Sussex’s With Love, Meghan was released, Meghan-haters latched onto a particularly stupid criticism: that Meghan was “copying” Pamela Anderson. Pamela has been part of the gardening/reno/cooking space for several years now, mostly in Canadian-only shows. Pamela’s new cooking show – Pamela’s Cooking With Love – just debuted on Canadian television on February 26th, a week before Netflix began streaming WLM. Remember, WLM was originally supposed to air in January. I’m sure the haters still would have found a way to twist it into “Meghan is copying Pamela,” but given the fact that Pamela’s trailer and show aired first chronologically, that’s made it easy for smooth-brained people to scream about how, obviously, this is a copykeening situation. Well, now Pamela’s executive producer made a bitchy comment to the Daily Mail.
Pamela Anderson’s team has broken its silence following accusations that Meghan Markle’s new Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, closely resembles Anderson’s cooking show.
Hours before Markle’s eight-episode series premiered on March 4, Jesse Fawcett, the co-creator and executive producer of Pamela’s Cooking With Love—which debuted on Feb. 26—issued a statement responding to the backlash.
“We take pride in planting the first seeds—creating original, distinctive programming that audiences love—and it’s a compliment to see our work with Ms. Anderson resonate so strongly,” Fawcett told the Daily Mail.
Eagle-eyed fans of Anderson were quick to point out striking similarities between the two shows. Both series feature the celebrity hosts preparing meals for their famous friends in a cozy home setting, hand-picking fresh produce from their gardens, and placing them in wicker baskets before cooking. Many took to social media to accuse Markle of copying the actress’ concept, with one post on X receiving nearly 40,000 views.
Yeah, Jesse Fawcett just should have kept his mouth shut. Obviously, what Meghan is doing is not some new concept, but it doesn’t follow that she’s “copying” Pamela, or that Pamela owns the original concept. As I said in the previous post, Pamela’s show sounds like a Canadian version of Selena Gomez’s Selena + Chef, so maybe Fawcett should have given Selena her flowers for providing a roadmap to Pamela and “planting the first seeds.” And nevermind that ALL cooking/entertaining shows owe everything to the actual pioneers in this space like Martha Stewart and Julia Child.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images and Netflix.
