She is not known for histrionics, but Queen Elizabeth II would surely struggle to maintain her famous poise if she knew the actress playing her on The Crown earned less than the man portraying her husband.
Producers on Tuesday said that Matt Smith, Prince Philip on the Netflix drama, negotiated a better deal than Claire Foy because of his perceived higher profile.
They did not reveal either salary — Foy’s was put at US$40,000 an episode by Variety last year — but told a panel event in Jerusalem that Smith’s 2010 to 2013 starring role on the BBC’s Doctor Who had been the decisive factor.
Photo: Reuters
The explanation has not appeased critics who argued that the discrepancy should only have shown up in the first series, before Foy was garlanded with awards and acclaim.
Foy, 33, was already making a name for herself in British drama, with roles in Upstairs Downstairs and Wolf Hall, when she was tapped to play the queen.
The part has earned her a host of award season nominations, including at the BAFTAs, Golden Globes, Emmys and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards. She has won two SAGs and a Globe.
Suzanne Mackie, one of the show’s producers, told the Jerusalem audience about the discrepancy and that The Crown, which costs US$7 million an episode to produce, is replacing its leads for the start of filming in July, with Olivia Colman stepping in as the queen and an actor to replace Smith not yet announced.
Helena Bonham-Carter is to replace Vanessa Kirby as Elizabeth’s sister, the late Princess Margaret.
The series comes from the pen of Peter Morgan, who first lifted the veil on the private world of Elizabeth II in The Queen, which was directed by Stephen Frears and earned Helen Mirren an Oscar award in the title role.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS