Meghan: A Hollywood Princess(36)

“We would come back and talk about what we had seen, where this person we’d met was shopping, which restaurants and bars people were talking about,” says Mark. “We realized we had all this content.” They expanded their coverage and in 2013, redesigned the site to make space for advertising and editorial. Rosenberg listened to Meghan’s concerns about her proposed site, especially when she stressed there was so much more she wanted to share. Over several glasses of wine and tapas, they discussed her vision for the site, which would essentially be an insider’s guide to travel, food, fashion, and makeup with a leavening of more serious op-ed articles dealing with women’s issues. Essentially it would be a dash of Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog, Goop, with a soup?on of Marie Claire seasoned with Meghan’s own style and focus.

Now with a vision for her own site, Meghan turned down the original company’s offer to create a commercial “Meghan Markle” site and decided to have a go on her own. First she hired a website designer. When she showed the results to Rosenberg, his sharp and practiced eye immediately told him that this could be a problem.

“I beg you, please don’t go down this path; use our graphic designer from Coveteur,” he told his friend. The result was TheTig.com, which featured Meghan’s own elegant handwriting, and a logo with a wine drop as the dot of the letter i. Meghan had chosen the name from an Italian wine called Tignanello. It is a wine born out of the vinter’s desire to make his product stand out in a sea of reds. Meghan liked that idea. Standing out. She would drink to that.

For Meghan, Tignanello had a deeper meaning, representing that “aha” moment when she finally understood what components went to make a good wine, to give it length, finish, and legs. She wanted to carry that excitement of discovery into her website, writing, “The Tig is a hub for the discerning palate—those with a hunger for food, travel, fashion and beauty. I want to create a space to share all of these loves—to invite friends to share theirs as well, and to be the breeding ground for ideas and excitement—for an inspired lifestyle.” Frothy, fizzy, and fun, The Tig appealed to her fan base, who appreciated her elegant style and her classy persona. At the same time, she envisaged using The Tig to draw attention to more pertinent social and political issues as they affected women.

Meghan, the aspirational girl next door, had created a site for other classy girls like her who wanted to join the party. With the help of Jake Rosenberg, fashion designer Wes Gordon, and designer Brett Heyman of the acrylic purse brand Edie Parker, who created a resin clutch labeled with “Ms. Tig” for Meghan, the stage was set. Finally, she also followed the advice of her costar Gina Torres, who had told her, using one of Meghan’s longtime nicknames, “Nutmeg, just leave room for magic.”

When filming started again Meghan’s busy days didn’t leave a lot of time for magic. She would wake up at 4:15 a.m., down a cup of hot water with fresh squeezed lemon, and eat a bowl of oatmeal with sliced bananas and agave. Then she would let the dogs out in the backyard before driving her leased Audi SUV to the set, a mazelike replica of a law office, detailed down to the pink message pads and pens on secretaries’ desks, with pivoting glass walls that allowed the cameras to shoot any angle without glare. The New York skyline was a backdrop, and the location scenes were shot in Toronto, with establishing shots from the B-roll of Manhattan to give a sense of place. After early morning makeup and wardrobe, where clothes would be altered “on the inhale” to give them their tightest, sleekest fit, Meghan would wait in her trailer for her scene to be ready.

With the birth of The Tig, Meghan had her hands full, making sure that the new arrival was fed, watered, and coddled. It was a full-time occupation, staying awake until the early hours cruising Instagram for ideas about what was cool, hot, interesting, and timely; writing all the short, snappy content herself; and hustling anyone and everyone to get celebrities to answer her emailed five questions that created the format for Tig Talk. Actor and singer Emily Rossum got the ball rolling by saying that if she was down to her last $10—one of the standard questions—she would sing in the street for money. Others like fashion guru Joe Zee and blogger Jessica Stam added their thoughts, while Meghan dragooned interior designer Natasha Baradaran to talk about her favorite city, Milan. She knew that big names drove traffic and would attract other celebrities to participate. One of the first people she wanted to have for Tig Talk was model-turned-entrepreneur Heidi Klum. She emailed everyone she knew, hoping to get an email or phone number for Klum or her assistant. In the end Heidi responded, as did “the queen,” who informed the actor that everything tasted better with a slug of vodka. Of course, the queen she was talking about was TV screen queen Elizabeth Hurley, who plays the conniving and occasionally cruel Queen Helena in the E! show The Royals, a tongue-in-cheek take on the House of Windsor.

There were profiles of cool places to visit, interesting restaurants, and innovative chefs. This feature snagged her a new love. For years she had been eating at the Harbord Room, a small restaurant in downtown Toronto that opened in 2007. It was run by handsome celebrity chef, Cory Vitiello, who boasted that he cooked the best burger in town. The foodie in Meghan was intrigued.

Over the past seven years, Vitiello had made a name for himself both in and out of kitchen. He had famously dated Canadian heiress and former politician Belinda Stronach, as well as eTalk’s talking head Tanya Kim, before turning his attention to Canadian TV gossip reporter Mary Kitchen. Now with The Tig, Meghan had a way to get to know him better. Much better. For Meghan, love was in the air. But, as she was to discover to her horror, not online.