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J.K. Rowling on reaction to new Hermione: ‘I thought that idiots were going to idiot’

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Character portraits for the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child were released over the weekend and they are all lovely; take a look on Pottermore. As we reported in December of last year, Olivier-Award winning actor, Noma Dumezweni, was cast as Hermione in this production. After the announcement, people with nothing better to do complained to the Twitterverse about her casting. The issue was not her credentials but the fact that she is not white and that somehow flies in the face of the characterization of Hermione. At the time, J.K. Rowling gave the following statement in support of the casting choice: Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione ? https://t.co/5fKX4InjTH — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 21, 2015 JK wrote the story upon which Jack Thorne’s play is based. HPatCC takes place 19 years after the gang has graduated Hogwarts. Harry is married with three children and the youngest, Albus, is reluctant to carry on the family legacy. The story is a continuation from the books, not the movies so it really doesn’t matter who played the part in the movie, even if they did a wonderful job in that role. Now that the dust up on social media has died down, JK expressed her annoyance about the controversy and did so in classic JK fashion. JK Rowling has revealed her frustration at online reaction by “a bunch of racists” to news that the role of Hermione will be played by a black actress in the eagerly awaited new play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The production, which has broken records by selling 175,000 tickets in 24 hours, is tipped to be the theatrical event of the year. But the Harry Potter creator criticised those who have suggested that Hogwarts’ studious heroine could not be played by the Olivier-award-winning actress Noma Dumezweni. “With my experience of social media, I thought that idiots were going to idiot,” she said in an interview with the Observer. “But what can you say? That’s the way the world is. Noma was chosen because she was the best actress for the job.” While the vast majority of people responded positively to the casting decision, Rowling said: “I had a bunch of racists telling me that because Hermione ‘turned white’ – that is, lost colour from her face after a shock – that she must be a white woman, which I have a great deal of difficulty with. But I decided not to get too agitated about it and simply state quite firmly that Hermione can be a black woman with my absolute blessing and enthusiasm.” Dumezweni was cast by the play’s director, John Tiffany – known for the productions Black Watch and the musical Once – who has collaborated with Rowling and the playwright Jack Thorne, writer of This Is England and The Last Panthers. Tiffany said he was surprised by the opinions expressed online, but had stopped reading the comments. “I am not as Twitter-familiar as Jo and Jack, so I hadn’t encountered its dark side, which is just awful. But what shocked me was the way people couldn’t visualise a non-white person as the hero of a story. It’s therefore brilliant that this has happened.” [From The Guardian] I always cast books in my head and producers never go with my picks when they are made into movies. Shockingly, I am able to get over it and see the film without bias. I remain at a loss over the criticism of Noma; I would be thrilled to see someone of her caliber perform. Elphaba in Wicked needed to be green, it was a huge point in the story but Hermione’s skin color has no affect on her. I think I’ll save my outrage for the fact that I will never get tickets to this show and not the fact that Hermione is not alabaster or Ron not-ginger enough. Embed from Getty Images Photo credit: WENN and Fame/Flynet Photos and Getty Images

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VF: Duchess Kate runs Anmer Hall ‘with just a handful of domestic staff’

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In the new issue of Vanity Fair – the one with the Queen and her corgis on the cover – Katie Nicholl has an exclusive new story on the Cambridges. Nicholl is long-believed to have sources deep within the Middleton family and within William and Kate’s group of friends. Nicholl often writes pro-royal propaganda, although she has, at times, written pieces critical of both William and Kate. Basically, I believe that she has legit sources close to Will and Kate but I often think she’s just using pro-Cambridge sources with an agenda. So, caveats in place, this story is a pretty good read. Good as in I eye-rolled throughout with the glowing, sycophantic prose and sympathetic quotes. You can read the full piece here, and here’s the new stuff. William has the Queen & Charles’ blessings to live like a country squire. “It’s no secret that William doesn’t like the media intrusion into his life, and in the country he can escape,” says a family friend. “The Queen and the Prince of Wales have given their blessing for William to live this life, and William is very grateful. It’s enabling him and Kate to raise their family in a way that’s as close to ordinary as they can get.” Says another royal source, “William doesn’t want George and Charlotte going through some of the experiences he went through growing up. Everything he does regarding his family is very deliberate.” Life at Anmer Hall. They have crazy security measures, a swimming pool, a tennis court, police cars patrolling the perimeter and more. Nicholl writes: “Kate runs the 10-bedroom house with just a handful of domestic staff, including full-time nanny Maria Borallo and a housekeeper. Aides insist there is no in-house chef—Kate loves to cook, and she has been spotted buying local produce at Back to the Garden. Occasionally, she sends the family’s bodyguards out to do the grocery shopping at the local shops. Mealtimes are hectic family occasions with pots of food served straight to the table. (Like most little boys, George prefers French fries to vegetables.) Kate and William take turns giving the children their baths and putting them to bed.” Kate is happy at Anmer. Privately, Kate has told friends she is delighted to have left London. “They love the countryside and that’s where they are happiest,” says one family friend. They want another baby. There are rumors among the Cambridges’ set of friends that the couple won’t wait too long before trying for another baby. Says a source, “They want at least three kids and for them to be close in age.” The pressure to carry out more work. “William says there is no negotiation when it comes to his family,” says one royal source. It is this worry, say friends, which lies behind the Cambridges’ controversial decision to hide away from the public gaze in Norfolk. At Anmer, William says, they are “a family unit. We are a normal family… Right now it’s just a case of keeping a secure, stable environment.” William’s job as a pilot. Friends say that he is determined not to be in the same waiting role his father has occupied for decades, and that he loves being a pilot. “Often he comes home physically and emotionally shattered and he just flops in front of the TV,” says one of the Duke’s closest friends. “But there’s no doubt he loves the job. It gives him a sense of purpose and normality.” But they will have to work more, and soon. “I do think we are going to see things change this year,” says one well-placed source. “The Queen is 90 and there’s talk that more responsibility is going to be handed down to the younger royals, which is right. I expect this will come at a time when it’s necessary for William, Kate, and Harry to do more to support the Queen and Prince Charles.” [From Vanity Fair] I’ve long believed that Kate is the one who wants a third child and William couldn’t care less, so we’ll see how that plays out. I suspect that if Kate is really going to have a third child, she will get pregnant this year so the kids will be close in age (like Kate and her siblings). There’s a lot of other stuff in Nicholl’s story, about how Will and Kate are all about their family and they’re very hands-on parents, etc. But after that quote about how William is so exhausted from working as a pilot a few days a week (with extensive, month-long holidays throughout the year), I’m not sure I even believe that Will and Kate are spending that much time being hands-on parents. Maybe Kate is, but William? I have literally no idea how he spends his days. Oh, and I would LOVE to know how many household staffers Kate and William really employ. Because it is absolutely more than two. Plus her mother. Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News.

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Johnny Depp got into a drunken altercation with his bodyguard in Denmark

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Johnny Depp has been on tour with his band (eyeroll) the Hollywood Vampires for the past week. They’ve been touring around Europe, and it’s led to some uncomfortable photo-ops. The Daily Mail got their hands on some exclusive photos of Depp surrounded by people in Denmark, at 2 am outside a bar/club – go here to see. He seems to be in the company of a few ladies and more than a few gentlemen. The DM says that a few of those gentlemen are Depp’s bodyguards, or perhaps the band’s bodyguards/roadies (they look more like roadies than bodyguards, in my opinion). I tend to think the Daily Mail has just made up a narrative to go along with the photos, but they do claim to have eyewitnesses, so maybe this is 100% real. Apparently, while Depp was in Denmark, he was boozing it up quite heavily, plus he was getting blackout-flirty with a mystery blonde. Plus he got into some kind of altercation with one of the bodyguards/roadies. So rock n’ roll. So scarfy. So charming. So youthful. A boozed-up Johnny Depp got into an altercation with one of his own bodyguards — as he cavorted with a mystery blonde in a Denmark bar late Wednesday, according to a report. The 52-year-old actor’s bodyguard was trying to persuade him to return to the Royal Hotel bar about 2:30 a.m., but Depp preferred to continue partying and swigging Champagne at a concert afterparty, the Daily Mail reported. Depp, who is touring Europe with his band The Hollywood Vampires, was celebrating in the wee hours with bandmates and crew members after a gig in the Danish city of Horsens. Depp was intent on “drinking and smoking a lot” with the blonde, witnesses said. “Johnny was in a party mood, that’s for sure,” an observer said. “His bodyguard had his hand on his shoulder and was trying to get him to go back inside, but Johnny refused to go. More and more fans came up to him and he wanted to talk to all of them and take selfies with them,” the witness said, the paper reported. “And the bodyguard got more and more persistent but Johnny didn’t want to go. … And he definitely drank his fair share of alcohol.” Photographs show the tattooed Depp — clad in a brown-and-black vest and white shirt — glaring furiously at the bodyguard as he tried to lead him away from several people. Meanwhile, a brunette seems to be trying to calm the volatile actor, putting his arm around her shoulder. “Johnny was the last one to leave the bar, even after everyone had finished the champagne and gone home, it was Johnny that went back to the bar,” the observer said. “To look at him last night, with his clothes from the show and the mascara and everything, he looked like he was Jack Sparrow one more time.” The actor was outside the hotel bar with the blonde for a couple of hours, the paper reported. “They smoked a lot and drank a lot,” another observer said. “Johnny was sitting at a table behind me at the time, before they went outside together. They were outside together for about two hours and looked very animated when they were talking. It looked like she was really leading the conversation, while he was listening to her. And she was smoking a lot the whole time and drinking from the bottle of bubbly. It’s clear they already knew each other. I stood by her when she was at the bar and she asked a woman for a light, and she was bought a white wine by an older man at the bar,” the person said. [From Page Six] This sounds like “obvious story is obvious.” I’m almost positive that Depp is in the throes of addiction, and I’m almost positive that this is Depp bottoming out. Most addiction-experts believe that you’re just supposed to stand back and let the addict hit rock bottom on their own and then, hopefully, they will acknowledge that they need help. But Depp’s downward spiral seems to be less self-harming and more violent-towards-other-people. Don’t get me wrong, he’s self-destructive too. But he’s so cushioned by yes-men and sycophants that I’m more concerned for the people around him who get caught up – physically and emotionally – in his downward spiral. And if Depp is really taking out sh-t on the people who get paid to look after him? Well, maybe Amber Heard will have even more witnesses. Johnny Depp 'in 2am row' with bodyguards outside casino in Denmark https://t.co/UXBTTBYJMw pic.twitter.com/SUkGiWjBIh — Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) June 2, 2016 Photos of Depp in Sweden earlier this week, courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

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Debra Messing apologizes for gun safety selfie at time of UCLA shooting

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Debra Messing is involved with the same charity for gun safety and awareness which Julianne Moore supports: Everytown for Gun Safety. The way Moore has explained it, Everytown has some very practical solutions to control access to guns, namely running background checks and closing the loopholes which exist for gun shows and online sales. Incidentally Obama issued an executive order earlier this year to accomplish this, but without the support of the legislative branch it will be hard to effect change. Hopefully we can see some of these changes under President Clinton. (Yes I’m an optimist on several fronts.) Wednesday there was a tragic shooting at UCLA, which ended up being a murder suicide in which a man from Minnesota murdered his former engineering professor, William S. Klug. The latest in that terrible case is that the shooter also murdered his estranged wife in Minnesota before driving to Los Angeles, where he intended to kill Klug and another professor, who was not harmed. It was yet another senseless shooting which organizations like Everytown hope to prevent. Messing was taking part in a pre-planned awareness day for gun safety, and so instead of putting it off or just tweeting support for the victims at UCLA, she decided to incorporate the shootings into her selfie, and the result was… not good. She posted a photo of herself in a gun control T-shirt and tweeted that she was watching the shooting on TV. (She’s since deleted the tweet but the NY Daily News had it.) Yes that came across as self absorbed. At least she didn’t use a bunch of hashtags though, props for that. Many people started calling her out for it and the good news is that she apologized. Here’s her apology. I would assume that someone else wrote it for her, judging by her tweets. PLEASE READ: pic.twitter.com/LccmvPpOcn — Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) June 1, 2016 If that was the case why didn’t Messing just tweet a simple message that she was saddened by events at UCLA, that she hopes everyone is safe and her thoughts go out to the families and loved ones? Instead she made it about herself and it was tone deaf, but it does make sense in context. Just before posting her full apology, Messing posted a series of tweets explaining herself, stating “The pix was being taken just AS the news broke. I thought the horrendous irony of the timing shown [sic] a brighter light in the crisis and need for all of us to do something together to make the US safer. Sorry if it was misconstrued and caused offense. That’s the last thing I want to do.” As far as celebrity apologies go, her full apology is a decent one. I wish celebrities wouldn’t use the “sorry you misunderstood/sorry you were offended” line. She should have just said “I messed up, this was dumb and I acted in the heat of the moment,” but she explained the circumstances and it wasn’t bad. photos credit: WENN.com

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Zendaya on the election: ‘It’s disappointing, sad, and scary. You have to vote.’

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Zendaya covers the Jusly issue of Cosmopolitan looking like she’s trying to fix her shoe while showing off her incredible legs. I remember marveling at how she towered over Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet at the Grammys and it turns out she’s 5’10″ tall, which is not surprising. She’s got to be over 6′ in heels. The people at Cosmo sent us some advance quotes and while I would be surprised to hear them from most other 19 year-old starlets (see: Chloe Grace Moretz), it’s typical of Zendaya to sound wise beyond her years. She emphasized that young people who are scared to see the direction of this year’s election need to actually go out and vote instead of just tweet about it. That may sound like a no-brainer, but it’s true. She also detailed an incident in which a former publicist was racially insensitive, so she sacked her. (I love that term! I never get to use that, it’s so British.) On the election and voting: “There’s really crazy stuff happening right now, and it’s disappointing, sad, and scary. My generation, we really have to step up to the plate and vote. Tweeting is great — people say, ‘Oh, I don’t want this or that’ — but at the end of the day, tweeting isn’t a ballot. Just saying that you don’t like someone on Twitter is not going to turn a state blue or red. You have to vote.” On her return to Disney as the star and co-producer of K.C. Undercover: “The only way I was going to come back to the Disney Channel was if I was in a position of more power. One thing that is really important to me is diversity on the channel. It’s hard as a young person of a different ethnicity or background to look at the TV and not see anyone who looks like you. Representation is very important.” On a situation on set with someone being racially insensitive: “I didn’t like my hair and makeup one time on a photo shoot, and my publicist told me, ‘You should just be happy with it — they haven’t had a black girl on the cover since forever.’ She’s no longer my publicist.” On being in love versus casual hookups: “Me, personally? I would much rather be in love and have the full experience with the person I’m doing that with. Everyone deserves to be in love — it’s different from when you’re with someone you don’t really know. But as long as you protect yourself and get tested periodically, then by all means, go ahead and do what you’ve got to do!” [from Cosmopolitan] I like how she was diplomatic about her own dating preferences vs. people who like casual sex. She doesn’t sound judgy. I mean she gets her dad to chaperone dates, which seems a little excessive at 19 but maybe that’s her choice too. Given how self-possessed she is, it seems likely that she would have a say in that. Also, is she dissing the Disney channel or just television in general for not being more representative of society? I would say she’s talking about TV as a whole, because the Disney channel seems like it’s somewhat diverse already. I bet Zendaya has helped make changes there. photos credit: WENN and Cosmopolitan

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Gigi Hadid & Zayn Malik broke up after 7 months together, Gigi’s ‘really sad’

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I called it weeks ago! As soon as Gigi Hadid started getting pap’d in LA and New York solo, looking sort of sad and out of sorts, I knew that something was up. I even speculated – based off of some tabloid reporting – that Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid were through last week. And now E! News is confirming it. Zayn and Gigi are over after seven months together. They’re young and impulsive and “sources” believe that it’s possible they may get back together. Another young Hollywood couple has decided to call it quits. E! News exclusively confirms that model Gigi Hadid and singer Zayn Malik have broken up after dating for roughly seven months. While the reason behind their split remains unknown at the moment, a source tells us that there has been some rough patches within the relationship for a bit now. “During her birthday they were fighting,” an insider tells E! News, adding that they weren’t doing well then, and have “broken up and got back together a few times.” Another source confirms the breakup, but also reveals that there may be a reconciliation in the near future, telling E! News, “Zayn and Gigi did break up, but they can likely get back together tomorrow. It’s all very unclear what’s going on between them now. They been having some issues lately that involved communication and getting along.” The source adds, “Gigi is really sad about this, though, and in a way would like to work it out. It’s more about that constant contact with Zayn that she misses and they did get very close.” [From E! News] Us Weekly confirmed the split but they had no new details. The vibe I was getting – and which I’m still getting – is that Zayn pulled the plug for unknown reasons. I said last week that he’s crazy if he thinks he can upgrade to a bigger, more high-profile model, and all of the Zayn-loonies made it sound like Zayn and Gigi were never going to last because reasons. Whatever, y’all. I thought they were perfect together, and I also thought that Gigi helped Zayn get to the next level after he left One Direction. Before Gigi, many saw him as just some punk who made a terrible career decision. Gigi “legitimatized” him in a lot of ways – he wasn’t just some punk, he was the next Justin Timberlake, and Gigi was his muse. Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

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“Pope Francis loves beauty vlogs, probably loves a good cat-eye” links

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Pope Francis loves beauty blogs & vlogs. He thinks preaching about beauty helps neutralize aggression. I think he just wants to do a perfect smoky eye. [Jezebel] Amber Rose has hair again & she looks so different. [ICYDK] Josh & Anna Duggar are seeing a marriage counselor. [Starcasm] Colin Farrell is still with his girlfriend, just FYI. [LaineyGossip] Jessica Lange is done with American Horror Story. [Dlisted] I really like Chrissy Teigen’s haircut these days. [Celebslam] This MMA fighter came out to the ISIS anthem. [The Blemish] Recap of the premiere of Southern Charm. [Reality Tea] Patrick Schwarznegger & Abby Champion are dating. [Moe Jackson] Is Justin Bieber with Nicola Peltz now? [IDLY] John Stamos sleeps with what looks like a stuffed monkey. [Seriously OMG WTF] The best photos of celebrities stuffing their faces. [Socialite Life]