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Priyanka Chopra: “Beauty has nothing to do with me. I was born with it”

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On feminism: “For eons, women have been told how to be or think or dress. I come from a part of the world where this debate is so heated, especially because we’re a country that has goddesses. We pray to women. But at the same time, we prey on them…Feminism needs men to understand that we don’t want to berate you or kill you or hate you. We just need you to stand by us.” On beauty: “Beauty has nothing to do with me. I was born with it. But I don’t want to be known by the fact that I’m beautiful. I want to be known for the fact that I’m an achiever. Not even an actor. I don’t want a label. I don’t want a box. I want a legacy.” On the phrase ‘woman of color’: “I know everything is about diversity right now. But I think it should be about humanity. It’s 2016. It’s so easy to separate ourselves and become smaller and smaller pieces of humanity. I don’t like the phrase ‘woman of color.’ I feel like that puts women in a box. I’m a woman, whether I’m white, Black, brown, green, blue, or pink — whatever. I think we need to start looking beyond that. It would be a big win for women, period.” … says Priyanka. See more of her next! (…)Read the rest of Priyanka Chopra: “Beauty has nothing to do with me. I was born with it” (1 words) © Versus for Skinny VS Curvy, 2016. | Permalink | 40 comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags:

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Cincinnati Zoo Parents May Be Charged in Connection to Gorilla Shooting

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The fallout from this weekend’s tragic shooting at the Cincinnati Zoo continues. As previously documented, and as depicted in the video below, a four-year old boy fell into the gorilla enclosure at this famous facility on Saturday, May 28. After the gigantic animals grabbed hold of the boy and started thrashing him about, officials were left with no choice but to have an employee fatally shoot the gorilla, who was 17 years old and named Harambe. Was the animal protecting the toddler? Hurting him? About to cause him real harm? Watch the surveillance footage and try to decipher for yourself: Cincinnati Zoo Gorilla Killed to Save Toddler’s Life: Who’s to Blame? Debate has raged all over the Internet in regard to the incident, with critics wondering why the zoo could not simply use a tranquilizer on the gorilla. The zoo has responded by saying the tranquilizer would have taken too long to go into effect. Others have placed the blame squarely at the feet of the boy’s parents, specifically his mother, Michelle Gregg. In response to the criticism she has received online, Gregg posted (and then deleted) a Facebook message that referred to the situation as an “accident” and which thanked God for keeping her son safe. Celebrities from all walks of entertainment life have also weighed in on the death of Harambe: View Slideshow: Harambe Mourned, Celebrated by Celebrities Everywhere Now, sources have confirmed that Cincinnati police are looking into Gregg and Deonne Dickerson, the boy’s father, even though the latter was not at the zoo when his son fell into the gorilla pit.  Authorities are reportedly reviewing “the actions of the parents/family that led up to the incident,” according to TMZ, implying they may be charged with the crime of negligence. Do you think they ought to be? Or was this just a very unfortunate accident that has taken on a life of its own due to the Internet? An insider also says the Zoo is NOT under investigation of any kind. It falls under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture.

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Benedict Cumberbatch: My wife should ‘always’ draw the eye of photographs

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Benedict Cumberbatch is currently promoting The Hollow Crown in Britain. We still don’t have an air date here in America, but it will probably air next fall on PBS, that’s my guess. But the British premiere is upon us, and as such, Benedict covers some of the local British magazines. I can’t say I took this Radio Times cover very seriously though. The mud around Benedict’s face just looks… wrong. Very wrong. Benedict spoke about playing Richard III to the mag: Learning he was related to Richard III: “I was literally dressed as Shakespeare’s version of Richard III when I received an email from Leicester University saying that I was a not-altogether-ridiculously-distant descendant of Richard. I’m a third cousin 16 times removed, which is still distant, but puts me ahead of an awful lot of other people.” Attending the reinternment of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral. “To have been present when Richard III found his resting place was moving. I was at the burial of a king.” Why Richard III’s story is important in the modern world: “These films stretch way beyond the remit of historical or period drama. They are about everything we’re facing – all the debates about who we should ally ourselves with, whether we should be part of Europe, and how deep these divides go within a society. And the violence of medieval warfare has a resonance with what’s going on with extremism in the world…To see the headlines, and then read the day’s shooting script, realizing we are enacting a beheading, literally taking someone’s head off their shoulders – sad to say, these are things which are still part of our world.” [From The Telegraph] I’m sure there are some in Britain who feel that Benedict might be stretching to find a modern context for the Richard III story, but I think he’s right – there’s a tunnel vision when it comes to modern struggles, like Donald Trump is the first fascist to ever run for office, or that a nation’s isolationist tendencies ebb and flow. But there are far-ranging histories with all of these issues. Benedict also chatted with Culture Mag about how vanity and how he hated that he was photographed at Pres. Obama’s speech: He doesn’t have any vanity as an actor: “I’ve had a career that’s not dependent on the way I look – but that is a great liberation for an actor, so I’m not really that vain about it. As myself, of course, I get a bit of, like ‘Oh God, I look like s**t’, but as an actor I’ve never, ever cared.” Being photographed at Obama’s speech in London: “We were right beside the press pack, and there were people there with telephoto lenses. When they realised that Barack was going to be another five minutes, the whole lot just went wumph, onto me, onto the side of my face… I was just like, ‘How many times can you take a photo of a not particularly attractive profile – again and again.’ I mean, thank God Sophie was there, so that kind of drew the eye of the photographs, as it always should. But it was just embarrassing.” [From The Belfast Telegraph] Whoa, first of all… I kind of think it’s wrong for Benedict to refer to Pres. Obama as “Barack” right off the bat. I mean, do they know each other? Are they friends? Did Obama say “call me Barry, Benedict”? No. Also, “thank God Sophie was there, so that kind of drew the eye of the photographs, as it always should…” I get that he’s trying to be self-deprecating, but he makes Sophie sound like she’s there to be the eye-candy. Embed from Getty Images Photos courtesy of Getty, Fame/Flynet, Radio Times, Culture.

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Prince William’s ‘Marie Antoinette-style utterances’ distance him from the public

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It’s a big day for the Cambridges! Prince William and Duchess Kate will be hosting the Obamas at Kensington Palace this evening. Prince Harry will be there to save the dinner, because let’s be honest: the Obamas love Harry. This dinner was added to the Cambridges’ schedule shortly after Will and Kate returned from their “whirlwind” and poorly-received India-Bhutan tour, likely in the hopes of making Will and Kate look “busy” and “not workshy.” Because those headlines still exist, especially following William’s prickly interview with the BBC this week. The Daily Mail reported that William’s office specifically left the door open for journalist Nicholas Witchell to ask the “workshy” questions. A source said: “After recent criticism, William’s team took a calculated decision to promote his image. That’s why the ducking royal duties question was allowed. Before, it would have been off limits.” The problem, perhaps, is that if you’re going to open yourself up to that line of questioning, you better have better answers than “pity poor me, I want to spend time with my family!” One of the Guardian’s columnists was openly mocking William, calling him “Darth Workshy” and mocking his “three-hours a week” gig as a pilot. The Daily Mail’s Jan Moir also picked apart William’s interview in a piece called “Wills must work much harder to win our love.” Some highlights: William needed to check his privilege: “For, surely, life is much harder for those with no future? With uncertain prospects, zero-hour contacts, minimum wage jobs and unable to afford the security of a home of their own. There are millions of people who can only dream of having a role in life they could ‘develop into’. Any role at all would do.” William’s deflection about being a new father: “What loving, young father, in the whole of this country, would not love the opportunity to spend more time with their children? Commuting dads who spend hours each day on trains; dads doing double shifts; dads who never have the opportunity to put their children to bed or cook their breakfast pancakes; dads who have to make do with precious hours of family time snatched together at weekends. Giving endless quality time to the kids is a luxury beyond the means of most parents, who must work to support their children and family life. William might mean well, but Marie Antoinette-style utterances such as these only further distance him from the public.” All privilege and no responsibility: “The Duke and Duchess can’t have all the privilege of royal life with scant few of the concomitant responsibilities. Whereas latchkey kids and working parents just have to get on with it, he faffs about in Norfolk, being lord of the manor and putting in the occasional stint with the East Anglian Air Ambulance….Ordinary dads — whose taxes contribute towards the royal lifestyle — must find it a bit insulting that William luxuriates in the home life they can never have themselves. And while he might mean well, if William wants to earn the respect and affection of the British public, he is going to have to work a lot harder. In more ways than one.” [From The Daily Mail] Boom. I mean, Moir’s piece reads like our comment section, but it’s just further proof (in what is becoming a mountain of evidence) that the tide has really turned with William… and perhaps to a lesser degree, Kate. It does feel like William is getting the brunt of it, which is as it should be. He’s the one who is convinced he’s some sort of PR genius. He’s the one scheming away for ways to avoid work. He’s the one who comes across as “arrogant” and “spoiled.” Last thing – Us Weekly had an extremely unfortunate write-up about how William and Kate were able to have an in-hotel “spa day” during their tour of India. They apparently spent several hours getting royally pampered, complete with soothing wraps and massages. I’m so glad they were able to have a little mini-vacation within their taxpayer-funded vacation, you guys. Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet, PCN.

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THR: Japanese fans aren’t upset with Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Ghost’ casting

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Earlier this week, we discussed the whitewashing drama that surrounds the Hollywood adaptation of the popular manga property Ghost in the Shell – go here to review Monday’s post. Interestingly enough, it seems that Americans and Europeans are the ones most upset about Scarlett Johansson’s casting as a character who was originally a Japanese woman. While Americans – specifically Asian-Americans – think this is just another terrible case of Hollywood whitewashing, it seems like ScarJo’s casting has been met with a shrug in Japan. The Hollywood Reporter did an interesting story about the reaction of Japanese fans to both Scarlett’s casting and the American whitewashing criticism. The casting of Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi in the Paramount/DreamWorks adaptation of Japanese anime hit Ghost in the Shell has drawn accusations of “whitewashing” and sparked fierce debate on social media across the Western world. But in the home of the manga and anime cult classic, the reaction to the media firestorm was mostly surprise as many Japanese had already assumed that the lead role in a Hollywood version of the story would go to a white actress. The original manga, written by Masamune Shirow, was published in 1989 by Kodansha, which licensed it for Mamoru Oshii’s seminal 1995 anime feature, a number of Japanese spin-off films and anime series, and most recently for the Hollywood live-action version. “Looking at her career so far, I think Scarlett Johansson is well cast,” Sam Yoshiba, director of the international business division at Kodansha’s Tokyo headquarters, tells The Hollywood Reporter. “She has the cyberpunk feel. And we never imagined it would be a Japanese actress in the first place…. This is a chance for a Japanese property to be seen around the world.” Yoshiba recently returned from a visit to the New Zealand set of the movie, where he says he was impressed by the respect being shown for the source material. Many ordinary Japanese manga fans are also nonplussed at the outrage over the casting. “If you want a Japanese cast, then a Japanese company should make the film in Japan,” said long-time manga fan Tetsuya Kataoka. Interestingly, the casting of an Asian-looking actress may have avoided the “whitewashing” accusations and likely placated some fans in Europe and America, but provoked a worse reaction in Japan. “It’s a shame they didn’t choose a Japanese person to tell such an interesting story. But at least they didn’t cast a Chinese actress, like they did in Memoirs of a Geisha,” said Ai Ries Collazo, another manga fan. “[Zhang Ziyi] actually did an amazing job, but it was like: really? Again, can’t they find a Japanese actress? Though casting an Asian actress would probably have gone down better in America.” Japanese manga and anime fans pointed out that similar “race-bending” casting takes place in reverse for domestic productions. Two live-action movies based on the Attack on Titan manga, also originally published by Kodansha, were released last year. The characters in the manga by Hajime Isayama were Western, but the cast for the movies was all Japanese. [From The Hollywood Reporter] I guess it probably bodes well that Japanese manga fans don’t care that a white woman was cast, and I also see their point about “well, at least they didn’t cast some vaguely Asian actress in lieu of getting a Japanese actress.” I agree that it would have been worse if they hired a Chinese-American or Korean-American actress, like all Asian ethnicities are interchangeable. But still…despite what these manga fans and Japanese fans say, I still think this is pretty egregious whitewashing. Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, Dreamworks.

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Would we feel differently about the monarchy if Prince Harry was the heir?

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Here are some photos of Dirty Ginger Snap Prince Harry unveiling the UK Invictus Team in London on Wednesday. These photos made me sigh deeply and think about his mother. I actually thought, “His mother would be so proud of him in this moment.” To turn his military career into something so positive for veterans… it’s a unique and wonderful thing. At this event, Harry spent a lot of time posing with veterans (and a dog!) – go here to read more. The Invictus Games are in May, and Harry still has more to do to promote the games and work with some of the commonwealth teams. It’s just been announced that he will be traveling to Toronto on May 2 to launch the countdown to the games and meet the Canadian Invictus team. While Harry is in Florida next month, he’ll also be playing a polo match for charity, and he’s bringing his favorite horse. With all of this positivity about Harry (HONKS!), would it be weird if we also discussed the recent comments by Dr Anna Whitelock? She’s a historian – a royal-history historian – and she gave an interview a few days ago about how the British monarchy will likely end in our lifetimes. Whitelock predicted that after the Queen has passed, there will be a larger conversation about ending the monarchy, especially when Charles takes the throne. Whitelock said, in part: “All of those questions about ‘What the hell do we want this kind of unelected family (for)? What does that represent in Britain today?’, all these profound questions have been held in check because of the Queen. I think there’ll be a discussion and a debate in a way that there hasn’t before [after the Queen dies]. As the older generation who are generally more wedded to the monarchy die out, the question of the future of the monarchy will become even more pressing, and then potentially more critical voices will come to the fore. I would say by 2030 there will be definite louder clamours for the eradication of the monarchy. I can’t say that there won’t be a monarchy. I would definitely say that the monarchy – its purpose, what it’s about, will be questioned and challenged in a way that it hasn’t been before. I don’t think it’s out of the question that the monarchy would be potentially be on its last legs.” [From The Express] I do wonder what will happen after the Queen passes. I’ve stopped worrying about what Charles would be like as a king, just because he’s a workhorse and I believe he genuinely cares about public service. Charles has always been prepared to step up to whatever challenges would face him. But yes, when the queen passes and Charles becomes king, there will be these conversations and it will mostly be about what comes after Charles, whose reign will likely be brief. Because people are actually pretty concerned about Workshy Will. If Harry was the heir? If Harry was going to be the Prince of Wales? I think it would be a different story altogether. Photos courtesy of WENN.

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The Guardian brilliantly trolled the British royal family for April Fool’s Day

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The Guardian got me. The British paper pulled an April Fool’s Day prank and they got me. I really, really thought their “exclusive” royal report was for real, and I was even in the midst of writing it up before it occurred to me that this was an April Fool’s Day prank. You can read their hilariously trolling piece here. The gist? For more than a month, the British papers have been going HAM on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. For the most part, the royal stories have been a sideshow to the larger political conversation in the UK, which is about “Brexit.” Brexit = the British exit from the European Union. The vote isn’t until June, and it’s one of the big political stories in Britain. So… the Guardian suggested that there was a conspiratorial connection between the political Brexit story and the gossip stories about “Work-Shy Will” and the “Duchess of Do-Little.” According to the Guardian’s prank, the royals believe there’s a connection. I should note that they’re actually basing this in reality: one of turning points for William was his vague speech back in February which many interpreted as “William speaks out against Brexit.” There were also stories last month in which real “sources” claimed the Queen is pro-Brexit. So, the Guardian slyly claims that the royal family thinks there’s a conspiracy afoot, and they plan on saying something about it. The royal family is seriously considering making a dramatic intervention in the referendum debate with an announcement that it supports Britain remaining inside the European Union. That the royals are prepared to risk provoking a potential constitutional crisis shows just how deep their anger is at parts of the British press and senior politicians. According to a senior source close to official figures, there was particular resentment at the Sun’s newspaper’s depiction of the Queen as a Brexit supporter. But the anger runs through the generations at Buckingham Palace: there was fury at the claims about “workshy” Prince William, a campaign mounted by two papers with an anti-EU stance, the Daily Mail and the Sun. And there was a feeling last week that rock bottom had been hit with a story in the Mail that Kate was now posher than the other royals. Another well-connected source explained that the royals now see a tightening conspiracy between the pro-exit papers, notably the Sun, Telegraph and Mail, and certain politicians. “The leader of Vote Leave is Michael Gove – that awful little leaker who put it about that the Queen wanted out. They can’t stand him. And as for Boris, the other main outer – he’s a cycling maniac from Islington. All he has done for the royal family is make it difficult to get around London in a decent-sized Daimler. And the third of the trio – Farage – what another awful little man.” Part of the reason for stepping into the debate in such an unprecedented way is huge disappointment in the prime minister, David Cameron. “The feeling is that we can’t leave it to him. Look what happened at the last referendum we had, on Scotland. We nearly lost Balmoral and the shoots. Nicola Sturgeon could be sat in that castle now – we know she had her eye on it – it was a damn close-run thing.” Royal circles found particularly offensive Cameron’s portrayal of the Queen as having “purred down the line” when he telephoned her to tell her Scotland had voted against independence. “The cheek of the man. There was real fury about that comment. And the irony of it – coming from a fat cat,” said a source. [From The Guardian] The whole piece is rich with irony, and they claim that the Palace is going to send Prince Philip out on his 95th birthday in June, possibly to tell Ant & Dec that Britain should stay in the EU. So… yeah, I’m dumb. I honestly thought this was real for a solid hour this morning. While my glee soured to disappointment with the realization that it was a prank, I still have to tip my hat to the Guardian. This is a brilliantly written piece of satire. Well done! Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News, WENN.