IT is a given that you should never heckle a comedian with a microphone if you’re not prepared to be publicly humiliated.
Another piece of advice might be to resist baiting someone who’s not only a best-selling writer, but whose fictional creation gave you the platform from which you pass judgment on their strongly held views.
PAHarry Potter author JK Rowling has issued a response so blistering to Emma Watson it has carved the word ‘entitled’ into her protégé’s forehead[/caption]
AFPRich celebs frequently murmur ‘racism’ when a muggle expresses concern about uncontrolled migration, safe in the knowledge that their gilded lives will never be affected by it[/caption]
And so it came to pass that, after years of resisting the urge to fully retaliate when Emma “Hermione Granger” Watson turned on her, Harry Potter author JK Rowling has now issued a response so blistering it has carved the word “entitled” into her protégé’s forehead.
“Like other people who’ve never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she’s ignorant of how ignorant she is,” she posted. Ouch.
To recap: JK Rowling, who was once sexually assaulted, has been a staunch defender of women’s rights and, in particular, the protection of women-only spaces from people such as Isla Bryson who, prior to transitioning, raped two women with her penis yet was remanded to a female prison.
She also railed against those who supported, and often encouraged, the transitioning of children.
Her stance prompted an unpleasant pile-on of “death, rape and torture threats” from trans activists, and Ms Rowling claims that Ms Watson helped pour fuel on the fire with a “trans people are who they say they are” response.
Followed by Harry Potter himself — Daniel Radcliffe — weighing in with his view that “we need to do more to support transgender and non- binary people, not invalidate their identities”, adding that he hoped the author’s views would not “taint” the movies for fans.
Generally speaking, the often heated debate has polarised the different generations, with younger people tending to support Emma’s stance and feeling that JK Rowling is transphobic, while the older ones — who saw their mothers fight so hard for women’s rights — are more likely to support the author in resisting any move they feel might erode them.
For the record, Ms Rowling has always emphasised that she respects “every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them” and enjoy a life free from discrimination and abuse.
The argument is simply that women should too.
Both Watson and Radcliffe were young kids when they got the roles that brought them vast wealth, and the author says her maternal feelings towards them have always stopped her from criticising them publicly.
But now they’re in their 30s and, following a recent podcast interview in which Emma said she “treasured” Ms Rowling and was “upset” they had never been able to have a conversation about their differing views, the author has waspishly pointed out that she’s always had her phone number and let rip.
Lofty posturing
Ms Watson, she says, was “never likely to need” to use single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and public toilets, adding: “I understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women’s rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.”
Those whose lives have been directly affected by large numbers of migrants being housed in their community might recognise a variation of this lofty posturing too.
The rich celebs who frequently murmur “racism” when a muggle expresses even the faintest concern about uncontrolled migration, safe in the knowledge that their gilded lives will never be directly affected by it.
It is called Ivory Tower Syndrome, and well done to JK Rowling and others who use their public platforms to call it out.
‘Like other people who’ve never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she’s ignorant of how ignorant she is, JK Rowling posted
LITTLE FAITH IN JUSTICE
Ben LackKamran Ahmed got 18 months, suspended for two years, for wounding Mick Shears who ended up in a coma for two days[/caption]
REMEMBER back in August when Thames Valley police commissioner Matthew Barber urged the public to step in and tackle shoplifters?
He warned we live in a “very poor society” if people just keep their heads down instead of calling out the crime.
But when passer-by Mick Shears intervened to protect a woman who had a phone knocked out of her hand in a violent confrontation in Bingley, West Yorkshire, he was floored by assailant Kamran Ahmed and ended up in a coma for two days.
He was discharged after 11 weeks in hospital and still needs crutches, physio and speech therapy.
And what happened when it went to court and 21-year-old Ahmed admitted unlawful wounding without intent?
He got 18 months, suspended for two years. And as he walked free from court, he shared a Snapchat photo with a middle-finger emoji and the caption “try harder next time”.
So may we humbly suggest, Mr Barber, that the reason the law- abiding public are reluctant to act when they see crime, is not just a fear for their own safety, but because we have a “very poor” justice system that often fails us.
LIVIA’S HOME TRUTHS
COLIN FIRTH’S ex-wife Livia has returned her MBE and publicly ripped up the accompanying certificate in protest at King Charles hosting a visit by US President Donald Trump.
Given she’s returned to live in Italy under PM Giorgia Meloni – a former neo-fascist, now far-right conservative who opposes same-sex marriage and parenting – one might humbly suggest she has matters closer to home to be bellyaching about.
AMBER DAVIES – Strictly’s last-minute replacement for the injured Dani Dyer – has been rejected by the show twice before because she’s too good at dancing.
GettyDani Dyer’s Strictly replacement Amber Davies has been rejected by the show twice before because she’s too good at dancing[/caption]
Having seen her in the West End musical The Great Gatsby, I can concur that she’s very good.
Of course, Strictly bosses might counter that being able to dance in a musical is a far cry from perfecting the precise art of ballroom.
But there’s no denying that it gives you a head start in being able to memorise a complex routine, keep up the pace, and remain unfazed by performing in front of a live audience.
So is it Strictly fair? No cha-cha-chance.
RITA PUT OFF BY HEAVY PETTING
GettyStunning Rita Ora has given away her pet tortoise because it was too ‘high maintenance’[/caption]
RITA ORA has given away her pet tortoise because it was too “high maintenance”.
My first thought was, how hard can it be to shove a lettuce leaf through the bars every morning?
But then I Googled “how to care for a tortoise” and, three weeks later, was still reading the requirements.
“A large vivarium” (nope, me neither) with “suitable substrate” (again, no idea) is required, along with a “basking spot of 30-35 degrees” and a “cooler zone to create a thermal gradient”.
Yer what? And that’s just for starters. It would be easier to keep Mariah Carey as a pet. Rita, I hear you.
A BAD DAY IS OK KIDS
A FORMER head of Ofsted says schools have become “therapeutic institutions” that encourage kids as young as three to identify negative emotions.
Baroness Spielman says if schools “are looking for things to be wrong with the child, they’ll probably find some. And we’ll stay in this sort of negative spiral of unintentionally encouraging children to find things to be unhappy about”.
Indeed. Meanwhile, an article in The Sunday Times at the weekend flagged up how “trauma” – a word once reserved for victims of war or serious crime – has become a big-bucks industry that covers pretty much every form of often self-diagnosed suffering and can lock people in to a “narrative straitjacket” that prevents self-growth.
Far from sucking kids in to this downward doom spiral, we should be teaching them that the majority (not all) of negative emotions are a normal part of life and so too is having the occasionally bad day.
LAUREN BOLDLY GOES
InstagramSydney Sweeney at her space-themed 28th birthday party with 55-year-old Lauren Sanchez[/caption]
IT’S a general rule that you don’t wear white to a friend’s wedding.
Similarly, when actress Sydney Sweeney threw her space-themed 28th birthday party, she probably assumed that she would be the belle of her own ball.
But check out these orbs.
They belong to 55-year-old Lauren Sanchez – the new Mrs Jeff Bezos – and are so, ahem, “out there” that they probably have an eco-system of their own.
Now that’s what they call a total eclipse.
Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
