Harry Potter and the Ongoing Spat

[JsmeLegie]

I see she is now claiming that she was never actually friends with Fry.

Link here: https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/jk-rowling-stephen-fry-friends-b1234360.html

In support of Fry, barrister Jo Maugham stated “Really creditable this, from Stephen Fry. I've spoken to so many of JKR's once friends who now despair at her privately but won't do so publicly, which is very much the British way and why nothing ever changes for the better. So well done Stephen.”

Now Casey Bloys, CEO of the network working on a new HP series, has felt the need to clarify on a podcast that the forthcoming series won't be infused with her controversial views, insisting that her views are entirely separate to the show they're making.

And, as one of the latest celebrities to decide to speak out, Boy George weighed in at the beginning of the month with a few observations of his own (see attached image).

So the question here, really, is just how long are certain people going to blindly insist that JKR is an infallible saint when the (increasing) evidence from multiple sources is to the contrary?

Yes, she has funded a lot of good and charitable works for women, that is not in question, but at what point do we as a society finally agree that a human being is not absolved of horrendous behaviour in one part of their life simply because they compensate for it by doing a few good works in another?

Or perhaps you disagree entirely with all her detractors and feel she is unfairly treated / misunderstood / misquoted?
I'd like to hear your views. They are guaranteed to create an interesting dialogue.

Late to this thread, but I'd like to to mention that "saints" (those given the title by the Roman Catholic church and those described that way by other people) are all flawed people with feet of clay like the rest of us, though you sometimes have to dig through layers of hagiography to see it. The most "saintly" people I have known personally, with fine records of selfless service to other people, have lost their tempers, argued with their neighbours about the height of their hedges, or said mean things about their mothers-in-law. Some have done worse things.

St JKR in my opinion has done far more right than most people. She is guilty, also in my opinion, of failing to listen to her editor, who must surely have tried to get her to tighten up her later HP books by cutting out some of the padding (there's an interminable scout/guide camp sequence in one of them!), and of being somewhat unkind to dear India, and of letting her wit run away with her on occasion. But who could become so famous and looked-up-to (a "national treasure" no less, though being bracketed with Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed and Sandi Toksvig ought to impart some humility) and avoided a bit of believing one's publicity?

Yep, widdershins, and it was not a dark moon.

The witch is witching wrong.

I like the fact that the cat buying a sausage roll is not what anyone picked out from my post as being terrible. Cats, of course, should have sausage rolls bought for them by their human slave owner. The poor cat having to trapse into town, possibly taking the bus while clutching its purse, to buy the sausage roll itself, is the most awful part of the tale. 😿

The cat is catting wrong - Greggs should have given it a sausage roll and been grateful that the cat graced them with its presence.

JKR's malicious evil is well attested to in this old(ish) thread. Here her malfeasences, underhand twistedity and sheer slithering wickedness are clearly and sequentially laid out.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4445763-all-the-bad-things-jkr-has-done-a-history?page=1

I stand corrected.

My first thought.

being bracketed with Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed and Sandi Toksvig ought to impart some humility

Please don't tell me Brian's a wrongun.

Not to my knowledge. I just think he's a really annoying prat. Obviously many people like him.

He does rather play up the booming clown image, but he's quite different in person. I interviewed him once and he's really interesting to talk to, mostly talks very quietly, and was very polite and charming. That was my favourite celeb interview. Closely followed by Leslie Phillips.

He was a brilliant Augustus in I Claudius.

I missed this first time around, but this post made me think I have been watching too much Eight Out of Ten Cats Does Countdown, as my first thought was "isn't that an anagram of IT'S MY POOP?" Which is a reasonable assessment of the quality of the original post.

Completely unchallenging interview in the Times today.
"George has hit some serious lows like his 2008 arrest and later conviction for falsely imprisoning a male escort. What did he learn from that experience? “That it didn’t need to happen, but I can’t change it and I’m not defined by my mistakes. I’ve transcended my own ideas of who I am. Now I’m on a mission to transcend the ideas people have of me. I think it will happen … eventually.”"

https://www.thetimes.com/article/893b9d60-e4dc-42eb-bb63-f42e2e4847fb?shareToken=36b88157642ac489ccbf93111ff1bfb9

Well the comments are filling in the gaps 😂

They certainly do 😁

Top comment in the Times is:
"I wonder if Audun Carlsen feels as blasé and dismissive about the experience of being handcuffed to a wall and beaten with a chain as O'Dowd does about having done these things to him."
58 likes.
The other 17 comments are mainly on a similar theme or ref JKR, his loss of £ etc.

Feral grandad's one good point is that when he was in his attention-seeking youth he was copying all the famous and/or pretty people in order to build his own look, not opting into a group identity.

I also hadn't known that he knew Erin Pizzey.

My God! That hat's enormous!

Sums it up nicely. If he has I expect OP will be thrilled to add another fine chap to the list of people to admire 🙄

1. Be controlled
2. Be out of control
3. Learn some self-control

One of these is a useful position to have reached in life. It appears Boy George is still a fool.

A lot of the stuff in that interview, contrasted with his actual behaviour, seems like he's trotting out things that sound wise. The control/out of control is a bit of wordplay that would be absolute nonsense to put into practice.

Feral grandad also owns a mansion in Hampstead. Being stinking rich insulates people against criticism.

And he's Gemini. And thinks that proves something about him.

I saw the thread title and immediately thought - 'Harry Potter and the goblet of spat'

Not sure how this is relevant

Being a Gemini, he just never knows what to expect.

Hear fucking hear!!

This 👏 👏