Rowling chafes at
Dumbledore criticism
When J.K. Rowling revealed last week that she had always thought the master wizard, Albus Dumbledore, was gay, a Dumble-dorothy as it were, her disclosure was met with an angry reaction.
"Harry Potter and the Author who Wouldn't Shut Up," barked the Dallas Morning News. "Put Dumbledore back in the closet" suggested Time.
The media fuss followed the world's richest author to Toronto this week.
Fantasy fans seemed comfortable enough with George Lucas's C-3PO and R2-D2, a couple of robots who probably shared a vacuum cleaner. Nor were they concerned by the tender hobbitty gazes between Sam and Frodo in The Lord of the Rings series.
Rowling, showing justified annoyance, told a Toronto press conference: "It certainly has never been news to me that a brave and brilliant man could love other men."
Yet, this tidbit casts shadows of doubt about the nature of other Potter characters. Could this actually mean that Vernon Dursley (played by Richard Griffiths in the movies), Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) and Professor Minerva McGonnigle (Maggie Smith) are actually supposed to be straight? What kind of English boarding school is this supposed to be anyway?
Saw IV studio asks
horror fans to give blood
Lionsgate studio developed a clever, off-beat strategy to promote the horror movie Saw IV in conjunction with the American Red Cross. The movie, which opens this weekend (the studio, tender of reviewers' delicate feelings, did not offer press screenings), features the terminally-ill Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), who likes to lock naughty people up and do bad things to them.
Red Cross spokeswoman Stephanie Millian said the Saw tie-in encouraged blood donations among the film's teenaged and young adult fans - fans who gave the first three films in the series a global box office of U.S.$415-million.
According to Reuters' menacing-sounding report: "During the 95-minute running time of Saw IV, roughly 2,850 people [in the United States]will need blood, and at least some of them will have the movie's fans to thank."
Given the zeal of Saw fans, the campaign should issue a few health-conscious restrictions: Only donate your own blood, please. And no eyes, organs, limbs, heads or other body parts, unless you really liked the film. As they say, have a Happy Halloween, but hold on to your spleen.
Another Lost star arrested on impaired-driving charges
Stars get busted so often on drunken driving offences these days, it's almost the opposite of news. Still, you have to be impressed by the track record of Lost. Early Thursday morning, Daniel Dae Kim, who plays a Korean man who hides his criminal past from his wife, became the fourth member of the cast to be arrested in driving-related incidents.
Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros were arrested for DUI offences in December 2005; their characters were subsequently killed off. Last year Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who plays Mr. Eko, was charged with disobeying a police officer and driving without a licence. The charges were dropped, but his character still got consumed by the smoke monster.
Is it the Hawaii setting that encourages the cast to party like it's the last luau on Earth? Or have they turned to drink from the frustration of trying to follow the plot? Maybe Lost is a euphemism, like that Billy Wilder film, The Lost Weekend.
Just think for a moment about a series that follows a group of people who stumble around an island, keep having accidents and blackouts, and hide secrets about their unsavoury former lives. Rehab: The Series just wouldn't have the same appeal for advertisers.
Liam Lacey