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Posts Tagged ‘J.K. Rowling’

Fashion

The Fug Report: Highs and Lows from the Week in Fashion

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Editor’s note: Welcome to The Fug Report! Each week our fashion blogger friends Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, the sartorial geniuses behind Go Fug Yourself, will feature some of their favorite looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!

We wish that every week could kick off with a royal wedding — there’s nothing like a monarchical hat parade to wake you up on a Monday, especially if there are also ample pictures of the planet’s new sweetheart Kate Middleton and random wedding guests in truly massive (and deliciously campy) lids. We also got a little Hollywood royalty in the mix, with Sandra Bullock pulling out a questionable pants ensemble to cozy up to pal Ryan Reynolds; some music royalty, as Gaga managed to make a houndstooth outfit paired with opaque houndstooth glasses look… sort of reasonable; sports royalty, in the form of Tom Brady finally shearing his pony tail; publishing royalty, with a hearty fugging of the unauthorized (and we can see why) Lifetime movie about JK Rowling; and summer reality TV royalty, in the form of Julie Chen and her heinous quasi-tennis dress. Oh, and Mila Kunis looked hot, the sun rose in the east and set in the west, etc.

Film

Exploring the Architecture of Harry Potter’s Universe

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When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 opens in theaters this Friday, we’ll be closing the door on a beloved film franchise. As our friends over Architizer point out, one of the most memorable aspects of these magical movies — especially for the architecturally-inclined — is their intricate set design. Now, thanks to Architectural Digest’s new interview with Academy Award–winning production designer Stuart Craig, you can meet the man who helped bring J.K. Rowling’s epic vision to life. Click through for a few quick highlights from the article, and head over to Architectural Digest to take the full tour of the Potter sets.

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News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

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1. After spending the past seven years fighting Mark Zuckerberg, the beefy Winklevoss twins have decided not to take a challenge to their $65 million 2008 settlement to the Supreme Court. Facebook’s rather glib response to the news: “We’ve considered this case closed for a long time, and we’re pleased to see the other party now agrees.” [via Consumerist]

2. James “Whitey” Bulger, the legendary Boston crime boss who inspired Jack Nicholson’s crazy character in The Departed and was one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted, has been arrested in Santa Monica after spending more than 15 years on the lam. [via Gawker]

3. Last night’s 100th performance of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying was canceled when a 29-year-old stagehand died from a heart attack that police are saying was related to a drug overdose. [via NYT]

4. According to Digital Spy, Emma Stone has been offered the lead role in the Craig Gillespie-helmed film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Natalie Portman, who was previously rumored to be playing Elizabeth Bennet, is still a producer on the project.

5. Here’s the first photo of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, courtesy of this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly. Tolkien fans: Is it everything that you’d hoped it would be?

Bonus link: J.K. Rowling’s mysterious “Pottermore” project, explained

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

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1. The Daily reports that Dave Chappelle — who walked away from a $50 million Comedy Central deal back in 2005 — is working on a new TV show that will be for a paid subscription service.

2. After performing a crowd-pleasing duet of “Sweet Jane” at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame event back in 2009, Metallica and Lou Reed are currently collaborating on a new full-length album that’s already 90 percent done. Says Reed, who is writing all 10 of the tracks: “They’re bringing Metallica, with all that power. And because they’re pretty sophisticated, wherever I go, they’re still with me.” [via TwentyFourBit]

3. Attention Muggles: J.K. Rowling is launching a new website called Pottermore.com. According to a report from one Harry Potter fansite that was granted a preview, “it is one of the most amazing, engaging, and breathtaking additions to this fandom imaginable.” [via WSJ]

4. No doubt hoping to create some Sex and the City-style magic for a slightly older demo, Darren Starr and Goldie Hawn are teaming up for a new HBO series based on The Viagra Diaries, a novel about “a woman, who, after her husband has a ‘mid-life crisis’ at 65 and leaves her, struggles with being single for the first time in 35 years.” [via THR]

5. Thanks to the fact that Robin Williams named his daughter Zelda after a video game character, they’re both starring in a new commercial for Nintendo. Watch it here.

Bonus link: MAD Magazine: A Semi-Secret History

Books

RIP, Our Favorite Secondary Characters in Literature

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We all grieve when the protagonist of a novel dies, but how about when we mourn over characters who aren’t as prominent? They might be the friends, mentors, peers, and family members who share the spotlight at times but who either peripheral to the main action or because of other circumstances drift apart from the storyline at some point along the way, due to their untimely ends. From the unexpected deaths to the horribly slow ones, we offer you ten secondary characters who passed too soon but who will not be forgotten.

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Books

Famous Last Words: Our 20 Favorite Final Lines in Literature

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Endings, as we all know, are important. An entire novel can be ruined by a disappointing ending, but by the same token, an entire novel can be made by a wonderful one. We’ve already given you a rundown of our favorite opening lines in literature, but since every beginning needs an ending (and you’d be surprised at how many works with awesome first lines also have awesome last lines – or perhaps you wouldn’t be surprised), we feel compelled to treat you to a list of our favorite last lines as well. Click through for 20 of our favorite endings from our bookshelf of classic and contemporary greats, and let us know your own picks for best last lines in the comments.

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Books

When Real Books Inspire Fake Books

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Whether retroactively penned by adoring fans, postmodern literary pranksters, or the original authors themselves, imaginary books have a way of eventually making their way into reality, evolving from two-dimensional plot props into real published tomes. Although we’ve already made a wishlist of reads we wish fictional characters would write — and indeed over in TV-land, characters from Mad Men’s Roger Sterling to Californication’s Hank Moody have also had their fictional volumes published on this side of the screen — here are five real books that exemplify literary life imitating fictional art.

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Web

This Week in Buzz

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This week at BuzzFeed, we relived Justin Timberlake’s poorly styled Tiger Beat years. We met the lesser Morissette and the hotter Schwarzenegger. (Careful ladies, he’s only 17.) We got plot tips (and a headache) from J. K. Rowling. These 10 movies made the men among us cry. We sided with Charlyne Yi (rare) and attempted to say something nice about Glenn Beck. TMZ met our editor Matt, also known as The Guy Outside The Dash Store With A Barbie Cam. We started Halloween costume prep. Finally, to the animals: take your pick of the Cup Rabbits, 104 Flat-Faced Cats, or 109 Cats In Sweaters. Sometimes it’s the simple things.

Books

Against Promotional Author Photographs

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Excellent authors avoid writing cliches. The problem is that some of these very authors do not apply the same level of vigilance when it comes to taking promotional photographs, whether they’re for magazine profiles or back-of-the-book biographies. In an attempt to look uniquely profound yet accessible, or convey some novel combination of deep thoughts with good times, a lot of writers end up looking exactly the same as their peers. It doesn’t matter if the authors are well-established or just scheduling their first panel discussion — all are susceptible to producing hackneyed images.

Since we don’t expect authors to be virtuosos in every medium, we thought we’d take a critical look at five categories of promotional-author photography as a warning for all future writers who want to break out of the formula.

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Books

Forbes’ Top Earning Authors: A Numerical Analysis

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Forbes has published a list of the year’s highest-paid authors, and it’s a rather illuminating look at the way that the industry works. What do we mean? JK Rowling didn’t publish anything this year, and yet she still managed to rake in $10 million. James Patterson, who tops the list at $70 million, made $500 million for his publisher over the past two years. (One of every seven books sold in the US is his.) All of the highest-paid writers are white, and none of them are under the age of 36. Want to know more? Click through for the full list, and our breakdown of the numbers.

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