Celebrity Scoop – 07/09/2020

TWITTER RESPONDS AS J.K. ROWLING JOINS 150 PUBLIC FIGURES SLAMMING ‘CANCEL CULTURE’ – (07/09/2020)

J.K. Rowling has joined 150 authors and academics in an open-letter that denounces “cancel culture,” a reference to the online flogging of people who say or do something that social media users find unacceptable.

The letter welcomed the “needed reckoning” on racial and social justice but argued that it has “intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate.”

It continued: “The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted. While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.”

The Harry Potter scribe has come under fire in recent weeks for what many consider to be transphobic comments. Their letter was published by Harper’s Magazine, and the response online was predictably outraged. 

Twitter, for the most part, just wasn’t having it. Wrote one: “ ‘Cancel culture’ is an essential part of free speech. If celebrities say things we find repugnant, it is our right to cease consuming their content. What she means is, ‘I should be able to say whatever awful shit comes into my head without losing sales.’”

Another tweeted: “There are limits to everything but ‘cancel culture’ is a part of free speech. If people & institutions want to ‘cancel’ (ie. not work with or give money to) David Starkey because of his comments on ‘damn blacks’ that’s their right in a free society.”

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Read the Full Story: https://cnb.cx/2BNtAWk

DEMI LOVATO REVEALS WHY SHE LEFT DISNEY CHANNEL – (07/09/2020)

Devi Lovato has opened up about her childhood as a Disney Channel star and the battles with eating disorders that she says were enabled by her management team and upheld by the television industry.

In a new interview with Bustle, Lovato revealed the real reason why she decided not to return to star in the Disney series Sonny With a Chance after a 2010 altercation with a backup dancer spurred her to leave the show and undergo her first stint in rehab.

“I kind of looked around and had a moment where I was like, ‘Wow. This is so terrifyingly normalized,” Lovato said of the television industry, detailing that she used to be given “watermelon with fat-free whipped cream” in place of a birthday cake each year.

“When I went to treatment in 2010, I came out of the experience with the choice of talking about my struggles or my journey with the possibility of helping people, or keeping my mouth shut and going back to Disney Channel,” she continued. “And I was like that doesn’t feel authentic to me. So I chose to tell my story.”

Lovato’s eating disorder persisted, fueling her opioid addiction and eventual overdose in 2018, which resulted in the her returning to rehab. This time, she has emerged in a much healthier place, ready to reinvent herself and dictate her own future, she explained.

“I want a career that has nothing to do with my body. I want it to be about my music and my lyrics and my message. And I want a long-lasting career that I don’t have to change myself for,” Lovato said. “Music brought me so much joy when I was younger, and I lost that joy throughout the hustle and bustle of the music industry. I got miserable. And I don’t ever want it to be like that again.”

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Full Story: Bustle

BILLIE EILISH ALMOST SENT TO THERAPY OVER JUSTIN BIEBER OBSESSION: Billie Eilish’s parents considered sending her to therapy because of her obsession with Justin Bieber. The 18-year-old star has often spoken of her love of Bieber but her mom, Maggie Baird, said it became a source of concern because Billie regularly burst into tears while listening into his music. Speaking on Billie’s Me & Dad Radio show on Apple Music, Maggie said: “I just want to say, we did consider taking you to therapy for how incredibly…you were in so much pain over Justin Bieber. It was so intense, it caused you so much pain!” Shocked, Billie replied: “You did?! Oh that’s embarrassing.”

ACTRESS NAYA RIVERA MISSING AFTER SWIMMING IN LAKE PIRU WITH 4-YEAR-OLD SON: Authorities were searching for Glee actress Naya Rivera last night after her 4-year-old son was found floating alone on a rented boat in Lake Piru in California. According to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Rivera rented the boat at about 1 p.m. About three hours later, another boater found the child in the boat by himself. The boaters notified officials who immediately began a search for Rivera with the use of helicopters, drones and dive teams. The child was said to be unharmed and told investigators that he and his mother were swimming, but his mother never got back into the boat. Authorities believe Rivera to be “presumed drowned” and the search will continue at daybreak. Authorities were working to reunite the child with family members.

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