Sorry, clearly I wasn't more clear. I am not saying it is a commercial problem. I don't think that Snow White did badly at the box office because of Israel/Palestine. But Israel/Palestine contributed to it being a toxic set by all accounts.
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Yeah - a large part of the media covers Harry Potter like it is a political party (I remember a ridiculous spread literally doing Kremlinology on a statement from one of the cast that was seen as 'coded support' -WTAF). Parts of the Hollywood press will want to find Zegler/Gadot style beef.
sep 2, 2025, 11:17 am • 33 3 • view
To take another artistic institution, one reason why the Royal Opera House's leadership embarrassed themselves is they basically had a 'we have politics when it is easy' position and that then meant they ended up in this pretzel of a position when the politics were hard.
sep 2, 2025, 11:24 am • 56 5 • view
The politics of trans are v easy for HBO (some of the actors disagree with JKR, she couldn't and doesn't want to stop them, visibly the Potter audience does not care). The politics of 'whatever random thing c50 teenagers might fall out over in 2031', uh, maybe not so much.
sep 2, 2025, 11:25 am • 33 2 • view
Also the other change is we have social media and good camera phones now, unlike I'm 2006? '16 year old actor does cocaine in the background of a tiktok live' just isn't something David Yates had to deal with?
sep 2, 2025, 11:46 am • 16 0 • view
Yeah, I think the 2000s were in so many ways the perfect time to make it, in that while there was a lot of old media creepiness it was in retreat, and what we have now is so much worse.
sep 2, 2025, 11:54 am • 15 0 • view
I think I'd slightly disagree in that the noughties really were the last hurrah of the tabloid era, pre-Levenson, but yes what's replaced it isn't exactly better
sep 2, 2025, 12:09 pm • 3 0 • view
Yes, the tabloid countdown till Emma Watson turned 18 was particularly grim.
sep 2, 2025, 12:10 pm • 0 0 • view
Wasn't there a website counting down the days till Watson turned 18?
sep 2, 2025, 12:10 pm • 1 0 • view
The countdown website prank is what sticks in people’s mind but it’s easy to forget how bad it really was for teenage girls that were famous www.countytimes.co.uk/news/2337490...
sep 2, 2025, 12:23 pm • 2 0 • view
Moyles would be fired for that today. A grim time
sep 2, 2025, 12:29 pm • 5 0 • view
Someone should ask the PM if he'd be happy if his daughter had to walk past a Radio One DJ'S house.
sep 2, 2025, 12:41 pm • 1 0 • view
you're thinking of Charlotte Church, I think. (although tbh people are disgusting, there was probably one for every single famous teenage girl)
sep 2, 2025, 12:11 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah, website for church, which led to the sun reporting it (negatively but c’mon, more than a bit lasciviously) which led to church believing they ran a countdown. I *think* the tabloids were a bit more seedy with Watson.
sep 2, 2025, 12:14 pm • 4 0 • view
Watson gave testimony to the Levenson inquiry. She was not complimentary about the press
sep 2, 2025, 12:16 pm • 4 0 • view
Yeah I remember finding the Watson stuff from the press weird despite being at the exact age range where being attracted to her was normal (5 years younger)
sep 2, 2025, 12:20 pm • 0 0 • view
I think this was a myth, or at least an exaggeration, something like a tabloid pruriently reporting on some website set up by random doing the countdown - although they absolutely knew what they were doing
sep 2, 2025, 12:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Wasn't the most infamous one about Samantha Fox.?Appeared in the Sun with clothes on and there was a countdown to her birthday when she was able to shed her top.
sep 2, 2025, 12:22 pm • 3 0 • view
It was Charlotte Church and it was *sixteen*
sep 2, 2025, 12:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes agreed. The surveillance culture by accident probably has more affects on our individual and collective behaviour than we probably realise.
sep 2, 2025, 11:49 am • 4 0 • view
Yeah - there's a type of person who defends the HP series to me who really doesn't seem to appreciate that since the movies were made, the media environment has become a thousand times worse.
sep 2, 2025, 11:53 am • 0 0 • view
Yes if I was a parent I would be strongly advising my child *not* to take up any acting work that would put them on the media radar. It does not seem to end well.
sep 2, 2025, 11:56 am • 1 0 • view
Effects*
sep 2, 2025, 11:49 am • 1 0 • view
I mean, boy, Lena Headey and Jerome Flynn's ~mess~ certainly didn't help late GoT by all accounts. What if one of the kids decides they refuse to film with the next Dumbledore replacement because he's said he agrees with Jk on trans rights and they're horrified.
sep 2, 2025, 12:42 pm • 2 0 • view
For that matter (perhaps I've not read enough or heard enough goss) for a kids' environment on set, I've heard little toxicity or nonceyness about the HP movies compared to a lot of others sets And their attitude to the politics question as you outlined doesn't inspire child protection confidence
sep 2, 2025, 12:45 pm • 1 0 • view
Are the 2 not slightly more enmeshed than that though, potentially, eg if one the cast starts making "Just so you know, I'm here under protest" noises as a result of something JKR does? As you say it'll be the "toxic set" angle that gets traction but that drags everyone involved into the discussion
sep 2, 2025, 11:34 am • 1 0 • view
Yeah, it adds another risk factor, but it's IMO well below, say (stealing this from @storywonker.bsky.social) 'something happens in US politics that is highly sensitive for HBO but something every young British actor condemns'.
sep 2, 2025, 2:27 pm • 3 0 • view
God it's weird that that sentence makes sense in a way that wouldn't have seemed plausible even last year
sep 2, 2025, 2:41 pm • 1 0 • view
It will make a toxic promo run I believe like Snow White where it’s just gonna be about outside the show comments rather than the material. Like JKR tweeted this do you agree with this when you appeared in Y
sep 2, 2025, 11:20 am • 2 0 • view
As there is no better place for potterscepticism... Looking at the stills they've released for this, and problem I have is the costuming looks like they aren't dressed up as harry potter/hagrid etc, they are dressed up as Radcliffe/Coltrane doing harry potter. Its weird, and they should stop it.
sep 2, 2025, 11:29 am • 1 0 • view
Ah, the Columbus complaint... The #HarryPotter movies & TV series are based on the same source material, so of course if following it things will look the same... as they should. Why should the series alter things from the books? @erren.bsky.social the theme parks need not worry due to the above.
sep 6, 2025, 6:28 pm • 1 0 • view
They're essentially chained to the theme parks, which have those characters immortalized all over. There's a big Robbie Coltrane animatronic, for example, and they've just added ones of Radcliffe and Grint. That investment has to last.
sep 2, 2025, 11:39 am • 2 0 • view
I agree with you that “we’re here to make a children’s fantasy adventure not debate the author’s views on social issues.” Is the the only sustainable line to take which is why it seems strange that the adult cast members haven’t been told that and are all giving their own opinion.
sep 2, 2025, 11:22 am • 4 0 • view
My read is HBO leadership sees all the logistical questions as people litigating their feelings about JKR by stealth, so the decision tree is 'well, she actually is pro free speech and that's our contract' rather than 'hmm, is there any other reason we might want to gag the actors?'
sep 2, 2025, 11:27 am • 3 0 • view
It doesn't help that HBO leadership is also fumbling around with answers to those questions with varying degrees of "well, we're comfortable with what she's doing" to "oh her bigotry won't be in the material". So there's no real hardline on communication.
sep 2, 2025, 11:31 am • 3 0 • view
Also when the original HP films were produced we didn’t seem to have these deeply polarising issues debated publicly in real time. Add that to the enormous expectations/fears for the series and it’s quite a cocktail. Ban the cast contractually from SM?
sep 2, 2025, 11:23 am • 5 0 • view
The show will likely be incredibly profitable in its first season. No doubt. That's why the plan to do all 7 books in one season is so good because it means...(aide whispers something in my ear) oh golly. oh man
sep 2, 2025, 11:28 am • 22 1 • view