Dear Gossips,
There was a LOT of Katie Holmes in Gossip yesterday. Like on top of what seemed like confirmation that she and Jamie Foxx are together, she posted a dance video to Instagram (which Maria covered in Smutty Social Media) and TMZ was all over her too…
Did that seem accidental to you? Or were we just watching media competition? Was Katie Day the result of a Katie Plan or was it just that gossip outlets were trying to catch up to each other? Let’s discuss later today.
Today I’m in the finals of Canada Reads. It’s a reality show book battle here in Canada. We started with 5 books championed by 5 different people on Monday and the last two titles are Ru, defended by Cameron Bailey, and When Everything Feels Like The Movies, defended by me. Cameron is the Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the cultural crown jewel of our country.
My goal this week has been to give a voice to the LGBTIQ community, kids like Tyler, a Canadian gay teen making headlines around the world this week because his father told him – on Facebook – that his coming out was “worse than death”. At Covenant House Vancouver, we work with youth who’ve been rejected by those who are supposed to love them. Young people who might be in Tyler’s situation who have nowhere else to go. Young people like Jude in When Everything Feels Like The Movies who actively tries to make people hate him because, as he says, hate is the closest he’ll ever come to love.
Thank you for your messages and tweets in support of the book. It’s been an honour and a privilege to share these stories on behalf of the author, Raziel Reid, on Canada Reads. His book was the first Young Adult novel to be included in the history of the competition. His book was the subject of an attack piece in a national newspaper. There’s a petition being circulated in Canada calling for it to be stripped of its awards on the grounds of its alleged vulgarity and inappropriate content. As a result though, people are having the discussion. People are asking questions, people are talking, some people are learning. So no matter what happens today, no bullsh-t, Raziel and I feel like we’ve already won. Please click here for more on Covenant House Vancouver.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
