Dear Gossips,

Last year I was obsessed with Veronica Roth’s Divergent. Click here for my review. Been waiting a long time for the sequel Insurgent due out May 1st. Yesterday my advance copy arrived which is why I’ve scheduled my afternoon around it, including a trip to the doctor’s office at the worst time ever. There is always, always a wait at my doctor’s office. Especially at the end of the day. That’s over an hour of reading, totally uninterrupted. The last time I was at the doctor’s office I took Tina Fey with me. Best place for a book date.

Speaking of books, the first book on my All Time Read list, Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, is being adapted to film. On Beauty is a masterpiece; Z Smith is a genius. And, if done right, it’s a wonderful setting for a movie - not only for the story about two rival academics and their families but because of the potential cast: On Beauty features black characters, a detail central to the narrative that cannot be modified for Hollywood. In light of our recent discussion about the Rue issue re: The Hunger Games - click here if you missed the entire controversy - these are the projects that need to be encouraged and promoted BECAUSE they challenge the institutionalised standard of race portrayal in film: no lead black actor will play a housekeeper, or a drug dealer, or the wacky fortune teller who talks in city slang wearing big jewellery. Well, sh-t. How then will the Academy find a way to nominate it?

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

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