After rubbing elbows with royalty and a well-attended speech at Lindley Hall, President and Mrs. Obama kept it to an intimate repast Saturday night. Hosting a private dinner at the US ambassador’s residence in London, the guest list included JK Rowling and Prime Minister David Cameron.
Rowling with the president! J.K. Rowling joined President Barack Obama for dinner at the U.S. ambassador’s London residence on Saturday, April 23, during his four-day visit to Great Britain with wife Michelle Obama.
A rep for Rowling confirmed that the Harry Potter creator attended the private dinner, according to The Hollywood Reporter. British Prime Minister David Cameron was also on the exclusive guest list.
The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them author first met the Obamas in 2009 at the G20 summit, where the president had a fan moment and told Rowling that both he and his children had read all her books. The British novelist also attended the White House Easter Egg Roll in 2010 and a banquet thrown by POTUS and the first lady for Queen Elizabeth II when the couple visited Britain in 2011.
Oh, so they are old friends. I love that President Obama’s fan moment happened at the G20 summit. Not the Easter Egg Roll, not a banquet, but a proper little fawning at the assembly of global leader to discuss global economic strategies.
I imagine JK had to pick up most of the conversation during dinner as Cameron was probably still smarting over President Obama besting him at golf. So what did they discuss? Maybe they had a good chuckle at Boris Johnson’s expense given JK had earlier retweeted @HaveIGotNewsForYou’s tweet “’Obama hypocrite for telling UK what to do,’ writes Boris Johnson in paper owned by Australian-born US citizen who tells UK what to do.”
JK has been staying as busy as ever. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter just opened in Hollywood and The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is due out this November. Next up she is preparing for the summer opening of the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child while her crime writing alter ego, Robert Goldbraith, is up for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award.
Photo credit: WENN Photos and Getty Images
I love her. That is all
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Ditto.
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Me too
And the headlines is wrong – it should be the Obamas enjoy dinner with JK Rowling – there is not another living human being in this world I would rather meet .
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Wow. What must it be like to be so freakin’ talented?
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What i admire is her self belief and determination.
Most people wouldn’t stick to their guns to continue down this road when life was throwing lemons at them, and there was no guarantee they would succeed or even make a living from their chosen field.
And she received many, many rejection letters before a small publisher took a chance on her.
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Exactly! It’s why I love her so much. She is my motivation
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I agree.
She picked herself up and moved onwards and upwards. I have a tremendous amount of respect for her, she just didn’t give up.
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She finally got published because the editor’s CHILD said, “Dad! You have to buy this!” Grownups are so dumb! Except JK, who is a genius and singlehandedly introduced MILLIONS of kids to reading for fun.
LOVE HER. And her Twitter messages rock.
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A Harry for Mrs O, and a Harry for Mr O. I kind of love it.
[She's amazing!!]
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President Obama has read the whole Harry Potter series? I find that so adorable.
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I mean, he had two children under 10 when they were being published. Pretty hard for most parents to avoid them back then
But what I love is that he said HE was a fan, he didn’t just say the kids were fans and leave it there (which would have been a totally diplomatic and appropriate response if Harry Potter wasn’t really his cup of tea)
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But he read all the way through the trio growing up and starting to date! Wonder how he feels about Harry/Ginny vs. Harry/Luna.
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I imagine he was just like the rest of us – got hooked and couldn’t stop
And part of me wonders what House he identified with, and whether he found the Wendelin the Weird anecdote Book 3 opened with as hilarious as I did.
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I know, me too. I can totally picture him reading them, either out loud to his kids or secretly by himself!
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Potterhead over here. Love love love JK Rowling! She would be the one I would pick if I ever were to win a contest to have dinner with anyone in the world. In other news, I will really miss President Obama in the White House.
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Co-sign everything! Especially the part about having dinner with J.K. Rowling. Although I would probably scare her off with my fangirling.
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OMG I would be a gaggling MESS with 1000 questions if I ever met her.
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I’d probably faint. And then wake up and go full Beatlemania-level screaming fangirl on her.
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She is very inspirational woman, true, but i think harry potter is hugely overrated.
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Technically, she’s not a great writer. (Just finished reading Book 4 to the kid and we’re at the point where it’s painfully clear that Rowling has gotten way more clout than her editor.)
However, she is a really good storyteller. The books have good messages, and she’s able to engage kids who wouldn’t otherwise pick up a book. Can’t fault that….
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I adore Harry Potter and I always will. It’s one of the great comforts of my life, and at one point the prospect of the next one coming out (and the community I found thanks to my love of those books) was the only thing keeping my sixteen-year-old self from total isolation and other bad things.
And it led me to so many other things I love, which was one of the best parts of it all.
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Lovely post, teacakes, and a testament to the power of books and imagination.
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See? Magic does exist.
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Oh man. If I could add a few more people this would be a dream dinner for me. Such a fan of the Obamas and JKR
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I just listened to a really entertaining hour-long podcast which interviewed the publisher of the Harry Potter books. (The podcast was “conversations with richard fidler” if anyone is interested.) All the security and general craziness surrounding the printing of the books was so extreme!
I never read Harry Potter, but I love her new Galbraith series, it’s awesome. I was lucky enough to read it without knowing it was written by her. A couple of chapters in, I started to wonder what else the author had written, because the book was so good I couldn’t believe it was from a first-time author. So, I googled his name and surprise, surprise…it was by JK Rowling!
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I really like the series, too, and I’m not a mystery lover. Admittedly I only read the first one because I knew she was the author. I love the vividly drawn characters and sense of place, so great. I would recommend her other “grown up” book, A Casual Vacancy, which she wrote before the Galbraith series to very mixed reviews. I thought it was brilliant.
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The same thing happened to me! I love the genre and bought the Kindle edition when it came out and I though it was so well written. When Jo was outed as RG it made so much sense.
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I love Harry Potter and I love her success. I am still fascinated by her creativity and ability to build an entire world. The books are interesting even if you weren’t a tween when they came out.
I am going to miss the glamour of the Obamas and their elegance.
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Kind of off topic but the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando is the best. So great! She maintained creative control and final approval over it and the new ones and you can tell. If you haven’t had the chance yet put it on your bucket list. 😊
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I just went for the first time last month, and I daydream about being back there all the time. I’ve been a Potterhead for 95% of my life, and all my childhood dreams came true. No joke. I got to cast spells. I got to drink butterbeer. I can die happy.
You can definitely tell she maintained creative control, down to the smallest details. I was amazed by all the little things from the books, even things that weren’t in the movies, that were included. Down to the fact that Celestina Warbeck sings “A Cauldron Full of Hot Strong Love,” when she performs, which was directly mentioned in the books but never in the movies. That theme park gives people who love Harry Potter a magical experience that even watching the movies just can’t measure up to. I want to go to the one in Cali next. :p
I truly believe the HP series is a classic, JK is a genius, and we’ll be sharing this magic with many generations to come.
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I love that Prez Obama is a fan of a smart accomplished and talented woman like JK Rowling. And a Potterhead. That is all
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I like to think this is how it went down: “I’ll tolerate a dinner and photo op with those Cambridge kids if you can get me a dinner date with jk Rowling”
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This is one woman who can easily get away with being an average wordsmith.
Her story was so beautiful that it was easy to overlook the writing. Unlike say, GRRM or Meyer or James.
She’s the shit.
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