Ingram facing ‘Star Wars’ fan attacks
Like John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran before her, “Obi-wan Kenobi” star Moses Ingram is facing attacks from fans who think the fictional “Star Wars” universe should be all white.
Ingram, who plays Reva, a Jedi hunter Inquisitor, in the Disney+ series shared a series of comments and messages from angry fans Tuesday, saying her “days are numbered” and calling her the N-word and a “diversity hire.”
“There are hundreds of those. Hundreds. And I also see those of you out there who put on a cape for me and that really does mean the world to me because, you know, there’s nothing anybody can do about this. There’s nothing anybody can do to stop this hate,” the actor, 29, said in an Instagram story. “… So I really just wanted to come on … and say thank you to the people who show up for me in the comments and the places I’m not going to put myself. And to the rest of y’all, y’all weird.”
Along with fans, Ingram also got an endorsement from the official Star Wars Twitter account.
“We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist,” read a Tuesday message. “There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist.”
Tran, who played Rose Tico in “The Last Jedi,” was run off social media by the nasty comments. Boyega faced similar backlash as the first Black stormtrooper.
Zegler to star in ‘Hunger Games’ prequel:
Fresh off her breakthrough role in Steven Spielberg’s “West
Side Story,” Rachel Zegler will star in Lionsgate’s “Hunger Games” prequel.
The studio announced Tuesday that Zegler will play Lucy Gray Baird in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” an extension of the “Hunger Games” saga that takes place decades before the adventures of Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen.
In 2020, Suzanne Collins, whose books were adapted into the $3 billion blockbuster franchise, published a prequel novel upon which “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is based. Zegler stars opposite Tom Blyth, who plays an 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow.
Lionsgate is slated to release the film in November 2023.
Rocker Hawkins dies:
Ronnie Hawkins, a brash rockabilly star from Arkansas who became a patron of the Canadian music scene after moving north and recruiting a handful of local musicians later known as the Band, has died. His wife Wanda confirmed to The Canadian
Press that Hawkins died Sunday after an illness. He was 87.
A howling cover of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do
You Love” became one of Hawkins’ signature songs. He had minor hits in the 1950s with “Mary Lou” and “Odessa,” and a handful of top 40 singles, including “Bluebirds in the Mountain” and “Down in the Alley,” later in life.
He received several honorary awards from his adopted country and, in 2013, was named a member of the Order of Canada for “his contributions to the development of the music industry in Canada, as a rock and roll musician, and for his support of charitable causes.”
June 1 birthdays: Singer Pat Boone is 88. Actor Morgan Freeman is 85. Actor Brian Cox is 76. Guitarist Ronnie Wood is 75. Actor Jonathan Pryce is 75. Singer Ronnie Dunn is 69. Actor Lisa Hartman Black is 66. Comedian Mark Curry is
61. Model Heidi Klum is
49. Singer Alanis Morissette is 48. Singer Brandi Carlile is 41. Comedian Amy Schumer is 41.