Reynolds, Lively sorry for venue pick
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds has addressed his controversial 2012 wedding to American actor Blake Lively, which was held at Boone Hall, a former plantation in South Carolina.
In a new interview with Fast Company, published Tuesday, the actor expressed the couple’s remorse for the decision and explained that he and Lively later “got married again at home” years ago.
“It’s something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for,” he said. “It’s impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy.
“Shame works in weird ways. A giant mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action. It doesn’t mean you won’t mess up again. But repatterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn’t end.”
Reynolds and Lively donated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in May “to honor not just George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Eric Garner, but all the Black men and women who have been killed when a camera wasn’t rolling.” The pair also pledged to raise anti-racist children as well as “stay educated and vote in every local election.”
Last week, Reynolds announced a self-financed diversity initiative, the Group Effort, designed to create opportunities for nonwhite people to train and work on his future productions.
Winfrey selects ‘Caste’ for her book club: On Tuesday, Oprah Winfrey announced she has chosen Isabel Wilkerson’s exploration of race and hierarchy in the United States, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” as her latest book club pick.
Wilkerson’s book, Winfrey said, “could change the way we see each other, how we see our humanity and the structure of our world.”
Wilkerson, 59, is an author and journalist who won the National Book Critics Circle award in 2011 for her previous book, “The Warmth of Other Suns.”
“You cannot solve a problem unless you identify it and define it,” Wilkerson said, adding that Winfrey’s endorsement means “many more people who have not learned about this will have the chance to read about something that deeply affects us all.”
Winfrey hopes to create a series of video conversations and podcasts with Wilkerson. An interview with Wilkerson will air this fall on Apple TV+.
Roc Nation to help launch school: Jay-Z’s Roc Nation entertainment company is partnering with Brooklyn’s Long Island University to launch the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment. The school will begin enrolling students for the fall 2021 semester, and 25% of the incoming freshmen class will receive Roc Nation Hope Scholarships. Hope Scholars will graduate without any debt. Jay-Z, a 22-time Grammy winner and entertainment mogul, was born and raised in Brooklyn.
Aug. 5 birthdays: Actor Loni Anderson is 75. Actor Erika Slezak is 74. Singer Rick Derringer is 73. Actor Maureen McCormick is 64. Guitarist Pat Smear is 61. Actor Mark Strong is 57. Director James Gunn is 54. Cellist Eicca Toppinen is 45. Actor Jesse Williams is 39. Actor Albert Tsai is 16. Actor Devin Trey Campbell is 12.