TODAY’S PEOPLE
After British honor, it’s Dame Thompson
LONDON — Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson has received one of Britain’s highest awards from Prince William — and thought about giving him a kiss at the Buckingham Palace ceremony.
Thompson received a damehood on
Wednesday in recognition for her splendid career, an event made special by the fact that it was given to her by William, a longtime friend.
“I love Prince William. I’ve known him since he was little, and we just sniggered at each other,” she says. “I said, ‘I can’t kiss you, can I?’ And he said, ‘No don’t!’ ”
Thompson was named for the female equivalent of a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List in June.
She plans to use the honor to focus attention on the plight of poor children who don’t get adequate food during school holidays.
Michelle Obama rips Trump in book
WASHINGTON — Former first lady Michelle Obama blasts President Donald Trump in her new book, writing how she reacted in shock the night she learned he would replace her husband in the Oval Office and tried to “block it all out.”
She also denounces Trump’s “birther” campaign questioning her husband’s citizenship, calling it bigoted and dangerous, “deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks.”
In her memoir “Becoming,” set to come out Tuesday, Obama writes openly about everything from growing up in Chicago to confronting racism in public life to her amazement at becoming the country’s first black first lady. She also reflects on early struggles in her marriage to Barack Obama as he began his political career and was often away. She writes that they met with a counselor “a handful of times,” and she came to realize that she was more “in charge” of her happiness than she had realized. “This was my pivot point,” Obama explains. “My moment of self-arrest.”
Obama writes that she assumed Trump was “grandstanding” when he announced his presidential run in 2015. She expresses disbelief over how so many women would choose a “misogynist” over Hillary Clinton, “an exceptionally qualified female candidate.” She remembers how her body “buzzed with fury” after seeing the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump brags about sexually assaulting women.
Trump’s message, according to Obama, in words which appear in the book in darkened print: “I can hurt you and get away with it.”
Protesters target home of Carlson
WASHINGTON — Police say they are investigating a protest and vandalism at the home of Fox News host Tucker Carlson as a possible hate crime. It’s the latest example of protesters targeting the personal lives of Trump administration officials and allies.
Carlson, in a phone interview with his network Thursday night, called the incident “chilling” and “upsetting.”
Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department reported that officers were summoned to Carlson’s home Wednesday evening and found about 20 protesters and a commonly used anarchy symbol spraypainted on the driveway.
A video posted on social media by a group calling itself “Smash Racism DC” shows people standing outside a darkened home and chanting, “Tucker Carlson, we will fight. We know where you sleep at night.”
The video was later removed from Twitter.
Late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert, a frequent critic of Trump and Fox News, condemned it on Twitter.
“Fighting Tucker Carlson’s ideas is an American right. Targeting his home and terrorizing his family is an act of monstrous cowardice,” Colbert wrote. “Obviously don’t do this, but also, take no pleasure in it happening. Feeding monsters just makes more monsters.”