Vandals trash eaterie after J. K. Rowling charity dinner
TWO years ago, Harry Potter author J.K Rowling’s comments on transgender women and biological sex provoked a backlash from trans rights activists.
This led several of the film franchise stars whom she’d made millionaires, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, to publicly disagree with her views.
And it seems the friction between Rowling and the trans community shows no sign of abating.
For I can disclose that Il Portico, the sister restaurant of Pino — where she held a charity dinner this week in Kensington — was vandalised in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Restaurateur James Chiavarini, 42, who owns Pino and Il Portico, London’s oldest Italian family eaterie, reveals: ‘In the same week as the online accusations of [me] being a homophobe for sticking up for J.K. Rowling and Suzanne Moore, someone has smashed in the windows at Portico and ransacked the place.
‘Could obviously be a coincidence, but what a few days.’
Il Portico, a local and much-loved stalwart since 1967, has been tarnished with bad online reviews since Pino’s Ukraine fundraiser for Rowling’s children’s charity Lumos, which was also attended by feminist journalist Suzanne Moore, with the evening raising £18,500.
‘If you’re trans, you’re not welcome here,’ states one review, while another accuses the restaurant of being ‘a supporter of transphobia’.
A source tells me: ‘James is absolutely distraught and has been completely taken by surprise by this. The matter is now with the police, who are investigating. The restaurant has CCTV, so hopefully those who smashed it up will be found.’
They add: ‘James thought he was doing a decent thing by hosting an event for such a good cause and has been left shocked by the backlash.
‘He also has a number of regular customers from the trans community and would hate to think they might believe there to be any truth in these online comments. His restaurants welcome everyone and always have done. To suggest that James is anti-anything is absolute rubbish.’
Earlier this week, Rowling, who declines to comment on the incident, thanked Chiavarini for hosting a ‘fabulous fundraising dinner’. The 56-year-old also says the overall money raised, which she will match, is almost at the £1 million mark.