If you grew up in the 2000s, chances are you definitely wished your long-lost grandmother would suddenly arrive in town and reveal you were secretly a princess in an adorable little European country called Genovia. The dream. The 2001 film The Princess Diaries and its 2004 sequel had us all wishing we were Mia Thermopolis.
But anyone who has read the brilliant book series by Meg Cabot knows that there are some serious differences between The Princess Diaries book and the films; namely, in the books Mia’s dad is alive and a major character. So why did Disney decide to kill him off for the films? According to Cabot, it was because of Dame Julie Andrews.
The celebrated author recently revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she was surprised when Disney told her they wanted to write out one of her main characters. That is, until she heard why.
“[Mia’s father] plays a big role in the books,” She explained to EW. “I was like, ‘Oh, oh, my God, what did he do [for Disney to kill him off]?’ And they said, ‘Well, we have this actress, who’s a really big actress, that we want to play the grandmother. And we wanna make her role much bigger, and kinda raise the stakes, and give her a lot more lines, and we think we can give her a lotta the dad lines.’ And I was like, ‘Well who’s the actress?’ And they were like, ‘Julie Andrews.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, kill the dad.’ I was like, it’s Julie Andrews, sure.”
I had to throw away my old copy of The Book Thief because of the bookrot issue. So I replaced that with this special edition that includes extra materials. Looks like it’s time for a reread. And this edition is SO gorgeous! 😍
I had to throw away my old copy of The Book Thief because of the bookrot issue. So I replaced that with this special edition that includes extra materials. Looks like it’s time for a reread. And this edition is SO gorgeous! 😍
“Are you planning to follow a career in Magical Law, Miss Granger?” asked Scrimgeour.
“No, I’m not,” retorted Hermione. “I’m hoping to do some good in the world!”
Happy 38th birthday to Hermione Jean Granger! (b. september 19th, 1979)
As an educator, I hate the bell curve system, but I really hate teachers who say, “You won’t get an A in my class.” It’s not just because it causes students to begin the semester with a feeling that they will fail the course: it’s because it is the teacher admitting to their own failure to teach.
We are literally paid to teach a full curriculum. “I don’t give out A’s” to me translates to “I cannot 100% do my job.” There is no reason a good teacher can’t give you an 80-100% understanding of what is in the course. It’s our job to make sure you understand as much as we can.
A class average of 50 is isn’t a statement of how hard the material is. It’s a statement that the teacher cannot complete 50% of their job.
My grandfather was a professor and he always felt this way. He had colleagues who were very proud of their failing statistics and he always said that if students were failing, the teacher was failing. Your job is to teach them to understand the subject matter.
