I do think it's weird that they have a white actor playing Obama, but it's even weirder that no one seems to mention when Darrell Hammond played Jesse Jackson on the same show.

So, in the JK Rowling article, the fan argued that Rowling is "seeking a monopoly over the work, which is not part of copyright law." Although copyright laws are clearly different in the UK than in the US, there are some similar elements.
A copyright is defined as a "limited duration monopoly" (in the US constitution), and I'm sure the concept is similar in the UK. I must give kudos to Rowling for praising fan sites until this point. However, I must agree with her that others benefitting at the her expense (and in what is most certainly violation of the law) is not okay.

I think JK Rowling needs to calm down. The book being produced sounds like a collection of reference materials, which is a completely valid form of literary study. If she wants her books to continue to be read (and taught, and studied!), they will have to be written about.
And even if she does plan to publish a similar book, I doubt there are any serious fans that will pass her book over to get to the other one.

There is a reason companies like Ben Nye sell makeup in different colors. Anywho, people need to lighten up. PC comedy sucks, but this isn't even the case. Read the article; it's about who did the best job. And for that article to ask if it would be ok for Queen Latifah to portray Princes Di...heck no! She's way too large boned a woman to portray the svelte princess. If they are going to argue this point then I'm going to argue every black man in movies who puts on white face. Get over it. Are you telling me that fatty Kenan Thompson has to play Barack? I doubt someone so chubby could portray a realistic Obama...for farce sure..but not for this type of realism.

i don't think JKR needs to calm down at all. it's kind of a sticky sitution, but i think what she's doing it perfectly valid. What the guy behind the HP Lexicon is publishing is a pure plagiariam/copy right infringement/whatever. he's not analyzing or theorizing about anything, he's not companing HP to other books, not doing anything except regurgitating facts from her books. It's one thing to put stuff like that on a free website but i think for him to publish a book and charge money for it (there by making money off of it) is shady.

personally i think the guy must be a little crazy. why go to the effort to do something like that when the author of the books has already announced she'd be doing the same thing? his is obviously going to be an inferior product. also, for someone who's ovbiously a huge HP fan to directly defy the creator of HP i think is extremely odd. i guess some people really will do anything to make a quick buck.

i don't think JKR needs to calm down at all. it's kind of a sticky sitution, but i think what she's doing it perfectly valid. What the guy behind the HP Lexicon is publishing is a pure plagiariam/copy right infringement/whatever. he's not analyzing or theorizing about anything, he's not companing HP to other books, not doing anything except regurgitating facts from her books. It's one thing to put stuff like that on a free website but i think for him to publish a book and charge money for it (there by making money off of it) is shady.

personally i think the guy must be a little crazy. why go to the effort to do something like that when the author of the books has already announced she'd be doing the same thing? his is obviously going to be an inferior product. also, for someone who's ovbiously a huge HP fan to directly defy the creator of HP i think is extremely odd. i guess some people really will do anything to make a quick buck.

oops, sorry for the double post guys, not sure how that one happened lol

If you read the snl article it says that they auditioned several actors and that armisen was the best performance. I think it should be based on best believable performance, not skin tone. Sure it would be nice if he happened to be the same race, but his performance was pretty believable. Also, no one seemed to complain when armisen played prince, which is pretty much the same issue, isn't it? Nor did they complain when maya rudolph played everything from latina/asian/african-american/caucasian/etc.

That said, i think SNL could really stand to have a more diverse cast.

okay after watching armisen's 2nd portrayal of obama, in which he sounded a lot like yogi bear, maybe they could've found someone better after all.