‘Harry Potter‘ author J.K. Rowling was recently pranked by a Russian prankster duo on a zoom call. She believed that she was having a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. How did they pull it off? We’ll tell you.
In a video first discovered by The Rowling Library, Rowling was seen being fooled by Russian comedy outfit Vovan and Lexus. They have a pretty infamous history of prank-calling celebrities. They have earlier targetted celebrities like Elton John, Prince Harry, Billie Eilish, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and George W. Bush.
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All About The Infamous Prank On J.K. Rowling
The 12-minute-long increasingly awkward video started with Rowling’s Lumos charity. The charity has been aiding Ukrainian children and families in the Zhytomyr region. On Friday, the organization tweeted, “Our Ukraine response team is working tirelessly on the ground to provide material and psychological support to the children and families during this crisis.”
When the pranksters addressed her charity as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, they said, “I want to clarify where you are sending the money that Lumos has collected. We want to buy a lot of weapons and missiles with your money to destroy Russian troops, I hope you are all for that.” To this, Rowling replied, “We’ll look after the kids, but I really want Ukraine to have all of the arms it needs.”
Throughout the fake call, the pranksters kept trolling Harry Potter’s lightning bolt. They said the forehead scar looks like a “Z,” which has become a symbol of support for the war among Russians. They asked Rowling to change the symbol to a Ukrainian trident. “I will look into that,” she assured. “It might be good for me to do something with that myself on social media because I think that will get into the newspapers.” They pressed her to say whether Dumbledore is really gay or if he has slept with “a transgender.”
Although the call was audio-only at first, at one point, they turned on their webcam to introduce “The Order of the Ukrainian Phoenix” — a trio wearing T-shirts that read “Only Putin” in Russian. “We read Harry Potter to the soldiers in the battalion. Just don’t read them passages about half-breeds [as] they are nationalists and do not like such people,” the pranksters said.
J.K. Rowling Reacts To The Disrespectful Call
Recently, a spokesperson on behalf of Rowling spoke up against the prank. She termed the video “edited” and “distasteful.”
“We can confirm that J.K. Rowling was a victim of a distasteful hoax video call by Russian pranksters, Vovan and Lexus, posing on camera as Ukraine’s President Zelensky,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“J.K. Rowling was approached to talk about her extensive charitable work in Ukraine through her charity Lumos, supporting children and families who have been affected by the current conflict in the region. The video, which has been edited, is a distorted representation of the conversation,” the spokesperson concluded.
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