J.K. Rowling storycard to be auctioned JK Rowling is one of 13 authors producing a "storycard" written on a blank A5 sheet as part of a charity auction in London. Proceeds from the June 10 event, called "What's Your Story?" will be donated, said an e-mailed statement by Waterstone's. [more...] Source:  The West, Australia

Julie Walters admits not being Harry's biggest fan Julie Walters has apparently confessed that she isn't an avid reader of the Harry Potter books. The Bafta winning actress, who plays Ron Weasley's mother Molly in the film adaptations, revealed she simply flicked through one of the books to check her character wasn't going to be killed off before the next movie, according to the Daily Express. [more...] Source:  This is Nottingham, UK

College English department offers Harry Potter class Hannah Matus, a junior in political science, said "Harry Potter and English Comedy," a special topics English course she is taking this quarter, took her by surprise. "I expected to be talking about the plot setup and prevalent themes, but it's actually so much more than that." [more...] Source:  The Lantern

Quidditch becomes reality at OSU On a Thursday evening, the athletic fields outside Lincoln Tower are filled with students running around with brooms and pelting each other with rubber balls. No, this isn't a story for the police blotter. It's the opening practice of the Ohio State's Quidditch Club. [more...] Source:  The Lantern

A Closer Look: Hogwarts Law School J.K. Rowling and Warners Bros. have had a generally tolerant attitude toward the amateur fiction, home movies, and online guides created by Harry Potter's fan base. So some were surprised last fall when Rowling and Warner sued to stop RDR Books from publishing Steven Vander Ark's The Harry Potter Lexicon. [more...] Source:  Reason Online

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Video: Harry Potter set from the sky Fascinating new video from the BBC of an aerial view really behind the scenes of the outdoor sets of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at Leavesden Studios, including The Burrow, Privett Drive, the large courtyard inside Hogwarts, Hagrid's hut and a train station. [more...] Source:  BBC News

J.K. Rowling wins privacy ruling over son's photo J.K. Rowling has won a landmark privacy ruling in her battle to ban publication of covert long lens pictures taken of her son when he was 18 months old. She said, "We embarked on this lawsuit not because we were seeking special privileges for our children but because we wanted them to grow up, like their friends, free from unwarranted intrusion into their privacy." [more...] Source:  Metro News, UK

Harry Potter and the Kiss of Ravenclaw The nominations for the MTV Movie Awards were announced on Tuesday. In one of the show's most popular categories, the nominees for Best Kiss include Daniel Radcliffe and Katie Leung for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Viewers can vote for all winners online at MTV.com through May 23. The live ceremony will be broadcast on June 1. [more...] Source:  KNBC TV, Los Angeles

Order of the Phoenix leads Home Entertainment Award noms Warner Home Video's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix leads the nominations for Entertainment Merchants Assn.'s Home Entertainment Awards, garnering four nominations. The Home Entertainment Awards will be held June 24 in Las Vegas. [more...] Source:  Video Business

Minnesota students adapts Harry Potter game for muggles Armed with only duct tape and imagination, Carleton, Minnesota, students easily overcame their lack of levitation to bring the game of Quidditch to life."We read through the Quidditch rule book we got from Middlebury College. They have a Quidditch league, and their rule book has 20 pages. We managed to condense that down to four pages for our purposes." [more...] Source:  Northfield News

Monday, May 5, 2008

JK Rowling to speak at Harvard, but students say she's 'a flash in the pan' A row has erupted over whether Ms Rowling is the right person to give the most important speech of the year at Harvard University as thousands of students graduate on 5 June. She was asked in January to give the commencement address at the Ivy League institution, but some students have complained that they deserve better. [more...] Source:  The Scotsman, UK

Steve Vander Ark wishes it could have been different From the witness stand, Steve Vander Ark directed beseeching glances toward Rowling, who was sitting a few yards away. "I really wish we had had a different kind of meeting," he said later. "There were a couple times I kind of gave her a half-smile. She didn't smile back. I am an outcast now. But I still consider myself a Harry Potter fan." [more...] Source:  The New Yorker

Chris Rankin to appear at young actors festival Young thespians from nine young theatre companies will get to show their worth on a Newcastle stage this week, as the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, is once again home to the National Theatre's New Connections Festival. The festival weekend will feature a very special guest appearance from Chris Rankin, Harry Potter's Percy Weasley. [more...] Source:  The Evening Chronicle, UK

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Happy 85th birthday to Eric Sykes! Eric Sykes, who was born in Oldham, England on May 4, 1923, is 85 years old today. Eric Sykes is Riddle Manor caretaker Frank Bryce in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and was very popular on TV in the UK in the sixties, particularly with the series "Sykes Versus TV".

Friday, May 2, 2008

Narnia star reflects on nearly being Harry Potter Young actor William Moseley remembers, "I was up for Harry Potter way, way back. But I don't quite fit the bill, I think." Instead, Moseley would later land the role of Peter Pevensie, one of the British children who were transported to a magical land in 2005's The Chronicles of Narnia. [more...] Source:  MTV Movies Blog

Ten years later, Harry Potter vanishes from Best Sellers list After a 10-year run, and less than a year after the seventh and final book in J. K. Rowling's series was published, the Harry Potter books have fallen, as of the May 11 issue of the Book Review, off The Times's best-seller list. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone first crept quietly onto the bottom of the hardcover fiction list on Dec. 27, 1998. [more...] Source:  NY Times

Video Interview: Robert Pattinson talks about Twilight Now online is a video from G4 of a new interview with Twilight leading man Robert Pattinson. The young actor, previously seen in the Harry Potter series as Cedric Diggory, has big shoes and fangs to fill by realizing Edward Cullen, the vampire from Stephenie Meyer's popular literary series. [more...] Source:  Crave Online

First official pic from Robert Pattison's new film Twilight is a new film based on a very successful series of horror-romance novels by Stephanie Meyer. In it, Robert Pattinson plays a young vegetarian vampire (he only drinks animal blood). After some early leaks, the first official cast photo from the film has now been released. [more...] Source:  Empire Online

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