College students at 65 separate institutions are actively play Quidditch, the fictional game J. K. Rowling invented for the fictional character Harry Potter. As one Middlebury student says in this clip from CBS News, "when you put this broom between your legs, you really are flying." Ok, dude. Excelsior! If Harry Potter is the only thing that can save publishing, then maybe the industry deserves to die.
The British author of the Harry Potter series will appear in court in an attempt to stop American publisher RDR books from publishing an "encyclopedia" of the literary wizard-world she created for Harry Potter. We agree, that is obnoxious of them, especially since she was planning on creating a similar guide herself. [Times Online]
This year's YouTube awards were better allotted than the Oscars, with one winner that actually made me cry. As with feature films, they're better than the biggest box office hits. Apparently the trick to finding good YouTube clips is to wait a year. Five particularly worthy clips are below.
· The Dracula: The Puppet Musical sequence in Forgetting Sarah Marshall so impressed the Jim Henson Co., who produced the puppets, that they've hired Jason Segel and Nick Stoller to write and direct the next Muppet movie. They're hoping the whole Apatowian raunch-with-heart formula will lend itself nicely to a story about Miss Piggy's accidental knocking-up by Kermit's unambitious stoner character, which will result in a mutant frig baby that both will love despite its freakishly beflippered snout. [Variety]
· As we noted yesterday, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (that's the one where everyone except Draco Malfoy dies at the end. Kidding! Never read it.) is so expansive, Warner Bros. had no choice but to split it into two, billion-dollar-earning blockbusters instead of the regular one. Consider this a coup for everyone involved—particularly fans of post-jailbait-aged Emma Watson. [Variety]
· Well, who in their right minds wouldn't want Sanjaya to be the celebrity of honor at their Bat Mitzvah? Still, we hear he's pretty overbooked, and makes you pay for the hair appointment, so you might want to settle for one of this year's castoffs. What about the creepy dude who sang "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go?" He's probably not doing anything. [TRL]
· Here's what $4,300 of N.Y. Governor dollars gets you two hours with: some Alicia Keys wannabe with a MySpace page. Sigh. Remember when high-classed hookers didn't shamelessly whore themselves out like that? [MySpace]
· David Archuleta's atrociously dressed father is reportedly the stage dad from hell, making his son cry at rehearsal, and banned once from the Star Search set for harassing another contestant. [etonline]
· The final book in the Harry Potter series will be split into two separate movies. That reminds us...wonder how Gay Dumbledore is doing? Yup—still gay. [LAT]
· Seems like the Pixar Man just likes to keep a good, CGI-directing brother down. [LAT]
· The Tokyo Auto Show unveils revolutionary, toddler-pee-powered Ferraris. They really need to be seen to be believed! [Jalopnik]
Oh dear. Tilda Swinton, that actress we adore, has now got one notch against her. Well, let's say a half a notch, because her argument is sound. She recently said in an interview that she does not like the Harry Potter movies and would never appear in one because she's "loath to say anything good about going to boarding school." Hmm. We (or at least I) love Harry Potter, but similarly are not sure how we feel about boarding school. Plus she's probably got some long intellectual theory (or painful childhood experience) all about it, so yes, just a half point from Swinton house. [Showbiz Spy]
With over 100 fansites, an author who's hot in an Anne Hatha-way and millions of books already sold, it's no doubt the upcoming Twilight movie franchise will be huge. But how huge? And why? And, more importantly, is Kristen Stewart hotter than Emma Watson? We'll leave that final point up to you (though we've already decided Twilight leading boy Robert Pattinson pales in comparison to Daniel Radcliffe and his treasure trail), but we've done some reading up on this vampire love story and we think that JK Rowling best watch her back. This kiddie tale has bite.
What is it about dirty, malnutritioned, skinny-jeans-wearing rockers that turns good girls bad? The latest victim to fall prey to this time-honored tradition is none other than Miss Hermione Granger herself, Emma Watson. She was spotted leaving a party in London with Razorlight's Johnny Borrell, best known Stateside for his sordid, screaming-match-filled relationship with recent rehab enrollee Kirsten Dunst. But considering what happened to Kiki once she hooked up Borrell, we are cringing at the very thought of Emma Watson trading in her summa cum laude Hogwarts education for an unpaid and involuntary internship at the Cirque Lodge. So how do we solve a problem like Emma?
The comparison of American Gladiators' winner-take-all final event, The Eliminator, to the Harry Potter series' Qudditich matches never would have occurred to us, but seem pretty apt: Something about the way that contenders with huge leads always seem to collapse in an exhausted heap at the foot of that conveyor belt obstacle to give their opponents catch-up time makes the whole thing feel just as fixed as the fictional contests J.K. Rowling has rigged in favor of her Snitch-collecting wizard. [Geek Toob]
· Wondering how Tracy Morgan is spending his downtime from "30 Rock"? Dave Letterman asks the tough questions, the audience gets the uncomfortably honest answer.
· Honest to blog, we can't wait to see Juno Jr.!
· LAist has a strong to very strong interview with our longtime friends/cohorts, The Fug Girls.
· The terminally boring Harry Potter saga may have just gotten one film longer. We're going out on a limb here, but we're going to guess that Voldemort doesn't end up defeating Harry in this one, either.
· Now we know what Justin Timberlake sees when he wipes the sleepy crust away from his eyes each morning.
· We almost ralphed just typing this. We can't imagine what will happen if you actually watch it. That's right, it's the Tiffany "New York" Pollard sex tape.
· And to close the day on a bit of unfortunate but necessary news, tomorrow's Ben Silverman Prom has been postponed. Not cancelled, mind you, just postponed.
With nothing more than some savvy wardrobe choices, a few thousands strokes of a hairbrush, and enough Botox to magically vanish the laugh-lines of the craggiest of Hogwarts headmasters, The Golden Compass's stylists were successful in transforming Nicole Kidman into a villain every bit as terrifyingly handsome as the most feared dandy wizard in the Ministry of Magic. [Manolo the Shoeblogger]
The image of the male conjurer has always been steeped so heavily in an aura of lady-loving machismo—from David Copperfield's babe-netting trapdoor audience seating to the Pam-Anderson-bazoom-levitating prestidigitation of Hans Klok—that when J.K. Rowling revealed Prof. Albus Dumbledore to enjoy the, ahem, company of other wizards, even those of us with the most finely attuned Gay-Wizardar failed to see it coming.
The Leaky Cauldron posted photos of the first public sighting of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore as an outed wizard, snapped by a group of muggle bystanders taking in a location shooting of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in the small English village of Lacock. The autograph-seeking youngsters appeared to feel no differently about the conjuring great now that his proclivities have been made public. On the contrary—more than one delighted child's voice was heard to have cried out, "When I grow up, I want to be a powerful gay wizard, just like you!" which drew appreciative chuckles from the larger-than-life figure wearing an Invisibility Beard-Cloak.
Paul Croft, a working-class bloke from Nottingham, had a giant tattoo of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore etched on his back—a gesture meant to surprise and delight his five Potter-obsessed children. We think it's safe to say that of the many dangers Croft tried to anticipate in subjecting himself to the painful and permanent procedure, the after-the-fact outing of the character by the author at a public lecture in New York City was not one of them:
As if there's any other story on everybody's minds:
· Never has so fabulous a T-shirt design been made available so quickly after a zeitgeist-hijacking story first breaks. You go, gay wizard!
· We're not saying the signs were completely obvious, but a little effort could have easily unscrambled "Albus Dumbledore" to read "Male bods rule, bud!"
· Let the Other Fictional Gay Characters list-making begin: New York fingers Fozzie Bear and Lando Calrissian (as if), while Radar gets a vibe from fudge-tunnel-voyaging Willy Wonka.
· He's here. He's queer. Yet some of us are having a hell of a time getting used to it.
· And finally, the requisite Gay Dumbledore Halloween costume. Oh wait—that's Pimp James Lipton. Never mind.
Amazon.com earnings quadrupled to $80 million as sales rose 41 percent, year over year, in the third quarter to $3.26 billion. Amazon also sold 2.5 million copies of the last Harry Potter book — its most popular new product release ever — but failed to make a profit on it because of free shipping and hefty discounts. And totally messing up our editor's delivery. [AP]
The internets are abuzz over Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling's revelation that Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore had a bad case of teh gays, and that his early love affair with golden boy turned dark wizard Grindelwald was his "great tragedy." "I don't disbelieve her—I just don't buy that Dumbledore, as written from Day One, was always conceived as a gay character," writes a nerd textualist. "Children who love the Harry Potter series character Dumbledore now may be less inclined to oppose homosexuality, or see it as an important moral issue," right wing loons fear. The sentiment around these parts is more along the lines of: "It's the time and the season for beardom."
