Supernatural-obsessed youngsters are delicate creatures to cater to. Just ask the producers of Harry Potter and Twilight. The juggernauts often square off in ideological combat, but when it comes to their movies, they mostly stay far away from each other.

We don't traffic in empathy much around here — especially for studio heads — but you can't help but feel a bit sorry for Alan Horn these days, who has been reduced to peering under his car in a paranoid state before each trip to and from the Warners lot, searching for some Harry Potter fan's homemade peat-moss explosive affixed to his gas tank with frog spit and the hovering air of revenge. Surely he knew what he was getting into when he pushed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from this November to July 2009 (he's already apologized), but still, no one deserves to live under the type of shrieking death-threat duress graphically laid out by The Wall Street Journal:

It isn't as easy as you might think to be Harry Potter — sure, there's all that tween-supplied dough to roll in, but whenever your film gets delayed, you know that some crackpot from Fox News will blame it on your private magic wand. Small wonder, then, that Harry portrayer Daniel Radcliffe wants to forgo that magic stick entirely in his next role (or at least tuck it somewhere so hidden you'd need a summoning charm to get it out). Says Details:

Breaking the Spell: As we mentioned last week, the soul-shattering news that Warner Bros. planned to bump Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to Summer 2009 was met with instant derision, scorn and boycott petitions in the global Potter fan community. In between counting his Dark Knight cash and stuffing it in envelopes addressed to Fox, however, studio boss Alan Horn drafted a memo to assuage a billion broken hearts: "Many of you have written to me to express your disappointment," he begins. "Please be assured that we share your love for Harry Potter and would certainly never do anything to hurt any of the films. ... The decision to move [Potter] was not taken lightly, and was never intended to upset our Harry Potter fans. We know you have built this series into what it is, and we thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and support." Next up for Horn: That long-overdue apology to EW. [Hollywood Newsroom]

It's been a rough few months for Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe; not only was his sixth Potter film delayed until next year (causing a Time Warner headache), but blame for the hasty move fell on his bare shoulders. Now, though, Radcliffe has played his trump card: a sympathy-inducing medical condition that would make even Voldemort lay off the kid for a while. Says the NY Daily News:

Warner Bros. sent surprising word today that it has bumped Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from a release this November all the way back to July 17, 2009 — a savvy numerological strategy landing Potter exactly one year's worth of Fridays from its opening day for The Dark Knight. Studio boss Alan Horn officially attributed the move to more practical considerations, however, namely the fact that Warners' vibrant content chain is missing a few links next summer thanks to the writer's strike. But don't get any ideas about Jonze-esque hold-ups or other snags, added Jeff Robinov:

Daniel Radcliffe has got to be sick of playing Harry Potter already because he's starting to talk all kinds of crazy talk about the upcoming 6th installment (feels more like the 100th) of the series, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, to make it sound more exciting. In a recent interview with Empire Magazine, Radcliffe went so far as to say, "There's a fair amount of sexual energy and drug parallels. We have a couple of Trainspotting moments."