After much speculation, J.K. Rowling has released a video explaining what her mysterious new website, Pottermore, really is. A new book? A game? No, it's just a store.
Though billionaire Harry Potter writer J.K. Rowling registered the "Pottermore" domain name two years ago, she's only recently put something on the site. Not much of a something, though. Just a "Coming soon" tease and some owls. OMG, what is it??
"You-Know-Who" was always credited to the villain Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series. In this 1989 episode of the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Splinter magically seals the gang's nemesis Shredder away, giving him the moniker "You-Know-Who." Sound familiar?
Oprah Winfrey's final season started with a screaming women-filled bang (here), and the surprises keep coming: on today's show, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling revealed that she may not be done with the series. Fanboys and fangirls, rejoice! Video inside.
Bee Shaffer turns 22 today. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is turning 90. Billionaire financier Leon Black is 58. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is 44. Wesley Snipes is turning 47. Muckraking defense attorney Ron Kuby is 53. Another muckraker, entrepreneur Mark Cuban, is 51. Theater director Oskar Eustis turns 51. Ezra Zilkha is 84. The Office's B.J. Novak is 30. And actor Dean Cain is 43 today. Below, the birthdays of some people celebrating this weekend.
Blake Lively and Leighton Meester walking down Prince Street yesterday where they were filming scenes for Gossip Girl ... Hugh Jackman playing with daughter Ava at a playground in the West Village ... Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban leaving their downtown apartment separately ... Vanessa Williams walking in Midtown ... Daniel Radcliffe signing autographs for fans on his way into Regis and Kelly ... Naomi Watts carrying shopping bags in NoHo ... Kate Mara filming scenes for Happy Thank You More Please downtown ... Kat Von D arriving at MTV's studio in Times Square ... Penn Badgley standing on the sidewalk in Midtown ... and J.K. Rowling leaving Monkey Bar on East 54th.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling won her case against an unauthorized Harry Potter's Lexicon that would explain all the words used in her book. The court ruled it a no-go because it "appropriates too much of Rowling's creative work for its purposes as a reference guide." Rowling said that the "proposed book took an enormous amount of my work and added virtually no original commentary of its own." [Reuters]
Hope mama got you something nice: Ms. Katherine E. Shaffer, better known as Bee, turns 21 today. Billionaire financier Leon Black is 57. Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau is still going strong at 89. Defense attorney Ron Kuby turns 52. The Public's artistic director, Oskar Eustis, is 50. The Office's B.J. Novak is 29. Wesley Snipes is turning 46. Harry Potter scribe J.K. Rowling is 43. Actor Dean Cain is 42. Last but not least, banking heir (and father of socialite Bettina) Ezra Zilkha turns 83.
Harry Potter authoress JK Rowling keeps suing people! Her latest bit of litigiousness was a dispute about a long-lens photograph of her son, which she wanted banned from any further publication. The suit was originally dismissed, but she just won on an appeal. Next up: those filthy mudbloods.
"'I never ever once wanted to stop Mr. Vander Ark from doing his own guide - never ever,' she said as she took the stand for the second time in the three-day trial, as the last rebuttal witness. 'Do your book, but please, change it so it does not take as much of my work.'" [Times]
"The librarian, Steven Jan Vander Ark, had the mild-mannered demeanor of Ron Weasley, and the intelligence, charm - and haircut - of Harry Potter. Even his name sounds like that of a character in one of the books, if preceded by 'Lord' or 'Master.'" You should talk, Anemona Hartocollis! [Times]
How does J.K. Rowling do this to people? The beloved author convinced an American court to hear her complaints of factual errors about an imaginary world, in a proposed encyclopedia of her Harry Potter series. Then, testifying in New York yesterday, she somehow got her attorney to apologize for uttering the words "Lord Voldemort" in court, since the Potter character is "he who must not be named," you see. "Forgive me for speaking the name," said the attorney, Dale Cendali.
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]
[Harry Potter author JK Rowling poses with actor and director Richard Attenborough after winning an award at London's South Bank Show Awards yesterday; image via Bauer-Griffin]
Oh noooo. Harry Potter author and revered nice person jillionaire J. K. Rowling's dress slid down during a reading, revealing a chaste white brassiere and the best Brit-cougar cleave this side of Helen Mirren, but we feel terrible—terrible!—for pointing this out. Also for opening the door to what are sure to be the worst puns ever made.
I don't want him to go over the Reichenbach Falls.
