There’s an article in this week’s Publishers Weekly that discusses how smart the timing of “Order of the Phoenix” is and how carefully Scholastic has planned the release.

Menlo Park’s Almanac has an article about the Las Lomitas Education Foundation‘s Hoedown – their 18th annual auction and fundraising event being held May 17th at Portola Farms – will be auctioning off a special Harry Potter treat: A read-into-the-night sleepover in the La Entrada school library on the night of the release of the …read more!

Today’s Guardian has a great roundup of authors, writers and artists accused of “copying” someone elses material or taking action over being copied themselves. It includes a list of J.K. Rowling’s recent troubles: JK Rowling was accused of violating the intellectual property rights of Nancy K Stouffer, who believed her book The Legend of Rah …read more!

An interesting article from icWales that mentions Snowdonia Taxidermy Studios in Llanrwst, Conwy provided many of the animals in the films including an owl and a snake.

According to the BBC, Donald Parfitt, 44, of Worlingham, Suffolk, (a forklift driver at Clays Printers in Bungay), admitted to stealing & trying to sell 3 chapters from the book to various newspapers.

The Z Review is reporting that a source close to WB says Rowan Atkinson (of Mr. Bean fame…) has been cast as Voldemort and they’re looking at Richard Wilson for Frank Bryce. Reasons this is not to be considered anything other than rumor: Trelawney hasn’t even been cast in the third film yet; no one …read more!

Thanks to Ginny for taking the time to find the URL for pre-ordering OotP (the English version) in Brazil through Submarino. It will be R$106.90 (or $37.21 US) and will ship after 6/23/2003. Perhaps some local bookstores will do midnight sales like some of the other countries. If any of you hear about midnight book …read more!

I’ve posted a bit of a mea culpa in a recent post of mine.

Yasmeen sent us this exclusive Amazon.com interview with Mary GrandPré – illustrator of the US version of the series and one of a small handful of people that have read “Order of the Phoenix”. Let’s hope someone talks to Jim Dale soon.

Articles have appeared in the Aberdeen Press & Journal, The Herald and the Daily Star talking about the frenzy hitting Glencoe this week. Here’s the highlights: From the Press & Journal: The cast and crew of around 400 people makes Harry Potter the largest film production in Scotland since Braveheart. An estimated £1million has been …read more!