JK Rowling spoke to BBC Newsround about why she agreed to play herself on an upcoming episode of The Simpsons. “I love The Simpsons because of the detail – there are so many layers and it works for kids and for adults. That’s one of the reasons I like it so much… When I lived …read more!

Cheshire Online reports that 6-year-old Richard Haller of Irby was chosen from among a thousand hopefuls as the closest thing to ickle Harry. “(His grandmother) sent a picture of Richard in his Harry outfit and, it weaved a spell on the judges.” The adorable picture won Richard a trip to Disney World with his family. …read more!

Ananova reports that Wella is holding an auction of celebrity hair, with the proceeds to go to Comic Relief. Included in the snippets of hair being offered for sale are ones from Elvis, Dolly the cloned sheep, and Daniel Radcliffe. (Thanks to “CFSDIMPLES” for the link.)

A grass roots movement to collect letters from fans of the HP books who are older teenagers and grownups and send them to J.K. Rowling has taken root at The Letterbox Project. In late March, the letters will be sent to JKR in “Harry Potter style”, with green ink and a ribbon, to let her …read more!

The Daily Telegraph has a profile on the artist who did the cover for the UK edition of Philosopher’s Stone. Thomas Taylor was a recent art-school grad when he was paid a flat fee of less than £300 to illustrate the cover of J K Rowling’s first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, seven …read more!

Thanks to the many readers who sent us this bit of news from IMDB: Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling is to make an appearance in an episode of The Simpsons. The famous author will feature in a special London episode of the series, where Lisa Simpson bumps into the publicity-shy writer outside a bookshop, and …read more!

Happy birthday to James and Oliver Phelps (25 February), and belated wishes to Julie Walters, who celebrated her birthday on the 22nd!

iHP got a great scoop on some info, from an unidentified source, about the extras being used for the Hogwarts Express sequence: Stuff you might not already know about the harry potter filming. There were 40 extras, all from local schools, paid £35 a day. They were all in normal clothes. The windows of the …read more!

The first day of filming Prisoner of Azkaban at Leavesden Studios as reported (a bit tongue-in-cheek) by CBBC Newsround. Click here for more. (Thanks to Bridget for the link.)

The Washington Post’s kid section today had a neat little article on Mary GrandPré and a short interview. They are also holding a contest on a cover design (the link doesn’t have the address but I’ll find my copy and post it for you guys later). Here’s an excerpt: Look at her drawings of Harry …read more!