Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Alfonso Cuaron is indeed the new Harry Potter director. Quotage: Branagh tells Entertainment Weekly he is now out of the running. ”There was a little talk about it, but now it’s definitely not going to happen,” he said on Friday. ”I don’t know what I can say, but I think …read more!

Dark Mark is carrying this rumor from CountingDown: I was just browsing through yesterday’s news on Counting Down when I found this article about book 5: Despite all the signs that the fifth Harry Potter book was set to arrive in the first quarter of 2003, it appears that fans may be looking at an …read more!

GameSpot has posted a review of the Chamber of Secrets video game. (Thanks to Hani for the link.) Although it’s nothing we haven’t already heard, both Newsday and Bloomberg are carrying stories regarding the release of Book 5: Scholastic Corp. may not publish the next installment in the Harry Potter book series until the company’s …read more!

Movie News: BBC Newsround reports that the PoA movie won’t be out until 2004, as reported by us in December 2001 (the reasoning given at the time: A film of this grandeur normally takes 18 months to film. CoS is being rushed through to make it out on time. PoA refuses to be rushed, and …read more!

CNSNews reports on the continuing attempt to ban certain children’s books — including “The Witch of Blackbird Pond” and “Harry Potter” — from a Cromwell, Conn. middle school. A letter to the editor in response to the same issue had this to say: “‘Books Being Targeted’, regarding two women’s objections to books used by Cromwell …read more!

Well, this official Harry Potter Newsletter came out today, and it has a bit of juicy info. Apparently, there are rumors of twenty deleted scenes on the DVD. The exact wording on the email is this: MEMBER QUOTE Jawapodracer says “I found something!!!” and wants to know if anybody has been able to translate the …read more!

Congratulations to Leaky Cauldron reader Nigel Ravenhill, whose Hemmingway parody, Harry Potter and the Gimlet on Fire was selected as first runner up in the annual International Immitation Hemmingway Contest. Nigel tells us that he was inspired by the idea of what Harry might choose to do after seven books and movies have been released …read more!

Thank you to everyone who wrote in to tell us about this article regarding the deportation of a woman accused of stalking JK Rowling.

An editorial from The Hartford Courant wonders, “While they’re at it, why not ban ‘Macbeth’? All those witches with their ‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair’ stuff, their otherworldly behavior, their predictions …” Author Denis Horgan goes on to say, “Millions and millions of young people have turned to reading with the Harry Potter …read more!

Dark Mark has posted nominations for their 2nd Fan Choice Awards. TLC is up for Best News, Best Specialty Site, and Best Web Team. Rock on. Voting ends on Harry’s birthday, so go vote for your favorites!