The eBay auction of original CoS art has been closed at $20,099 – less than half the reserve of $48,000 (in U.S. dollars). Since the reserve was not met, the seller is not under obligation to accept the bid. Now where were these bidders on December 12?

From The Moscow Times: “The Moscow city prosecutor’s office is considering opening an investigation into the popular Harry Potter books after an Orthodox believer lodged a complaint that they discredit Christianity …”

Wireimage has posted several images of Rupert and Emma at a Shakira concert. Thanks for the link, Bridget.

As you can tell from the link below, something odd went on with our link to pictures of Dan in Beijing – Blogger won’t let us fix it, so here it is again.

Rupertgrint.org has put up these images of Rupert Grint at the beach. (Thanks Joya. From NZ Woman magainze. Thanks!)

Thanks, Joya, for the

From Newsday comes this story of JK Rowling’s correspondence with terminally ill Catie Hoch.

Rhea has done two translations of Dan Radcliffe’s interviews in Beijing. Thanks, Rhea, for the links! Link 1 Link 2

A growing number of ministers are using pop culture to get through to adolescents, says an article in TIME.com. “So nowadays lesson plans are based on… The Gospel According to Harry Potter, in which the boy wizard’s decision to walk through what appears to be a solid wall to get to the train that will …read more!

This was the very first interview I did after the auction, and you can probably tell from the quotes how wound up I still was – but I still think this is a great piece and thank the writer, Vicky Hallett, and the editor (and ubercool person) Holly Morris for doing it. I can’t tell …read more!