“The News of the World has hit back at one of its former journalists after he spoke publicly for the first time about his claim that editor Rebekah Wade ordered him to dress up as Harry Potter on September 11 …” (From the MediaGuardian.) The original article from The Independent can be found here. Website …read more!

From Publisher’s Weekly: “Although sales of Harry Potter product hit $80 million in the fiscal year ended May 31, that was $120 million less than the revenues the boy wizard generated in fiscal 2001 and as a result sales in Scholastic’s trade unit fell 33% to $215 million in fiscal 2002. The decline in Potter …read more!

Reader Andy sends us this link to an article from The Scotsman on how celebrity television presenters and authors are being drafted in to raise money to help popularise science among youngsters in Scotland. Among the possible presenters, JK Rowling and Robbie Coltrane. Medea, starring Fiona Shaw, opens in Berkeley (California) on 14 November.

Thanks to the readers who sent in this link to pictures of an ice sculpture of Hogwarts. It’s a wonderful model of the castle as depicted in the movie by artist Jonathan Lloyd. Pictures courtesy of Rex Features.

The lurvely reader Michelle Ravel sent this to us, and I hadn’t found it until now – thanks Michelle, sorry it took me so long: Mary Walsh, a popular Canadian comedienne, has begun to do a show called “Open Book” in which she discusses a certain novel with a panel of other Canadians. The show …read more!

My Yahoo! News alert tells me that today is Rupert Grint’s 14th birthday!

Again, it’s nothing we haven’t heard before, but a Reuters article on bookseller Barnes and Noble states that the company’s fourth-quarter outlook had … “previously assumed a new Harry Potter at Christmas, which is not going to happen now.” From InternetNews.com comes this article on Warner Bros’ web promotion for Harry Potter and the Chamber …read more!

The Seattle Times is carrying an article entitled “Rumors percolate over future Potter plots” wherein they summarise the possible storylines for books five, six, and seven: When there’s little reliable information available, where do you turn? The Internet, of course. Some of the multitudes of Harry Potter Web sites are imaginative, others boast impressive effects, …read more!

Some of you have probably heard about the Harry Potter Symposium, which is being planned for July 17-20, 2003 at the Disney World Swan & Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, Florida – for others of you, this is something new. Yahoogroups and sites like Harry Potter for Grownups – with help from FictionAlley and a nice …read more!

Reader “CED” sends us this link to a Weekly Sound Out survey conducted by the PBSKids television show ZOOM. The question for this week: “How does the Harry Potter movie compare to the book?” As of this writing, there were 22694 votes tabulated, with 30% of the opinion that the movie was “way better” than …read more!