Harry Potter, the children’s fiction hero, and Bob the Builder, the cartoon character, on Tuesday shared top billing for helping Lego, a Danish toymaker, rebound into profitability in 2001 from the heavy losses it suffered the previous year. A workman was rescued by emergency crews yesterday after becoming trapped under a JCB in an accident …read more!

The lid on Harry Potter’s Chamber of Secrets can be lifted just a little bit today as a Northumberland castle is magically transformed for the big-screen. (Thanks to Steven for the link.) NPR lists the 100 Best Characters in Fiction since 1900 (from Book magazine), with Harry Potter coming in at number 85. When Gabriel …read more!

The Leaky Cauldron won three Wizard Web Awards – First places in Best HP News Coverage and Best Movie Coverage, 2nd place in Best Site News Team, and (and this is the best one!) first place in the Fan Appreciation Award. Thanks so much to Wizard Web, and to all who voted!

Dean sent us this interesting report from the Alnwick Castle set today, many thanks! Filming for HP2 started at Alnwick Castle today, Monday. Again, local children from Lindisfarne Middle School were offered the roles of “extras”, although Warner Bros. were scouting for Asian/Oriental/Black pupils from the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, about 30 miles away, last …read more!

A massive 19th century globe which featured in film favourite Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has sold for £17,750 at an auction. It was expected to sell for around £12,000, but it turned out to be the fifth biggest seller of the whole auction at Sotheby’s on Friday.

Variety reports that Judianna Makovsky took home feature honors Saturday at the fourth annual Costume Designer Guild awards for her work on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Harry Potter … won in the Excellence in Period / Fantasy Design for Film category. Sandwiched between a Jacobean dramatist and a New Zealand premier, Harry Potter …read more!

Just a little note on the HP5 stuff – that could very well mean that early autumn is what they’re going to announce on Wednesday, and as that’s one of the times that has been tossed around (and at this point, let’s face it, is most realistic), Bloomsbury could be just changing its text to …read more!

Harry Potter Five seems to get further delayed. JK Rowlings publisher Bloomsbury recently changed the information on the official website. The publication date mentioned in the FAQ is now early autumn 2002. The text now says: When will the fifth book be published? We are not going to set a publication date for the fifth …read more!

Thanks to Lauren for sending us the link where to vote for the Nickelodeon 2002 Kids’ Choice Awards. “Harry Potter” is up for Favorite Book and Favorite Movie.

Philip Pullman is Britain’s most acclaimed children’s writer since Harry Potter author JK Rowling taught the children of the world to read again. Rowling may have sold millions of books around the globe but it is Pullman who is now winning all the prizes. Shoppers who thought that the massive influx of Harry Potter witchcraft …read more!