Quite the slew of casting news today. You’ll recall last Friday we talked about John Cleese filming his role of “Nearly-Headless Nick” and that he has two stunt doubles. We can now reveal that those stunt doubles where Mike Jones and Stephen Calcutt. We have no details about Mr. Jones but Mr. Calcutt has had …read more!

The July issue of Family Fun magazine (a Disney publication!) has an article about a mother and her three daughters who created their own Hogwarts Summer Camp last summer. The article gives ideas about creating Owl Posts, making a living room into a castle and turning swimming lessons into Defence Against the Dark Currents. The …read more!

Rames has updated the movie gallery with a bit of “Who’s That Teacher“. We’re trying to determine who the black teacher is next to Dumbledore at the head table. Perhaps you can help.

The Guardian and the leading German news agency dpa picked up our rumor about Hugh Grant playing Gilderoy Lockhart in the next Harry Potter movie: “Rumour has it that Hugh Grant will star in the next Harry Potter movie. Sources say that the Bridget Jones’s Diary star will play Gilderoy Lockhart, a show-off teacher at …read more!

The Sunday Mirror is again faithful to its “yellow press” image today: The Harry Potter lookalike lover of millionaire author J.K. Rowling is to divorce his first wife – paving the way for him to marry his new love. Anaesthetist Neil Murray, 30, applied for a “quickie” divorce which has not been contested by his …read more!

Harry Potter a huge hit in Japan The Asahi Shimbun: Anticipated demand for the Japanese translation of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (Book 3) is such that publisher Seizan-sha has printed 1 million copies ahead of its July 12 release, officials said. The Tokyo-based publisher said it was trying to cater to soaring …read more!

HP 2 AND 3 in 2002? Reliable sources at Britain’s Pinewood Studios tell us that Harry Potter 2 has been booked for a whole year’s shoot on Pinewoods famous “007-Stage”. Shooting in Pinewood should start in October 2001! The “007-Stage”, named because many films in the James Bond series were shot there, is Europe’s largest …read more!

A reader close to the production of the film emailed us this information: The filming at Leavesdon wrapped on Wednesday 28th June 2001. I can confirm John Cleese spent two days in the special FX units filming his part as Nearly headless Nick. He had two stunt doubles however you will see only John in …read more!

Rames did an analysis of “Gryffindors at Breakfast” when Harry receives his new Nimbus 2000 in our Galleries section. He points out the Weasley twins and some discrepancies from the book. Here’s our thoughts about those changes from the book.

A reader tells us the latest issue of Nintendo Power has this snippet about the two Game Boy games coming out: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is coming to Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance this fall from EA games. The magical world of J.K. Rowling’s first novel comes to life in two …read more!