From CBBC Newsround: The actor who plays Professor Dumbledore in the third Harry Potter film, Sir Michael Gambon, has revealed that his new fans won’t leave him alone. Sir Michael said all the attention has changed his life a fair bit, especially since lots of kids have worked out where he lives.

The award-winning Silver Chips school newspaper in Maryland profiled Harry Potter fanfic writers from among the student body, saying: Die-hard sports fans paint their stomachs blue. Groupies scream their lungs out and flash the camera at rock concerts. On the other hand, fan fiction enthusiasts, another brand of obsessed fanatics, slip past unnoticed by the …read more!

We’ve just been told that patches from the World Cup game, as well as each House and Hogwarts itself, can be ordered from Patch Palace. They look amazing, especially the very cute Gryffindor Owl.

It has nothing to do with Harry Potter, but our own BK DeLong, who is a Web Production Specialist at MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), is among those who have been working very hard to publish OpenCourseWare, a fantastic program which officially launched today. Through OCW, and making use of the Creative Commons license, …read more!

ContactMusic.com offers up this bit, originally posted in Britain’s Daily Star Saturday: Movie bosses added scenes where RON WEASLEY and HERMIONE GRAINGER begin to fall in love in order to “sex up” the blockbuster series. Look for the article “TABLOID HAS NO IDEA WHAT BOOK IS ABOUT YET RUNS HEADLINE INTENDED TO SHOCK READERS” in …read more!

TLC reader Dennis wants interested readers to know about EA’s Quidditch World Cup website – we’ve previously mentioned the contest involving the release of this video game. Also, thanks to www.ExpresoHogwarts.com for this graphic of a World Cup patch – not sure if it’s a contest award or if it comes with the game, but …read more!

UK’s Sunday Times has a Karen Robinson interview with Stephen Fry from this past Sunday, which can be read by registered users at their site (if the link doesn’t take you there directly, use the paper’s search engine). For those who can’t access the article, Cressida has kindly provided us with some excerpts – thanks, …read more!

Chris from Filmjerk.com offers his thoughts on how the movie industry markets movies, with specific discussion of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films.

Backstage has an interesting article on little people in the movie industry; Warwick Davis is one of the actors discussed. Thanks to Richard for the link!

Michael Gambon, who debuts as Dumbledore in PoA in 2004, spoke briefly about portraying the famous headmaster. “Being Dumbledore is a big responsibility.”