In an online Q&A, author Ursula Le Guin was asked for her opinion on JK Rowling’s writing style. Quote: “I have no great opinion of it. When so many adult critics were carrying on about the “incredible originality” of the first Harry Potter book, I read it to find out what the fuss was about, …read more!

From Daily Variety: That other stayer, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” is finally showing its age, dropping 46% on the prior weekend to $ 11.1 million in 58 territories. Its overseas cume hit $ 591. 5 million and the worldwide tally peaked at $ 942.6 million, ranking as the third-highest …read more!

A strike by the Italian dubbers of movies could affect the release of the “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” in June. According to Variety, the workers are in a contract dispute over issues of pay and “unreasonably short deadlines for delivering a dubbed picture.”

Neither candidate for the U.S. presidency Wesley (“I read 30 – 40 books a year”) Clark nor former candidate for the U.S. presidency Joseph (“I went through a big Dylan phase”) Lieberman could name J.K. Rowling as the author of the Harry Potter books when asked by VH1. (John Kerry was also given the quiz …read more!

Mugglenet has posted scans of the Disney article, including pictures of Honeydukes!

According to Amazon France, Prisoner of Azkaban will be 135 minutes long. Thanks, Winky, for the info.

In the March issue of Disney Adventures magazine, there is a new article about the upcoming POA movie. Included in the article are tidbits of information such as “There are 1,100 teacups magically stacked in Trelawney’s classroom.” “The Shrieking Shack really shakes, rattles, and rolls (without special effects) because of its location: a windy hillside.” …read more!

Fifty-six young men were chosen to go on to the next round of tryouts for the role of Viktor Krum in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. More than 600 tried out. Thanks to Sarah for the tip!

From the BBC comes the news that a teacher has translated “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” into classical Greek. The book will be released later this year along with the Irish Gaelic version of the first Harry Potter novel.

Thousands of girls stood in line today to auditon for the part of Cho Chang in the upcoming GOF movie. A Warners Brothers spokesperson told the CBBC that around 3,000 girls took part in the open auditions.