[NOTD] News for the day 01/04/07

Magenta Comstock

1895 - 1991
Experimental artist whose portraits' eyes not only follow the viewer around the room, but also follow them home.

JKRowling.com has been updated to wish our favorite pranksters, Fred and George Weasley, a happy birthday this April Fool's Day (when else?).

A new portrait of Sirius Black has appeared online. Thanks to HPX!

Scholastic previously announced that the US edition of Deathly Hallows would be 784 pages long, leading fans to believe it is the second longest book in the series (behind OOTP's 870, and ahead of GOF's 734). However, on Tuesday, Bloomsbury revealed that their edition of Book 7 would contain 608 pages, making it the third longest book (behind OOTP's 766, and GOF's 636).

Even though the US editions have always comprised more pages than the UK ones because they use a larger typeset as well as chapter images, there is still a discrepancy between the numbers noted above. So either Scholastic has increased their typeset or Bloomsbury has decreased theirs.

We have contacted both Scholastic and Bloomsbury on the matter and will update you as soon as we have a response.

Last September, Entertainment Weekly caught up with the actors on the Order of the Phoenix set, where they were in the midst of shooting the climax Department of Mysteries sequences.

Director Yates recently watched the "Detention With Dolores" scene with a test audience in Chicago, and he said: "The theater went very, very still. Dolores does it with a smile and a cup of tea. That's what makes her really horrifying."

The trio is growing older, and by the time the Deathly Hallows movie comes out, Dan's expected to be 20 and Rupert 21. According to Dan, "And people come up to me and say, 'Do you not think you're getting too old for the part?' It's lunacy." But even Radcliffe admits that he and his castmates certainly look dramatically different. "I saw a bunch of continuity photos from the first film the other day. It was quite incredible. We've changed so much, it's unreal."

We have a few updates to tell you about regarding a few of the many Harry Potter conferences and conventions due to take place in the next few years.

First, Portus 2008, the Harry Potter Symposium set for Dallas, Texas next year has nowlaunched their website. Brought to you by the same group that sponsored Lumos and the the upcoming Prophecy 2007, this will be their fifth symposium. Registration is now open; more details here.

Sectus, the unofficial Harry Potter Conference being held in London, England on July 19-22 of this year, will be holding a reading party for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will be released on July 21(and takes place in the middle of the conference). Proceeds from Sectus are to be donated to Book Aid International, a charity that helps promote literacy and provide books to those in need. For more on Sectus, click here.

As mentioned on our podcast PotterCast we will be appearing at Phoenix Rising, the Harry Potter Conference taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana May 17-21, with our live podcast taking place the opening night on May 17 following the welcome dinner. The conference has also recently posted their schedule of programming for the weekend, including the dates and times of several panels and events featuring members of TLC.

PotterCast hosts Melissa Anelli, John Noe and Sue Upton will host a panel called "Fan Podcasting: Wizards on the Wireless," Saturday, May 18 at 2pm. TLC Webmistress Melissa Anelli and TLC Senior Editor Sue Upton will also give a panel earlier that same day called "Fan Journalism: The Importance of Not Being Skeeter" at 11am. Forum administrator Nick Rhein has now joined the "Snape: Friend or Foe" panel due Sunday afternoon at 3pm. Finally a reminder that Melissa Anelli will be one of the keynote speakers on a special presentation and walking dinner called "Transformation: From Fan to Fandom" at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. As of this post, only a seven tickets remain available for this event, so if you are interested in this or any of the events at Phoenix Rising, click here for more.

thatz all the news for the day....

tejas