NEWS FOR THE DAY 13.06.06

The Truth About Dan and the Queen

This time we mean it: Though there have been various reports about Dan Radcliffe attending the Queen's birthday party on June 25, he will not be in attendance. The news yesterday of Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Matt Lewis taking part in a play at the event is true - this will be a pre-recorded segment that will be shown there. Some of the other cast may attend, but Dan still cannot go, owing to his schedule, a representative told TLC this morning. Dan will be abroad on "a well-earned post-exam holiday!"

Jo Rowling will be reading at this event, and Julie Walters's name has also been mentioned as an attendee and player in the filmed sketch. As always, more as we get it!

Arrivederci, Phoenix: Italy Filming Rumors Debunked

A report yesterday that WB scoped out "a series of small towns in the Savona area (near Genoa, Italy), with a view to filming part of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix against the dramatic backdrop of a medieval Italian castle!" has "not a grain of truth in it," a representative of the films has confirmed to TLC this morning. There's no current plan to film in Italy.

Leaky Presents: Harry Potter Crafts!

We're thrilled to finally present: Leaky's Harry Potter Crafts section!

Right after we heard new Leaky staffer Jose talk about her Harry Potter crafting on PotterCast, we asked her to bring her special knowledge and talent to a new Leaky section. We know a lot of you out there like to make your own designs, fabrics, crafts, scarves and whatnot, rather than buy them, so here is an incredibly detailed guide, exhaustive and collaborative in nature, giving tons of ideas on how to do it all yourself. It includes how-tos for Harry-Potter themed crochet, fabrics, interior decorating, jewelry, knitting, needlework, quilting, sewing, food, parties and a lot more.

Jose Madalia has been working on this since the day after she spoke about it on PotterCast - 10 weeks ago - and has been working quite hard at it, too. She's pulled almost the entire online HP crafts community together to come up with an exhaustive section. We're thrilled with how it came out and hope you will be too.

Some of you already noticed that there's a new Crafts section to our gallery which has been receiving updates throughout this week; that will be completed shortly and a link to it made available on our front gallery page.

As usual there are lots of people to thank:

For the coding, Kyrane, REMleakyelf113, mlwl, KimmyBlair
For graphics: KimmyBlair, who designed the crafts logo
Other helpers: Lizzieangel90, Amy, Aisilinn, Alex, Nick Poulden, Doris

And, of course, most of all, our craftsmaster, Jose! Enjoy, everyone!

PotterCast #43: Monsieur Noe's Holiday

PotterCast 43 is now available!

In this show:

Canon Conundrums: Why didn't Snape just take Harry with him?
How Snape's eyes may be the key to the series, in our second Lumos Limelight interview - this time with Dr. Edmund Kern, a returning Leaky guest.
In the modcast: Why is Neville in Gryffindor? Lorie, Doris and Jason tackle the question.
John is in NY with Melissa - he can SEE her roll her eyes at his jokes. It's weird.
Give 'em HELL Dobby!
Devon and Stan in Japan
Jo named Greatest British Author
Melissa Anelli stars in "The Red Headed Card Catalog"
John gets new sheets
Melissa and John re-enact the infamous Pottercast Voldemort interview
Coming soon:video of John's first Chipotle burrito in an entire year
If you're nerdy, why can't you be brave?
The "Inner Nerd" theory
Has Snape been reading Harry's mind since day 1?
Similarities between Snape on "The Lightning Struck Tower" and Harry in
the cave
If Snape is evil, he left Harry for a reason.
If Snape is good, he's protecting Harry.
Steve claims that only way everything makes sense is for Snape to be good.
Melissa plays Devil's Advocate: You can read the book both ways, it's
ambiguous.
Was Snape teaching or taunting Harry?
John says Snape earned the DE of the Month Award.
Melissa changed rooms
John loves museums
John's burrito instructional video
John's a Hufflepuff?
"Dobby is Free" IS in the show close this week!
Running time: 1:13:33
The final edit of this show was completed by editor Mike Neighbors.

You can listen to the show on iTunes () by clicking here to listen, or you can just use the streaming Flash player at PotterCast.com. You can also direct download it here, and discussion of the PotterCast is right here. Enjoy!