[NOTD] News for the day 06/04/07

Nickelodeon magazine is currently running a competition allowing the winner to attend a Warner Bros. movie premiere, including that of the Order of the Phoenix. You are eligible for this contest if you are a US resident and between the ages of six and 14. To enter, simply send a postcard with your name, age, address, phone number, and date of birth to the following address:

Coming Attractions Sweepstakes c/o Nickelodeon Magazine
P.O. Box 4043
Grand Rapids, MN 55730-4043

Further details can be found in the April issue of Nick magazine.

The Harry Potter actor previously recorded a video to raise awareness and funds for children in extreme poverty in America and Africa. This video, along with those of Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange) and a number of other celebrities, will be broadcast on "American Idol Gives Back" April 25th.

Tickets to the taping of this event at either the Idol studio or the Walt Disney Concert Hall out in Los Angeles, California will go on sale ON A NEW DATE now of Wednesday April 11 at 10am on the internet only via Ticketmaster.com More details when we get it.

UPDATE: Page from DanRadcliffe.co.uk let us know that this may be a taped appearance by Dan in some context. Again, we will update with more on this when we can.

Bloomsbury has updated their 21 Great Reads for the 21st Century with news that over the next year, "two or three authors will feature each month, giving details of their careers, forthcoming books and events and suggestions of similar Bloomsbury authors you might be interested in." We are unsure when JK Rowling will feature but will keep you informed if we hear anything.

Thanks to everyone who emailed!

A new report states that Harry Potter is the most searched fan fiction on Yahoo!.

Bloomsbury Updates with "Deathly Hallows" Poster

U.K. publishers Bloomsbury have updated their Harry Potter section with a poster that we told you about previously, but is now sporting the new children's cover art for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. If you would like to download and print out this poster at home, you may do so via this link. (pdf)

Mugglenet have now posted the 20 finalists of our Book 7 cover contest. Click here to vote for your favorites, and they will announce the winners in one week. All five winners will receive a house scarf of their choice from Alivan's, with the first place winner also selecting a wand of his or her choice.

It would seem that libraries in the US have been taking tips from Madam Pince and her restricted section of the library at Hogwarts as the AP is reporting tonight on the strict rules imposed on libraries this summer in preparing for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The article states that libraries "must limit the number of employees who handle the books before the July 21 release and provide names and contact information for each branch manager, according to the contract from Scholastic Inc."

Facing possible fines and loss of access to future embargoed titles, libraries are signing contracts that say early leaks and releases of the highly anticipated last book to the Harry Potter series "will cause irreparable harm to Scholastic and the author, J.K. Rowling, and that monetary damages will be inadequate to compensate for violations."

Reps from Scholastic say they are merely enforcing author J.K.Rowling's wish for a "magical moment" and, as says Kyle Good:

"When you have a print run of 12 million books that you're sending out into the world, just in the U.S. alone, and you do want to preserve a very special moment for children, you take whatever precautions you need."

Worthplaying.com has now posted a new preview of the video game for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and have included some new images from the game. Specifically you can see some new images from the game as seen on the Wii platform, including one of Harry saving Dudley from the Dementors, as well as new ones from the Gameboy Advance edition of the game. To view these images,click here.

As noted by the EA game producers recently this video game is due to be released the week before the movie debuts in July. If you would like, you can pre-order the game here via the Cauldron Shop, where all proceeds benefit the entire Floo Network.

Following up on the news from late last month of young vandals damaging the Hogwarts Express train carriages, police announced today that they have arrested ten youths in connection with the March 10th vandalism.

A police spokesperson said on Thursday that "ten youths have been arrested after 337 windows were smashed on various trains at the West Coast Railway Company Depot in Carnforth, Lancashire." Police also said the youths, aged from 12 to 14 years old, were released on bail pending further inquires and are expected to report back to the British Transport Police the first week of May.

The train carriages, which sustained over 50,000 worth of damage, have been vandalized before. 3,000 worth of damage was caused in September of 2003 when graffiti was sprayed on the train carriages.

Justin Manning, an Associate Producer of the upcoming Order of the Phoenix video game for Electronic Arts, recently gave an interview with GamesRadar.com talking about the experience of playing this new game and what feedback from the fans helped in the development process.

Mr. Manning says in one part of the interview:

The biggest feedback we get from the fans is that they wanted to be able to explore Hogwarts. With this mind, the game still has the narrative thread from the movie, but the player can select to do the wide variety of missions in any order. Explore the world to find the mission givers and then explore even further to complete the tasks/missions for them.

The complete interview features even more from Mr. Manning and screencaps from the video game, which we first showed you last month. These images can be seen in our Image Galleries. You can pre-order the OotP video game through Leaky's Cauldron Shop!