‘Harry Potter’s’ Daniel Radcliffe comes to Flint, social media goes wild
Radcliffe, known as the star of the hit “Harry Potter” film franchise based on the series of novels by author J.K. Rowling, was in Flint on a visit with his reported girlfriend, actress and University of Michigan-Flint alum Erin Darke, for the holidays.
The two were spotted at several area businesses: Flint City T-Shirts downtown, Bob Evans restaurant on Hill Road in Grand Blanc, and Don Pablo’s restaurant on Miller Road. An employee of Bob Evans took a photo with Radcliffe that has been making its rounds online.
People immediately began taking to social media to share enthusiasm about his visit. Here’s a look at some of the conversations happening online.
Kid Calls 911 Over PlayStation Network/Xbox Live Outage
The recent Christmas Day PlayStation Network and Xbox Live network outages caused headaches for people hoping to connect and play games. But one Florida teenager thought the downtime was enough of a problem to call 911 to see if authorities could do anything about it.
WPTV reports that a teenager from Palm Beach County called 911 dispatch, asking about the outages: “I was wondering, do you guys know anything about that?”
The dispatcher told the caller to check in with platforms holders instead. Authorities went on to tell the young man, “Last time I checked, that wasn’t an emergency. Try going outside or read a book.”
Lizard Kids: A Long Trail of Fail
The Lizard Squad, a band of young hooligans that recently became Internet famous for launching crippling distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the largest online gaming networks, is now advertising its own Lizard-branded DDoS-for-hire service. Read on for a decidedly different take on this offering than what’s being portrayed in the mainstream media.
The new service, lizardstresser[dot]su, seems a natural evolution for a group of misguided youngsters that has sought to profit from its attention-seeking activities. The Lizard kids only ceased their attack against Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s Xbox Live networks last week after MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom offered the group $300,000 worth of vouchers for his service in exchange for ending the assault. And in a development probably that shocks no one, the gang’s members cynically told Dailydot that both attacks were just elaborate commercials for and a run-up to this DDoS-for-hire offering.
The group is advertising the new “booter service” via its Twitter account, which has some 132,000+ followers. Subscriptions range from $5.99 per month for the ability to knock a target offline for 100 seconds at a time, to $129.99 monthly for DDoS attacks lasting more than eight hours.
In any case, I’m not terribly interested in turning this post into a commercial for the Lizard kids; rather, it’s a brain dump of related information I’ve gathered from various sources in the past 24 hours about the individuals and infrastructure that support the site.
In a show of just how little this group knows about actual hacking and coding, the source code for the service appears to have been lifted in its entirety from titaniumstresser, another, more established DDoS-for-hire booter service. In fact, these Lizard geniuses are so inexperienced at coding that they inadvertently exposed information about all of their 1,700+ registered users (more on this in a moment).
These two services, like most booters, are hidden behind CloudFlare, a content distribution service that lets sites obscure their true Internet address. In case anyone cares, Lizardstresser’s real Internet address currently is 217.71.50.57, at a hosting facility in Bosnia.
In any database of leaked forum or service usernames, it is usually safe to say that the usernames which show up first in the list are the administrators and/or creators of the site. The usernames exposed by the coding and authentication weaknesses in LizardStresser show that the first few registered users are “anti” and “antichrist.” As far as I can tell, these two users are the same guy: A ne’er-do-well who has previously sold access to his personal DDoS-for-hire service on Darkode — a notorious English-language cybercrime forum that I have profiled extensively on this blog.
As detailed in a recent, highly entertaining post on the blog Malwaretech, LizardSquad and Darkode are practically synonymous and indistinguishable now. Anyone curious about why the Lizard kids have picked on Yours Truly can probably find the answer in that Malwaretech story. As that post notes, the main online chat room for the Lizard kids (at lizardpatrol[dot]com) also is hidden behind CloudFlare, but careful research shows that it is actually hosted at the same Internet address as Darkode (5,38,89,132).
In a show of just how desperate these kids are for attention, consider that the login page for LizardStresser currently says “Hosted somewhere on Brian Krebs’ forehead: Donate to the forehead reduction foundation, simply send money to krebsonsecurity@gmail.com on PayPal.” Many of you have done that in the past couple of days, although I doubt as a result of visiting the Lizard kids’ silly site. Anyway, for those generous donors, a hearty “thank you.”
It’s worth noting that the individual who registered LizardStresser is an interesting and angry teenager who appears to hail from Australia and uses the nickname “abdilo.” You can find his possibly not-safe-for-work rants on Twitter at this page. A reverse WHOIS lookup (ordered from Domaintools.com) on the email address used to register LizardStresser (9ajjs[at]zmail[dot]ru) shows this email has been used to register a number of domains tied to cybercrime operations, including sites selling stolen credit card data and access to hacked PCs.
A more nuanced lookup at Domaintools.com using some of this information turns up additional domains tied to Abdilo, including bkcn[dot]ru and abdilo[dot]ru (please do not attempt to visit these sites unless you know what you’re doing). Another domain that abdilo registered (in my name, no less) — http://x6b-x72-x65-x62-x73-x6f-x6e-x73-x65-x63-x75-x72-x69-x74-x79-x0[dot]com — is hexadecimal encoding for “krebsonsecurity.”
Last, but certainly not least, it appears that Vinnie Omari — the young man I identified earlier this week as being a self-proclaimed member of of the Lizard kids — has apparently just been arrested by the police in the United Kingdom (see screen shot below). Sources tell KrebsOnSecurity that Vinnie is one of many individuals associated with this sad little club who are being rounded up and questioned. My guess is most, if not all, of these kids will turn on one another. Time to go get some popcorn.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Hey Y’all
I was browsing Telltale Games’ website this morning (scavenging for deals on Game of Thrones and Tales from the Borderlands), and discovered this:
Well, that’s… definitely not what I expected.
Having recently played The Wolf Among Us, and eagerly starting The Walking Dead: Season Two, I was pretty much psyched to hear about their new project. I don’t know what to think now. This actually feels like a way far gone version of the Tales from the Borderlands’ announcement, where a lot of people, myself included went “Wuh? Does that series need an adventure game”
It’s very strange… and I love it. This pairing oddly enough reminds me of this year’s The Lego Movie. High quality artists working on a super large brand. Could it turn out that well? Maybe. Maybe I’ll eat poop. But you know, I don’t really like to eat poop, so I might not eat it. Poop.
There’s also a nifty little announcement game you can play (that plays Telltale style). Check it out under “Learn More”.
I think this is a sign of what’s to come. There’s a Minecraft movie in development. That paired with this announcement are tell tale (tee hee) signs of where Microsoft intends to take this franchise. They’re going big. Real big.
I hope it’s a gritty retelling of the game. I love gritty retellings!
Vancouver children are crazy about ‘Wimpy Kid’: library data
If you have a child with a Vancouver library card, there’s a good chance you have taken home a “Wimpy Kid” book in the past couple of years.
Data from the Vancouver Public Library reveals that the nine-book series by Jeff Kinney dominates the lists of most checked-out children’s titles, with “Wimpy Kid” books taking the top two spots for each of the past three years.
At The Vancouver Sun’s request, the VPL provided data on the most popular adult, young adult and children’s books for 2012, 2013 and 2014.
If you’re on a mobile device, please click here to see the chart.
According to the data, adult books typically remain popular for only a short time.
For example, “Death Comes to Pemberley” by P.D. James, the most popular adult book in 2012 with 1,893 total checkouts, didn’t even make the Top 20 in 2013. Similarly, “The Casual Vacancy” by J.K. Rowling — 2013’s top book with 1,558 checkouts — is nowhere to be found on this year’s Top 20, which is instead topped by Khaled Hosseini’s “And The Mountains Echoed” (1,356 checkouts to date).
In contrast, the data reveals that kids and teens have far more consistent tastes, going back to the same trilogies and book series again and again.
Four of the Top 10 most checked-out children’s books in 2014 were “Wimpy Kid” titles, led by “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck” which was checked out a total of 1,995 times.
And while the exact title has changed from year to year, “Wimpy Kid” books have been the most checked-out kids book, and the second most checked-out, for each of the past three years. And in 2012, the top three books were all “Wimpy Kid” titles.
Julia McKnight, a children’s librarian at VPL, said the “Wimpy Kid” series — written in the style of a middle-school kid’s hand-written diary — seems to really resonate with younger readers.
“I think kids can really put themselves into the story,” she said.
While not nearly as popular as “Wimpy”, Rick Riordan’s “Heroes of Olympus” series and Lincoln Peirce’s “Big Nate” series have also been consistently popular among young library goers, taking several spots among the Top 20 each year.
McKnight said younger readers, more so than adults, seem to gravitate to the familiar when making their reading choices, which helps explain the popularity of book series.
“They develop a familiarity with the setting and they bond with the characters,” she said. “Even when kids get attached to a stand-alone title, they tend to come back to the library saying, ‘Can you give me more like this?’”
Like their younger siblings, teens’ taste in books has also been pretty consistent in recent years, the data shows.
The three books in Suzanne Collins’ “Hunger Games” trilogy — “The Hunger Games”, “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay” — were the three most checked-out young adult books in both 2012 and 2013.
However, Collins has some competition this year from Veronica Roth, whose book “Allegiant” — the third title in her “Divergent” trilogy — took the top spot with 1,171 total checkouts. The other two titles in Roth’s trilogy, “Divergent” and “Insurgent”, were also in the top five this year.
The data suggests teens’ reading habits are heavily influenced by what is in movie theatres.
The popularity of the Collins’ books roughly coincides with the release of the “Hunger Games” movies beginning in 2012. And the only “Hunger Games” book to remain in the Top 5 this year — “Mockingjay” — is the subject of this year’s movie.
Similarly, Roth’s surging popularity is likely due to the release of the first “Divergent” movie in March.
Aside from Roth and Collins, the data shows that Cassandra Clare’s “Mortal Instruments” series of fantasy novels and Pittacus Lore’s “Lorien Legacies” series of science fiction books have also been consistently popular among teen readers over the past three years.
VPL said it does its best to keep up with demand for popular titles, typically ordering one copy for every six people on the waiting list for a book.
It also keeps a close eye on the condition of its books, as they tend to deteriorate the more times they are checked out.
“The Diary of a Wimpy Kids books get destroyed pretty fast,” said McKnight. “We are constantly having to check those titles for condition and get new copies of them.”
“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” author’s better dream
Talk about an unlikely story: A failed cartoonist writes a book for adults that ends up on the CHILDREN’S best-seller list! Unlikely or not, it’s the story our Rita Braver has to tell:
“I think that every family road trip longer of more than about three hours is a nightmare family road trip,” Kinney said of his new book. “I think I got the cover image just right, which is Greg in the way-back of the minivan under a pile of luggage. Every time I show that to kids, they say, ‘That’s me, I’ve been there.'”
“Greg” is Greg Heffley, perpetually stuck in middle school, as he puts it, “with a bunch of morons.” He’s always being embarrassed by his parents, and he’s got two awful brothers: the nasty older one, and the tattle-tale toddler.
Greg is a very nervous, sneaky, fearful and bullied and bullying protagonist.
Braver asked the author, “Why have someone as a main character who’s not the least bit heroic?”
“When I was writing ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid,’ I was actually reading Harry Potter,” said Kinney. “He is brave, he is magical, he is powerful. And I wasn’t any of these things as a kid. So I wanted to create a character who was more like I was.”
“Were you a wimpy kid?”
“I was an average kid, but I had very wimpy moments,” he replied.
Jeff Kinney grew up outside Washington, D.C., dreaming of becoming a cartoonist. He actually created a successful comic strip, called Igdoof, for the University of Maryland’s campus newspaper.
But when he tried to land a cartooning job after graduation:
“I went through about three years of sending out submissions and then getting rejected,” he said, “so it was really kind of soul-crushing.”
He got a day job designing online games. Then on the side, he started writing and illustrating “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
But it wasn’t FOR kids.
“In fact, the first draft was 1,300 pages long,” Kinney said, “and it was meant to be sort of a primer or a nostalgia piece for adults.”
He worked on that draft for eight years.
Braver asked, “Why didn’t you give up?”
“Because I was prolonging the rejection, in a way,” he laughed. “Part of it was, you know, just putting off the inevitable for me.”
“And then he just looked at the first page — he didn’t read anything at all — and he said, ‘This is exactly what we’re looking for, and this is why we’re here,” Kinney recalled. “And then he said, ‘It’s going to be for kids.” And believe it not, that was a huge shocker to me at the time. Never for a second in the eight years I was working on ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ did I think that I was writing for kids.”
But when “The Wimpy Kid” was marketed to a young audience, it took off beyond Kinney’s wildest dreams.
“I’ll never forget when The New York Times list came out, and I had made the list,” Kinney said. “I couldn’t believe it. My wife and I were jumping up and down on the bed, and in fact, it stayed on the list for more than five years straight. I pinch myself every day!”
“It was surprising, it’s still surprising to us,” said Kinney’s wife, Julie. “Every now and then we’re like, ‘How did this happen? Why did it happen? This is nuts!'”
Nuts or not, Julie and their sons, Will and Grant, seem to take it all in stride — even the fact that Jeff has been an executive producer of three films based on the series.
To stay close to his readers, Kinney travels all over the country, turning up at places like Edward Molin School in Newburyport, Mass., where everyone seems to be a fan.
For Your Lil’ Readers: What to Read After ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’
It is hard to find a kid who has not succumbed to the charms of The Wimpy Kid series, so if they need a new book to devour, how about one that features a troll – in middle school! Now don’t worry, I wouldn’t steer you wrong. This is a twisted take on the fairytales that any kid who loves to laugh will enjoy.
Don’t forget to visit my website at www.onegreatbook.com for more books that will satisfy your kid’s book cravings after they have finished Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Title: Life of Zarf
Author:Rob Harrell
Target:Grades 3-7
Series: This is the first book in a planned series
What this book is about:
Zarf is a troll who is doing his best to survive middle school. This school is ruled by the princes and princess followed a close second by your knights and fair maidens. Of course your wizards and witches are bit geeky but trolls, well they are on the bottom rung. An incident between Zarf and Prince Roquefort leads to a duel (with nerf lances of course) and it ends up landing Zarf in the dungeons. The only way restore his dignity is to find the king (who has mysteriously disappeared) but Zarf is not exactly the brave and noble type, or is he?
Why I love this book:
This book has been described and Shrek meets Wimpy Kid, and an apt description it is. Zarf is appealing and hysterical as he tries to make the best of his rather low social standing. Of course when you have friends such as the jester’s son, who can’t tell a joke to save his life and the little pig who can’t get enough mutton, well the laughs keep coming. I can’t imagine a kid not giggling through this one.
You also have to read this book if you want to know the fate of Goldilocks! Can anyone say lunch lady?
Who this book is for:
Kids who like Wimpy Kid will eat this one up. Large type, appropriate content and pictures throughout make this book suitable for younger readers as well as middle school kids.
Final thoughts:
I love the fairytale twist to this story, but with ogres and dragons, don’t worry, this isn’t Cinderella!
I am a mom of three with a passion for literature! No matter what book series our kids devour, as they come to an end, we as parents ask the inevitable question – what is next? I am ever on the job, trying to answer that question. I try to do it with a variety of books. Some are silly, some true to life, some pure fantasy, but in the end I hope they make my children love words, explore new ideas, and laugh!
A cartoon caper for Ilya, 9
A budding journalist followed in his father’s footsteps when he interviewed a renowned children’s author this month.
Nine-year-old Ilya Sullivan, a student at Berkhamsted’s Bridgewater School, got the chance to grill NY Times bestselling author Jeff Kinney in London.
Jeff, 43, is the American author of the worldwide phenomena ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series of books and films.
The franchise chronicles the life of fictional Greg Heffley, and the journal-style books are filled with hand-written notes and simple drawings of his daily adventures
Ilya was the co-host with his father, David Sullivan of Berkhamsted. to question Jeff for his internationally syndicated TV series ‘Principles of Literature’.
Young Ilya even got to see himself as a cartoon character, as author Jeff sketched him in the ‘Wimpy Kid’ style.
Afterwards, Ilya was given the once ina lifetime chance to tour the new BBC Broadcasting House, during which time he visited the set of The One Show as well as the newsroom of the international operation.
Teacher Donates Contest Winnings to Her Third-Graders
Last week, Nicole Bollerman won $150,000 from Capital One’s #WishForOthers contest. But rather than spend the money on herself, the 26-year-old teacher at UP Academy Dorchester decided to give the money to her third-grade students. In her contest entry, Bollerman wrote that she wished her “voracious, adorable, hardworking, loving scholars all leave for their December break with a book in their hand.” This won over the hearts of the people at Capital One and, ultimately, won Bollerman the funds needed to make her wish come true.
“I really made the wish for my students, and I was blessed, lucky, and thankful that Capital One gave me the opportunity,” Bollerman told ABC News. “Since I made the wish for my students, I thought I would do something to make their lives better rather than spend it on myself.”
In addition to the $150,000, which Bollerman hopes to put toward better computer access and coding lessons for the children, Capital One gifted each of Bollerman’s students with three books of her choosing: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, My Father’s Dragon, and Where the Wild Things Are. But in order for every child at the school to receive reading material, Bollerman and her mother used their own money to buy books for all of the other students. Is that teacher of the year material or what?
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe earned £68 million last year – that will buy a lot of wands
Daniel Radcliffe earned £68 million last year, according to a report.
The Horns star’s company – whose accounts were filed on Christmas Eve – has recorded £57.7 million in profits, nearly £4 million more than last year.
Daniel also has a firm, Gilmore Jacobs, based in Essex, east England that is responsible for managing his investments and properties.
The firm is owed £10.2 million, bringing his total to £67.9 million, according to the figures obtained by The Sun.
The money Daniel was paid for his role in the Harry Potter series from 11-years-old onwards was invested by his parents, Alan, 55, and Marcia, 57, who are both listed as directors of the Essex company.
The accounts for the firm – which are for the year ending March 31, 2014 – show that they held £16.1million in fixed assets, which is likely to be the 25-year-old actor’s West London flat and his three properties in New York.
The figures do not reveal how much Daniel was paid but the actor – who is dating actress Erin Darke, 29 – reportedly earned £8million for his last outing as Harry Potter, in 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.
The actor previously admitted that he felt “guilty” about all his success.
He said: “I feel almost guilty for having done so well out of Potter.”
‘Harry Potter’ Star David Ryall Dies at 79
Veteran British character actor David Ryall, who’s best known to mainstream American audiences as “Harry Potter’s” Elphias Doge, died on Christmas Day. He was 79.
“Sherlock” writer and actor Mark Gatiss tweeted the sad news on Saturday.
His daughter, actress Charlie Ryall, also confirmed on Twitter.
The actor’s career spans more than five decades and covers film, TV and theater. His movie credits include 2008’s “City of Ember,” 2004’s “Around the World in 80 Days” and 1980’s “The Elephant Man.”
Ryall replaced Peter Cartwright as Elphias Doge in 2010’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.” His character was a close friend of Albus Dumbledore in addition to being a Ministry of Magic jurist and an Order of the Phoenix member.
Most recently, he was perhaps best known on the small screen as Frank — the grandfather who suffers from dementia — in the BBC comedy “Outnumbered.”
His television roles also include that of Britain’s oldest man in BBC’s “The Village” and Mr. Hall in writer Dennis Potter’s “The Singing Detective.” He appeared in Andrew Davies’ adaptation of “House of Cards” (not the Netflix original series), the British sitcom “Goodnight Sweetheart” and ITV’s “Midsomer Murders.”
Ryall began his career on the stage before becoming a familiar face on British TV.
The actor joined Laurence Olivier’s company with the National Theatre at a young age, during which time he was involved with several influential plays, including Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.” His work at the National Theatre also included “Guys and Dolls,” “The Beggar’s Opera” and “Animal Farm.”
Ryall is survived by his son, music manager Jonathan Ryall, and two daughters, singer Imogen Ryall and actress Charlie Ryall.
Dumbledore: Rescued Seal Named After ‘Harry Potter’ Character
A seal found stranded 20 miles from the ocean in a farmer’s field has been transferred to a rehabilitation center, where staff have decided to name the animal Dumbledore, after the famed Harry Potter character.
The animal was transferred to the RSPCA’s specialist seal treatment facility in East Winch, Norfolk, on Tuesday. Alison Charles, manager of RSPCA East Winch, noted that staff had given the seal a new name, based on their current theme.
“The big lad is now called Dumbledore. He is much more settled but needs a lot of vet attention in the coming days,” she observed. “He has horrible thick nasal discharge and still looks very sorry for himself but other than that he is quite lively and quite large so we need to handle him very carefully with our expert team of adult seal handlers.”
Dumbledore suffered a head injury sometime during the adventure that brought him inland, and though staff at the facility are optimistic that the seal will make a full recovery, they caution that it is still far too early to tell how he will respond to long-term care.“He certainly seems lively now, and was pretty listless when he first came into our care, so that’s a good sign,” Charles noted. “Until we get the blood tests back (which will be after Christmas as the labs are shut) we won’t know more about his overall condition.”
The facility names the animals that come into their care according to a popular theme, according to the Independent. The current theme centers around Harry Potter characters, which is why the staff decided to call the seal Dumbledore.
Over the last few years, a colony of seals off the English coast have formed an unlikely bond with a local diver. As the Inquisitr previously reported, several videos of the interactions between Ben Burville and the seals have gone viral.Dumbledore will remain at the seal treatment facility into the new year, as staff caution it will take some time before he is released back into the wild.
Read original article here:
7 Things We Learned About Harry Potter This Christmas
Even though the beloved series technically ended back in 2007 when the seventh and final book was published, author J.K. Rowling has had a hard time pulling herself away from the world of Harry Potter and has recently been adding short stories set in the Potter universe to the official fansite Pottermore. This started back in the summer, then another piece was added for Halloween, then Rowling announced that she was going to add a short story a day for each of the twelve days of Christmas. Now that Christmas has come and gone, here’s some of what we learned about Harry Potter and company from the new writing.
All About Inferi
Inferi are the reanimated corpses of dead people, wizards or Muggles, that Voldemort uses as part of his Army to guard the Horcruxes that contain pieces of his soul. In the new information about the mythical creatures of her creation, Rowling explains why she chose not to call the creatures “zombies” even though that’s what they most closely resemble. Partly she didn’t want to invoke the African and Caribbean voodoo tradition from which the concept of the zombie comes and which would be out of place in Harry Potter’s London.
“Lastly, zombies have been represented and reinterpreted on film so often in the last fifty years that they have a whole raft of associations that were of no use to me. I’m part of the ‘Thriller’ generation; to me, a zombie will always mean Michael Jackson in a bright red bomber jacket,” the author wrote.
Snape Is Not a Vampire
Similarly to how she felt about including zombies in her fantasy world, Rowling mostly kept away from vampires when creating the lore of Harry Potter. The writer pointed out that vampires are mostly a folklore tradition from Eastern Europe and that she tried to stick to mythology based in Britain when creating the major aspects of the Potter universe. The only vampire that Potter meets in the books is a character named Sanguini in Half-Blood Prince, who just makes a funny appearance at a party.
Vampires do exist in Harry Potter’s world and he learns about them in his classes at Hogwarts, but he never really interacts with any. Rowling reveals that she considered including a vampire character named Trocar early on, but the character quickly disappeared from early drafts of her notes. The author also used the opportunity while she was on the subject to dismiss a rumor amongst fans that Snape is a vampire. “While it is true that he has an unhealthy pallor, and is sometimes described as looking like a large bat in his long black coat, he never actually turns into a bat, we meet him outside the castle by daylight, and no corpses with puncture marks in their necks ever turn up at Hogwarts,” she wrote to do away with the rumor.
Ghost-Plot About Florean Fortescue
The character Florean Fortescue was the subject of a ghost-plot, or a side plot, written by Rowling that never made it into the final Harry Potter books. Through explaining why, Rowling gave a look into her writing process and some of the difficulties inherent in writing such a massive series with so many characters and so much going on. Rowling says that the character is the owner of an ice cream shop in Diagon Alley who Harry was to meet in the third book, Prisoner of Azkaban.
Rowling planned to use Florean and his deep knowledge about medieval wizards as a way to give Harry clues about the location of the Hallows, as Florean’s historical knowledge would be useful to Potter’s quests for various objects. As she wrote, Rowling made Fortescue get kidnapped by Voldemort’s army with the intention of having Harry rescue him, but the characters Phineas Nigellus Black and Lady Grey ended up being used to convey those clues. “He is not the first wizard whom Voldemort murdered because he knew too much (or too little), but he is the only one I feel guilty about, because it was all my fault,” Rowling wrote.
There Are LGBT and Jewish Students at Hogwarts
The information didn’t come in any of the new writing on Pottermore, but from fan questions posed to Rowling on Twitter. During all the hubbub about Christmas, one fan asked Rowling on the social media site if there are any Jewish students at Hogwarts. Rowling responded by naming one specific Jewish wizard she remembers placing at the school, but also saying there are more Jewish students at the school she doesn’t know by name. Rowling said “But of course” when another fan asked if there are LGBT students at Hogwarts as well. The author finally said that the only belief system she didn’t imagine at the school is the witchcraft-religion Wiccans, which makes sense given Wiccans practice a different sort of magic than Rowling has imagined in her fictional world.
Snape and Potter’s Parents’ Hometown
In order to give more background on some of the older characters in the books, Rowling wrote a little about where Snape and Harry’s parents, James and Lily, came from. Rowling invented the fictional working class town of Cokeworth, England to show that magic can come from the most unlikely places. “Cokeworth’s name is supposed to suggest an industrial town, and to evoke associations of hard work and grime,” Rowling said. Harry visits the town with the Dursleys in The Sorcerer’s Stone when Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon are trying to dodge the letters from Hogwarts, though it’s never made clear in the books this is the place where Harry’s parents are from. The town has at least one large factory, a river going through it, and the small homes of the working class.
The Order of Merlin’s Less-Than-Honorable History
The Order of Merlin is the highest award a member of the wizarding world can receive, with three different levels within it to signify the achievement. The award is given by the Wizengamot, which is sort of like the parliament and court of the magical world. Rowling wrote that while the Wizengamot and the award far pre-date the Ministry of Magic, unfortunately Ministry favorites are far more likely to receive the prize than is fair. Albus Dumbledore rightly received the highest honor for defeating the dark wizard Grindelwald, but Cornelius Fudge also gave himself the same award for a career that many would call into question. Sirius Black’s grandfather Arcturus Black actually bought himself an Order of Merlin by loaning the Ministry of Magic gold.
More on Malfoy
Similarly as she did for Dolores Umbridge at Halloween, Rowling wrote a longer piece fleshing out the backstory of one of Harry Potter’s biggest enemies, Draco Malfoy. Malfoy is Potter’s arch rival at school from the boys’ first days at Hogwarts. Among fans the character has become a bit of an antihero, which was aided in no small part due to the film portrayal by Tom Felton. Throughout their years at school together, Malfoy was envious of the attention Harry received both for his talent and for his famous story.
This most Potter fans would’ve already known, but Rowling fleshes out Malfoy’s confusion in the wake of the events of the final book further. He eventually marries a girl who was raised in a similarly intolerant family, but together they decide not to raise their children to believe that Muggles are scum. This is a big disappointment to Draco’s parents, but they are by that point disgraced to the lowest rung of Death Eaters. Finally, Draco maintains some fascination with the Dark Arts by collecting and holding on to Dark artifacts from his family, though he doesn’t use them. Rowling said she believes he will raise his own son in a much more tolerant manner than he was raised.
“Draco has all the dark glamour of the anti-hero; girls are very apt to romanticise such people. All of this left me in the unenviable position of pouring cold common sense on ardent readers’ daydreams as I told them, rather severely, that Draco was not concealing a heart of gold under all that sneering and prejudice and that no, he and Harry were not destined to end up best friends,” Rowling wrote.
J. K. Rowling Reveals Draco Malfoy’s Life After Harry Potter
Whatever happened to Harry Potter’s Hogwarts nemesis after Harry defeated Voldemort? Where is he now? J. K. Rowling finally revealed Draco Malfoy’s life post-Harry Potter in her 12 Days of Harry Potter Christmas at Pottermore.
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In her second to the last installment of her Harry Potter Christmas stories, best-selling author, J. K. Rowling unfolded the life of Slytherin antagonist Draco Malfoy after Harry Potter soundly routed arch-villain Voldemort and drove the Death Eaters away for good.
J. K. Rowling revealed that after the events in the last book, Draco, who was born into a traditional pureblood family from a very old line, finally realized his parents’ ways (and that of all purebloods for that matter) were slowly becoming anachronistic in the present time.
From a pureblood perspective, only witches and wizards born of parents from wholly magical decent were the only ones worth considering as equals. After Harry saved him from the fiendfyre inferno he and his cohorts had set to kill Harry, Draco is said to have seen things in a different light.
Rowling says Draco abandoned this pureblood way of thinking, and when we last saw him in the final book sending his own son off aboard the Hogwarts Express, Draco and his wife, pureblood Astoria Greengrass, had already been raising their son, Scorpius, to believe that Muggles, squibs and other people not of pureblood decent were of equal footing.
“Family gatherings were often fraught with tension,” ABC News reported on Rowling revelations in Pottermore, referring to the times Draco got together with his pureblood parents, Lucius and Narcissa.
“Being raised by either the Malfoys or the Dursleys would be a very damaging experience, and Draco undergoes dreadful trials as a direct result of his family’s misguided principles. However, the Malfoys do have a saving grace: they love each other,” Rowling continues.
In the end, though, can one not feel pity for poor Draco, who is, when all is said and done, a product of his own family’s upbringing? He was merely doing what he thought was the proper thing, and if he was portrayed as a sneering, prejudiced racist, was not that the very same personality traits leached from his father?
For Draco to have changed his line of thinking in the end amounts to a huge paradigm shift in the pureblood way of thinking. There is hope for the Slytherins after all.
Watch the real Draco Malfoy, Tom Felton, as he shares his life after “Harry Potter:”
E. HUSAR: Daughter beats Dad in race to read Harry Potter
A turning-point moment came Monday night.
It involved my daughter, Katie, who has been filling our life with joy for more than 13 years.
When Katie became an avid reader as a wisp of a child, I announced one of my goals in life was to read a Harry Potter novel before she did.
Naturally, I got sidetracked. As a homeowner and occasional maintenance man/groundskeeper, I started spending more of my available reading hours focusing on repair manuals and how-to books. Instead of seeking out the wisdom of Mark Twain, I found myself contemplating the insights of Norm Abram from “This Old House.”
Katie eventually caught wind of my goal and often threatened to beat me in the Harry Potter reading race. I scoffed. She laughed. Then from time to time she would start reading a Harry Potter book — simultaneously with a host of other things. At least seven of those lengthy novels would invariably fall by the wayside, unfinished.
Then came Monday night. Everyone else had gone to bed when I retired to my recliner downstairs for some quiet time. Waiting on the seat was a note from Katie with a copy of the 734-page paperback version of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”
The note said: “Done. Eat your heart out, Dad.”
Dang! She got me.
I sat down on the chair with the note and reflected on how my little girl was growing up so fast. It seems like yesterday she was a pre-schooler joyfully catching bugs while exploring the backyard. Now she’s a worldly eighth grader with a keen sense of humor and strong opinions about injustices happening in society.
I was struck by how fast time is rushing by and how change keeps occurring at a furious pace.
For instance, in just the last couple of months, several of my contemporaries have headed off into retirement, including my good buddy Mark, who started in the newspaper business around the same time I did in the mid-1970s. On Oct. 29 he sent a final email as he departed his newspaper for the last time, declaring: “The end is here. I am going to grab my golf clubs, a beer mug and my fishing gear and head off to a new part of my life.”
News of more changes comes in the Christmas cards that arrive daily. The faces in snapshots keep getting older. Several aging relatives have grown ill or died. The flower girl from our wedding is getting married next year. A nephew who played football for Michigan now watches his own son play for Air Force.
On and on life goes. But with it comes the pleasant satisfaction of watching the developments as they take shape — turning like the pages of a good book.
Harry Potter star Helena Bonham Carter and Hollywood director Tim Burton split up after 13 years together
HELENA BONHAM CARTER and Tim Burton have confirmed they split up earlier this year, but insist the break is “amicable”.
The couple, who have two children, Billy, 11, and Nell, seven, have announced they “separated amicably earlier this year” after 13 years together.
A spokesperson for 48-year-old actress said: “Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter separated amicably earlier this year and have continued to be friends and co-parent their children.
“We would ask that you respect their privacy and that of their children during this time.”
It comes just weeks after they were spotted with their children at Winter Wonderland – proving they’re remaining good friends.
The duo started dating after Tim, 56, directed Helena in Planet of the Apes in 2001 and had a famously unconventional relationship, living in two neighbouring houses joined by a communal room.
News of their split comes more than a year after the British director was photographed embracing another woman after a cinema date in Hampstead, London in September 2013.
But Helena rubbished allegations he had been unfaithful at the time, saying: “This is absolute nonsense. The pictures were taken whilst they were out and the large group includes family, friends and work colleagues.”
Although they frequently worked together, Tim previously admitted they often had a turbulent relationship on set, especially during the making of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in 2007.
He said: “We’ve survived [as a couple], but it hasn’t always been easy. ‘Sweeney Todd’ was the worst; definitely the worst. But then I found out she was pregnant with Nell and it kind of all made sense.”
J. K. Rowling Admits Regretting Killing One Minor ‘Harry Potter’ Character
After many years since she finished publishing the “Harry Potter” series, renowned author J. K. Rowling admits there was one minor character she regretted killing off before he even got to play a bigger role.
One of the Potter news Rowling revealed on the site was her initial plan of using “Prisoner of Azkaban” minor character Florean Fortescue as a crucial informative character in “Deathly Hallows.” The author regretted killing him off, saying that Fortescue was kidnapped and killed by the Death Eaters for no mentioned reason, thus giving him a rather tragic ending.
For not-so-avid readers of the “Prisoner of Azkaban,” Fortescue owns an ice cream parlor located in Diagon Alley. After running away from his relatives’ home, Harry Potter stayed in the Leaky Cauldron. He often visited Fortescue, who would give him free ice cream and help him out with his History of Magic assignment.
“I originally planned Florean to be the conduit for clues that I needed to give Harry during his quest for the Hallows… The problem was that when I came to write the key parts of Deathly Hallows, I decided that Phineas Nigellus Black was a much more satisfactory means of conveying clues. Florean’s information on the diadem also felt redundant, as I could give the reader everything he or she needed by interviewing the Grey Lady,” stated Rowling, as published on Us Weekly.
To read the rest of the surprises in store for Pottermore’s Christmas special event from Dec. 12-23, 2014, interested fans must subscribe on Pottermore.com, where the surprises are placed as gifts at 1:00 p.m. GMT (8:00 a.m. EST). To open them, they simply have to solve a corresponding riddle.
Were you surprised of J. K. Rowling’s regrets of killing off Florean Fortescue? Or were you thinking of another character she’d save? Post your comments below.
The Harry Potter character author Laila Lalami wishes she could be
Born and raised in Morocco, and currently teaching Creative Writing at the University of California Riverside, Laila Lalami is the author of The Moor’s Account, a work of historical fiction based on an early Spanish expedition to North America.
Why did you write your new book?
It was a book I wanted to read, but it hadn’t been written yet. Some years ago, I came across Cabeza de Vaca’s Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition, the first narrative of Spanish exploration of North America. The Narváez expedition was intended to claim Florida for the Spanish Crown, but it failed quickly and spectacularly. For the next eight years, the survivors trekked across the continent, reinventing themselves several times in order to survive. I was fascinated by their story of adventure and transformation, but I was hungry for things that Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative didn’t give me. I wanted to know what the survivors’ personal relationship with one another was like, how they interacted with indigenous people, what role the Moroccan slave Mustafa al-Zamori/Estebanico had played, and whether the survivors’ worldviews were changed by their experiences. I wrote The Moor’s Account because I wanted to explore those questions.
Whose sentences are your favourite, and why?
For precision and economy, V.S. Naipaul’s sentences. For depth and beauty, Toni Morrison’s.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
My friend Pankaj recommended daily one-hour naps. I’m certain it would be amazing for my physical well-being and mental health, but sadly I have never followed that advice. I seem to be rather the kind of person that people go to for advice. And I’ve often found that it’s unheeded as well!
Which historical period do you wish you’d lived through, and why?
I have no wish to live in another era, mostly because, as a woman, it would involve giving up too many rights. I wouldn’t mind living in the future, though maybe it’s optimistic to think that our species is going to have any future at all.
Would you rather be successful during your lifetime and then forgotten, or legendary after death?
The nice thing about being successful during your lifetime is that you would get to enjoy it with your family. And as for being forgotten, you would never know about it if it happens after death! But being remembered after one’s death, being read for many generations, that’s nice too. Since I’m fairly pessimistic about what the future holds, I suppose I’d have to choose success in my lifetime.
What agreed-upon classic do you despise?
D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers.
Which fictional character do you wish you’d created?
Scheherazade.
Which fictional character do you wish you were?
Hermione Granger.
What question do you wish people would ask about your work (that they don’t ask)?
As a matter of fact, I wish people would not ask me any questions about my work. In the process of reading a novel, each reader creates in his or her mind a unique interpretation of it. Why ruin that by adding the author’s commentary?
‘Harry Potter’s’ Tom Felton buys in Hollywood Hills West
Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the “Harry Potter” films, has joined the ranks of Hollywood Hills West homeowners with the purchase of a contemporary house for $1.275 million.
The single-story home has an open floor plan, living room and master bedroom fireplaces, a den with built-ins, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and 1,732 square feet of living space. Walls of glass open to a covered patio, outdoor living room and a poolside deck.
The backyard of the 6,163-square-foot lot contains a swimming pool and a guesthouse/studio with a kitchen and bathroom.
Felton, 27, is in the crime series “Murder in the First” and will star in the World War II movie “Against the Sun,” due out in January. Besides the “Harry Potter” films and video games, he was in the 2011 movie “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”
The property previously sold in 2010 for $760,000.
Joann Dresner of Keller Williams was the listing agent. Eli Karon of Tele Properties represented Felton.
Disney’s Star Wars vs. Universal’s Harry Potter, in One Photo
If you’d like to see the differences between Disney and Universal’s treatment of the most popular film franchises in their theme parks, illustrated in one photo, here you go:
Can you imagine a Universal Studios T-shirt depicting Voldemort on the Caro-Seuss-el? Or Minions in wizard robes? It’s impossible to imagine J.K. Rowling allowing such trivialization of the Wizarding World and its inhabitants.
But George Lucas long has shown a great acceptance of irreverence toward his Star Wars characters. After all, you can’t greenlight the Star Wars Holiday Special if you’re taking your characters too seriously. Let’s not forget other examples of Lucas and his team poking fun, or at least allowing others to poke fun, at the Star Wars universe: the Stand Up to Cancer spoof, Death Star PR, Spaceballs, and possibly the most irreverent officially-blessed Star Wars take-off ever, Disney’s Hyperspace Hoopla. There’s some great stuff about Lucas’ tolerance, and even enthusiasm, for spoofs in the new book How Star Wars Conquered the Universe, and author Chris Taylor talked in an interview with The New Yorker about how a desire to be more serious in the prequels weighed down the “effervescent giddiness” of the original films.
In contrast, perhaps the closest that J.K. Rowling, with her drier British wit, has come to satirizing her creation was a guest appearance on “The Simpsons” that made fun of her fans more than her works. Sure, there’s abundant humor in the Harry Potter world, but even when a gag takes you out of that world (hello, “spell-o-tape,” a joke that about 1 in 100 Americans gets), it’s never reduces the Wizarding World to tropes like putting Darth Vader in a Space Mountain rocket.
The irony, of course, is that traditionally it’s been Universal that’s been known for abundant irreverence and sarcasm in its theme park attractions while Disney has properties with much more earnest respect. If there were any doubt that we’re living in a moment when franchises dominate the theme park industry, let’s consider these examples of Star Wars and Harry Potter — franchises so powerful that they made Disney irreverent and Universal take something seriously.