The Harry Potter books and movies are all wrapped up, Harry himself is off having groupie sex, and many of the kids who grew up reading the series as it came out are now adults. So if you are like us and think its about time for author J.K. Rowling to write something more (and maybe more grown-up) we've got good news for you! more ›

Daniel Radcliffe is letting it all out there today, guys. First up, the NY Post quotes the actor as saying, "I don't think the Oscars like commercial films, or kids' films, unless they're directed by Martin Scorsese. I was watching Hugo the other day and going, 'Why is this nominated and we're not?' I was slightly miffed." more ›

The autumn air is sneaking its way in, which means school has started up and the Quidditch World Cup is coming back to New York City. This November 12th and 13th marks the fifth annual event, which will take place on Randall's Island (last year, it was held in Dewitt Clinton Park in Manhattan). The space allows for ten fields, upon which 100 teams will duke it out (about 2,000 participants total)... as of now, they all get bonus points for using Arcade Fire to soundtrack their preview video: more ›

Harry Potter and company are in hot water today over a lawsuit filed by a New York-based typeface company who claim they own the right to a very wizardly-looking font used in Potter paraphernalia. more ›

A federal judge in New York has officially dismissed a lawsuit against author J.K. Rowling by Adrian Jacobs, who claims the fourth "Harry Potter" book is a ripoff of his series, "Willy the Wizard." Jacobs claims themes like Wizard tournaments, Wizard chess, and the central character of an empowered Wizard child were all his inventions in 1987, but the judge sided with Rowling, who said she had never heard of the series. Scholastic publishers said that they "will continue to vigorously defend any such frivolous claims challenging the originality of Harry Potter and the brilliant imagination of its author." Now, can we all please focus our litigatory rage at "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer? Just because? more ›

Is something wicked going on at the Union Square subway station? The Daily News has a photo of a new train, the 9-and-three-quarters, which is the name of the platform Harry Potter and his fellow witches and wizards must find in order to take the train to Hogwarts. Unfortunately, the only way to get there is to charge head-first into the wall in between platforms 9 and 10 at King's Cross Station in London. Countdown until some Four Loko'd teen attempts the same while waiting for the L? more ›

As they've done pretty much every other time anything having to do with Harry Potter has been released, New Yorkers are spending all weekend freaking out over the new movie. But it's worth it this time; this movie is so good it can turn even the most curmudgeonly muggle into a fan! One 20-year-old dressed as Potter's godfather, Sirius Black, for the occasion [too bad he (SPOILER ALERT) died in the fifth book]. He told the WSJ, "We’re the Harry Potter generation, so this is a momentous thing." more ›

He Who Must Not Be Named—aka Lord Voldemort—and a bunch of Death Eaters were at Grand Central on Halloween, showing how angry and fed up they were with their commutes. Imagine how much worse it would have been if they were at Penn Station! more ›

Yesterday, even though Bronx Science High School was playing on NYC turf, it lost 50-30 to Lenox High School from Lenox, Mass in a Quidditch game. The magical sport, invented by author J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series, is really supposed to be played on flying brooms high above the ground, but Muggle Quidditch has had to make a few concessions. Players must keep a broom between their legs at all times, and instead of a golden, winged ball, the "snitch" is a tennis ball in a sock. Intercollegiate Quidditch Association commissioner Alex Benepe (and son of NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe) told 1010WINS, "This version of the game is the best it could possibly work in real life, short of flying brooms." more ›

Glenn Beck needs to get his house in order. Only a day after the Fox News Channel host identified President Barack Obama as a white people-hating racist who doesn't not like white people (got that?), he confesses in a YouTube video promoting his latest book that his daughter hopes to attend that august institution of radical Islam and communism, Columbia University. Admits Beck in the video: "My middle daughter, she wants to go to Columbia. Do you have any idea the price of Columbia? Please, buy the book! Buy two! Buy three!" And it gets worse—not only does Beck's daughter want to matriculate at the same school that launched arch-superliberals like Eric Foner, Eric Holder, and Barack Obama, she is also a devoted follower of pagan lit! Says Beck: "My daughter is a huge reader—Harry Potter changed her life." So let this be a lesson to all you parents out there: letting your children read books about godless, spell-casting teen wizards will convert them into snobbish intellectuals with effete Ivy League aspirations. It's almost enough to make you cry. FWIW, one notable Republican's daughter attended Columbia—gay marriage-supporting Meghan McCain. more ›

Click on the film stills above for more details and reviews on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include 500 Days of Summer, Homecoming, Death in Love, Off Jackson Avenue, Somers Town, A Woman in Berlin, The Way We Get By, Died Young, Stayed Pretty, In a Lonely Place, Flesh Gordon, The Blair Witch Project , and A Clockwork Orange. more ›

Suggestions that Harry Potter actress Emma Watson might attend Columbia University in the fall sent a collective shiver through the campus' online community today. Columbia alumnus-founded gossip blog JustJared.com posted a piece shortly before noon speculating that an entry in the school's online phone directory might belong to the 19-year-old starlet, who had toured the college last October. An hour later, Columbia's student-run Bwog picked up the story and set off a frenzy among the students. Comments on the site and Facebook statuses quickly popped up to rejoice in the news—"Emma Watson at Columbia??? Columbia - 19078096 Other Ivies - 0"—which only got worse as other gossip sites began re-posting JustJared's scoop. Their bubbles may be bursting, though, as it seems the directory entry may actually match a different Ms. Watson, and the actress herself has yet to confirm. But fortunately for Columbians, even if their hopes for NYU-style undergraduate celebrity fail to apparate, they can always return to their old pastime: stalking James Franco in the university library. more ›

"Now your eyes are feeling heavy. You want to sleep, don't you?" That's the question posed by child psychiatrist Martin Dysart (Richard Griffiths) as he hypnotizes his 17-year-old patient Alan Strang (Daniel Radcliffe) in the current revival of Peter Shaffer's 1973 play Equus. But in that moment I could have sworn Griffiths was speaking directly to me. It was also the only point where I felt that any of the performers in this tedious, overwrought production were actually in the same room as the audience. more ›

J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. have won their copyright infringement lawsuit against a web site operator who intended to publish an encyclopedia based on the author's multi-billion dollar fantasy franchise. Today a judge agreed with Rowling's argument that Steven Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon would amount to "the wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work." Vander Ark and his publisher had contended that the lexicon was a fair use allowable by law for reference books. But today's ruling found that it "appropriates too much of Rowling's creative work for its purposes as a reference guide." The judge also awarded Rowling and Warner Bros. $6,750 in statutory damages, which should finally permit the struggling author to enjoy a modest retirement. more ›

While a judge deliberates on whether Harry Potter superfan Steve Vander Ark and his publisher violated copyright law by producing a lexicon based on J.K. Rowling’s hit novels, the 50-year-old librarian has simply been trying to keep it together. This week he told the New Yorker all about the trauma caused by the recent trial, during which he broke down in tears. more ›

As the Harry Potter copyright infringement trial drew to a close yesterday, the judge urged the two parties to use their “imaginations” and agree to a settlement. Judge Robert Patterson professed a love of literature and invoked Charles Dickens’s Bleak House as cautionary tale, “A very sad story. Litigation isn’t always the best way to solve things." more ›

The 50-year-old librarian on the receiving end of a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the Harry Potter author was driven to tears yesterday while testifying in a Manhattan courtroom. Steven Jan Vander Ark (pictured), a former Star Trek fan from Michigan whose exhaustive website The Harry Potter Lexicon would be published in a print version by RDR Books, told lawyers that he was devastated by the lashing he’s received from J.K. Rowling and "the Harry Potter community... This has been an important part of my life for the last nine years or so.” more ›

As detailed yesterday, the proposed book is essentially a print version of a Harry Potter fan site that Rowling previously awarded for excellence in web fandom (something she now “regrets bitterly”). But the website is free, and the billionaire author (along with Warner Brothers Entertainment) claims that a print version, if sold, would amount to “the wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work.” Rowling went on to dismiss the book as “sloppy, lazy, dire and atrocious,” which is ironic because Rowling once confessed that she consulted the Lexicon website to check facts while writing the Potter series. more ›

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is testifying in a Manhattan federal courtroom this morning against a small publisher trying to release an encyclopedia based on her work. In the past, Rowling has been supportive of the fan-based websites that explore her novels, but when RDR Books announced last fall that it would be publishing a book version of the The Harry Potter Lexicon website, Rowling filed a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement. more ›

At 8:30PM (following a half-hour red carpet special), the 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will begin, finally putting an end to the "There Will Be Oscar" or "Oscar Country for Old Men" type headlines. more ›