Fan Fare
Entertainment behind the scenes
from Photographers Blog:
When Harry met Hermione…
Last night the great Behemoth that is the Harry Potter franchise machine rolled into town for the world premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2": the eighth and final film installment from JK Rowling’s phenomenally successful book series about the adventures of a boy wizard.
A swathe of central London seemed to be shut down for the launch. Thousands of young fans had camped out for up to five days in Trafalgar Square waiting to glimpse their screen idols, and a red carpet measuring some 1.2 kilometers (0.7 miles) – reputedly the longest in the world - underlining the scale of this publicity spectacular. Despite having shot more film premieres than eaten bags of popcorn at the cinema, I still have to admit to being wowed by the scale and choreography of this event.
The three leading cast members have become instantly recognizable faces and multi-millionaires but remain, they say, "like siblings" since being selected as unknown child actors for the first film "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone" some ten years ago.
But undoubtedly, after photographing the comings and goings of the premieres and junkets from "The Goblet of Fire" to the "Deathly Hallows – Part 2," it’s Emma Watson who plays Hermione, (rather than Rupert Grint or even Daniel Radcliffe) who in front of crowds, interviewers, television cameras and us photographers has consistently carried a presence, and a certain "star quality" that has pervaded ever since the first Potter all that time ago…
‘Harry Potter’ sales fail to live up to opening weekend hype
Remember the breathless reports concerning the record-breaking opening of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” in July?
The sixth movie in the fantasy franchise surpassed “Spider-Man 3″ to set new worldwide ($394 million) and foreign ($236 million) records, and its North American tally ($158.0 million) was $18 million higher than that of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” two years earlier. (Note: Data are slightly different in the link as they were estimates, and the final figures were issued the following day.)
Emma Watson becomes an Ivy League “Brunonian”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” star Emma Watson has graduated from her on-screen tutelage at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to the Ivy League, and in particular to Brown University.
The 19-year-old Watson told Paste magazine that she would be attending Brown in Providence, Rhode Island, confirming rumors to that effect that have been circulating recently.
“Harry Potter” works like magic at box offices
With the latest Harry Potter movie opening across North America tomorrow, “The Half-Blood Prince” is already — and perhaps expectedly — among the hottest-selling movie tickets of the year.
From Alaska to Florida, 2,500 midnight showtimes of “The Half-Blood Prince” have sold out, according to Fandango, a top movie and entertainment online ticket seller.
“Harry Potter’s” most anticipated kiss: Not with Harry!
The “Harry Potter” series is all grown up, that is if you count an on-screen lip lock as a sign of maturity. In one of the most talked about moments in an upcoming “Harry 
Potter” movie, Emma Watson, who plays witchcraft ingenue Hermione Granger, kisses Rupert Grint, the actor who plays Harry Potter’s friend Ron Weasley.
It does not come in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which opens in the U.S. and many other countries on July 15, but in the next installment in the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which is split into two movies.
