Last night J.K. Rowling held a fundraising event for her charity, Lumos, at the Harry Potter Studio Tour where a bunch of Harry Potter cast and crew attended. Emma Watson, Evanna Lynch, Warwick Davis, Alan Rickman and David Heyman all showed their support for the author.  Photos of the stars at the event may be viewed over at SnithSeeker.  Sky News interviewed Rowling at the event where she discussed the charity as well as the success of Harry Potter.

“As far back as 2000 I knew I would never top Harry Potter. I knew that before the series ended. If you’ve had the kind of success that you never expected you can think ‘oh no, how dreadful I’ll never ever top that’, or you can say ‘how incredibly marvellous and liberating that I made money beyond my wildest dreams and that I can affect issues I really care about’.”

Of the charity’s mission, which states “No child should be denied a family life because they are poor, disabled or from an ethnic minority. Lumos works to support the 8 million children in institutions worldwide to regain their right to a family life and to end the institutionalisation of children,” Rowling says:

“There are eight million children globally being raised in institutions and everything we know about institutionalisation tells us it is harmful to children’s physical and mental health. Drug taking and suicide are more likely and a lot of these children may be trafficked or end up in the sex trade. To take a child from their family we know must be damaging, it’s the worst thing you can do to a child.”

She added: “These themes are in the Harry Potter books. Voldemort […] was himself raised in an institution so, spookily, it was something I was very much thinking about. But we’ve started where the situation is particularly acute in Eastern Europe where there has been a cultural acceptance of institutionalisation that thankfully in the UK we’ve really overcome.”

Warwick Davis will be joining the cast of Spamalot from 23rd September. He started his career playing the role of Wicket the Ewok in Star Wars VI: Return of The Jedi and went on to star in the fantasy feature film Willow. He then appeared in The Chronicles of Narnia, Labyrinth and the Leprechaun films, before returning to Star Wars in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Further success followed when he starred in the Harry Potter films, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and in Jack the Giant Slayer (though not as the Giant, obviously). His TV credits include the BBC shows Extras, Merlin, Doctor Who and Life’s Too Short.

Warwick Davis said; “I’m delighted to be making my West End debut at the Playhouse Theatre. I’ve been in hit TV shows and blockbuster Hollywood movies, but you are never really taken seriously as an actor until you’ve done a play. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to play Patsy in Spamalot.”

To book your tickets:

Box Office: 0844 871 7631
Click HERE to book on-line

Prices: £59.50, £49.50, £38.50, £30, £20, £25
King Arthur Seats £75

Since we will not have our actual photos and videos up for a few days I thought I would let everyone know what is coming from the Grand Opening of Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter. Myself, Feltbeats and Harry Potters Page worked together to get photos and interviews with the stars.

We interviewed Tom Felton, Rupert Grint, Bonnie Wright, Harry Melling, Nick Moran, David Bradley, Nick Dudman, Mike Newell, Director David Yates, and Producers David Heyman, and David Barron. We also have footage of Alfonso Cuaron, Evanna Lynch, George Harris and a few others. In addition to interviews we also spotted David Thewlis, Natalia Tena, Warwick Davis, Alfie Enoch, Helen McCrory, Chris Rankin.

Just as a teaser we asked Harry Melling (Dudley) what it was like moving from playing a muggle in Harry Potter to a wizard in the last series of Merlin!

Photos and video will be up as soon as possible when I get home! We will also have a video from the press conference held last Thursday when WB sends it over! So make sure to stay tuned!

Today Warwick Davis has revealed via his Twitter and a photo that there will be Butterbeer available at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter. So now fans in Europe will be able to experience the wizarding drink that was previously only available at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, and it will be in Universal Hollywood once that opens (which won’t be for a few years).

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter opens on March 31st to give you all the news on the opening! View all past news on the tour at this link.

The Evening Standard British film awards were held last night and a bunch of Potter stars were in attendance including Bonnie Wright, James Phelps, Clemence Poesey (Fleur), Jamie Campbell Bower (Young Grindlewald), Toby Jones (Dobby), Warwick Davis, and John Hurt. Photos of the stars at the event may be seen here.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II won the Blockbuster of the Year, People’s Choice Award. Additionally, John Hurt, who plays Ollivander in the Potter films, was honored with the Alexander Walker Special Award for his contribution to film.

On Thursday December 1st Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick and Griphook), James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley), Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown), and Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley) made a special appearance at The Harry Potter Shop in Harrods and harrods.com interviewed them exclusively at the event.  Harrods have also sent us a few photos from the event which you may view in the gallery!

What is the funniest anecdote you have from the Harry Potter films?

Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown): I remember filming a scene where Rupert and I had to run up a stairwell and then we had to stop and kiss and then keep running. But there’s no wall so there was just a guy standing on the floor holding his arms out just in case one of us fell. I remember thinking ‘this is Rupert Grint, surely if he falls this is going to be bad! I’m okay if I fall!’

If you could play another character in the film, who would you play?

MW: It changes all the time but I quite fancy the idea of being Bellatrix. Because she obviously just had great fun doing it, didn’t she? Caffeine mad that woman!

OP: I’d quite like to play someone like Krum in The Goblet of Fire.

MW: He’s just so cool, isn’t he? How can someone be that cool?

JC: Dolores Umbridge, definitely. Just so wacky, with that cats and the kitsch costumes.

JP: Either George or Dobby.

WD: Professor Snape – “you have your mother’s eyes”.

Did you all have to read the books before you made the films?

MW: I confess, before I was in the film I read the books avidly, after I was in the film, they became homework.

JP: It did help though because you knew that even if a certain story wasn’t in the film, you could still know where you got to. You could play into it and act accordingly. I think they said that if they were to make the first book, The Philosopher’s Stone, into a script it would be seven hours long. So who knows how many days the last one would have been.

MW: The eight films are 19 hours and 30 minutes in total.

WD: There’ll be fans doing marathons like that.

Thanks to Harrods for emailing with the news!