Today, November 24th, marks Shirley Henderson’s 42nd birthday! Shirley played Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films.  She was actually the oldest actor to play a student in the films.

Happy Birthday Shirley!!!!

Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings series (woo ), was recently interviewed by the Guardian. In the interview he talks about not playing the role of Dumbledore and some other things.

I wonder if he has discussed how to play a wizard with his friend Michael Gambon, who does Dumbledore over in the Harry Potter franchise. “Funnily enough, we never have.” He grins.

Who’d win if it came to a ruck? McKellen puffs out his chest. “Gandalf. Of course. People say to me, don’t you wish you’d played Dumbledore? I say no! I played Gandalf! The original. There was a question as to whether I might take over from Richard Harris [Gambon’s predecessor in the Dumbledore role], but seeing as one of the last things he did publicly was say what a dreadful actor he thought I was, it would not have been appropriate for me to take over his part.” He smiles icily. “It would have been unfair.”

Entertainment Weekly has chosen JK Rowling as their Entertainer of the Year for 2007! Read about it starting HERE and continuing to the last page (4 pages all together)!

So we’ll keep it simple: J.K. Rowling is our Entertainer of the Year because she did something very, very hard, and she did it very, very well, thus pleasing hundreds of millions of children and adults very, very much.

And now, perhaps we’ll leave her alone for a while. Rowling has said that she’s working on a couple of new ideas — one for children, one not. ”The idea of just wandering off to a café with a notebook and writing and seeing where that takes me for a while is just bliss,” she remarked in July. So if you happen to be walking by a coffeehouse in Scotland anytime soon and you spot a 42-year-old blond woman with a pen, a pad, and an expression of intense concentration, do her a favor and don’t interrupt her. She knows what she’s doing. All is well.

Fans in the UK can win a walk on role in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!

Warner Home Video and Microsoft are offering one UK fan the chance to win a walk-on role in the next movie, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince.

The competition starts tomorrow, November 23rd, and will have Harry Potter And the Order of the Phoenix related questions, with a new question being posted each week until December 20th.

We’re so excited about being able to offer this amazing prize to one Harry Potter fan… This really will make someone’s Christmas dreams come true!

When Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix opened this year our dedicated movie site was packed full of Potter news, reviews, games and photos and was visited by thousands and thousands of fans from across the country.

Needless to say, we expect this to be a highly contested competition.

You can enter the competition here thanks to MSN UK

Thanks to HPANA we know there is a new cast member for Harry Potter.

A UK newspaper has announced that Ashley Whitehead, a 12 year-old actor, has been cast in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Ashley is in the Showbiz Academy, a talent agency in the UK that specializes in teaching young and aspiring actors, singers, and dancers. We do not know what character he will be playing yet.

You can read a scan of the newspaper article here.

CosmoGirl has a page called 2007: Rewind in their Dec/Jan issue and Harry Potter is on the page!  See the scans HERE!

LONG LIVE HARRY POTTER

When J.K. Rowling dropped a hint last year that two major characters would die in the final installment, the big question sweeping the globe was: Will Harry die? Potterheads worldwide lined up at midnight on July 21 to find out – and were relieved that the “boy who lived” does indeed live on. (That’s no spoiler – if youre a Potter fan at all, you definatley already knew that!)

In that same section Daniel Radcliffe was also mentioned:

SWEETIES TURN SEXY

Harry Potter’s cloak really was invisible when star Daniel Radcliffe went nude in a London stage production of Equus.

Nothing in Teen Vogue or Seventeen this month though.