Rupert Grint, Danielle Radcliffe and Emma Watson, the young stars of the wildly popular Harry Potter movies, were immortalized in a foot, hand and wandprint ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood yesterday.

In a recent interview in Details magazine, Radcliffe said he has no desire to date an actress and that he thinks that displays of immense wealth are obnoxious:

“I think it would be very hard to go out with an actress, because they’re mad. Some actresses are just insane. I’ve never worked with a nasty actress—they’re all absolutely delightful. But completely barking…”

“Even when I was very young and before any of this had happened, I remember being repulsed by ostentatious displays of wealth,” he says.

“People who have car collections—I never understood that. I always thought that was unnecessary. It’s not beautiful, it’s not creative. It’s just showing how much money you’ve got.”

[From Details.com]

In the interview, Radcliffe says he had a “brief heart attack” when he heard via text message that JK Rowling was planning an eighth Harry Potter book. He was relieved to find that she just planned to contribute to a charity book on magic. He will receive $50 million for playing Harry in the screen versions of the next two installments of the series, but fears being typecast and wants to step away from the role at some point.

The fear of being Harry Potter forever might explain his naked turn on the stage as a mentally disturbed stable hand in Equus. It might also provide motivation for the rather odd pictures of Radcliffe that accompanied his Details interview, in which he wears in a leather vest and blue contact lenses. The Daily Mail published this picture of his costar Emma Watson reacting as she saw the pictures for the first time. It’s going to take a lot more than a wardrobe change - or disrobing - for Radcliffe to escape Harry. With that kind of cash attached to the role, he may as well accept his fate. And next weekend we will learn what that fate will be.

Thanks to WENN for these pictures.

Harry Potter mania is about to hit. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is out in US theaters on Wednesday while the last book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is out next Saturday, July 21.

Advance reviews for the film are overwhelmingly positive, with a current 87% aggregate critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Several critics have written that it’s the best Harry Potter film yet, and that it’s darker and scarier than its four predecessors.

As for the book, I have to admit I’ve read all the other Harry Potter titles and although I won’t be waiting in line for it I’ll be sure to snatch up a copy within a few days of its release.

Diehard Harry Potter fans are planning a media blackout next weekend so that the end is not spoiled for them. JK Rowling has said that two characters will die at the end of the series, and a lot of speculation has surrounded her claims. She said she was crying while writing the end of the book and that she was devastated to end it. Fans want to know who dies, but not until they get a chance to read the whole book first.

Now, as the July 21 release of the seventh and final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, approaches, fans who have waited the better part of a decade to find out the ultimate fate of Harry, his friends and his nemeses are taking no chances.

But how far do they have to go? Must they close their eyes, cover their ears and scream, “LALALALA?”

Pretty much. In fact, if you want to get in touch with a rabid Harry Potter fan on the weekend of July 21-22, you might be out of luck.

Readers are planning media blackouts — no computers, no cell phones, no TV, no radio. And if that’s not enough, they’re threatening to get physical.

“I’ll beat the crap out of the person who spoils it for me,” Pritthish Chakraborty wrote in an e-mail. Chakraborty, 17, who runs a fan Web site, Harry Potter Beyond, in his native Bangladesh, was spoiled two years ago when a “friend” sent a picture message to his cell phone of the page describing Dumbledore’s death.

Many fans don’t want to give up the excitement and camaraderie of a midnight release party, but they know they’re putting themselves at risk.

“We advise people — I know this is terrible — to bring headphones to the book release and put them on as they leave the store so they’re not subject to the idiot across the street screaming the end to them,” said Melissa Anelli, a webmaster of the Leaky Cauldron, a prominent Harry Potter fan site.

[AP Article from the Houston Chronicle thanks to Viv for e-mailing it.]

In 2005 some fans were upset to have the end of the last book yelled out at them as they left bookstores early in the morning of the release.

I’m the kind of person that can’t resist looking up spoilers, but that wouldn’t keep me from reading the book as all the fun is getting there.

Here are pictures from the LA premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix including Daniel Radcliffe. Emma Watson with brother, Alex, Rupert Grint, Imelda Staunton, Melissa Joan Hart, and Masi Oka. Rupert Grint is wearing a cute shirt with a picture of Harry on it.

Thanks to PRPhotos for these pics.

Son of a gun! Daniel Radcliffe wants Harry Potter to die!

I was looking for Harry Potter news on the internet to find out more about the upcoming movie and book and… okay that’s a complete lie, I was looking for more softcore of him. Instead I found this article in the Ireland news.

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe can’t wait to get his hands on JK Rowling’s final book in the fantasy series - and he hopes his character has been killed off.

Rowling has finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and it is due to hit bookstores on July 21.

Radcliffe, who has so far played Potter in four film adaptations and has signed to appear in the final three, wants to say goodbye to the franchise in style, with a dramatic death. He says: “I sort of hope I’ll die in it. I think that’s the only way Jo can end it and I’ve a melodramatic yearning for a death scene.”

Noooo! What the heck?! The book is most definitely going to end in a dramatic manner, but why are you hoping for Harry’s death? I guess I’m acting really prepubescent but I really like the series and I want to see some whup ass on Voldemort– played by Ralph Fiennes… who didn’t need any make up for the character since he’s aging sooo gracefully. Zing!

Anyway haven’t found any more nude shots of Harry, dammit. But yeah, Warner Brothers has their knickers in a knot about it.

“Warner Bros have been building up their publicity machine for Harry’s first - chaste - screen kiss when the next Potter film (Harry Potter And The Order of the Phoenix) comes out in the summer.

“Now our star is out there doing full-frontal sex. We’ve been blown completely out of the water by this,” according to the Daily Mail.

Thanks to People and the Irish News.

Wow, so I was going to read up on the latest Harry Potter news because I am a big fan in a big way and when I google-searched Harry Potter, the first thing that popped up was an article entitled “Dirty Harry.” It was a really interesting interview about the play he’s set to star in with Uncle Vernon Richard Griffiths and other interesting tidbits about his life (read: he’s single).

“I think people are shocked that I’ve had girlfriends, which I have, and tend to think I’m a Peter Pan figure.”

(I would have thought of him more as a Harry Potter figure.)

He seems really level headed and down to earth for a child star, especially now that he’s entering into adulthood. I would really hate to see him go the way of Haley Joel Osmont and Lindsay Lohan.

A lone paparazzo has been hanging around outside the rehearsal room all day. “I have to admire his persistence. But does he imagine I’m going to come out naked? I can see why people want images of so-called celebrities falling out of clubs drunk. But a boy actor leaving rehearsal and being driven home to his parents? I don’t think so.”

I can’t really pretend that it doesn’t creep me out that I’m totally attracted to Daniel because he is really a nice hot piece of jail bait man meat.

He’s really a great actor and I love the HP books and watching it on the big screen is really rewarding (see him 7/13/07 for Order of the Phoenix). I also get a big kick out of his bit on “Extras.”

I really don’t think that he needs to prove himself as an actor in anyway because he really is quite superb but if he is compelled to prove it to me by removing his pants, who am I to judge?

“Equus is an iconic play. The nude scene is part of it. I can’t do it with my pants on. That would be rubbish. We’ve done the scene a couple of times in rehearsal. I had no particular qualms. There’s nothing that would stop me getting my kit off if that’s what the work demands. The key to serious acting is to lose your inhibitions, to become free and fearless.”

Yowza. Thanks 1000 to Metro.co.uk.

17 year-old Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe will break out of his child actor role with a controversial turn on the London stage in the acclaimed play Equus. Radcliffe will portray a stable boy who is pathologically fascinated with horses, and is in therapy with a psychologist who faces his own issues while treating him.

Radcliffe will act out a sex scene and will also appear in the buff on stage, as I’m sure you’ve heard.

Equus premieres at London’s Gielgud Theater on February 27, and also stars Richard Griffiths as the therapist. You may know Griffiths from the Harry Potter movies, where he plays Harry’s mean bumbling uncle, Vernon Dursley.

The fifth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is tentatively due for release in the US on July 13, 2007.

Pictures from Celebrity.Log via Lipstick.