There are a lot of reasons I hope Farrah Fawcett won’t die. Really, I hope most people won’t die. And Farrah seems like a nice, good person who’s had a horrible battle with cancer. No one deserves to go through that. One of the many bad parts of being a sick celebrity is not only that people are all up in your personal medical business, but there’s also a quiet, unofficial countdown to your death.

We’ve been incredibly careful here not to talk about any rumors regarding Fawcett’s health unless it’s been confirmed by someone official – same thing goes for Patrick Swayze. And while everyone has their own way of handling death, a particularly tacky and offensive little quip from Melissa Joan Hart was just repeated by Page Six.

MELISSA Joan Hart should learn to keep her voice down. The former “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” star was overheard off-camera at KTLA in Los Angeles on Friday saying how she’d been hoping last week that cancer-stricken Farrah Fawcett wouldn’t die — and thus bump Hart off the cover of People magazine. Hart is on this week’s cover posing in a bikini after recently losing 42 pounds. Hart appeared on KTLA to promote her new ice cream and candy store.

[From Page Six]

While Page Six isn’t always 100% reliable, I tend to believe this story because why make up something like this? Especially about Melissa Joan Hart? That’s about as random C list as you can get.

What a tacky, crass thing to say. You could easily argue that Melissa said it as a joke, since the Post doesn’t give any context in that regard. But even if she was, it isn’t funny. Even dark humor has a time and place, and right now isn’t the time. I can’t figure out which is worse – if Hart said this as a joke, which would be insanely insensitive – or if she really meant it, which would be out-of-this-world mean spirited. Either way, whatever good press she got for her weight loss and People cover is going to rapidly dry up.

Photos of Farrah out and about in L.A. in February. Images thanks to Fame Pictures .

You don’t really hear much about former teen star Melissa Joan Hart of “Sabrina The Teenage Witch.” She had a couple of sons with musician Mark Wilkerson and did some made for TV movies like “My Fake Fiance,: an ABC family special about a woman hiring a guy (Joey Lawrence) to pretend to be her fiance. (I never saw it, but I’m sure they end up falling in love in the end.)

Hart shows up occasionally at events and in paparazzi photos but she’s not in high demand. That’s why it seems odd to see her in a bikini on the cover of People. People has been focusing on weight loss and gain on their cover lately, and these type of issue seem to sell well for them. The 33 year-old mother of two lost 42 pounds and that’s no small feat. Her body looks great and she kind of radiates that “friendly mom” vibe. I know this is awful to say, but I can’t help but snark about her hair! She’s on the cover of People – what is going on with that half-crimped flyaway style? Those short side bangs are awful. Anyway, our friends at CoverAwards said they didn’t even recognize Hart at first:

People Magazine has a few things going in its favor this week.

First, it’s People Magazine. You’d be surprised how many people simply buy this magazine because its logo is plastered on the top of the issue. (How long that lasts? That’s a good question.)

The next big win for People is that it convinced yet another star to pose in a bikini after losing weight.

Plus, a diet cover is always a stable seller on the newsstand – and People lucks out this week as it is the ONLY diet cover in the category.

So what’s wrong with this cover?

At first glance, I had no idea who this was on the cover – and that’s BAD!

Melissa Joan Hart is by no means an A-Lister and I really hadn’t heard too much about her weight gain before seeing this cover.

Bottom Line: Melissa Joan Hart is no Valerie Bertinelli

[From Cover Awards]

Cover Awards also posted this past People cover of Valerie Bertinelli. Bertinelli is posed sexier and also offers the angle of losing weight post-40. Still, Hart can be commended for her accomplishment while she’s running around after two boys. A lot of us can relate to weight gain with kids and this cover seems to offer hope for the rest of us moms still struggling with the pounds. People’s stylist should be ashamed, though. Her hair is a mess. (I can be a hair snob so I asked MSat about it – she also thinks Hart’s hair needs work.)

“Sabrina the Teenage Witch” star Melissa Joan Hart has delivered a healthy baby boy. The actress, who already has one son, Mason, 2, has named the baby Braydon Hart Wilkerson.

And a baby makes four for Melissa Joan Hart and Mark Wilkerson.

The actress and her rock star husband welcomed their second child together on March 12, a boy named Braydon Hart Wilkerson.

Their son Mason is two years old.

Although the couple had planned on having another baby, Braydon came a little sooner than imagined and the 31-year-old former Sabrina, the Teenage Witch star admitted she wasn’t completely excited when she learned of her pregnancy at first.

“I was thinking I won’t get to snowboard this season, and now I gotta fight the weight thing again, the indigestion and the feet hurting,” she said.

But Mark, 30, who’s the lead singer of Course of Nature, made things a lot easier for Melissa.

“When it comes to the baby, he does everything from the cooking to bath time, to putting Mason down for nap,” she told OK!. “That is so priceless to me.”

[From OK! Magazine]

Good for Melissa for being honest about her mixed feelings regarding the pregnancy. I think a lot of women go through this at first. She did a nude photo shoot while pregnant back in December, and she looked pretty good. But towards the end of the pregnancy, Melissa looked a little miserable, as is typical late in the third trimester. Melissa does seem like a good mom with her older boy, and it sounds like she gets a lot of help from her husband…whom I’ve never heard of. I think calling him a “rock star” is a bit over the top, but nonetheless, congratulations to them both.

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.