Spoiled Harry a Hero for 'Entitled Generation'

Daniel Radcliffe makes post-Hogwarts debut

(NEWSER) - The boy wizard is back—but this time, he's a 19th-century gentleman. Daniel Radcliffe is generally successful playing a spooked lawyer in The Woman in Black, a throwback haunted house thriller. What the critics are saying:

• The film "makes the most of its old-fashioned virtues," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times . It "isn’t especially scary, but it keeps you on edge, and without the usual vivisectionist imagery." For his part, Radcliffe "has the haunted eyes of the eternal mourner."

She wanted to kill one of the trio 'out of pure spite'

(NEWSER) - Talk about your unforgivable curses. JK Rowling has revealed that she came very close to tossing an Avada Kedavra Ron Weasley’s way somewhere in the middle of the Harry Potter series. “I did seriously consider killing Ron,” Rowling tells Daniel Radcliffe in an interview on the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2 DVD, which recently leaked online, according to the Guardian . More»

Security firm warns of bogus membership accounts being sold

(NEWSER) - Potter fans beware: Cybercriminals are looking to hex users of JK Rowling’s new website, Pottermore, a security firm warns. The site, which offers ebooks and new material, is currently in beta, with limited accessibility—and some hackers are trying to sell early-access accounts for up to $100, the Telegraph reports. Others are offering downloadable accounts via YouTube, often accompanied by fake surveys and other marketing ploys. The downloads aren’t likely to be real accounts, say analysts, and may even be malware. More»

More than a popular book, Potter transformed literature, says critic

(NEWSER) - With the release of the eighth and final movie in the Harry Potter franchise, stories about the famous young wizard may be over, but the series' legacy—both cultural and literary—will live on, writes John Granger in the Washington Post . "[JK] Rowling transformed our idea of what stories can do," he writes, thanks to the sheer scale of her books' success—her seven books sold 500 million copies in 67 languages (not to mention a few movies you might have heard of). More»

Agent who discovered author weighs legal action

(NEWSER) - Call it Harry Potter and the Spurned Literary Agent of Doom. Christopher Little, the agent who discovered JK Rowling, pulling her first Harry Potter book from the slush pile and turning her into one of the world's most successful authors, is considering suing Rowling over her newest magical venture, the online site Pottermore . It seems that Rowling recently fired Little, hiring Little's former business partner Neil Blair instead, reports the Independent . More»