Matthew Lewis was Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies!

Swimwear Issue out to download now with Matthew Lewis & Pietro Boselli
Posted by Attitude Magazine on Friday, May 22, 2015

A Bit of Fur to Keep You Warm!

JK Rowling Confirms Hogwarts Is A Great Place For Gay Wizards

We love hearing stories of high schools becoming safer spaces for LGBT students to openly express themselves, but what about the witches and wizards?! Inquiring minds want to know.

Well over at the world’s most famous wizarding secondary school, a boy will never be made to feel ashamed for having pictures of Cedric Diggory plastered to his potions book.

JK Rowling was recently asked on Twitter:

“Do you think there are a lot of LGBT students in modern age Hogwarts? It’s safe to assume that Hogwarts had a variety of people and I like to think it’s a safe place for LGBT students”

Here’s the tweet:

And here’s how Rowling replied:

.@claraoswiin But of course. pic.twitter.com/Galu47MT4X
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 16, 2014

Seven hints suggesting J.K. Rowling will drop something on the seventh anniversary of ‘Deathly Hallows’

Can you believe this month marks seven years since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published?

The final book in the Harry Potter series was released on July 21, 2007. This is an important anniversary in the fandom that cannot be passed over without any fanfare.

Call us abnormally hopeful, but it seems like Rowling has been hinting at something in recent weeks. Let’s review:

1) J.K. Rowling is busy writing

Sure, she’s probably always busy writing, but Rowling felt the need to tell us about a particular writing session on Twitter in mid-June:

It's been a looooong writing day and it's time to give my fingers a rest. No writer ever had more wonderful fans. Thank you X
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 18, 2014

It could be another Cormoran Strike novel, it could be for the Fantastic Beasts trilogy, or it could be for the seventh anniversary of Deathly Hallows. Why does she thank the fans in this tweet if it wasn’t some sort of milestone moment?

2) The ‘Potter’ fandom is as hot as ever

Fred is not dead! Universal’s Diagon Alley offers the Weasley twin a reprieve

The Diagon Alley expansion at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter boasts a working Hogwarts Express which will take you to and from Hogsmeade. Today, new footage from the journey has been released.

In a 2-minute video posted to Universal Orlando’s YouTube channel, the theme park pulls the cloak off what the journey will be like when you ride the Hogwarts Express between Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, the two lands at Islands of Adventure and Universal Orlando respectively.

The video offers on-board ride footage that you’ll be viewing through your cabin window. In addition to getting a wave goodbye from Hagrid, you’ll also see George and Fred flying on brooms outside of Hogwarts.

Yes, Fred has been brought back from the dead after his death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We remember when many fans thought that J.K. Rowling wouldn’t kill Harry in the final book because the atmosphere in the theme park would be sad. It looks like, if Rowling did kill Harry, they would’ve given him a reprieve in the park for tourism’s sake.

Fred also appears in the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride at Hogsmeade, which suggests that the setting for all of these attractions is sometime during the Potter book series prior to Deathly Hallows.

Two other interesting notes: 1) Universal’s Thierry Coup says within the video that you may actually see Harry, Ron, and Hermione on board the train. We’re wondering if you’ll see them out the window like you do Hagrid and the Weasley twins, or if they’re appearing in a different way. 2) Universal says you’ll go through the brick wall just like Harry does at Platform 9 3/4. How will that be? A smoke screen?

This week has been a busy one for the expansion: A contest with the Today Show wasannounced (it begins this upcoming Monday), and Universal unveiled the animatronic goblins within Gringotts Bank.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley land is expected to open this summer.

A Harry Potter Christmas

Little kid dressed as Harry Potter tries to hop a real train to Hogwarts

YouTube channel Improv Everywhere sent a little kid dressed as Harry Potter to New York’s Penn Station to see if he could catch a train to Hogwarts.

The child – who remarkably stays in character while several onlookers try and figure out what’s up with him – walks around Manhattan’s giant transportation hub with an owl and his luggage in tow. Hidden cameras captured every encounter between “Harry” and the unsuspecting victims, and what resulted was this great viral video. 

A couple of people caught on to the act. Most notable was a tall redhead who introduces himself as Ron Weasley. There was also a woman who told the kid to “run really hard at the pillar” to get through to Platform 9 3/4.

We’re actually surprised more people did not recognize the character that the kid was portraying. The Harry Potter film series is one of the most iconic franchises of all time and has been at the forefront of popular culture over the past two decades. 

On the other hand, a town like New York has so much culture that we have to remember these people largely operate outside of the fandom/entertainment world.

Improv Everywhere’s “Movie in Real Life” series brings iconic moments in film to the real world. This particular video obviously parodies Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when Harry makes his first journey to Hogwarts and needs a little help from the Weasley family.

JK Rowling gifts model of Dobby the house elf to Scots hotel as thank you for pleasant stay

THE Harry Potter author, who stayed at the Marcliffe near Aberdeen for several months to be near her ill father-in-law, was so impressed by staff that she sent Dobby to live there.

Dobby

JK ROWLING has given staff at a Scots hotel an unusual thank you present – the Harry Potter film model of Dobby the house elf.

The millionaire author spent several months at the Marcliffe at Pitfodels near Aberdeen while her father-in-law was in hospital in the city.

And she was so impressed with the way the staff looked after them that she’s sent Dobby to stay with them. He’s now living in a glass case at the hotel.

Dobby had to slave away in the kitchens at Hogwarts but Marcliffe owner Stewart Spence says he’s now happily retired.

And when the hotel closes its doors next November – it’s due to be turned into offices – Dobby will flit to the Tivoli Theatre in Aberdeen, where Stuart sits on the board.

Priceless!

J.K. Rowling released new crime book under pseudonym

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series and The Casual Vacancy has written a new crime novel, The Cuckoo's Calling. Except this time, there won't be any long months of waiting or midnight release parties that her readers have become accustomed to; the book has been released for nearly three months under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

The 450-page book is described as a "classic crime novel." The fact that Galbraith shared the same publisher and editor as Rowling started as the tip-off to the reveal. Prior to news being released, the book had only sold approximately 1500 copies, but received high acclaim from critics and readers.

The Telegraph reported that Rowling gave a statement when approached this weekend.

"I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer," Rowling said, "because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name."

Here's the synopsis of the book:

A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. 

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it as a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction and delusion known to man. 

You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. you may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.

The 'About the Author' section says of Robert Galbraith:

After several years with the Royal Military Police, Robert Galbraith was attached to the SIB (Special Investigative Branch), the plain-clothes branch of the RMP. He left the military in 2003 and has been working since then in the civilian security industry. The idea for Cormoran Strike grew directly out of his own experiences and those of his military friends who returned to the civilian world. 'Robert Galbraith' is a pseudonym.

In 2007, there was a rumor that Rowling was writing a crime novel that was denied and said to be a joke.

Before news broke, there was only 20 reviews of the book on Amazon. Interestingly, one recent reviewer on Amazon said:

This book is so well written that I suspect that some years down the road we will hear the author's name is pseudonym of some famous writer.

You can purchase the book from Amazon in hardcover, paperback and Kindle. The book currently ranks #98,424 in Amazon's Best Sellers Rank, but if the author truly is Rowling, we can except that number to skyrocket.

Harry Potter Themed T-shirts!