Editor: Joy Press
Updated: Today
Topic:

Harry Potter

Wednesday, Jul 12, 2000 08:45 PDT

Hot set! Banderas and Jolie get horizontal

But Melanie says she and Antonio are burnin' up the sheets every day; will Hollywood make Harry Potter an American? Plus: Yuck! Jeweler claims Michael Jackson gooped-up $1.45 million wristwatch!
By Amy Reiter

If Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie did do a little extracurricular dancing in the dark during the shooting of their latest film, "Original Sin," as was rumored, they deserve to win Oscars for sexual endurance.

It seems that Banderas and his loving wife, Melanie Griffith, are looking to give Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton a run for their money in the frequent lovemaking department.

"We just do it naturally," Griffith, who's taking fertility drugs to help her conceive another child, recently told Ladies Home Journal. "A lot."

Consequently, she's not too concerned about Banderas straying. "I trust my husband and I believe him when he says he loves me and he's faithful to me," said Griffith. "[Jolie] may get him in bed for eight hours on a movie set, but I get him in bed every day."

They don't call her the working girl for nothin'.

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The mummy's curse

"He didn't recognize me. I was going, 'Look, it's Mummy, come to Mummy.' But he just kept staring at me."

-- Posh Spice on her baby son's reaction to her new look, which includes lengthy hair extensions and red plastic eyelashes.

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Harry Potter and the goblet of greed

Hogwarts in Hollywood?

MSNBC reports that director Chris Columbus is intent on having an American actor play Harry Potter in the upcoming film adaptation of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." This despite J.K. Rowling's previous insistence that Harry be played by a young Brit -- and the screening of some 40,000 Harry hopefuls from the U.K.

What's more, the site contends, Columbus and Warner Bros., which is producing the film, may Americanize the whole dang thing.

"It's not that Warners is dead set against a British actor or a British location, they just have to face the financial reality that it would probably be a bigger hit in the U.S. if there's an American flavor to the film," a source told MSNBC. "It's something they have to consider."

You knew those damn Hollywood Muggles would mess it up somehow ...

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Oops! They did it again

Right on cue, the publicist for Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake has issued a statement denying a report in the News of the World that the singers were planning to tie the knot.

"Contrary to what has been erroneously reported, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake are neither engaged or married," said Lisa Kasteler. "The story ... is, not surprisingly, completely without merit."

In other words, there are no strings attached.

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Juicy bits

Note to Michael Jackson: If you're going to borrow a $1.45 million diamond watch from a hoity-toity Beverly Hills jeweler and hold onto it for four months while you make up your mind as to whether or not you'd like to buy it, please, for the love of God, wipe it off before you return it. According to a lawsuit filed by David Orgell jewelers, the store agreed to lend Jackson the watch for a few days -- and invoiced him when he didn't return it. When it was finally sent back with a note (and no payment), the suit claims, "The watch had lotion on it, the watch was scratched, it had food particles intertwined on it, it was a gem of a watch but was obviously used."

The Muscles from Brussels has copped a plea. Jean-Claude Van Damme has pled no contest to charges of drunk driving and driving without a license in exchange for three years probation and a $1,200 fine. He intends to appeal, though, accusing the cops of "gross misconduct" for letting him get into his car and crash it when they suspected he was drunk. According to Van Damme's lawyer, the police were responsible because "they still allowed him to get into his vehicle and drive his car, because they wanted to make an arrest for driving under the influence, which is a lot sexier that a simple drunken in public." Now why didn't Halle Berry think of that excuse?

Baby, baby, baby, where did their fans go? Several stops in the "Diana Ross and the Supremes" tour have been canceled due to lack of audience interest. At one point, during a stop in Columbus, Ohio, the group (of which Ross is the only original member) performed for fewer than 3,000 people in a 22,000-capacity arena. But, said Ross, "I would sing the same if there were 10 people in the audience, or 10,000." And if the tour kept up, she may have had a chance to prove true to her word.

 

Harry Potter in the news

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Recommended Reads

Salon reviews of Harry Potter films:

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"
The long-awaited movie is faithful to J.K. Rowling's book, but the fantasy isn't very fantastic and the evil just isn't dark enough.
By Andrew O'Hehir, Salon

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"
Despite terrific special effects and funnier gags, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" finds a way to make J.K. Rowling's marvelous series into a deadly bore.
By Stephanie Zacharek, Salon

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"
Hippogriffs, Dementors and Harry, oh my! Director Alfonso Cuaron finally decants the essence of J.K. Rowling's work and brings us one of the greatest fantasy films of all time.
By Stephanie Zacharek, Salon

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
Harry and his friends are growing up, but this latest Potter film may leave you struggling with your own childhood demons.
By Stephanie Zacharek, Salon

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
Patches of magical beauty rescue this sprawling adaptation of the fifth book in J.K. Rowling's beloved series.
By Stephanie Zacharek, Salon

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
The sixth film in J.K. Rowling's series has beautiful special effects, and something even more rare: Magic.
By Stephanie Zacharek, Salon

Other Salon articles related to the films:

Harry Potter doesn't get "Blue Velvet"
The boy has no profound psychosexual life, which keeps the film from being dangerous -- and important.
By David Thomson, Salon

Harry Potter and the art of screenwriting
Michael Goldenberg talks about the pleasures and pitfalls of adapting "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" for the big screen.
By Rebecca Traister, Salon

The sexual awakening of Hermione
How "Harry Potter" star Emma Watson is navigating the tricky transition from adorable child actor to mature adult.
By Joy Press, Salon

Salon reviews of Harry Potter books:

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," like all great escapist reading, takes you happily back to where you already were.
By Charles Taylor, Salon

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
With her fourth Harry Potter book, J.K. Rowling takes her young hero to his darkest adventure yet.
By Charles Taylor, Salon

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
No, Hogwarts isn't a hotbed of drugs, smoking and sex (at least not yet). But J.K. Rowling's rich and huge new installment unmistakably brings our bespectacled hero into adolescence.
By Laura Miller, Salon

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
Harry learns more about his mysterious nemesis -- and the brutal reality of being 16 -- in J.K. Rowling's tricky, but ultimately satisfying, penultimate volume in the "Harry Potter" series.
By Laura Miller, Salon

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"
Does J.K. Rowling's final installment, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," provide the magical ending to the beloved series her readers so desperately long for?
By Laura Miller, Salon

Other articles related to the books:

Dumbledore? Gay. J.K. Rowling? Chatty.
What happens when authors like J.K. Rowling can't stop telling their own stories?
By Rebecca Traister, Salon

A.S. Byatt and the goblet of bile
The author's recent New York Times Op-Ed shows that she doesn't understand why so many of us love Harry Potter. Maybe it's just too much fun.
By Charles Taylor, Salon

A list of their own
Has Harry Potter changed the course of the New York Times Book Review -- and the children's book market -- for good or for evil? It depends on whom you ask.
By Kera Bolonik, Salon

Of magic and single motherhood
Bestselling author J.K. Rowling is still trying to fathom the instant fame that came with her first children's novel.
By Margaret Weir, Salon

Harry Potter's girl troubles
The world of everyone's favorite kid wizard is a place where boys come first.
By Christine Schoefer, Salon

Can 35 million book buyers be wrong? Yes.
The cultural critics will, soon enough, introduce Harry Potter into their college curriculum, and The New York Times will go on celebrating another confirmation of the dumbing-down it leads and exemplifies.
By Harold Bloom, The Wall Street Journal

On the Potter lifestyle:

Potterpalooza
For the Quidditch players, wizard rockers and would-be witches who gathered at a New Orleans Harry Potter convention, this is the dawning of their summer of love -- and loss.
By Rebecca Traister, Salon

For Harry Potter fans about to rock, we salute you
A global network of Potter-influenced bands inspired kids like 8-year-old Darius to make their own wizard rock. Will fans keep the music alive?
By Elisabeth Donnelly, Salon

The end of the affair
For almost a decade, Harry Potter and Tony Soprano have been my intimate companions. Now it's time to disentangle myself from their lives and say goodbye.
By Rebecca Traister, Salon

Wizard people, dear reader
The first chapter in the famed unauthorized "re-telling" of the Harry Potter films.

Currently in Salon