Editor: Joy Press
Updated: Today
Topic:

Harry Potter

Gwyneth and the grave thing

Paltrow reflects on her narrow escape from a Pitt marriage; Britney forgets to keep it real. Plus: Oasis learns that everybody must get stoned.

I know, I know. You've been worried sick about Gwyneth Paltrow, wondering how the poor delicate dear has weathered the marriage of her longtime ex-squeeze, Brad Pitt, to her hair twin -- and, increasingly, body double -- Jennifer Aniston.

Well, you'll be relieved to know that Gwynnie has given Vanity Fair the skinny on her emotional well-being -- and she's staunchly denying us all the pleasure of watching her melt down again.

Putting on her bravest face, Paltrow says breaking up with Pitt back in 1997 "really changed my life ... something changed, permanently, in me."

"My heart sort of broke that day," she says, "and it will never be the same."

But, shattered organs aside, she claims she has no regrets about her time in the Pitts because it "made me what I am."

What's more, she says, "I try to remember, as I hear about friends getting engaged, that it's not about the ring, and it's not about the wedding. It's ... a grave thing, getting married. And it's easy to get swept up in the wrong things."

Like banana milkshakes, for instance?

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A dinger at death's door

"I'll finally get to see Marilyn."

-- Joe DiMaggio's last words, according to his lawyer and longtime friend Morris Engelberg.

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Distant cousin

Britney Spears, family-friendly? Some of her relatives aren't so sure.

While the teenage popster has reportedly found plenty of time to bombard Prince William with e-mails and signed photographs, she apparently hasn't bothered to respond to a plea for attention from her British cousins.

"We've written to Britney asking if she could spare a few minutes of her time, but she never writes back," her cousin Darrell Woolmore told worldpop.com. His three young daughters, he says, have been teased at school for claiming that Britney is their cousin and "simply cannot understand why their own flesh and blood has not picked up the phone to say hello."

"It would be the best thing ever if I could meet her because I'd really like her to be my friend," his 5-year-old daughter, Ashleigh, told the press.

Awwww.

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Hardly a vote of confidence

"I am so much more than just Angelina's brother. I'm also Jon Voight's son and Billy Bob Thornton's brother-in-law ... for now."

-- James Haven, Angelina Jolie's bro, on his (possibly temporary) relationship to the man who replaced him as his sister's preferred tongue-kissing partner.

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Juicy bits

The good news: There's finally some casting news about the Harry Potter movie. The bad news: It's only about the set. Gloucester Cathedral, a 900-year-old medieval masterpiece, will star as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the upcoming film based on J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." The cathedral was chosen after the caretakers of Canterbury Cathedral declined an offer from location scouts because they thought "people might take offense" to the church being used as the setting for a story about witchcraft. Lousy muggles.

And you thought a three-hour tour that lasted for three years was stretching it ... How about a legal battle that lasts more than 30 years? On Monday, a Los Angeles judge ruled to allow two "Gilligan's Island" writers, Elroy Schwartz and Austin Kalish, to go to trial with their claim that the show's producer -- Schwartz's older brother, Sherwood Schwartz -- cheated them out of millions of dollars in royalties. "We're looking forward to righting a wrong," said Kalish-Schwartz attorney Marc Toberoff. Hope it's easier than righting that shipwrecked boat.

There's something about quirky male singers with weird hair ... First, Jonathan Richman provided a tuneful running commentary in "There's Something About Mary," and now Lyle Lovett has signed on to star in "The New Guy," a new film by "Mary" co-writer Ed Decter. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Lovett will play the braces-wearing father of a high school senior (played by D.J. Qualls, of "Road Trip" fame) who learns a few things in prison. No, not those things ...

Oasis fans have redefined the expression "stone groove." The band had to leave the stage midperformance for the second time in two weeks this week after the audience members at a music festival in Portugal began chucking things at them. The band knew matters had gotten fully out of hand when its drummer, Alan White, got nailed in the noggin with a stone. "This kind of behavior is utterly deplorable," said a band spokesperson. "Had the rock hit Alan in the face he could have been seriously hurt." As it turned out, however, the master of percussion did not suffer a concussion.

Ice-T, a man in blue? Yep, the man who outraged the world with the song "Cop Killer" a few years back is fixing to play a detective in "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," Variety reports. The rapper said he was happy to be "on board such a cool show."

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Take his wives, please

"One of the advantages of having five wives is they can't all have a headache at the same time."

-- Rodney Dangerfield, on lessons to be learned from his upcoming film "My 5 Wives," a lighthearted look at polygamy.

 

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.

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