• Conspiracy theorists are getting agitated about the fact that  American magazine Time was given a sneak screening of the Harry Potter movie ahead of its rival Newsweek. Time was among the firstwith a glowing review. The mag is owned by AOL Time Warner, as is the film distributor.
• Bart Potter? The Simpsons have joined in Harry Potter mania with a special episode in which Marge turns Springfield into one of JK Rowling's novels. Lisa turns a toad into a Prince William-type hunk while Bart turns nasty as half-prince half-frog. Both siblings also do battle with Montymort (based on Harry Potter's Lord Voldemort).
• HARRY CURSED White witches have slammed the new Harry Potter before it even hits the big screen. Kevin Carlyon, a high priest of British white witches has cast a spell cursing the flick - released here in November - because the schoolboy hero flies his broomstick back to front.
• OSMENT SLAGS OFF POTTER sixth sense star Haley Joel Osment says he "Never wanted" to take the lead role in the film version of Harry Potter despite reportedly being the first choice of original director Steven Spielberg. " There are some books that should be turned into movies and others that shouldn't," he said last week.
• HARRY HOTTER STILL The first film reviews of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone are in and the word is, it's a blinder. The sets are reckoned to be awe-inspiring and the star , Daniel Radcliffe, is predicted to become as synonymous with Harry Potter as Chris Reeve is with Superman and Harrison Ford is with Indiana Jones.
• CHRIS COLUMBUS has revealed how he plans to protect his young stars from the pressures of fame that has afflicted the likes of Macaulay Culkin. " I want to make sure Michael Jackson isn't inviting Dan Radcliffe over for the weekend," he told Katie Couric on her Harry Potter special on American Network NBC.
• Question of the week: is it ok to fancy Gryffindor quiditch captain Oliver Wood in the Harry Potter movie? Don't worry folks, it's fine. Actor Sean Biggerstaff is 18 years old, and was previously in TV's The Crow Road as well as Alan Rickman's directorial movie debut The Winter's Guest.
• The number of children having eye tests has Doubled in a fortnight because Harry Potter has made wearing glasses trendy. Four in ten kids told Asda opticians they wanted to look like the wizard.
• Budding executives can play at Harry Potter on £2,000 "creativity" courses based on fantassy tales. Top firms like Saatchi have already sent staff on the courses in Lorgues, France.

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POTTER STAR TO GET BIG PAY HIKE

Daniel Radcliffe, who landed the title role in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, is getting a substantial pay boost following a threat by the British actors' union Equity to boycott future Harry Potter  projects unless his payment has increased. According to the London Daily Mirror, he was to have received just $110,000 for the first Potter movie and $182,000 for the second a figure that Equity described as "paltry."  The 12-year-old  actor is now due to receive $3 million. "It was a scandal that Dan was being paid so little when the movie is going to be so big" an  unnamed insider told the Mirror. " Dan is going to be on the merchandising products that are going to generate untold millions. Him (sic) getting a couple of hundred thousands hardly seemed fair."

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RICHARD HARRIS LAYS INTO FELLOW ACTORS

Richard Harris, who reportedly agreed to appear in the Harry Potter movie only after his granddaughter Ella told him she would never speak to him again if he refused, has unleashed a torrent of denunciations at some of his fellow film stars. In an interview  with the website ShowBiz Ireland, The Irish actor accused many of the actors attending Sunday nights premiere of the Harry Potter film as "spoiled."  "They'd go the opening of an envelope," he said. "Anything for exposure,"  he added, then continued: " What I hate about our business today is the elitism. So-called stars ride in private jets and havebodyguards and dietitians and beauticians. Tom Cruise is a midget and he has eight bodyguards all 6 feet 10, which makes him even more diminutive. It's an absolute joke," He suggested that the only reason Madonna didn't attend the movie was that she would not be able to understand it.

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NBC TO AIR POTTER SPECIAL ON SUNDAY

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is getting a one - hour network TV build-up on Sunday in the form of a "Katie Couric Special" on NBC, set to air opposite ASC's Wonderful World of Disney at 7:00 ( as well as CBS's 60 minutes). On Monday, the network posted a plug on its Dateline website for the special, Harry Potter: Behind the magic, which, it said, would include an interview with Chris Columbus and feature "behind-the-scenes footage [to] enable Couric to bring viewers to a place that up until now has only existed in the imagination of fans."

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Skinner does Harry

Harry Potter roaming the mountains of Afghanistan? No, you didn't miss a significant scene in the new film, but you might have missed Frank Skinner dressed as the young wizard in a sketch which had  Harry saving the world by being the only person to track down Bin Laden. Which might not be such a far - fetched idea ...

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Graham does Harry

You can always rely on Graham Norton to lower the tone. "oooh, hello," he grinned, perched on a broomstick. "I'm Harry Poofter, and there's nothing I like more than cruising around town with wood between my legs." At which point his fake cat fell off his broom. "I wonder if I'll see pussy again," he mused. No Graham, probably not.

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Dani and Joe do Harry too!

Just as funny, though not perhaps intentionally, was the sight of The Saturday Show presenters Dani Behr and Joe Mace as Hermione and Harry, dangling on wires singing to an ode to the wizard boy. Whoever was working Dani's wires was bouncing her all over the place - so much so that she lost the power of speech to a fit of giggles.

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Rupert Grint spent day after Harry Potter premiere in detention

Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint has revealed he was put on detention at school the day after attending the film's world premiere.Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, says he hates going back to school in-between making the films.The 14-year-old, who hasn't revealed which school he attends, says he was given the punishment for forgetting his gym kit three times."I had to clean out the sports cupboard" he said."The teachers either suck up to me or give me detention," Grint told Channel 4's RI:SE.Story filed: 10:17 Friday 22nd November 2002

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