Oh, J.K. Rowling, no one in the world loves you more than I do.

OK, maybe your husband and your children love you a lot — but aside from those guys, I love you most.

When I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, oh, how I cried, and cheered, and laughed, and loved you. When Dumbledore bequeathed Hermione the wizarding children's book The Tales of Beedle the Bard, I hoped in my soul that one day you would write that book, and not just use it as a plot device — especially the tale of Babbity Rabbity and her Cackling Stump.

Well, you did write it, but you only made seven copies. Seven hand-written, hand-illustrated copies, by you, J.K. Rowling, whom I love. You gave six of those books to the people "most intimately involved with the phenomenally successful [Harry Potter] series," and the seventh copy of Tales of the Beedle Bard, you auctioned off at Sotheby's for your charity, The Children's High Level Group. It fetched £1.95 million!

A lot of people chastised you, J.K. Rowling, for not making that book available to your fans, but I defended you, as I always have, because I love you. I said, "Back off, punks! J.K. Rowling is the cleverest, kindest, most precious woman in the world!" I told them about your 2006 trip to Romania, about how you visited children's institutions and spoke out against the use of cage beds and child-trafficking. I told them how you were using your powers for good, just like a superhero should. I looked at the Associated Press photograph of you reaching through the bars of a crib to touch an abandoned child, and I knew I would never stop standing up for you. … continue reading

I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot about Entertainment Weekly's "The New Classics" issue which hit stands last week. (In fact, if you watched She Made Me Watch This you already got Lori, Sarah and Dee's take on the New Television Classics.)

Basically, “The New Classics” issue is a list of the 1,000 best movies, television shows, albums, books and more of the last 25 years, and it is — quite frankly — exceptional. Sandwiched between the lists are little tidbits that will make you smile, like: the movie with the most number of kisses? Brokeback Mountain and Pretty Woman, tied with 27 kisses each. The movie with the most F-bombs? Pulp Fiction with 269, followed by Good Fellas with 265, followed by South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut with 140, followed by that night Bette Porter read Jenny Schecter's Lez Girls for the first time. (Just kidding, I made up that last one.)

My favorite list is New Classic Books, and because I love nothing more than talking about books and making lists, I am going to give you Entertainment Weekly's top 5, then my top 5, then you can give me your top 5, OK? OK.

Entertainment Weekly's New Classic Books:

1) The Road, Cormac McCarthy

2) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling

3) Beloved, Toni Morrison

4) The Liars' Club, Mary Karr

5) American Pastoral, Phillip Roth

Not bad, Entertainment Weekly. I mean, if you think people will be reading The Road over Harry Potter in 20 years, you've lost your mind. But it's a good start. … continue reading

It's kind of a David-and-Goliath struggle: Multibillionaire Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling is using her might to protect her empire and stop the little guy from making any minor incursion.

Well, at least that's how the publisher of the Harry Potter Lexicon would like you to see it. Of course, there's another side to the story. Rowling feels “betrayed by a fan” for his role in trying to publish an unauthorized Harry Potter companion book.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's the basic story. You may have heard that J.K. Rowling wrote a series of very popular books about a teenage wizard, Harry Potter.

The insane popularity of these books spawned an enormous fan online universe, one that Rowling encouraged and supported. In fact, she singled out praise for one site, The Harry Potter Lexicon, saying:

“This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an internet café while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a bookshop and buy a copy of Harry Potter (which is embarrassing). A website for the dangerously obsessive; my natural home.”

Rowling's support and praised waned, however, when Lexicon creator Steve Vander Ark and publisher RDR Books decided to print and sell a copy of the Lexicon. The book was scheduled for release last November when Rowling (and copyright holder Warner Bros.) obtained an injunction which delayed publication until the intellectual property issues were resolved. Rowling says that a print version of the Lexicon constitutes copyright violation and that it would undermine an official Harry Potter encyclopedia that she plans to write. Both sides are entrenched, and it appears to be going to the court for resolution. … continue reading

I should state up-front that I’m not a Harry Potter expert. I’ve seen all of the films, and I’ve read one of the books, which I enjoyed — but I’m not the person to go to if you want a detailed exposition as to what makes a Slytherin different from a Hufflepuff. (Are those the right names?)

Consequently, I’ve never been an expert on J. K. Rowling. I mean, I know what she looks like, and I vaguely knew the parts of her story that have filtered through to the general public consciousness — the fact that she wrote the first Harry Potter book as a single mother living in Scotland, the fact that she’s now married and has more children. If you’d asked me to describe her, though, the first thing that would have sprung to my mind would probably have been this funny, but as it turns out very unfair, parody that Brit comedian Jennifer Saunders did of her for a French and Saunders Potter parody in 2003 (Jennifer first appears in Rowling-drag at 0:44): … continue reading

Say you happen to be hanging out at a Starbucks in Turkey and you want to impress the exotic barista making your latte. Stop for a moment, listen to the music and, if a woman is singing, ask, "Is that Sezen Aksu?"

Even if it turns out to be Hepsi instead, the lovely woman behind the counter will be duly impressed with your knowledge of Turkish music.

The next weekend, you're off to Borneo and want to load your iPod with tunes the Malays love. Go with the top two female vocalists in Malaysia.

I know it's not a mix tape made in heaven, but Avril and Mariah are among the top five most downloaded artists in the country, according to my newest addiction, Gracenote Music Maps. … continue reading

You've probably heard the news by now. On Friday night, J.K. Rowling told a packed Carnegie Hall audience that Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is (was?) gay. More specifically, in response to the question of whether Dumbledore had ever found true love, Rowling responded that he was gay and that he had a thing for onetime friend and then mortal enemy Gellert Grindewald. (You can read a full transcript of the question and answer session here.)

I had hoped to be at this event, but my sweepstakes entry was not one of the 1,000 selected. Like the other 49,000 rejects, I had to read about the big revelation the next day. From both a character and big-picture perspective, this posthumous outing is significant. Not only did Rowling disclose that the most influential and talented wizard in the modern magical Harry Potter world was gay, but she affirmed something that was not at all clear in the books — that GLBT folks (or at least “G” wizards) exist in that world.

… continue reading

I find it encouraging that the audience reacted with applause (and some shock). And Rowling's response to that was, “If I'd known it would make you so happy, I'd have announced it years ago.”

SPOILER ALERT: There are no Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows spoilers in the body of this post, but the video at the end is chock full of them. And please don't post spoilers in the comments. My girlfriend hasn't read the book yet, and I want her to continue to like me.

In mid-October, J.K. Rowling will be bringing her magic to the United States for the first time since 2000. She's published four books since her last tour but was too busy being pregnant and raising babies to tour in support of them. Somehow she managed to sell books anyway: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold 105 copies per second at Barnes and Noble during its first hour of sales in 2005, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 126 copies per second in its first hour of sales last month. This fall, she has scheduled three events with school groups in Los Angeles, New Orleans and New York. More importantly, she'll have one all-ages event at Carnegie Hall. And I live in New York. So, yay!

And here's what she looks like Simpsonized. Just because. … continue reading