Alan Rickman: Guess Who Knew The End Of Harry Potter Before Any Of Us? (Perez Hilton)

Filed under: Harry Potter

That sneaky rascal Alan Rickman, that's who.

The story goes that before Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows was even released, author J.K Rowling pulled Alan aside to tell him how it all would end for Severus Snape. For quite some time, he was the only other person other than Rowling that understood where his character would end up and as series producer David Heyman, it came in handy when making some of the earlier films.
He explains:

"It was quite amusing, too, because there were times when a director would tell Alan what to do in a scene and he would say something like, 'No I can't do that - I know what is going to happen and you don't' He had a real understanding of the character and now looking back, you can see there was always more going on there — a look, an expression, a sentiment — that hint at what is to come … the shadow that he casts in these films is a huge one and the emotion he conveys is immeasurable."

We hear that!

Look, we know there have been a lot of good films this year, but if someone ever needed an Oscar nod for a role, it would be Alan Rickman for this one. Ten years he grew that character from someone loathsome to someone heartwarming. You can't just ignore dedication like that!

Here's hoping for you Alan.

Tags: alan rickman, character, director, harry potter, Oscar, producer, release, series

http://perezhilton.com/2012-01-04-guess-who-knew-the-end-of-harry-potter-before-any-of-us

 

J.K. Rowling told actor Alan Rickman about the future of Snape before she wrote the final books! (OMG Facts)

Rickman, who was J.K. Rowling’s choice for Snape in the films, met with Rowling to discuss the possible future of his character. Rickman was told towards the beginning of the films that Snape was in love with Harry Potter’s mother, Lily, and Rickman used this prior knowledge to show certain emotions with this idea on Snape’s mind.

At various interviews throughout the films’ releases, Rickman had refused to tell anyone the future of the books or his character. When Rickman would act in an odd way during the filming of a scene, the directors would ask why and Rickman would respond by simply saying “I know something that you don’t”!

Something else interesting about Severus Snape in the movies? Tim Roth, from Resovoir Dogs and the show Lie To Me, was the original choice of the directors to potray the famed potions teacher!

http://www.omg-facts.com/view/Facts/47674

UK media inquiry becomes hottest show in town as JK Rowling, Hugh Grant take tabloids to task

By Associated Press, Published: November 25

LONDON — It was a bad week to be a tabloid journalist in Britain.
For four days, the famous, the infamous, the bereaved and the wronged sat in a London courtroom and told how snooping, smears and snatched photographs had made their lives a misery. They portrayed the press as cynical and brutal in its treatment of individuals, capitalizing on their tragedies with little decency or compassion.

 

High-profile celebrities testified in UK courts about how they say they were hounded by paparazzi after their phones were hacked. (Nov. 25)

A-list witnesses including J.K. Rowling, Hugh Grant, and Sienna Miller turned Britain’s media ethics inquiry into the most compelling drama in town. But critics say it’s a misleading and one-sided show.
“It has not been a pretty sight,” said Bob Satchwell of media group the Society of Editors. “But there are 1,300 newspapers, national and regional, in Britain, and most journalists don’t behave in the way that’s being portrayed.”

The behavior of Britain’s scandalmongering, scoop-hungry and millions-selling tabloids was summed up by “Harry Potter” creator Rowling as “cavalier.” The best-selling author said newspapers took the attitude that “You’re famous, you’re asking for it.”

Rowling recounted how journalists slipped a note into her 5-year-old daughter’s school bag, took pictures of her children in their swimsuits and staked out her home until she felt “like a hostage.”
Grant said that since “Four Weddings and a Funeral” made him a star, details of his hospital visits had been leaked, his garbage rifled, his ex girlfriend and infant daughter harassed.

Miller, the star of “Alfie” and “Layer Cake,” described being pursued down the street at midnight by 10 large men.

“And the fact that they had cameras in their hands meant that that was legal,” said the 29-year-old actress. “But if you take away the cameras, what have you got? You’ve got a pack of men chasing a woman.”

Witnesses’ detailed descriptions of aggressive press intrusion, broadcast live on British television, have focused public attention on murky tabloid practices.

Media lawyer David Allen Green wrote in a blog for the New Statesman magazine that the inquiry was already helping freedom of expression.

“The merit of the Leveson inquiry — regardless of its formal findings in its reports — is that it is giving a platform to those whose voices are deliberately smothered by the tabloid press,” he wrote.
Not all the witnesses were famous. Some suffered because of proximity to fame. Mary Ellen Field, who worked for Elle Macpherson, recounted how the supermodel blamed her when personal stories started appearing in the press, and forced Field to go to a rehab facility in the U.S. for her — nonexistent — alcoholism.

Macpherson later learned her phone had been hacked — newspapers were getting information by illegal eavesdropping, not because of any indiscretion on Field’s part. Field had already been fired.
The parents of missing and murdered children told of much worse ordeals, of unbearable intrusion at times of grief.

Kate McCann, whose daughter Madeleine vanished during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007, said she felt “totally violated” when extracts from her private diary appeared in the News of the World tabloid in 2008.

Washington Post

'Harry Potter’ author J.K. Rowling testifies on media abuses in Britain

11/25/2011

Daniel S Levine

British writer JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series of books, poses during the launch of new online website Pottermore in London June 23, 2011. The seven Harry Potter novels will be available in ebook form in October, author J.K. Rowling said on Thursday at the launch of a new interactive online website Pottermore (www.pottermore.com) that will allow readers to navigate through the boy wizard stories. Rowling gave her clearest indication yet that she would not write an eighth Harry Potter story to follow the final instalment published in 2007 by Bloomsbury in Britain and Scholastic in the United States. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett (BRITAIN - Tags: MEDIA SOCIETY ENTERTAINMENT)

SUZANNE PLUNKETT/Reuters/Fotoglif

Britain’s Lord Justice Leveson is currently leading an inquiry into the British media’s abusive pursuit of celebrities, searching for sensational stories as part of the fall-out of Rupert Murdoch’s phone-hacking scandal involving several celebrities. The last celebrity to testify was Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who told the Leveson Inquiry that she felt threatened and was even blackmailed by journalists into giving up information.

"It feels threatening to have people watching you. The cumulative effect … becomes quite draining,” she said, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Rowling also went into detail about how the paparazzi camped outside her house to get pictures, one journalist who claimed he was someone else to get news and another who even put a note in her daughter’s backpack. “I felt completely trapped in the house, and of course that had a massive effect on the children,” she said.

The Telegraph reports that Rowling has taken legal action over 50 times in just 14 years to keep her daughters out of the public eye, because, “children do best when they are kept out of the public eye.”

During her testimony, she also talked about how the press framed one of her daughters as a “bully,” claiming that she, “distressed fellow pupils by revealing that Harry Potter dies in the final Harry Potter book,” when Rowling was working on the final novel in 2007.

Other celebrities, including actors Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller have also testified before the inquiry. Earlier in the week, Miller said the News of the World, “made her life hell” and that the paper’s phone-hacking had caused her to experience “complete anxiety” and “paranoia,” according to
the Telegraph.

Read more - http://po.st/SngYVQ

Celebrity Cafe

Hugh Grant: Non-Murdoch Tabloid Hacked Me in 2007

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press

LONDON November 21, 2011 (AP)

Actor Hugh Grant said Monday that he believes his phone was hacked by Britain's Mail on Sunday tabloid — the first time he has implicated a newspaper not owned by Rupert Murdoch in the wrongdoing.

Grant, star of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and other movies, told an inquiry into media ethics that a 2007 story about his romantic life could only have been obtained through eavesdropping on his voice mails.

He said he could not think of any other way the newspaper could have obtained the story alleging that his romance with Jemima Khan was on the rocks because of his conversations with a "plummy voiced" woman the paper identified as a film studio executive.

Grant said there was no such woman, but he did receive voice messages from the assistant of a producer friend.

"She would leave charming, joking messages ... and she had a voice that can only be described as plummy," he said.

Grant sued the newspaper for libel and won.

Challenged as to whether he was speculating about the source of the story, Grant acknowledged that he didn't have any hard proof.

"Speculation? O.K. But ... I'd love to hear what the Daily Mail or the Sunday Mail's explanation of what that source was if it wasn't phone hacking."

AP

British actor Hugh Grant

Prime Minister David Cameron set up the inquiry into media ethics in the wake of a still-evolving scandal over phone hacking in Britain. Murdoch shut down the discredited News of the World tabloid in July after evidence emerged that it had routinely eavesdropped on the voice mails of public figures, celebrities and even crime victims in its search for scoops.

Grant is one of a string of high-profile witnesses, including actress Sienna Miller and author J.K. Rowling, who will testify about how they were followed, photographed, entrapped and harassed by tabloid journalists.

The first witnesses Monday were the parents of murdered teenager Milly Dowler, whose mobile phone voice mails were hacked after she disappeared in 2002.

Her mother told the inquiry that she believed her missing 13-year-old was still alive once she reached the girl's previously full voice mailbox.

Sally Dowler said when she could finally leave a message on her daughter Milly's voice mail weeks after the girl disappeared, she shouted: "She's picked up the voice mails! ... She's alive!"

In fact, messages on Milly's phone had been deleted by someone working for the News of the World tabloid while the Dowlers and the police were still searching for the girl, who was later found dead.
The Dowlers said they had been utterly shocked when police told them, much later, that Milly's phone had been hacked.

Sally Dowler said she "didn't sleep for about three nights."

"When we were given that information, it was terribly difficult to process it," she said.

Her husband Bob said he recognized immediately that the information was "dynamite." News that tabloid journalists had targeted not just celebrities but a murdered girl shocked many Britons and triggered a police investigation and media recriminations that are still unfolding.

The Dowlers took the stand together and spoke in quiet, composed voices during their 30 minutes of nationally televised testimony.

They described their shock and anger when a private walk to retrace their missing daughter's last steps was secretly photographed by the tabloid.

ABC

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: J.K. Rowling discusses the women of Harry Potter

Nine to Five

JK. Rowling has announced that it was Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) who was originally supposed to fight off Snape (Alan Rickman), instead of Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith), in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

In a NinetoFive world exclusive clip, below, Rowling says she wanted the last instalment of the Harry Potter series to reflect the book.

“There was an earlier draft…at one point, it was Harry who took on Snape in that confrontation and I really didn’t want that to happen,” she explains.

“In the book, Minerva McGonagall is the one who does it and for me it was very important that she did that.”

In the clip below, Rowling further discusses the women of Harry Potter.

“I don’t like the marginalisation of women when the fighting breaks out,” she says.
“We get to fight too.”
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
The movie, which grossed $1.3 billion worldwide at the box office, is due for release on DVD November 16.

The clip is part of a feature which can be seen in its full form as a special feature on the Blu-Ray 3D version, also out November 16.

In the epic finale, the battle between the good and evil forces of the wizarding world escalates into an all-out war. The stakes have never been higher and no one is safe, but it is Harry Potter who may
be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice as he draws closer to the climactic showdown with Lord Voldemort.

The collective Harry Potter films are the highest-grossing franchise of all time, a global record it has held since the success of the sixth film, 2009’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Ron Weasley kill plot revealed by JK Rowling in a special feature for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 DVD

L-R Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, J K Rowling and Rupert Grint. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images) Source: The Daily Telegraph

JK ROWLING has revealed that she considered killing off Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter series.

The author admitted that although she originally had no plans for any of the three main characters to die, she almost changed her mind because she "wasn't in a very happy place".

Rowling made the confession while speaking to Daniel Radcliffe for a special feature on the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 DVD

"Funnily enough I planned from the start that none of them would die," Rowling said. "Then midway through, which I think is a reflection of the fact that I wasn't in a very happy place, I started thinking I might polish one of them off. Out of sheer spite. 'There, now you definitely can't have him any more'.

"But I think in my absolute heart of heart of hearts, although I did seriously consider killing Ron, [I wouldn't have]."

Danial Radcliffe interviews JK Rowlings - she was going to kill off Ron!!

Phone-hacking scandal: Police urge care during inquiry

BBC News

Senior judge Lord Leveson will lead a seven-strong panel, which is expected to report within 12 months

Continue reading the main story

Phone-hacking scandal

• Hacking scandal: Who's linked to who?
• Q&A: Phone-hacking scandal
• Key people and profiles
• Timeline

The Metropolitan Police has urged the judge leading the phone-hacking inquiry to make sure it does not prejudice a separate criminal investigation.

The Leveson Inquiry will start its hearings on 14 November.

It will begin with submissions from inquiry QC Robert Jay and victims including actress Sienna Miller and the family of murder victim Milly Dowler.

A hearing will take place next week to decide how to handle links between the inquiry and the police investigation.

In submissions, the Met Police and Crown Prosecution Service said it was inevitable the inquiry would touch on areas which had a close connection with the criminal investigation.

But they added: "We are understandably anxious that nothing should be said or done which might jeopardise either the investigation or trial."

Senior judge Lord Leveson will lead the seven-strong panel examining media ethics and press relations with police and politicians.

Sitting at the High Court in London on Wednesday, Lord Leveson ruled there should be a hearing on Monday to discuss how the "interface" between the inquiry and the police investigation should be handled. The hearing will also consider requests by a number of people to give evidence anonymously.

The Met and CPS said in their submissions that the criminal investigation into hacking had not been completed, and there were still decisions to be made on whether to bring charges against some suspects.

They urged the inquiry not to release anything that could prove central to any criminal proceedings, including key documents which had not already been widely reported.

They also urged the inquiry not to take evidence during from anyone who was a suspect in the police investigation.
Balancing act
Lord Leveson told the court: "The problem that I have got is balancing the absolute requirement that anybody who is ultimately charged should be able to receive a fair trial, against a competing dynamic that I have to resolve the issues that I have to resolve, probably well before any trial would ever take place."

He went on: "I don't want to interfere with their (the police's) investigation and any possible prosecution, and I certainly don't want to prejudice it."

The judge also said he had received invitations to visit newspapers and was prepared, "on a low-key basis, to accede to them".

He said he also wanted to visit at least one regional newspaper.

"The whole problem is an industry-wide problem, which has to be solved in a way that works not only for the industry, or profession, whatever you want to call it, but which works for everybody else," he said.

He continued: "My ultimate aim is to produce a system, whatever it be, that works and has the support of everybody."

The first evidence from those who believe they were victims of phone hacking at the hands of the News of the World will be heard on 21 November.

This evidence is expected to take the panel until February, while the inquiry will have powers to call other witnesses under oath.

Core participant status has been granted to 46 alleged victims, meaning they can be represented by a barrister, seek to cross-examine witnesses and make opening and closing statements.

They include author JK Rowling, actors Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller, and the family of murder victim Milly Dowler.

High-profile victims
Prime Minister David Cameron set up the inquiry after the News of the World admitted intercepting voicemail messages of prominent people to find stories.

One of its journalists, royal editor Clive Goodman, had been jailed along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire in 2007 after admitting the practice.

However, police say the names of up to 4,000 celebrities, sport stars, politicians and crime victims appear in documents suggesting they were potential targets of phone-hacking.

Questions have also been raised about the conduct of journalists at the Trinity Mirror group of newspapers.

However, the group, which publishes titles including the Daily and Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and People, says all its journalists work within the law.

The inquiry's terms will also include media relations with the police after the Metropolitan force came under fire over its initial investigation into phone hacking and its links to former NoW executives.

Helena Bonham Carter wins favorite Woman of 2011 by Anglophenia

BBC Anglophenia

By: Kevin Wicks Posted: Friday, October 7th, 2011
 

Fans voted Helena Bonham Carter as the Woman of 2011. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

he’s been a critics’ darling and a fashion fascination for three decades. And now actress Helena Bonham Carter, 45, is the very first winner of the Anglo Fan Favorites women’s tournament, pulling out a 55-45 percent victory over Harry Potter novelist JK Rowling. Dame Maggie Smith, the 76-year-old recent Emmy winner for Downton Abbey, overwhelmed 21-year-old Emma Watson 68-32 percent in the third-place matchup.  It’s been a great year for Bonham Carter

She received an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA for playing Queen Elizabeth II‘s mother in The King’s Speech, starred in the hugely successful Harry Potter franchise finale, and was honored with the British Artist of the Year award from BAFTA Los Angeles.

Bonham Carter joins men’s champ Alan Rickman on the winner’s stand this year. Both have enjoyed diverse careers, excelling at both villains and heroes. At age 19, Helena first came to prominence as passionate, conflicted Lucy Honeychurch in the 1986 Merchant/Ivory adaptation of E.M. Forster‘s turn-of-the-century romance A Room With a View. Later, playing Ophelia in Mel Gibson‘s Hamlet showed that the beautiful ingenue could serve up some major “cray-cray,” and a legendary cinema eccentric was born. (Becoming Tim Burton‘s muse only strengthened her outré status.) And certainly portraying Bellatrix Lestrange in the globally successful Harry Potter films launched her into a new stratosphere of fame. (Read Leah Rozen‘s look back at Helena’s career here.)

What is it about Helena that sparks such fan loyalty? What are your favorite HBC roles? Tell us below in the comments, and we may feature you in our salute to Helena next week.

Follow Anglophenia on Twitter or Follow BBC America on Facebook

Tagged: Anglo Fan Favorites Tournament, Helena Bonham Carter, JK Rowling, Maggie Smith

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Hugh Grant and JK Rowling's parents will be core participants on phone hacking investigation

The Telegraph

Parents of Madeleine McCann and Hugh Grant named as participants in hacking inquiry

The parents of Madeleine McCann, actor Hugh Grant and Harry Potter creator JK Rowling were named today as core participants in the first stage of the inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal.

The world of showbusiness will be well-represented with actress Sienna Miller, was also listed in the group

4:43PM BST 14 Sep 2011

They are among a group of ''victims'' who will be represented by a barrister and have the right to seek to cross-examine witnesses and make opening and closing statements.  The group also includes Formula 1 boss Max Mosley; Chris Jefferies, the former landlord of alleged murder victim Jo Yeates; ex-England footballer Paul Gascoigne; and Bob and Sally Dowler, the parents of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

Inquiry chairman Lord Justice Leveson granted core participant (CP) status for the first part of the inquiry, which will look at the culture, ethics and practices of the press and its relationship with the police and politicians.

The second part will examine the extent of unlawful or improper conduct within News International and other media and organisations - and consider the police investigation of claims against News International and whether police received corrupt payments.

Others in the group of victims, who are likely to be represented by the barrister David Sherborne, include serving Members of Parliament - Chris Bryant, Tessa Jowell, Simon Hughes and Denis MacShane, and former MPs such as Lord Prescott and Mark Oaten, who resigned as the Lib Dems' home affairs spokesman in 2006 over an affair with a rent boy.

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  13 Sep, 2011

The world of showbusiness will be well-represented with actress Sienna Miller, PR guru Max Clifford, and model Abi Titmuss also listed in the group.  Football agent Sky Andrew, Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati and Christopher Shipman, son of mass murderer Harold Shipman, also made the list.  Lesser-known figures include intellectual property expert Mary-Ellen Field and Ian Hurst, a former British Army intelligence officer.

The inquiry would not be complete without involvement from media groups and core participation status was given to News International Group Ltd (owner of the the News of the World, the Sun, The Times and Sunday Times), Northern and Shell Network (owner of the Express and Star titles), Guardian News and Media (publishing company for the Guardian and Observer) and Associated Newspapers (for the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday). The Metropolitan Police was also given the status.

The judge said he might also allow non-core participants to make written closing submissions.
One omission from those given CP status was Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of The Sun, The News of the World and chief executive officer of News International. Mrs Brooks was refused the status by Lord Justice Leveson, who said her involvement was more focused on the second part of the inquiry. The judge said: ''Mrs Brooks has very considerable knowledge and experience; I hope and believe that her input into the inquiry will be of enormous value but, at this stage and in the context of what I am presently required to do, I do not consider that it is necessary or appropriate to designate her as a core participant.''

He added Mrs Brooks's lawyer is able to apply to ask questions and she can ''apply to put in written submissions at the end''. Lord Justice Leveson, who was born in Liverpool and is chairman of the Sentencing Council, said he was prepared to reconsider her status at any stage.
Likewise, he refused the application of private investigator Jonathan Rees, who was at one time employed by the News of the World. Mr Rees's barrister argued he should be included for his insight into how the press dealt with the public and ''negative aspects of its relationship with the police''.
But the judge said he was not satisfied that Mr Rees ''has played such a significant role, or has such a significant interest in the subject matter''.

Lord Justice Leveson, who led the prosecution of serial killer Rose West, said writers' association English PEN and the Index on Censorship were ''vitally concerned with issues surrounding freedom of expression'' but refused them core participant status.

He did however say they could submit evidence, attend and potentially participate in seminars and apply to make closing representations.
On July 13 the Prime Minister announced that Lord Justice Leveson, 62, senior presiding judge in England and Wales between 2006 and 2009, would chair the far-reaching hearings.
The Leveson Inquiry is expected to last for several months and aims to produce a report within a year.
David Cameron established the investigation under the Inquiries Act 2005, giving it powers to summon witnesses, including newspaper reporters, management, proprietors, policemen and politicians of all parties in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.