Orlando news stations have noticed that construction scaffolding surrounding Hogwarts Castle at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park has been removed.

This is the first time we're getting a look at Hogwarts Castle without construction equipment blocking our view. Our guess is the exterior is finished!

You can watch a brief video showing the completed castle at this link. The poor reporter almost trips over the phrases "invisibility cloak" and "hippogriff".

Additionally, Orlando Park News has a comprehensive photo update showing the now scaffolding-free castle. The report also shows other areas of the park continuing to receive treatment.

For more on the park, visit our Wizarding World info section!

In October, Variety reported that Dan Radcliffe would be starring in the Broadway musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". At the time, Dan was the only cast member set for the production.

Today, Broadway World is reporting that Dan participated in a table read of the musical in New York City on Monday. The reporter was very pleased with Dan's performance during the read:

First things first. Daniel Radcliffe was AMAZING. He interpreted the role in a charming, adorable and fresh way. He sang great. I think everyone was there to see if he could do it. And boy, he really did it. He was great. He came off as a full-fledged musical star. Those of us who saw him in Equus know he has the stage chops as a dramatic actor but now I can say that he could easily take Broadway by storm as a musical comedy star, too. After that final Harry Potter movie comes out, this guy can do whatever he wants in any medium. I loved him. And it seems to me that he is the youngest actor to play the role of Finch. And his youth made the show feel fresh and new. It had a new kind of innocence to contrast the cynicism of the world he is in.

We'll keep you updated on any new developments!

Emma Watson has updated her official website with a new holiday mini site featuring a video message from the star. The mini site also includes new photos and an area where you can wish Emma a Merry Christmas.

Among other things, Emma notes that she's currently filming Deathly Hallows for a week while on winter break from Brown University.

Visit Emma's new site at this link!

Happy Holidays to you too, Emma! Thanks to everyone who e-mailed with the tip.

To the surprise of no Harry Potter fan, The Telegraph has published a list of the bestselling authors of the decade and JK Rowling sits at the top:

The top 100 authors dominate sales. As The Bookseller has explained, some 100,000 titles are published every year, but these authors account for 1 pound in every 6 pound spent on books and a fifth of revenue. J K Rowling, who has seven of the decade’s top 10 bestsellers, sold 29 million books with a sales value of 215 pound million, but Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code was the bestselling book of the decade, selling 5.2 million copies to 4.4 million for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

To view the full list of bestselling authors, click here.

On a related note, The Guardian recently published a list of this decade's icons. Harry Potter, of course, is on the list.

In a new interview, actor Bill Nighy, who will play Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows talks about his role in the two-part finale.

"Scrimgeour is a tragic figure. He knows what's coming. It's a very moving thing to play."

"He's also very powerful and has had a very complicated progress to the top. And he has an interesting relationship with Harry, who views him initially with contempt. But then it's softened by subsequent events."

"There's a scene where he delivers Dumbledore's legacy to the three children. He gives them all the things Dumbledore has left them, and that's when it's indicated he may not be around for much longer."

Thanks to Snitch Seeker for the tip!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has officially left all movie theaters as of December 17th, and the grand box office total is in: $934,559,990

$301,959,197 came from the United States box office while international ticket sales accounted for the remaining $632,600,793.

We wonder how much the film would have made it was released as originally scheduled in November 2008!

Thanks to Curtis for the tip.

Actor Ralph Fiennes, who portrays You-Know-Who in the Potter films, turns a year older today, Dec. 22!

Join us in wishing him the best on his birthday!

ABC News has named Orlando, Florida, as one of the top travel destinations of 2010. The reason?

"Universal Orlando opens the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure this spring. For theme park fans keeping an eye on new attractions for 2010, 'the Harry Potter project at Universal is in a category of its own in terms of scope,' said David Mandt, spokesman for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. The marquee attraction will be a high-tech ride called 'Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey' that will take guests through scenes and rooms from the blockbuster Potter movies."

Will you be headed there next year? Don't forget Infinitus 2010 will be taking place from July 15-18, 2010 right in Orlando.

Thanks to Griffin!

The latest episode of our Harry Potter podcast has now arrived! It's jam packed with news, our penultimate Chapter by Chapter segment for Chamber of Secrets, and an upcoming live show announcement!

- News: Potter top Twitter trend, HBP screening, DH filming update and more.
- Laura and Mikey give their thoughts on the DH trailer.
- Is there a secret to each Chapter 13 in the Potter series?
- Does Harry have a Horcrux moment when he first encounters Riddle's diary?
- Did Dumbledore sense the presence of a deathly hallow in Hagrid's hut?
- And did the governors really believe Hogwarts would be safer without Dumbledore?
- Ford Anglia to the rescue! Did it grow a mind of its own?

All that and a lot more can be found on this week's episode! To download the fun for free, we recommend subscribing through iTunes. Just CLICK HERE and then press "Subscribe" to the right of our album art. (Already subscribed? Refresh your feed!) No iPod or MP3 player needed! You can also visit the MuggleCast website to listen right within your browser, or to download the MP3 file to your desktop.

Live Show Announcement: Please join us on Ustream for a LIVE recording of MuggleCast #188 on Tuesday, December 29th at 8 PM ET! We'll be hosting a Year in Review show where listeners decide the top stories of the year in various Potter-related categories. Full details are explained during #187 and more details will come on MuggleNet later this week.

Michael Thompson, who is set to play one of 20 Death Eaters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, took the time this weekend to donate his Potter book collection to the British Heart Foundation.

For the past few years Mr. Thompson has been collecting first editions of the famous books written by JK Rowling. He has about 60 Harry Potter books at home.

Thompson is spending much of this month filming on set and will wrap up in January.

Thanks to Scar Potter for passing this along!

As Potter fans, we know that the franchise has had a huge impact financially on various companies who own rights to the Harry Potter brand. Now, The Economist has an article online looking at the success of those companies.

Despite claiming that the series is "not great literature," the article is still a good read. A sample:

In fact the Harry Potter books were the iceberg. As each book appeared it drew new readers to the series and expanded sales of earlier books in a snowball effect. Thanks largely to the boy wizard, Bloomsbury’s turnover, which had gradually increased from 11m pounds in 1995 to 14m pounds in 1997, took off. In 1999 it stood at 21m pounds. Two years later it was 61m pounds. By the middle of this decade, with Bloomsbury’s revenues above 100m pounds, rival publishers were griping that there was no point bidding against the firm for a children’s title. So far the books, which are published in America by Scholastic, have sold more than 400m copies worldwide. Not all were read by the young. Central to the books’ success was a repackaging, with a darker cover, for adults embarrassed about being seen reading a children’s book.

There are also comments from Potter producer David Heyman, who says that filming for Deathly Hallows will wrap in May. This is in line with other recent comments targeting a late Spring/early Summer release. Thanks to Amanda for the tip!

The Times Online has a new "Significant Others" feature online where Potter actor Tom Felton names six very important people in his life. He talks about members of his family and his friends, including Order of the Phoenix through Deathly Hallows director David Yates:

David Yates [who directed the past three Harry Potter films] has this beautiful calmness and clarity about what he wants. I had no confidence in my ability to be an actor for the rest of my life, but he embedded a passion for film in me.

Via his Twitter account earlier today, Oliver Phelps told a fan that he and his brother James would indeed be attending the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in the Spring.

The news comes after Bonnie Wright and Tom Felton confirmed to a magazine last week that they'd be at the park opening.

If we had to bet on it, we'd guess the opening of the park will be treated like a Potter film premiere with many stars from the franchise attending.

For more about the theme park, visit our info section! Thanks to Snitch Seeker for the tip.

Initially only reported on tabloid sites and now making the rounds on more authoritative sites, we've learned that Potter actress Emma Watson is the decade's most profitable actress. From CNN:

Over the course of the decade, films that Watson was involved in made $5.4 billion worldwide and these boasted the highest average box office earnings, making roughly $900 million per film.

More notable actresses like Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet were beaten in the list conducted by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Ali Jaafar, International Editor at Variety Magazine said it was notable that Watson was a big grosser, but it would be interesting to see how her career progressed.
"She's untested apart from the Harry Potter franchise, but these are young actors and it'll be interesting to see how they develop their careers," Jaafar told CNN.

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed with the tip!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is tearing up the DVD sales charts, solidly notched in the top spot after its first week on store shelves. The latest installment in the fantasy series easily topped the Nielsen VideoScan sales chart for the week ended December 13, outselling fellow newcomer Public Enemies at No. 2.

The film scored another victory on the Blu-ray sales charts, with 24% of the total sales coming in the BD format.

Half-Blood Prince currently sits at No. 8 on the all-time worldwide box office list with $925,956,980.