The official Harry Potter website has been updated with a new site to promote the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on DVD December 8th.

Among other things, the site promotes the community screening of Half-Blood Prince with Dan Radcliffe and David Yates on December 12th at 3 PM EST.

For everything we've got on the Half-Blood Prince DVD, click here! Thanks to everyone who e-mailed with the tip.

Reuters is reporting that Walmart.com will be offering its top 10 pre-ordered DVDs for $10 this holiday season--Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince included.

Walmart.com said on Thursday the offer includes popular movie titles such as "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" and "Julie and Julia".

The full list of $10 DVDs available for pre-order can be found here.

EDIT: Speaking of good DVD prices, Amazon is currently offering the Blu-Ray version of Half-Blood Prince at $16.99. Thanks Michael!

Right now, if you purchase an Apprentice Wand at www.alivans.com, Alivan's will donate 100% of all the profits to Toys for Tots. The last time Alivan's ran a similar special they donated over $1100 to the Ronald McDonald House and they are hoping to top that this time!

If you are in the market for a wand visit Alivan's now and choose the Apprentice Wand - your purchase will surely help make a lot of little children happy this Christmas!

The actor who plays Mr. Ollivander in the Harry Potter series recently sat down with Rotten Tomatoes. In the interview, he reveals that he'll be heading back to the Deathly Hallows set sometime this month.

More interesting is where he voices his concern over Warner Brothers' large budgets for films in the Potter franchise:

Q: Do you think the big franchise movies shooting in the UK give a false impression of the health of our industry? All these productions move in and hire local talent, but they aren't British films.

A: No, they're not British films. Even Harry Potter isn't a British [franchise]. We gave it to Warners, we just sit and collect. That always infuriates me. I do think huge areas of the industry are being neglected and we've lost the ability for middle-budget films. When we did have a stronger industry -- and not just a business -- we did have room for middle-budget films. They've gone out of the window, as they've done in America as well, but a $20m picture would be wonderful to make every now and then. We could do a lot for that.

But it's like any country, if you don't have a lot of money to spend. And it's interesting seeing how much money gets spent on Harry Potter. It's quite absurd, really. I watch it and think it's just the same as Hollywood. I look around and you've got three costumes there, none of which are likely to be worn, and they're all replicas of each other. It's a vacuous waste of money and it drives me insane.

J.K. Rowling donated an autographed U.S. deluxe edition Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book to the Little Auction that Could. Thanks to our friends at Snitch Seeker, we can now view pictures of the signed book here and here.

All proceeds from the eBay auction going on Nov. 6 through Nov. 29 will go to a shelter for abused and neglected children.

We've heard of Harry Potter dissenters, but here's some religious support for the Harry Potter series, as a Benedictine monk is publishing "Baptising Harry Potter: A Christian Reading of Harry Potter."

"I do not think there is any intelligent view out there that says these books are evil. They are the sort of objections that come from people who have not read them.

"What are they suggesting we do, ban everyone who turns up at a children's party to do a few tricks," said Fr Luke.

"I don't feel at all that the books were leading children away from Christian spirituality.

"They are full of Christian themes of love and sacrifice," he said.

Check out the full article here.

Thoughts?

Although October is over, we want to remind our visitors the importance in maintaining good breast health. Maggie Smith, the actress who portrays Profess McGonagall in the films, is herself a breast cancer survivor. She is not alone as one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime and 40,000 women perish each year from the disease.

Preventative care is essential in fighting this disease. A BeMitt is a preventative care tool designed to assist women in performing their monthly self-breast exams. Beth Bromberg, creator of the BeMitt, had several benign lumps removed from her breasts yet still wasn't doing her monthly exams. When her then 20 year-old daughter Jenna, a Harry Potter fan and MuggleNet visitor, discovered a lump in her breast, she decided it was time to spread awareness to make self-exams not just easier but more effective. She invented the BeMitt, a mineral oil-filled mitt that magnifies texture - allowing women to better know their breasts and increase the likelihood of early detection.

Early in October we announced our goal of raising $10,000 for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. We didn't quite meet our goal, but remember it is never too late to take action when it comes to your health. You can still show your support by purchasing a BeMitt.

Remember, every month should be breast cancer awareness month!

Here's some great, bittersweet news. The cafe where JK Rowling started writing the Harry Potter books - with baby daughter Jessica by her side - has reopened. The cafe had closed and turned into a chinese buffet a few years ago, but a new owner has changed it back:

Owner Moira McFarlane, 42, says she’s more than happy for customers to escape the cold and spend the whole day reading, writing or chatting with friends.

She said: “It’s a big space, so we need to make it cosy – we will welcome people to come along and sit all day – and write books if they like. ”The businesswoman, who already owns the Spoon Cafe in Old Town and runs the Storytelling Centre coffee bar on the Royal Mile, says the cafe is unlike any other.

Read more, including the owner's thoughts on the cafe's popularity thanks to JK Rowling, at this link. I want to visit! Don't you?

The Orlando Sentinel has published a nice construction photo update from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park, and things are going up FAST! I visited the construction site just under two months ago, and I can't believe this is the same area.

The Orlando Sentinel writes: The skyline of Islands of Adventure continues to morph as the Wizarding World of Harry Potter goes up. It's fun that you can see Hogwarts from Interstate 4 now, especially in the eastbound lanes. We took the usual counterclockwise spin through Islands on Sunday and construction sounds were evident in a couple of places, including behind the tarps obscuring the Dueling Dragons castle.

See all the photos - including nice views of Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, and the Dueling Dragons ride - at this link!

For all the info we've got on the Wizarding World (there's a lot of it), click here.

Back in July, we learned that Ultimate Editions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets were in the works.

Now, MuggleNet has opened a brand-new section for all your Ultimate Edition DVD needs: the most-recent news, current DVD and Blu-ray prices, special features, trailer, official website and more.

With additional information to come and plans for the remainder of films to be released in this format, be sure check back on a regular basis. You can find this new section located in the left-hand navigation under "Movies."

Both Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets Ultimate Editions will be released on December 8.

The Press Association is reporting that Hedwigs Theme, originally composed by John Williams for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, tops Classic FM's 'Children's Hall of Fame':

Smith, 14, who was co-hosting the show with Anne-Marie Minhall, said: "I'm thrilled that Classic FM has decided to create such a platform for their younger listeners. The Harry Potter theme is definitely one of my favourites."

Classic FM has almost half a million listeners under the age of 18 and is releasing an album of Children's Classics to tie in with the countdown on November 23.

On episode 181 of our podcast MuggleCast, we introduced our "Wizarding World of RollerCoaster Tycoon" contest, where listeners could construct a Harry Potter-themed amusement park using the popular video game RollerCoaster Tycoon by Chris Sawyer. Listeners were permitted to use the additional two expansion packs and the contest ran approximately one month, ending on Thursday, October 29th. We have now posted our top five theme parks and a runner-up. Also, each theme park is available for download as a save-game file (but you will need the video game and/or expansion packs to play). Thank you to everyone who entered! Visit the theme park contest page right here!

What do you think about these parks and this contest? Leave your comments below!

It's a holiday frequently celebrated in the Potter books, and we're all for celebrating it too! Be sure to switch MuggleNet over to any of our three Halloween themes to get in the spirit:

- 2009 Halloween Theme
- 2008 Halloween Theme
- 2007 Halloween Theme

Don't forget that we're looking for pictures of your Potter-related Halloween costumes! Take a picture of yourself in costume today and send it in to halloween09 at staff dot mugglenet dot com. Also please include your name and location. We'll post them on the site in a few days!

According to Times Online, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 won't be the biggest film of 2010. They believe Iron Man 2 will be the biggest. Here's the reasoning for why Deathly Hallows won't take the top spot:

Part one of the final Harry Potter movie. Part two will follow in July 2011. Devoted fans have known what happens in the story since 2007; for newcomers, Harry and his pals Ron and Hermione search for some magical artefacts called Horcruxes. The plot takes the trainee wizards out of Hogwarts for much of the movie, resulting in a marked change of atmosphere compared to its predecessors.

Do you agree with Times Online? We sure don't! The Harry Potter franchise is the greatest earning franchise of all time, and a second Iron Man certainly won't earn more than a Potter flick.

On Wednesday we reported Chris Rankin's tweet about filming with 43 principal cast on the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Since then, Tom Felton and Matt Lewis have sent out exciting tweets related to the filming of what we presume is the Battle of Hogwarts:

Tom Felton:
- G morning tweeps. Another big day on set. Very exciting! Playing my g tar waiting to be called to work. Love x

- Had a great day on set. This film will be EPIC! @Mattdavelewis was throwing jokes....I was catching them. He's a complete gent x

Matthew Lewis:
- Well I'm shattered. Working hard this week. Mark Williams and @TomFelton keeping me entertained!

- Ralph Fiennes is cool as. Lovely bloke too. Gave us quite the acting masterclass today. What a performance!

Filming for Deathly Hallows is expected to wrap up in Spring 2010. For more about the film, visit our info section.